Sept. 26: The Field & Berry Lab Group met at noon to discuss plans for the Fall Quarter. It was decided to continue meeting weekly at this hour with members of the group discussing their current or planned research interests. Four new graduate students were introduced. Chris Field described a Workshop on Biofuels in Germany from which he had just returned. He also described the IPCC Meeting in Geneva when he was elected Co-Chair of Working Group 2 mentioned above. The Stanford Report of Sept. 24 describes what both Stanford and Carnegie may expect from Chris' leadership in this international organization during the next five years. His Co-Chair is Vicente Barros of Argentina.
Tasting: Four different brands of dark chocolate picked up by Chris in Germany. (Always a winner & so good for you!)
Oct. 3: At the weekly Lab Meeting Roland Pieruschka described his research on the stomata of different plants and how they work in different environments. He began with an evolutionary history of how stomata probably evolved through time and the advantages they convey to plant growth.
Tasting: Roland brought four jars of green olives, two of them stuffed with lemon peel or jalapeño pepper, plus accompanying French bread and cream cheese.
Oct. 10: Claire Lunch spoke about her ongoing research project at Jasper Ridge. Basicly she is looking to see what potential climate changes may affect primary production of native grasslands. She looked into the effect of litter on growth during the following season over a 10-yr period from 1998-2008. The effects of added CO2, heat, nitrogen & rain were also considered. Nothing definitive has shown up yet although the amount of sunshine correlated with the most growth.
Tasting: Claire brought six cheeses, two each made from sheep, goat or cow's milk. Of the two, one was a soft cheese and the other a hard cheddar. All were from Europe and had good flavor, but the cow's soft cheese was a bit too old.

Oct. 8: David Lobell gave a Seminar in Stanford's new, very green building (Y2E2) about his on-going research titled Prioritizing Investments in Food Security under a Changing Climate. He is identifying food crops which are most sensitive to climate. So far it seems as if many crops are more affected negatively by warmer weather than by decreased rainfall. To adapt a crop genetically to a change in climate takes about 15 yrs. Therefore, it's necessary to begin this research now before the anticipated changes occur.

Luis Fernandez has been in Peru for a recent three weeks serving as Technical Director of an EPA/Argonne National Laboratory project under partnership with UNEP, to study mercury cycling through Amazonian watersheds. So far, at two study sites, they have found very high levels of both elemental mercury and aerosols in air and methylmercury in high-trophic-level fish species that were correlated with upstream artesinal scale gold mining. They also hope to develop intervention measures to reduce mercury releases by use of a simple mercury condenser system developed by the Argonne Lab that reduces airborne Hg releases in rustic mining operations by 85%.