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Iana Grullón-Penkova
Active: 2018-2024
Iana is an environmental scientist, who started as project coordinator and then transitioned to project manager in 2022. She was the primary liaison for communications regarding TRACE, developed most of the outreach program of the project, and worked on minirhizotron image analysis.

Isabel Loza Rivera
USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Active: 2020-2022
Isabel is a plant ecologist with expertise in tropical plant diversity and distribution, and was our project manager. She worked on collecting and processing soil respiration data to improve our understanding of the system.

Megan Berberich
USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Active: 2018 to 2023
Megan was our project manager during the third stage of the project. She worked with the Principal Investigators on many of the adaptations of the project following Hurricanes Irma and María.
She was also the project's Data Manager from 2021-2023, being responsible for the project's data publications. She organized and performed quality control tests on our largest datasets to ensure high-quality data is available for our project and the general community.

Aura M. Alonso-Rodríguez
USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Active: 2014 to 2018
Aura was our project manager since the construction of the experiment started in 2014. She helped build the experiment from the ground up and establish the research program that we have today.
Aura is currently doing her PhD at The University of Vermont.

William F. Mejía-García
USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Active: 2018- 2023
William was our General Field Technician, responsible for routine sample collection, field measurements, site inspections; sample processing, and data organization. He also assisted the project manager with day-to-day equipment maintenance and database organization.
Willliam is currently doing his Master's at University of New Mexico.

Alberto Pastor Ibáñez
USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Active: 2022-2023
Alberto is responsible for the day-to-day operations instrument maintenance, and
data collection and organization for TRACE.
Alberto also did his master's thesis using forest structure and composition data from TRACE, comparing pre and post-hurricane tree census data.
![IMG_2553[1].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4ee73b_2284c31b35b84397abacc57373cc6ad8~mv2_d_3024_4032_s_4_2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_504,w_3024,h_3024/fill/w_155,h_155,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/IMG_2553%5B1%5D_JPG.jpg)
Nicole A. Gutiérrez Ramos
USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Active: 2019-2022
Nicole was our plant physiology technician, specifically she collected foliar photosynthesis and respiration as well as root respiration data. She also assisted the project manager with day-to-day maintenance of instruments and database administration, did sample collections and measurements, and data analysis to ensure quality control of ongoing research.
Alumni_graduatestudents
Graduate Students

Robert Tunison
Michigan Technological University - Houghton
Graduated: 2023
Rob’s research focused on studying understory plant foliar and root physiological acclimation responses to disturbance under experimentally warmed conditions.

Elif Kardas
University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras
Using a combination of field and lab experiments (metagenomics and GC-MS), Elif was studying the effects of warming on nectar microbiota and biochemistry, as well as the subsequent changes in plant-pollinator mutualism.
Do to plant germination and flowering setbacks, Elif had to change the scope of her research.

Stephanie Roe
University of Virginia - Charlottesville
Graduated: 2021
Stephanie’s research investigated climate responses in tropical forests and soil processes, and their aggregate effect on the Earth’s carbon cycle.

Daniela Yaffar
The University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Graduated: 2020
Daniela's research focused on fine root distribution, productivity and turnover in normal conditions and in response to experimental warming.

Kelsey Carter
Michigan Technological University - Houghton
Graduated: 2020
Kelsey's research concentrates on studying the physiological acclimation potential of both mature canopy foliage and understory tree seedlings in response to experimental warming.

Alida Mau
Michigan Technological University
Graduated: 2018
Alida finished her masters on how photosynthesis in canopy leaves responds to temperature variations.
Scientific Collaborators
Alumni_scientificcollabs

Eoin L. Brodie
Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory
Eoin Brodie is a microbiologist/biogeochemist with expertise in soils and subsurfaces systems and plant-microbial interactions. Within TRACE, he led efforts to uncover the mechanisms and consequences of changes in microbial ecophysiology in response to warming.

Colorado Mesa University
Deborah Kennard is a Forest Ecologist and professor at Colorado Mesa University. In 2015 she did a 6 month sabbatical with TRACE. Deborah is collaborating with Dr. Joanne Sharpe to lead a study on the effects of warming on the fern and herbacious plant communities.

Transcend Engineering
Stephen Farrington is an engineer that collaborated on the TRACE project. He installed prototype PRISMS (Profile Resolving In Situ Soil Moisture Sensor) probes in the TRACE plots that collected spatially continuous moisture data from the surface to a meter below ground.

USDA Forest Service
Jean Lodge is a botanist who specializes in fungal diversity. Her work in the TRACE plots involved investigating the effects of basidiomycete fungi on leaf decomposition.

Bruce A. Kimball
Greenleaf Group & USDA Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center
Bruce is a soil scientist and our expert on infra-red warming experiments. He designed the TRACE warming infrastructure and the main datalogger control programs.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Jeffrey Warren is a plant ecophysiologist who investigated the effects of environmental change on sap flow and stem growth in adult trees with different wood densities in the Luquillo Experimental Forest.

Ariel E. Lugo
USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Five years ago Ariel Lugo organized a workshop to discuss ideas for a large-scale climate change experiment in Puerto Rico. It was this seminar workshop that set TRACE in motion! Ariel continues to lend his research experience to the project and was collaborating with us on improving tropical forest representation in Earth System Models.
Interns
Alumni_interns
2016

Brian Yudkin & Bella Reyes

Jamarys Torres & Talia Anderson
2017

Mónica Cruz

Tessaliz Quiles

Kurt Miller

Gisela González
2018

Nate Stenson

Héctor Marín

Aral Greene

Anna Nordseth

Taylor Saunders

Helena Kleiner

Virginia-Rose Seagal

Kyle Zollo

Emily Ramirez

Gilmarie Rivera

Rosanise Odell

Esther Williams

Jacob Luna

Carolina May
2019

Veronica Lourich

Megan Muller-Girard

Kevin Santiago Escaso

Pedro León

William Mejía
2020

Wendy Colón

María Ferrer
2021

Andrea Padilla Guerrero

Carmel Dill Cruz
2022

Deyaneira Ortiz Iglesias

Shelby McMahan
2023

Katherine Pagán

Laura Rubio Lebrón

Génesis López

Jenivelisse García

Trung Dam

Nibia Becerra

Miriam Kleit

Shelby McMahan

Ethan Powell

Carlos Bonilla
2024

Ari Puentes

Sophia Campbell

Hieu Chu

Lucia Zuvela

Jamilys Rivera

Nibia Becerra
Research assistants and undergraduate students
Alumni_assistants

Terry Torres

Mike Schmid

Madeline Reinsel

Kaylie Butts

Elsa Schwartz

Ben Miller

GraceAnna Schilz

Marissa Palmer

Tanner Stiker

Junoel Rosario

Ámbar López

Alyna Calcaño
Volunteers
Alumni_volunteers
Benjamin Branoss
Eddie Campell
Marguerite Kinsella

Josh Brown, Angie Shaffer & Michael Peyton

Left to right: Yianna Bekris, Brian Smith & Libby Sternhagen

Alyssa Umberger & Ryan McDonald

William Hernandez & Julymar Rodríguez


Carl Carter

Mandee Kuhn

Casey Hughes

Juan Morales & Kiara Rodríguez


Sean Reynolds


Sara Carabajal

Michael Mahr & Spencer Stout
Tomás Furi

Nikki Niewold

Mary Nordseth

Anna Wilson

Ninoshka Irizarry, Yadira Gutiérrez, Gabriela Cardona & Gilmarie Rivera


Benjamin Branoss
Eddie Campell
Marguerite Kinsella
Kerlanys Fuentes
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