Research Opportunity (for credits): The Tree Species Resistance to Hurricanes Project
The goal of the next phase of the Tree Species Resistance to Hurricanes Project is to fill in data gaps and generate wind resistance rating for urban tree species common to New Jersey and the surrounding Mid-Atlantic Region.
A student collaborator on this project could work on:
- Generating a list of Mid-Atlantic urban tree species and flagging species without wind resistance ratings
- Identify the data gaps that prevent the species from receiving a wind resistance rating
- Search the scientific literature for missing data (e.g., wood density, previously documented hurricane damage)
- Run the new data through the wind resistance predictive model in R
- In the hopefully unlikely event a hurricane comes through our region, the student collaborator could assist with post-storm data collection
A student collaborator should feel comfortable or be willing to learn how to:
- Use Excel to update, sort, and summarize data
- Read and find data in scientific papers and other horticulture books
- Import new data sets into R, run existing code, and export result
If you are interested email Dr. Allyson Salisbury at asalis@sebs.rutgers.edu with:
1) A brief description of your interest in the project
2) A brief explanation of any relevant prior experiences you have or a resume
3) The contact info for one reference (remember to ask that person if it’s ok to list them as a reference and let them know they may be contacted about this position)
