For this project, I looked at some of the plant life around the southern side of Princeton University's campus, by many accounts an area defined by the curation of its biodiversity. I took these images of leaves from the same White Oak (Quercus alba). The White Oak is native to the central New Jersey area and tends to dominate deciduous woodland area, like we can find around the Princeton campus.

Even in the same organism, significant variation is apparent across these leaves, primarily with respect to color and differentiation of plant cells. With the Foldscope, I was able to capture a microscopic view of a familiar plant process, like foliage loss.

Given recent patterns of unseasonal weather, this variation is not incredibly surprising. Climate change seems to disrupt phenological changes in plants, like seasonal foliage loss. Although I can't gauge if this disruption affects the fitness of the tree, I predict that, as temperatures continue to fluctuate, variation will become increasingly pronounced.

I conducted this project as part of Professor Pringle's EEB321 class at Princeton University.