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Developing a modified technique to assess desiccation tolerance in leaf tissue.
No full textDesiccation-tolerant “resurrection” plants can lose nearly all available water and subsequently recover upon rehydration. As remarkable as this trait may seem, desiccation tolerance (DT) is still being discovered and quantified in many plants. Previous studies have developed a field portable technique for quantifying DT in leaf tissue (the “Falcon tube method”; Lopez-Pozo et al., 2019). However, we found that the published protocol needed adjustment to accurately quantify DT in some fern species. In this study, we have developed a modified Falcon tube method, with several novel components. 1) We lengthened the drying time from two days to six days, because two days was insufficient time for the fern leaves to fully desiccate. 2) We lengthened the rehydration time from one day to three days, because one day was insufficient time for the fern leaves to fully resurrect. 3) We added a hydrated control treatment, to demonstrate that the duration of the entire experiment was not so long as to allow natural senescence of excised leaves. We plan to use this modified protocol to broadly assess fern desiccation tolerance across several fern lineages
From Posts to Politics: The Relationship Between Social Media and Political Behavior and Attitudes
No full textThis study examines how social media usage predicts three key dimensions of U.S. political behavior and attitudes: affective polarization, trust in government, and voter turnout. Using post-COVID-19 data from the 2022 American National Election Studies (ANES) Social Media Study, the analysis evaluates whether greater social media engagement is associated with affective polarization, reduced trust in government, and voter turnout. Regression analyses reveal that while overall social media usage does not directly predict affective polarization, platform-specific effects emerge. TikTok engagement is associated with lower levels of affective polarization, while Reddit engagement correlates with intensified partisan hostility. Social media engagement does not significantly predict trust in government when examined as a whole, but platform-level variation indicates that TikTok use is associated with increased confidence in government institutions, while YouTube use corresponds with greater skepticism. Contrary to prior theories that suggest social media mobilizes voters, the study finds that greater social media engagement is linked to lower voter turnout, particularly among TikTok and YouTube users. By analyzing both aggregate and platform-specific effects, the research highlights the divergent ways social media is associated with political attitudes and behaviors. The findings contribute to the literature by addressing gaps related to newer social media platforms and post-pandemic political behavior, offering new insights into the complex relationship between digital engagement and democratic participation
