My friends may wonder why I moved to a place like Texas after twenty years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the verdant forests of East Tennessee.
There are many reasons.
First, a more arid environment provides much stronger moisture gradients than are found in Tennessee, and subjects plants to stronger environmental (as opposed to competitive) stresses. This has interesting ecological and evolutionary consequences.
Second, the geology and ecology of the region around San Marcos, the Texas Hill Country, is both beautiful and ecologically interesting. The natural vegetation, subtropical live oak savanna, is a southern extension of tall and midgrass prairie, and presents challenging land management problems related to the interaction of cattle grazing, fire suppression, and shrub invasion. This region has the highest levels of plant endemism in the entire state.
Third, just to the east of the Hill Country is the contrasting blackland prairie region, with deep fertile soils that are mostly converted to agriculture, reminiscent of my home state of Iowa.
Fourth, Texas is BIG, and has an incredible diversity of plants, animals, and environments ranging from humid subtropical swamps to arid Chihuahuan desert.
And finally, the Biology Department at Texas State University provides me with a diversity of colleagues working in disciplines essential to my own research. The scientific expertise and intellectual stimulation provides a great environment for collaborative research with faculty and graduate students.