 I am Melba Salazar, Assistant Professor, Specialty Crop Physiologist in the Horticultural Department at Auburn, and today I will be introducing part of my program. So, I will talk about the Blueberry Physiology. The vision of my program is to have an environmentally sustainable and integrated research approach using outdoor and protected cultivation of fruit crops that benefit you, the growers, the farms, the industry, and the community of Alabama through Auburn University that helps you and them to face the challenging climate uncertainty. Our research addresses the resiliency and vulnerability of agricultural production by evaluating different horticultural production systems. We aim to evaluate both traditional and alternative management systems, design it to optimize and maximize plant productivity, fruit quality, and on-farm efficiency for food supply while taking care of the environment in a sustainable manner. Our research focuses on studying the whole plant physiology of fruit crops using different production systems. We have a holistic approach that considers all of the physiological aspects, starting in dormancy, following phenology, growth and development to follow the complete development cycle of the plant. We also consider the interaction with the plant and soil of different production systems. An important portion of the program is the determination of the impact of agroclimatic factors, particularly during climate uncertainty. There are several unknowns for blueberry production using containers, and for that reason understanding the relationships between environmental factors and growth development is critical to determine how plants adapt to a changing climate. The integration of plant soil and environmental factors is key to understanding growth production. The potential benefit of container production concerning cold protection is the ability to use less water to achieve the same level of risk protection. In the case of blueberries, container production is a relatively new approach. The main goal on this study is to understand the physiological responses of blueberry production under this alternative system. This is an example of one collaborative project where we are evaluating the growth and development of blueberry plants under different climatic conditions where we control the light, the temperature, the humidity and we have two different ambience for them to grow in order to determine different physiological factors. Who really in my program we address a broad range of topics of fruit crops, including but not limited to blueberries, strawberries and peaches. So we have some studies in photosynthetic characterization, dormancy and phenology, dry matter and distribution, plant disorders caused by environmental stress, physiological responses to climate variability. In the future we are going to address agricultural resiliency and when we have collecting more data we will work on growth modeling. We are doing periodical observations that complement the lines of research. In this case, we follow development during the complete cycle of the crop, including vegetative and reproductive stages. We collect physiological measurements, for example for the photosynthetic characterization, we use the gases changed for our system like that help us to record data related to photosynthetic rate, somatic conductance, transpiration rate and others that allow us to identify changes during different times and stages of development. For growth measurements we use dry matter accumulation and partitioning where we perform destructive measurements. Yes, I know, destructive measurements to determine fresh and dry weight. We follow the growth and development of leaves, stems, fruits and all of the reproductive organs. So we use for that purpose the leaf area scanner and also we are using now a root scanner. Environmental monitoring is key and is a big component of our program. We have installed some weather stations and sensors to keep records of the microclimate changes. Our trials and experimental plots are located at the EBS NEED Research Center, Patterson Greenhouse and Plant Science Research Center. We also are collaborating with Dr. Koniva and she has the plots in Chilton Regional and Extension Center. To summarize, we provide an understanding of the physiological responses of blue crops to different production systems. We study fundamental causes of the growth and development of the crop that will allow the simulation of physiological responses under different climatic conditions. The combination of these factors are fundamental keys for planning and executing management practices that will contribute to an increasing knowledge and profitability for Alabama farmers. I will close sharing the mission of my program that is in the long term to develop decision support tools that address farmers and industry needs. You can find me and more information about my lab in the College of Agriculture Department of Horticulture webpage and I am thrilled to work with blueberries. This is a picture I found few years ago working on phenological development of blueberries. This is back in Washington. I very much appreciate your attention and I will be very happy to take any questions you may have. You can contact me. I can be reached by email. The information is on this page. Thank you.