May 2011 « The Echinacea Project

G-3 Inventory

InventoryMay2011.doc An inventory of Team E’s side of G-3.

The seedling search has begun!

Today we started the seedling search at Steven’s Approach (SAP). The wind was strong and air temperature was chilly. We searched 3 circles; in one of the circles we found 6 seedlings! We drew a map and filled in a matrix, as we have done in previous years. We also tried out the new coordinate frame.
I (Amy) have revised the protocol. Please read it and feel free to suggest ways it can be improved.
Seedling Search Protocol 2011.doc

Tag Making Protocol

Here is the rough draft of the tag making protocol. Edit away!

Kate Gallagher graduates

24 May 2011 Megan Kate Gallagher defended her Master’s Thesis in Plant Biology and Conservation at Northwestern University. Congratulations! For her thesis project, Kate demonstrated how performance of three dominant prairie grasses in restorations depended on seed source. This fall Kate will start the PhD program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California–Irvine working with Diane Campbell.

Preparing to plant Echinacea seedlings at Staffanson

We designed an experiment to assess how fire affects the growth of plants. This spring we will plant about 2500 seedlings in 2500 randomly assigned locations on a 1m x 1m grid. We aim to keep track of the identity of all individuals and plant them quickly and efficiently. Here are five datasheets that will help: pathsToPlant.pdf, plantingDataSheet.csv, plugRowsPerPath.pdf, trayInfoByPseg.pdf, trayInfoByRow.pdf

Common Garden Burn

Yesterday we burned the common garden. There was a lot of fuel, since the common garden was last burned in May 2008. It was a slow, even burn.

Stuart lighting the fire, at the northeast corner of the common garden.
Click on the thumbnail image to see a larger picture.