July 2011 « The Echinacea Project

N. Goldsmith R Analysis

I have started work on analysis of my style shriveling data from the crosses between Echinacea pallida and Echinacea angustifolia. Attached is the R code I have so far.

NGRAnalysis1.txt

Dataset for Callin’s Compatibility Experiment

Here’s the final dataset for my compatibility experiment. The experiment is officially ended today (I collected the last bit of data). The dataset contains GPS data (column name distBetween). I missed one plant while GPS-ing, so I used the hand-measured data (for flag #6 at Nessman’s). I also corrected several errors in the datasheet.

Data for Analysis — cswitzer — 31 July 2011.csv

We spent some time GPS-ing the plants, so we could get the exact distances between them. Here is a csv file with the gps data.

I have been working on analyzing all my data. I looked at plots of each of my individual sties, as well as all the data combined. The data are almost exactly opposite of what I expected.
Here’s the script I’ve been exploring:
callinCompatRScript31july2011.R

Here’s a picture of Josh, Amber Z, and I out in the field (having a lot of fun).

Aster Style Persistence Update

My days of research at the landfill are coming to an end! I’ll be doing the last of my crosses there tomorrow and observing the results on Monday.
For the Coreopsis, I didn’t end up with much data about style persistence. Each head has about four rows of styles and dries up soon after it finishes flowering. Since I’ve only been visiting the landfill every three days, I didn’t get a chance to see what happened to most of the styles I pollinated before all the florets just turned black and fell off.
The good news is, I will be able to collected many of the flower heads I pollinated, so someone can assess their seed sets in the fall. (I was worried that when the florets fell off, they might have taken the seeds with them, but Stuart reassured me that the seeds are still there!)

I also have lots of data about Heliopsis style persistence. I’ll upload it here once I have the data in from my last few pollen crosses.

E. pallida – E. angustifolia cross data

This is my CSV file with information on my pollen crosses between Echinacea pallida and Echinacea angustifolia. It will be used in the analysis of that data.

CSV_recip_Crosses.csv

Orchids

Last week (well, 9 days ago), we headed north to the Crookston area to survey the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid (Platanthera praeclara).
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Gretel is showing everyone what to look for on the plant here.

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Katherine looks over the prairie

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An ant dangles on a thread of spider silk, threatened by the dangerous milkweed

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Here’s what we were actually looking for; the WPFO itself. We found over 1000 plants, way more than last year. All in all, a good day.

Characteristics of a good CSV file for R

Edited by cswitzer. 25 July 2011

Characteristics of a good CSV file:
1. Use database format in Excel

See this example: https://echinaceaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/preliminary-analysis-for-calli.html
2. Don’t mix text, integer, or numeric fields (you may enter NA in a numeric field to signify missing data)
3. Remove spaces from excel cells
4. No punctuation in each column name
5. Don’t start a column with a number
6. Column names should be in easily typable format — use capitals at new words and use no spaces (called camelback format)

Mowed

After enjoying the pig races out at the Grant County Fair yesterday, it was back to field work for me today. I biked out to the Hegg Lake Restoration area to discover that my Echinacea pallida site had experienced something that is now common for many prairie remnants – mowing.

Echinacea pallida tagged PAL 1014 before mowing:

Echinacea pallida tagged PAL 1013 after mowing:

Luckily I still have a decent number of crosses, and this just cuts the number I was planning on having a bit shorter. Tomorrow I will begin crosses to use up my remaining supply of Echinacea pallida pollen.

Hot week in review! (18 July 2011)

We accomplished a lot, even thought the weather was super hot! We even started at 7 am to try to beat the heat.

Monday, (July 18, 2011) was amazing in two different ways. The temperature was in the nineties, but the heat index was over 100 F. We worked in the morning, but by 10 am it was heating up. Because of the humidity, our clothes were soaked through by the end of the day. We measured plants in the common garden on Monday afternoon, and helped Katherine set up cages for her aphid experiments.

Here’s a picture of what we felt like on Monday: (Notice the sweat on Josh’s brow as he measures the height, in centimeters, of the Echinacea head.

Tuesday and Wednesday, we decided not to work outside during the afternoon, so we did morning field work, and then spent time updating the website and computer work during the afternoon.

Here are a few photos of our projects.

1. Callin’s Compatibility Project:

2. Amber Z’s Phenology Project at Staffanson Prairie Preserve

3. Lee’s compatibility project with Coreopsis palmata and Heliopsis helianthoides

4. Katherine’s Experiment with aphids. She set up lots of cages to keep aphids in the right places. Very cool!

5. Josh is helping other groups and helping with the main projects, because he’s waiting for his Big Bluestem and Indian Grass to grow for his experiment (sorry, no photo).

6. Maria has been collecting Dichanthelium seeds for later experiments. Check out the cool purple flower of Dichanthelium in the picture.

7. Amber E. has been collecting pollen from Dalea in lots of different remnants (sorry, no picture). Dalea purpurea is a purple flowering legume.

8. Nicholas is just about to finish all his compatibility experiments between Echinacea angustifolia and Echinacea pallida. To do cross pollination experiments, he first paints the bracts that subtend the styles he will pollinate. Aqua is a easy color to recognize on the bracts.

On Thursday and Friday, we were able to do more fieldwork in the common garden, even in the afternoon (common garden measurements and phenology).

We also had time to practice taking some photos for the website. The photo below shows Stuart scouting a good location for a website photo.

Preliminary Analysis for Callin’s Compatibility Experiment

Here is the csv file to use for my compatibility of Echinacea in the remnants.

Preliminary analysis–july 25 2011.csv

Here’s a picture of what we were doing to collect this data!

Progress on the aphid front

It’s been a busy week for everybody. Plants are blooming, pollen is shedding, and everyone is dashing about madly to catch the field season before it passes us by. I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get ready for my aphid addition/exclusion experiment. Everyone has been a wonderful help setting up cages in this sweltering heat. My goal for this week is to finish my first round of experimental treatments: exclusion on Thursday and addition on Friday. Before then, I need to finish setting up nets and teach everyone how to wrangle aphids. Here is a protocol I wrote up to assist the teaching process and the data sheets I mention in the protocol. These are works in progress, so any feedback is appreciated.

AphidExclusionCollectionProtocol2011.doc

aphidexclusion.xls

aphidcollectionoutsideExpt.xls

aphidinfestation.xls
Happy wrangling,

Katherine

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