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This project investigates the role of three fundamental constraints on mate availability – temporal asynchrony, spatial isolation, and reproductive incompatibility – in remnant Echinacea angustifolia populations. During the summer of 2014, we conducted two studies related to The Mating Scene project. In the first study, we mapped 991 Echinacea plants and monitored the phenology of 1360 flowering heads across 31 remnants to quantify spatial isolation and flowering asynchrony. At the end of the season, we harvested 193 flowering heads from 25 remnants to assess seed set. In the second study, we performed 364 pollen crosses to characterize patterns of reproductive incompatibility within 10 remnants. With the data collected in 2014 and subsequent years, we aim to elucidate how the interactions between temporal asynchrony, spatial isolation, and reproductive incompatibility influence reproductive fitness in fragmented prairie remnants.
|
site |
# of flowering plants |
# of flowering heads |
# of crosses |
# of heads harvested |
| 1 |
aa |
60 |
83 |
36 |
5 |
| 2 |
alf |
63 |
78 |
|
6 |
| 3 |
btg |
3 |
3 |
|
2 |
| 4 |
dog |
1 |
2 |
|
|
| 5 |
eelr |
33 |
17 |
28 |
5 |
| 6 |
eri |
38 |
54 |
|
5 |
| 7 |
eth |
9 |
46 |
|
5 |
| 8 |
gc |
6 |
6 |
|
3 |
| 9 |
kj |
7 |
8 |
|
5 |
| 10 |
lce |
90 |
70 |
24 |
5 |
| 11 |
lcw |
51 |
95 |
24 |
5 |
| 12 |
lfe |
64 |
103 |
24 |
5 |
| 13 |
lfw |
89 |
57 |
24 |
6 |
| 14 |
ngc |
8 |
5 |
|
|
| 15 |
nnwlf |
2 |
13 |
|
5 |
| 16 |
nrrx |
20 |
25 |
|
5 |
| 17 |
nwlf |
13 |
16 |
|
5 |
| 18 |
on27 |
92 |
96 |
42 |
5 |
| 19 |
ri |
82 |
112 |
44 |
5 |
| 20 |
rrx |
43 |
47 |
33 |
5 |
| 21 |
rrxdc |
3 |
3 |
|
2 |
| 22 |
sap |
29 |
13 |
|
5 |
| 23 |
sgc |
8 |
243 |
|
5 |
| 24 |
SppE |
92 |
81 |
41 |
42 |
| 25 |
SppW |
51 |
38 |
44 |
42 |
| 26 |
th |
8 |
9 |
|
5 |
| 27 |
tower |
7 |
11 |
|
5 |
| 28 |
waa |
4 |
8 |
|
|
| 29 |
wood |
4 |
4 |
|
|
| 30 |
yohE |
4 |
5 |
|
|
| 31 |
yohW |
7 |
9 |
|
|
Start year: 2014
Location: Phenology in 31 total remnants, compatibility in 10 remnants
Products: The phenology and compatibility datasets need to be made readyR. The harvested flowering heads are being processed at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Overlaps with: phenology in six remnants, fire and flowering at SPP
Description: The Echinacea Project’s recruitment experiment examines the germination and survival of Echinacea angustifolia seedlings in oldfields and restored grasslands under different fire regimes. In 2014, Team Echinacea searched for and measured Echinacea plants in 60 study plots spread across 10 experimental blocks. After data collection was complete, we mapped all newly flowering plants. The goal of this study is to identify the environmental factors that influence the recruitment of seedlings and the long-term fitness of Echinacea plants.
Start year: 2001
Location: 10 experimental blocks located in oldfields and restored grasslands
Products: Raw data taken on paper were entered into database and verified. Flowering plants with new tags were mapped and the spatial data is located in the 2014 SURV files. Flowering plants with old tags were not mapped in 2014.
Description: During the summer of 2014, Will Reed designed and executed an experiment to measure the efficacy of various pollen storage methods including storing pollen at room temperature, in refrigeration, and freeze-drying pollen. Between July 14 and August 8, he collected pollen from 15 different plants and performed a total of 186 hand pollinations on 50 plants. These results will improve pollen storage practices and expand the capability to cross plants that flower asynchronously or potentially in different years.
Start year: 2014
Location: P1
Products: A dataset and detailed methods are located in Will Reed’s Dropbox folder. Dataset needs to be made readyR.
We harvested the heads Will used as pollen recipients. He could remove the achenes to see if his crosses produced viable seeds.
Experimental plot 1 (P1) encompasses 11 different experiments originally planted with a total of 10673 Echinacea individuals. These experiments include long-term studies designed to compare the fitness of Echinacea from different remnant populations (“EA from remnants in P1”), examine the effects of inbreeding on plant fitness (“INB” and “INB2”), and explore other genetic properties of Echinacea such as trait heritability (“qGen”). In 2014, Team Echinacea measured plant traits for the 5409 Echinacea plants that remain alive and followed the daily phenology of 567 flowering heads. Echinacea began producing florets on July 1 and continued flowering in P1 until August 24. The data collected in 2014 will allow us to estimate the heritability of various traits and assess the lifetime fitness of plants from the numerous experiments.
|
Experiment |
Year planted |
# alive |
# flowering |
# planted |
| 1 |
1996 |
1996 |
314 |
115 |
650 |
| 2 |
1997 |
1997 |
270 |
57 |
600 |
| 3 |
1998 |
1998 |
32 |
3 |
375 |
| 4 |
1999 |
1999 |
542 |
106 |
888 |
| 5 |
1999S |
1999 |
297 |
37 |
418 |
| 6 |
SPP |
2001 |
318 |
14 |
797 |
| 7 |
Inbreeding |
2001 |
221 |
15 |
557 |
| 8 |
2001 |
2001 |
170 |
11 |
350 |
| 9 |
Monica 2003 |
2003 |
28 |
3 |
100 |
| 10 |
qGen |
2003 |
2501 |
122 |
4468 |
| 11 |
INB2 |
2006 |
716 |
41 |
1470 |
Start year: 1996
Location: experimental plot 1
Products:
Overlaps with: aphid addition exclusion, Pamela’s functional traits, pollen longevity, pollen addition exclusion
Following her tenure as an elementary school teacher and tutor, Char decided to pursue her lifelong interest in the natural world and began volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden in the early 1990s. Before joining the Echinacea Project, she worked to restore the Botanic Garden’s prairies and woodlands. Char specializes in cleaning Echinacea heads and has been a member of our dedicated volunteer team since 2001. Aside from her work with the Echinacea Project, Char has been monitoring butterflies at the Chicago Botanic Garden for the past 20 years in association with the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network.
This is one in a series of profiles recognizing the hard work and dedication of citizen scientists volunteering for the Echinacea Project at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
The Echinacea Project relies on a team of volunteers to process the Echinacea heads collected from experimental plots and remnants. Each year, these citizen scientists devote more than 2000 person hours to cleaning, sorting, weighing, and counting Echinacea heads and achenes! We are fortunate to have such dedicated individuals working with us and we would like to recognize their contributions to the Echinacea Project, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and conservation science. Next week we will begin posting citizen scientist profiles on the Echinacea Project blog to give our volunteers some of the recognition they deserve. Stay tuned!
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