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Project status update: Aphid addition and exclusion experiment

aphids

In 2014, Cam Shorb continued an experiment designed to assess the effects of aphid herbivory on Echinacea angustifolia survival and fitness. The plants are located in experimental plot P1. Cam removed aphids from the 44 plants in the exclusion treatment and added over 220 aphids to the 43 plants in the addition treatment.

Read previous posts about this experiment.

Start year: 2011

Location: P1

Products: Fitness measurements were collected during our annual assessment of fitness in P1. A list of focal plants and addition/exclusion datasheets are located in Cam Shorb’s Dropbox folder.

Overlaps with: Overlaps with: Phenology and fitness in P1

Citizen scientist profile: Lou

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After retiring from a career in which he wore a number of different caps (physicist, mathematician, professor of computer science and rocket scientist to name a few), Lou began volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden in 1993. Lou has put the full range of his diverse skillset to use at the Garden. For the Echinacea Project, Lou has written a computer program to mathematically describe flowering phenology in Echinacea, built face shields and scanning trays to help process Echinacea achenes in the lab, and constructed survey grids to help us locate seedlings in the field. Most recently, he created a device to help us calibrate the levels on our GPS units. In his spare time, Lou enjoys woodworking.

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.

Project status updates 2014

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Greetings from Chicago Botanic Garden! A new year is upon us and it is time to recap a busy 2014 summer. Over the next several weeks, we will be posting flog updates describing research projects from the summer and the status of the Echinacea Project’s long-term experiments. Stay tuned!

Click here to Browse all of the updates!

Citizen scientist profile: Leslie

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After retiring from a career as a preschool teacher, Leslie began volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Although her initial volunteer work involved maintaining the outdoor gardens, she soon joined the Echinacea Project and has been a member of our volunteer team since 2009. In the lab, Leslie specializes in quality control. She checks each envelope of cleaned Echinacea material to ensure that it will produce clean scans and x-ray images. Leslie is an avid gardener and is currently enrolled in the Illinois Master Gardener course. She also enjoys attending vintage car races with her husband.

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.

Citizen scientist profile: Bill

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Bill, a former state attorney, began volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden after his retirement in 2002. In his time at the Botanic Garden, Bill has removed invasive species from the Botanic Garden’s restored habitats, monitored rare plants through the Plants of Concern program, and helped clean and count Echinacea achenes. Since joining the Echinacea Project, he has counted over 340,000 achenes! Outside of the lab, Bill enjoys playing the piano and collecting stamps from around the world.

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.