For my ongoing thesis research this summer I have been working hard collecting species presence data during this peak flowering time. For data collection I am doing a process where I go out to a specific prairie remnant or restoration and do a “meander walk”. This is where I walk along a winding path through a study area, systematically recording encountered species while trying to cover the most amount of area as possible with the goal of being able to create a comprehensive species list. The original project I had proposed “How prescribed fire affects species diversity and abundance in Aster plants in prairie remnants and restorations” has been scaled back drastically. This is in part due to time constraints, as well as working with a limited team this summer. The new focus moving forward is connected to the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan which is an initiative by MN Department of Natural Resources that is working to connect the small percentages of native prairies that are left in the state through a corridor. Multiple of the of the prairie remnants and restorations we do research in here at the Echinacea Project fall within or around this proposed corridor, but we don’t know if these remnants and restorations harbor rich plant biodiversity that could be beneficial to include on the proposed corridor. Therefore, I am investigating species presence of plants in the largest plant family found in prairies which is the Asteraceae in prairie remnants and restorations located in western Minnesota.
In terms of data collection, I have completed 15 remnant sites and 5 restorations of all varying sizes. Each sites offers a different array of plant species (many including our personal favorite Echinacea angustifolia, duh!). In the upcoming week site visits will be wrapping up and data organization will begin.
Since Wednesday, we have continued our progress on total demos. We completed sites KJ, railroad crossing, and around landfill, demoing over 350 plant locations. We also surveyed dozens of flowering echinacea, cataloging their flowering heads and precise locations.
While total demo continues on, today is also full of lasts—we have completed measuring in exPt08! While we experienced quite a rain delay (and a sky-cracking lightning strike somewhere on the property), the team braved the mist, 90% humidity, and the very wet grass to complete our final row of measuring in exPt08 this morning. Harvest lists are compiled and ready to go, meaning we can move on to monitoring the echinacea heads and harvesting them when their seeds are ready. After the achenes are harvested, they will be dried and brought back to the Chicago Botanic Garden, where we will determine the number of achenes produced and seed viability. This gives us insight on the fitness of the plants in the qGen2 and qGen3 cohorts.
Aaron and a Canadian toadA visiting Monarch in exPt01Maddie and her most recent frog friend
We are also saying goodbye to Gael, one of our high school interns. We will remember Gael for his hard work, singing during tasks, and tripping into badger holes in the field. While we are very sad to see him go, Gael is starting his first year at University of Minnesota Morris, where he is studying chemistry.
Gael, operating the GPS during total demoGael on a visit to the sunflower fields near a field site
To start the week, the team measured echinacea that was planted in 1996 in p01. The morning flew by, and after lunch the team split up into teams of two, and set out to do total demo in the remnants. We have been tackling larger remnant sites while we have a larger team since it is my (Kyra) last day tomorrow and Gael’s last day this Friday.
Tuesday 08/12/2025
After it rained about an inch last night, the six foot grass in the remnants and experimental plots was soaking wet so we decided to have independent project time (look out for updates). Grace and I worked on summarizing and analysing the data from our pollinator project, while Maddie did a meandering protocol for her thesis, Gael wrote a summary of pesticide project, and Maddie D. organized the data for the experimental plots. After lunch, we went to p08 for more measuring, and we’ve completed about 80%.
We’ve finished up another week of summer! In the morning, the team continued making progress measuring in P8. More monarchs were spotted in the experimental plot as the rough blazingstar begins to bloom!
After lunch, we split into groups. Maddie D., Gael, and I (Grace) headed to Landfill West and completed total demo and surveying. We were excited to find some wild viola growing around the echinacea! Aaron and Kyra decapitated rogue Pallida and completed total demo around Hegg Lake. Meanwhile, Maddie S. continued aster walks for her thesis work. It was a humid but productive afternoon!
Another beautiful day at Hegg!Wild Viola at LFWMonarch in P8
This morning the whole team headed to P2 where we finished twist tying Echinaceas, we did 40 rows yesterday and another 40 today! To be honest this morning’s experience in P2 has been the best one so far! Past visits have been full of rain, misery, and soggy socks. After finishing P2 we went on a little quick field trip to a sunflower field right in front of West of Aanenson, it was quite beautiful!
When we came back to Hjelm, half of the team and me (Gael) went around P1 on Tower Road to exterminate some of the Bird’s Foot Trefoil that has been spreading around the common garden. While the rest of our team was pulling some BFT I checked around for the plants I recently treated with herbicide and THEY WERE DEAD! I was very happy to see that not only the plants were completely dead but also that the surrounding plants weren’t affected at all!
After exterminating some BFT, we came back to Hjelm to have lunch. I had some really good chicken fajitas made by my dad, and we shared some cucumbers from Stuart’s parent’s garden and some cool grapes from Maddie’s aldi’s bag.
After lunch we got some time to work on our independent projects. I went around the enclosure of the goats (now near P1) to continue my work on herbicide and pulling BFT. Aaron worked on his plants with aphids, Maddie D. worked in setting up visors to measure in P2, Grace and Kyra worked on their Bee paper, and Maddie S. went meandering (species identification walks for her thesis).
Here are some really cute pictures of today!
Echinacea picture taken by Maddie S.Me at the Sunflower field.Maddie’s picture of a bumblebee on a Sunflower.The view of P2The view of the Sunflower field.Cool frog I found by P1.
And that concludes the update of the day! Thanks for reading, see you next time, love you bye!
Last week I trekked out to Landfill to see if I could acquire some aphids and I was successful! The most successful way of harvesting them in the past which was using a paintbrush that had a small amount of bristles. However, I found most successful for preparing the Aphids to move is slightly blowing on them. This provoked them enough to retract their styles so I could sweep them using a larger paintbrush. After a drive back, I put them back onto the leaves of the addition plants in ExPt01.
This week I was met with some pretty unfortunate news after visiting the addition plants in ExPt01, they were no longer present. So to remedy this, I will venture back out to landfill and harvest more aphids and check back in with them tomorrow afternoon to make sure that they are thriving on their respective plants.
Today on Team Echinacea, we welcomed on a new week, got on our sunscreen and bug repellent, and headed off to ExPt01. We measured the 99-North Garden and finished! We are now over 50% done with measuring ExPt01. It was then time for lunch, and after many though provoking conversations, we were off to twist-tie in the 99-South Garden. We finished that up, then took a little break and went back off to 99-South to measure. We did not finish measuring in 99-South but we made a large dent in the progress. Finally, we cleaned up and did support activities and left ready for the new week.
Maddie with a Frog!Monarch in ExPt01Aaron with a different Frog!
The Echinacea Project, and its principal investigator Stuart Wagenius, is responsible for the foundation of one of the most comprehensive and long-running studies of prairie plants. Experimental plots use a common garden design and include experiments involving inbreeding, aphid addition and exclusion, flowering phenology, pollen addition and exclusion, and more. The Echinacea angustifolia in experimental plot 1 were planted as far back as 1996; while they have experienced mortality over the years, many of these plants are still alive. Team Echinacea, most of which are younger than the plants we work with, have been hard at work collecting measurements to add to the ever-expanding dataset. We take data on things like the number of rosettes, leaves, and flowering heads a plant has, as well as insect activity and disease spread, to help determine the fitness of the plants in various treatments.
A common wood-nymph being thwarted by our pollinator-exclusion bagsAn Agapostemon virescens visiting echinacea in ExPt01A fungus commonly found growing in ExPt01A jumping spider on the hunt, likely preying on floral visitorsDragonflies, abundant in ExPt08Aaron, having a standoff with a grasshopper
As of August 1, 2025, we have measured approximately 60% of experimental plot 1, which has over 11,000 planted positions. Having accomplished so much, we plan on beginning harvesting soon next week. After the heads are harvested, the achenes will be sent to the Chicago Botanic garden, where interns and volunteers will work to determine the flowers’ seed set. Throughout the rest of the field season, Team Echinacea will continue measuring in ExPt01, and begin on ExPt08, ExPt09, ExPt07, and ExPt02.
This is a map of measuring progress in ExPt01, where the blue segments have been completed and the white, unfilled sections are soon to be measured. We measure by experiment, concluding one before we move to another. We have completed the inbreeding 1 cohort, the inbreeding 2 cohort, and the first generation of the heritability of fitness experiment. Currently, we are working on the 99 main garden, a series of rows planted by Stuart in 1999.
This summer with Team Echinacea, I developed a storyline-based ecology curriculum for high school students, using the team’s ongoing tallgrass prairie research as the anchoring phenomenon. The goal was to design a unit that moves beyond textbook facts, engaging students in authentic, place-based science that mirrors the work of real ecologists.
Traditional high school ecology units often feature distant or abstract examples—ecosystems in the Serengeti, Arctic wildfires, or urbanization in far-off cities. While these are important, they can feel disconnected from students’ own communities. My curriculum instead places the tallgrass prairie, and specifically the fragmented habitats of the upper Midwest, at the center of the learning experience. This approach ensures relevance for students in the central U.S. and for any community impacted by agricultural land use and habitat fragmentation.
The unit uses real graphs, models, datasets, and field techniques generated by Team Echinacea’s long-term studies. Students will engage with authentic data on plant reproduction, population dynamics, and pollinator interactions, learning the same methods our team uses in the field—such as pollinator mark-recapture, flowering plant demography and measurements, and mapping remnant populations. These activities are paired with opportunities for students to collect and analyze data from local sites, allowing them to connect global ecological concepts to their immediate environment.
By aligning with NGSS and applying a storyline structure, the curriculum guides students through a sequence of investigations driven by their own questions. Each lesson builds on prior discoveries, deepening understanding of ecosystem function, biodiversity, and conservation strategies. The emphasis is on sense-making, not memorization, fostering higher-order thinking skills and scientific reasoning.
Ultimately, this project aims to make prairie ecology personal, urgent, and inspiring. Students will see themselves as active participants in ecological research and conservation, gaining not only knowledge but also the confidence and skills to address environmental challenges in their own backyards.
Stay tuned for updates as I pilot this curriculum in my high school ecology and environmental science classes, and with my school’s Environmental Awareness Club. I’m excited to see how this collaboration between Team Echinacea and the classroom can cultivate the next generation of conservation-minded scientists!
I also want to take this opportunity to thank Stuart, Ruth, and the entire 2025 Echinacea Project team for welcoming me into the work this summer and allowing me to learn from the many individual projects—both short- and long-term—that make up this incredible research effort. I’m excited to bring my love for prairies back to my students, but I’m equally grateful for the personal learning this experience has given me. It reconnected me with my “research brain,” something I know will only strengthen my doctoral work on science literacy equity. While I won’t miss pulling weeds or walking around in soaked socks and shoes all day, I will miss searching for Echinacea in prairie remnants, the thrill of correctly identifying stipa (porcupine grass), and the stunning Minnesota sunsets. This truly has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience—at least until I reapply in a few years because I will miss the prairie too much!
It’s the first day of August, and the team is working hard to finish measuring in P1! Now that Inbreeding 1 & 2 and qGen1 are complete, we continued making progress in the 99 garden. The goal is to begin harvesting by August 5th!
After lunch, Maddie D. updated code for the measuring data while Kyra, Gael, and I (Grace) headed out to do total demo at Staffanson West. Kyra and I finished by surveying SPPW while Gael split off and saw some very cute cows while surveying Aanenson, West Aanenson, and Around Landfill. We’re excited to continue making headway with measuring next week–hopefully with less smoky skies!
