Today, half of the team went to LCE to get trained in on Demo and Surv. A previous group had identified most of the flowering echinacea with blue pin flags. Some of the demographic information about the plants we logged using our visors included; how many rosettes, how many flowering heads, if it had ants and/or aphids, and what tag number. We removed the previous blue flag and used a neon flag to indicated that the information had been logged. Jared and Alex trained us in using the visors. Later, Emma and I worked with the GPS unit to survey the plants that were already flagged with neon and replaced it with a white flag. We also got to meet the newest member of the team, Joey!
Jared showing us the protocol for demo.Daytona, Emma, Alex, Sophia, Jared, and Joey working on demo.Emma and Britney using the GPS unit to Surv.
In 2012 we plan to measure in “review mode” (as we did for CG2 in 2011) — all location records will be on the Visors with Status=”Staple” or “Skip” populated. We should not spend as much time searching for plants that have not been present for 3 or more years.This should speed up measuring. I’ll post the planned 2012 protocol next.
I wrote this up last week, but neglected to post it on the flog. Here is a detailed protocol for the 2011 recruitment searches. See Wagenius et al. 2011* for a description of the seedling recruitment study.
Attached is the “weather-tested” search protocol. While my partner found more than a dozen out of 75 or so, I found two out of 100. Maybe I am not the right person to write a protocol about finding these plants.?!
It is very neat to think about these things being seedlings a year or two ago and now they are 20+ cm tall? plants that will produce seed…….sometime. Hesperostipa spartea Search Protocol.docx
This is the 3rd summer in a row that I have taken part of the Echinacea project! I teach 9-12 sciences (10th grade Biology)at Great Plains Lutheran High in Watertown, SD. Conducting summer research is the best way to incorporate real science into my classroom! While I was a pollen collector and image maker the first summer and a pollen crosser last summer; this summer I am going to collect insects that may or may not be moving pollen. Following the floral neighborhood study of 2009, I will collect and categorize insects from different sites to make an inventory of insect life. I hope it will shed some light on exactly which insects can be found and relate it to the diversity of the plants at sites. It will also be a useful collection for my students in the future.
Josh, Gretel, Hillary, and Ian are also trained on the TopScan to collect the GPS data. The ideal is that the radio signal is at 100% and the designation of the location is described as Fixed – (Float will do and Auto works if you are unable to connect to a radio signal)
Josh and I plan to collect from Hegg Lake and the road adjacent on Monday. In the quest to collect from 300 parent plants, we are likely onto roadsides – where we are trying to stay at least a meter off the road and using plants about 5m apart from each other. Generally, as the black color appears and as the capsule opens around the pointy head, the seeds are ripe and will pop off as you gently pull up the stem containing the seeds.
I plan to be around Sun afternoon and Mon. to finish the collection before starting to cross some plants.
Yesterday we finished measuring in the Common Garden! Here are some details about the protocol used for 2009:
Gardens: Inbreeding & INB2 we used the same form as in 2008. Basal and Flowering Rosettes were counted separately. Crisp leaves were included in the leaf counts.
Gardens: 2001, Monica’s, SPP, Big Batch, and 96-99 we used an abbreviated form. We did not record data on insect damage. Insects on all rosettes (basal and flowering) were recorded on the main form. Insects on the heads were recorded on the subform. Cauline leaves were not counted. The longest cauline leaf (longest leaf on the tallest flowering rosette) was recorded on the main form. For basal leaves, crisp leaves were included in leaf counts and also noted, as were leaves that were “gone.” Pips or duds with no florets were only recorded if there was a peduncle long enough for a twist-tie collar.
