This morning for Kory’s birthday he was sent to go weed the garden, along with Reina, Mike and Dayvis. The rest of us worked on data entry and some other odds and ends. In the late morning we went out to find the grasses planted just north of the Echinacea plants in the common garden, there was not much to find, but the team of Sarah and Gretel won by finding 10 plants. Most of us only found three. The afternoon was time to work on individual projects. Turned out to be another beautiful day in Kensington!
|
||||
|
I am a Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. I just started my year-long sabbatical and it is great to begin it as a member of Team Echinacea! Historically, I always have worked in grasslands, Pacific coastal, Montana and Minnesota sites, so one could say I love prairies. My research questions focus on processes that generate and maintain diversity in plant populations. This summer Mike, Reina and I will examine three related questions: 1) Do plants from different genetic crosses experience different levels of herbivory? 2) How do morphological and physiological traits such as photosynthetic rate, WUE or leaf area vary as a function of different genetic crosses? 3) What is the feedback between herbivory, physiological traits and genetic identity, and how might this influence plant fitness? I am originally from Colorado and lived 10 years in California, but I have lived in Minnesota for the past 15 years. I love being outdoors, especially in natural areas where I can hike, canoe, ski, bike, and camp. I also like to garden, read, cook or watch birds (my second favorite avian species with red plumage is the Rose-breasted Grosbeak). Travel to new places, from Kensington to India and beyond, has always given me new perspectives of the world.
Hi all, My name is Ilse (pronounced ILL-suh) Renner. I am originally from Green Bay and I recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry, I plan on attending graduate school in the near future. My biology major focused on ecology and plant biology. Previous research I have been involved with focused on taxonomic vs functional based beta diversity of forest community understories, I’m excited for this chance to work in the prairies this summer! Recently I have been using aster to analyze the 1997 common garden experiment, and will continue with that this summer. As of yet I have analyzed data on fitness with respect to head count based on different populations, but analysis on achene count is in process as are a few other analyses from different perspectives (not based solely on population of origin)…so stay tuned! In addition to the ongoing analyses I will be contributing to other members’ studies this summer. In my free time I can usually be found running the roads of Kensington in the young hours of the morning. I also enjoy biking and playing the violin. Today was yet another very productive day. As we walked back to the cars to head back for lunch, Stuart stopped to point out Heliopsis helianthoides, also known as false sunflower. This plant has composite flower heads, as does Echinacea angustifolia, so it was good to learn about the similarities in structure between the two such as ray flowers and bracts. Our afternoon was spent using PDAs (Visor) to input data about plants in the inbreeding gardens. We worked in groups of 2 again, along with Per and Hattie who helped us (they were awesome!). The weather turned hot and humid at this point but root beer floats were waiting for us when we finished! That was my personal highlight of the day. In the common garden, we saw some E. angustifolia due to flower quite soon. Exciting! After that, the team headed back to the old town hall to eat dinner (pasta with shrimp and artichokes) and then watch a movie (Donnie Darko). All in all, a pretty good day! 🙂 Sarah Baker Hello, everyone! If you couldn’t tell from the title, I am Sarah Baker. I am a rising Junior at St. Catherine University and an REU intern this summer. I am a biology major with an interest in wildlife and conservation biology. During the academic year, as well as being a student, I work as a teaching assistant for ceramics courses at my school. I will also be working as “animal room technician” this upcoming semester, taking care of organisms used in labs and research for biology related courses. Anyway, a bit of information about me: I grew up in Golden Valley, Minnesota and spent a lot of time in my childhood and teenage years outdoors. I often went hiking, canoeing, biking, and other types of adventuring outdoors with my family and learned much about nature from those experiences. My father, being a biologist, would often point out various plants and animals to me and identify them, teaching me what they were and interesting facts about them. These excursions fed my interest in wildlife and conservation. In the future, I plan to attend graduate school to study wildlife or conservation biology. When I’m not doing cool science-y things, I enjoy making pottery, being out in nature, sailing, and hanging with friends. I am also the president of the ceramics club at my school where we host Empty Bowls community service projects to raise money for Minnesota Open Arms. This summer, my independent project will focus on flowering phenology of various remnants. I will be adding to a data set from 2011 and 2012. My main interest with this project is to see if there are correlations between peak flowering times of the same remnants across multiple years. I look forward to all I will experience this summer! If you are interesting in learning a bit more about me, check out my webpage on the Echinacea Project website!
Sarah Baker Hi there everyone, I was an intern with the Echinacea Project last summer (2012) and worked on the remnant flowering phenology project. Over my winter term at Carleton I worked on an independent study to analyze the seed set of some of the remnant plants. After finishing dissection and x-raying the achenes (with a lot of help from the lovely volunteers in Chicago!), I created a poster which I presented at the Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference in March of this year. I have attached the poster to this post. Hopefully, it explains some cool findings! Good luck with field work everybody! Hello everyone! I am Kory Kolis and am from Eau Claire Wisconsin. I am a Junior at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter Minnesota (about an hour southwest of the twin cities). I am a biology and studio art double major. Last summer I was doing biochemistry research at Gustavus examining the four proteins that make up the kinetochore of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. I am very excited to be a part of Team Echinacea this summer, and for the opportunity to work outside! Woot! This summer I plan on continuing the research done by Katie Koch and Andrew Kaul. I will be looking at the efficiency of pollinators on the Echinacea angustifolia. By doing my observations in Jennifer Ison’s common garden I hope to be able to be able to trace the pollen back to the parent plant, allowing me to see if there are any relationships between distance from the two plants and pollinator. In my free time I love making art. My favorite medium is ceramics, but above all love making sculptures. I recently put on a small show of my artwork in my school library titled “The Alchemist.” If you would like to see the link of me on the Echinacea Project home page click here. Hey everyone! My name is Lydia English and I just graduated from Carleton College a couple weeks ago. I’m originally from Rhode Island where my parents and two cats reside, but I just can’t get enough of the midwest so I’ll be spending another year out here. My interests lie in conservation biology and restoration ecology and this will be my second summer working in prairies. I’ll be looking to continue Katherine’s work on aphids and their effects on Echinacea fitness and phenology, but I’m also really interested in the compatibility experiments. Overall I think it’ll be a fun and exciting summer! If you’d like to check out my page at the Echinacea Project’s website click here
Hello, flog readers! I am Marie Schaedel, a rising junior at Carleton College. I’m very happy to have gotten the opportunity to study Echinacea and learn about remnant prairie biology this summer. Although native to the congested Chicago region, I am very easily becoming accustomed to Kensington’s sleepy serenity. This summer, I plan to assess fitness and heritability in the hybrids that Stuart planted earlier this spring. For more specifics about my research question, see my Echinacea Project team member page. Fun(ish) facts about me: I have a rabbit named after an Egyptian pharaoh. I play the violin and piano, and am currently learning how to play the ukelele. In my free time, I like to run and lift weights. Winter is my favorite season because I love to cross country ski. This fall, I am traveling to Tanzania to study the biology of traditional agriculture on Mt. Kilimanjaro. I am looking forward to the rest of the summer! Stay tuned for periodic project updates.
Hello there! My name is Reina Nielsen and I will be a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus College this fall studying biology. I am excited to be doing research this summer with Dr. Kittleson and Mike. I love being outdoors and can be found fishing, kayaking, canoeing, hiking, or downhill skiing. I am looking forward to an exciting summer! https://echinaceaproject.org/people/2013-team-members/reina-nielsen-2/ |
  |
|||
|
© 2024 The Echinacea Project - All Rights Reserved - Log in Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
||||
My entry on the website is at: The Echinacea Project People PK 
