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We started out the day doing what we do best: searching for seedlings in Experimental Plot 8 (a.k.a. Q2). Having braved formidable winds to plant them late last October, Stuart, Gretel, and Ruth were visibly relieved to see them pop up this spring. Since last week Team Echinacea has been diligently tracking down each seedling and “naming” them with colored toothpicks and row location coordinates, accurate to one centimeter.
In the afternoon we located and counted Echinacea in the recruitment experiment, a continuation of the project described in this paper. The procedure is really fun: we find the boundaries of the plots with metal detectors, triangulate points, then search within an area exactly the size of a regulation 175-gram Disc-craft Ultra Star disc (a.k.a. frisbee). Go CUT!
The best part of the day was tagging my first Echinacea. Maybe it just lost its old tag, but I like to think this is the first time this plant has ever born the silver badge. Sometime 10-12 years ago, this seed was planted. Now that it is finally about to flower, it has the honor of going down in history in the databases of the Echinacea Project, living out the rest of its life in the service of science. This 23rd of June, 3.65 m from the southwest corner and 0.79 m from the southeast corner of the northeast plot in Recruit 9, I named a flowerstalk “19061.” Isn’t it beautiful?
Doesn’t the flower head look ripe? Stuart says we may start to see flowering as early as the end of this week!
Eventually the time came to leave my new friend and join the rest of the team. This is where they were:
(Can you spot the team?)
A nice day is Douglas County is a very nice day.
I graduated this May from Colorado College with a B.A. in biology focused on Organisms, Evolution & Ecology and with a minor in Environmental Issues. In Colorado I learned about forest ecology, forest-fire ecology and short grass prairie ecology. I have also studied ecosystems abroad including the Mongolian Steppe and Altai Mountain range, the Ecuadorian mountain range, coastal range and tropical rain forest. Most recently I studied the Patagonian steppe in Argentina. I love traveling and learning about new ecosystems and cultures. I’m originally from the northern suburbs of Chicago where I grew to love prairies and Lake Michigan.
This summer I hope to study intrafloral seed set variation by observing stigma persistence and pollinator visitation frequency. I’m happy to be back working in the tall grass prairie!
You can learn more about my research interests by looking at my profile on the Echinacea Project website profile. https://echinaceaproject.org/people/2014-team-members/elizabeth-mays/
In a Lenga forest near Bariloche, Argentina
Hello all,
My name is Jared Beck and I am joining Team Echinacea for 2014. I graduated from Carleton College in March 2014 with degree in Biology. While at Carleton, I worked extensively in tallgrass prairies studying herbivore effects on plant communities and edge effects in grassland bird communities.
Although my roots lie in plant community ecology (please excuse the pun), I am broadly interested in how anthropogenic changes influence the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of natural communities. This summer, I would like to explore how fire influences the spatial and temporal flowering dynamics of Echinacea angustifolia populations in remnant prairies.
I am excited to join the Echinacea Project and I am eager to continue learning about the prairie and its inhabitants!
My name is Cam Shorb, and I’m a junior Biology major at Carleton College. Click here for more about me and my summer research interests.
Join the summer fun in West Central Minnesota!
Kensington Runestone Days
13 – 15 June 2014
Old Settlers’ Reunion, Barrett
18 – 22 June 2014
Heritage Days, Starbuck
3 – 6 July 2014
Ashby Appreciation Days
18 – 20 July 2014
Grant County Fair, Herman
17 – 20 July 2014
Waterama, Glenwood
22 – 27 July 2014
Flekkefest, Elbow Lake
1 – 3 August 2014
Show White & The Seven Dwarfs Prairie Fire Children’s Theatre, Barrett
8 – 10 August 2014
Hoffman Harvest Festival
8 – 10 August 2014
Douglas County Fair, Alexandria
14 – 17 August 2014
Don’t forget the Minnesota State Fair!
21 Aug. – 1 Sept. 2014
Today is my last day working for Stuart at the Chicago Botanic Garden and I can’t stress enough how wonderful an experience this year has been! I’m not quite sure where my next adventures will take me, but I’m very grateful to have worked here and I know I’ll take all the skills I’ve learned onto whatever comes my way in the future. Good luck to team Echinacea 2014!
Alex Yeaney, our intern from Lake Forest College this spring, finished up his report on the effects of a specialist aphid on Echinacea. Check out his report to find out his results!
AphidReport.pdf
Our host, UThink, is retiring at the end of December 2014. This June will be the last month we post flogs here. We’ll let you know where we are moving when we find a new host!
You can always learn what we are up to on our website and on twitter.
Gia gave a presentation at the NU research expo. Here are the details…
Hallaman, G. “Ant Diversity for Six Western Minnesota Tallgrass Prairie Remnants: The Connection between Ants and Echinacea angustifolia.” Northwestern Undergraduate Research and Arts Exposition, June 2, Evanston, IL USA, 2014 (Oral Presentation).
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