In summer 2020, Team Echinacea established two plots south of experimental plot 8 for a pilot experiment examining fire effects on Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) reproduction. Neither plot was burned during 2020. During spring 2021, we randomly selected the western plot to be burned. In spring 2022, we burned the eastern plot. Spoiler: there was a very distinct rectangular patch of flowering Andropogon where we burned this year. We are very curious whether pollination also improved in this dense patch!
In summer 2022, we revisited the 23 random points in both the eastern and western plots. We counted the number of flowering Andropogon culms within a circular 1m2 subplot centered on each random point (within 56.4 cm) and harvested all seed heads within the subplot. Circle 18 in the eastern plot had the highest count: 96 culms.
In the lab, Elif has been developing a protocol for cleaning and x-raying Andropogon. She x-rayed the Andropogon that we harvested in 2020 and 2021, and she found quite a bit of variation in seed set. Stay tuned for more details!
- Start year: 2020
- Location: South of exPt08
- Overlaps with: Andropogon fire and flowering in remnants
- Data collected:
- Stakefile for random plot locations: ~Dropbox/geospatialDataBackup2022/stakeFiles2022/stakeAndroPilot2021.csv
- Culm count data: ~Dropbox\burnRems\pilotAndro\androPilot2022\dataEntry\androPilotData2022.csv
- Samples or specimens collected: Seed heads collected from 2020, 2021, and 2022 are currently stored in Jared’s office. The 2022 heads have been dried and will be cleaned/x-rayed to quantify seed set.
- Products: Stay tuned!
You can read more about the Andropogon fire and flowering in exPt08 experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
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