Throughout the summer, I designed and collected materials to establish an experiment in experimental plot 1 to study parasites and their impact on the community of host plants they live in. Parasitic plants are plants which absorb nutrients from neighboring plants. Parasitism is an important part of nutrient cycling in many ecosystems and parasite scientists hypothesize it to be an important part of prairie ecosystem maintenance.
This summer I collected seeds from five parasitic plant species which are native to the prairie. I also collected the seeds of over 100 species that can be commonly found in Douglas County, Minnesota and I have begun experimental germination of them and will continue to do so in the future. I developed a plan to plant Comandra and Pedicularis throughout exPt 1 and establish communities of 40 host species around them to address questions about the impact native parasitic plants have on plant community members. In late October I harvested biomass from the proposed parasite planting locations to understand the species diversity and abundance present before planting.
Start year: 2019
Location: Douglas County, Minnesota; exPt 1
Overlaps with: Experimental plot management, Hesperostipa common garden experiment
Materials collected: Parasitic plant seeds (Cuscuta glomerata:18,000 across 6 individuals in 4 locations; Agalinis aspera: ~8,000 across 81 individuals in 3 locations; Agalinis tenuifolia: ~4,500 across 41 individuals in 1 location; Pedicularis canadensis: ~14,000 from 1 location; and Comandra umbellata: ~1,800 from 3 locations) and host plant seeds (500+ seeds per host species, numbering approximately 100 species). Seeds are stored at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Additionally, 216 .1 x 1m strips of dried biomass are stored at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Data collected: Find data related to this project including the proposed planting scheme in the cgdata repository in ~cgdata\summer2019\Hemiparasites
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