Since 1995, the Echinacea Project has been mapping and collecting demographic information on Echinacea angustifolia to generate detailed, long-term records of individual fitness in prairie remnants. In summer 2022, Team Echinacea visited 34 prairie remnants to search at 2927 locations where adult Echinacea plants had been previously mapped, a process we call “total demo.” At small sites, the team searched for all adult plants, and at large sites, we visited a subset of the adult plants. This year, we did not visit plants that had been “not present” for the past 4 years. However, we added plants that flowered for the first time in 2019, 2020, or 2021. At the large sites, we added many more plants than we removed; at Landfill, we removed 18 plants but added 129 new plants, so we visited 285 plants in total. We plan to revisit the total demo protocol before next summer so our subsets do not reach unreasonable sizes.
At each Echinacea plant, the team used handheld data collectors (visors) to record the flowering status, number of flowering heads, number of rosettes, and near neighbors of the plant. We then mapped the location of every flowering plant within each prairie remnant using a high-precision GPS unit. Unfortunately, the new GPS unit, Collins, stopped working early in the summer. Nevertheless, the team persisted with the old GPS.
Johanna and Kennedy collect demographic data on Echinacea at On27
In summer 2022, Team Echinacea collected 7926 demographic records (demo) and recorded 3708 GPS points (surv). In total, we collected data on ~2870 flowering Echinacea angustifolia plants. A combination of favorable weather and prescribed burns made it a record-breaking year for flowering Echinacea. Landfill had 713 flowering plants this year (east: 373, west: 340) compared to only 327 last year. There were 518 flowering plants at Loeffler’s Corner (east: 292, west: 226), and 266 flowering plants at Staffanson. The demo and surv datasets are in the process of being combined with previous years’ records of flowering plants in “demap,” the spatial dataset of remnant reproductive fitness that the Echinacea Project maintains.
This year, new tags ranged from 27001 to 27999. However, due to the high number of flowering plants and issues with people adding unnecessary tags, we ran out of tag numbers in the 27000s. Therefore, we also used new tags ranging from 25651 to 25890 and from 26881 to 26999 in 2022.
We are especially interested in understanding how fire influences reproductive effort in fragmented prairies. The following sites were burned in spring 2022: Bill Thom’s Gate, Landfill West, Loeffler’s Corner West, Martinson’s Approach, Northwest of Landfill, North of Northwest Landfill, Staffanson West, and West of Aanenson. We noticed increases in flowering at most burned sites, even some of the small ones. For example, West of Aanenson had 7 flowering plants this year, which is the highest flowering rate on record since we started mapping Echinacea there in 1999. Stay tuned for more results from this intriguing dataset!
Members of Team Echinacea do total demo at the Transplant Plot
Start year: 1995
Location: Remnant prairie populations of the purple coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, in Douglas County, MN. Sites are located between roadsides and fields, in railroad margins, on private land, and in protected natural areas.
Total demo: Bill Thom’s Gate, Common Garden, Dog, East of Town Hall, Golf Course, Martinson’s Approach, Near Pallida, Nessman, North of Golf Course, Randt, South of Golf Course, Sign, Town Hall, Tower, Transplant Plot, West of Aanenson, Woody’s, Yellow Orchid Hill, plus the recruitment plots REL, RHE, RHP, RHS, RHX, RKE, RKW
Annual sample: Aanenson, Around Landfill, East Elk Lake Road, East Riley, KJ’s, Krusemarks, Loeffler’s Corner, Landfill, North of Railroad Crossing, Northwest of Landfill and North of Northwest of Landfill (lumped), On 27, Riley, Railroad Crossing, Steven’s Approach, Staffanson Prairie
Plant status (can’t find, basal, dead this year’s leaves, dead last year’s leaves, flowering), number of rosettes, nearest neighbors, and head count, if flowering
All GPS files are found here: Dropbox/geospatialDataBackup2022
All demo and surv records are stored in the aiisummer2022 repo
The most recent copies of allDemoDemo.RData and allSurv.RData can be accessed at Dropbox/demapSupplements/demapInputFiles
Samples or specimens collected: NA
Products:
Amy Dykstra’s dissertation included matrix projection modeling using demographic data
The “demap” project is a long-term dataset that combines phenological, spatial and demographic data for remnant plants
You can read more about the demographic census in the remnants, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
This recruitment experiment was originally established in 2000 to quantify seedling emergence and juvenile survival of Echinacea angustifolia during its reintroduction to sites with varying land-use history and burn schedules. Before 2014, we collected detailed data on each plant in the plots. Since 2014, Team Echinacea has censused each plot yearly to collect demographic data for every flowering plant.
In 2022, Team Echinacea visited 9 recruitment plots and searched for 168 Echinacea angustifolia plants that had flowered previously. Across the 9 plots, we found 76 basal plants and 126 flowering plants, and we were unable to find 14 plants. Of the flowering plants, 35 plants flowered for the first time in 2022. It was a high flowering year! For each flowering plant, the team collected demographic data (number of rosettes and flowering heads) and shot a GPS point at the exact location of the plant.
There was at least one flowering Echinacea plant at each of the 7 recruitment plots where plants had flowered previously. We also visited 2 recruitment plots at Hegg Lake WMA, a site managed by the Minnesota DNR, where the Echinacea had never flowered in the past. At Hegg West, we discovered a new flowering plant with 7 heads! At these two sites, we used a metal detector to find the nails marking the plot boundaries. We mapped the corners of the plots with the GPS so they will be easier to locate next year. The 6 recruitment plots at Hegg Lake WMA containeda total of 103 flowering plants, Eng Lake WMA had 16 flowering plants, and Kensington WMA had 7 flowering plants in 2022.
Lindsey uses a metal detector to locate the nails marking recruitment plot boundaries
Start year: Plantings in 2000-2002
Location: Seven study plots on state land with different land use histories: old-field and restored grassland
You can read more about the fire in recruitment experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
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.
Elif x-rays Andropogon in the lab
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!
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.
As part of the Echinacea Project’s long-term efforts to monitor reproductive fitness in the remnant populations, we harvested 330 Echinacea seed heads from 23 remnants during summer 2022. We randomly selected 15 heads from each population where we conducted phenology. If a population had fewer than 15 flowering plants, we harvested a randomly selected head from all flowering plants. In the fragmented populations we study, flowering plants often fail to produce viable seed due to limited mating opportunities. By harvesting seed heads and quantifying seed set, we can better understand how the spatial location and flowering phenology of Echinacea contribute to reproductive fitness.
We are keenly interested in understanding how fire influences reproductive outcomes in fragmented prairies. To this end, we harvested seed heads from 7 populations experimentally burned during spring 2022. We will examine how fire influences mating opportunities and seed set across different populations ranging in size. The heads harvested in 2022 are currently in the CBG lab. Volunteers and students have cleaned, rechecked, and scanned all 330 heads, and they have randomized and x-rayed 249 of the heads so far. We are making great progress!
Priti randomizes a head from 2022Allen counts Echinacea fruits (achenes)
Start year: 1996
Location: Roadsides, railroad rights of way, and nature preserves in and around Solem Township, MN
Data collected: The master data sheet of harvested heads is located here: ~Dropbox\remData\150_clean\clean2022\rem2022MasterDatasheetWithLetNos.csv
Samples collected: 330 seed heads were collected and are currently at the Chicago Botanic Garden lab.
Products:
We will compile seed set data from 2022 into a dataset with seed set data from previous years.
Padmini, a student from Carleton College, used some of the remnant data for her externship project this winter.
You can read more about reproductive fitness in remnants, as well as links to previous flog entries mentioning the experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
In 2022, the team continued the seedling recruitment experiment begun in 2007. The original goal of the project was to determine seedling establishment and growth rates in remnant populations of Echinacea angustifolia. Seedling recruitment rates are rarely studied in the field, and this is one of the few studies tracking recruitment in the tallgrass prairie. From 2007 to 2013 in spring, Team Echinacea visited plants which had flowered in the preceding year, and they searched near these maternal plants to find any emerging seedlings. Each fall since then, the team has searched for the seedlings, then juveniles, and measured them.
This summer, my goal was to make the sling search as easy as possible. When assembling the list of plants to visit, I removed 19 sling plants that had not been found for 3 years. This meant that we did not visit any plants at East of Town Hall or Northwest Landfill. Last year, we used our high-precision GPS to record the coordinates of many sling plants, which made them much easier to find. I created a stakefile with a point for each maternal plant and as many slings as possible. We mapped an additional 5 sling plants in 2022, so they can be added to the stakefile for next year.
This year, we visited 56 focal maternal plants at 10 prairie remnants and searched for 102 sling plants, a subset of the original 955 seedlings. The whole team participated, and we completed almost all of the searches in one day, August 31st. I visited the remaining four sling plants at Staffanson on September 1st. Like last year, team members used the demo form to collect data on the visors, and sling records were assigned locs 311 to 412. In total, the team found 50 basal plants and 5 flowering plants!
The million-dollar question: Is there an Echinacea here?
Start year: 2007
Location: Remnants in Douglas County, MN
Sites with seedling searches in 2022: East Elk Lake Road, East Riley, KJ’s, Loeffler’s Corner, Landfill, Nessman, Riley, Steven’s Approach, South of Golf Course, Staffanson Prairie
The data were collected on a visor using the demo form. The team recorded plant status (can’t find, basal, dead this year’s leaves, dead last year’s leaves, flowering), number of rosettes, leaf count, nearest neighbors, and head count, if flowering.
Scanned datasheets are in Dropbox: ~Dropbox\remData\115_trackSeedlings\slingRefinds2022
The 2022 demography data are located here: ~Dropbox\remData\115_trackSeedlings\slingRefinds2022\slingRefindsData2022WithSlingCd.csv
The 2022 stakefile is here: ~Dropbox/geospatialDataBackup2022/stakeFiles2022/stakeSling2022.csv
Surv data for sling plants mapped in 2021 and 2022 have been added to demap, and demo data will be added shortly
Samples collected: NA
Team members who searched for slings in 2022: Alex Carroll, Geena Zebrasky, Johanna Steensma, Lindsey Paulson, Daytona Hoberg, Amy Waananen
Products:
Amy Dykstra used seedling survival data from 2010 and 2011 to model population growth rates as a part of her dissertation.
Lea Richardson and Amy Waananen are both working on papers related to the sling dataset. Stay tuned!
You can read more about the seedling establishment experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
In 2022, Team Echinacea collected an additional summer of data for the Pollinators on Roadsides project after receiving funding through the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF). Pollinator populations are declining worldwide, and pollinator habitat in western Minnesota has diminished over the years, but it is unclear whether the native bee community is changing as well. The Pollinators on Roadsides project, also known as the Yellow Pan Trap (YPT) study, is monitoring how native bee diversity and abundance have changed from 2004-2022 and investigating whether the amount of agricultural land and grassland correspond to the nearby bee community.
In summer 2022, Team Echinacea installed pan traps at 39 of the 40 locations that were used in previous years. The traps were placed along roadsides in Solem Township, and Geena Zebrasky also surveyed the plant diversity surrounding each trap. Geena and Alex set out the traps 7 times during the summer, once per week starting on July 7th and ending on August 17th. We filled the yellow bowls with soapy water each morning starting at ~8:00 am and collected bees from the traps in the afternoon starting at ~4:00 pm. We strained the bees through a sieve and stored them in vials filled with 70% ethanol. Over the summer, we collected seven coolers full of vials, which are now stored in the freezer in Illinois.
Geena installs a pan trapDelicious bee and fly soupGeena strains out the beesA pan trap awaits bee visitors
At the lab, volunteer Mike Humphrey has been pinning the bees that we collected during the summer. So far, Mike has emptied three of the seven coolers, and he has pinned 420 specimens from 90 vials. Each specimen is assigned a specimen id number (SPID), which started with SPID 20001 this year. In previous years, we glued tiny bees to point mounts, but this year we are gluing them directly to a #2 pin based on a recommendation by Zach Portman, the bee taxonomist at the University of Minnesota.
Last winter, we sent Zach the insects that had been collected in 2004, 2017, 2018, and 2019, and he identified the bees to species. Over the 4 years, we caught 1,901 bees from 76 different species!
The next steps are to finish pinning the bees from summer 2022, add descriptive specimen labels, and send the bees to Zach for identification. Mia and Alex are working on a bee community analysis and a landscape analysis.
Mike separates bees from flies under the microscopeMike and Lindsey pin bees
Start year: 2004, rebooted in 2017
Location: Roadsides and ditches around Solem Township, Minnesota. GPS coordinates for each trap are located here: ~Dropbox\teamEchinacea2022\YPTsummer2022\yptTrapLocations2022.csv
Data collected: All YPT data can be found in ~Dropbox\ypt2004in2017
Pinning datasheets are located here: ~Dropbox\ypt2004in2017\YPT2022
Zach’s species identifications are located here: ~Dropbox\ypt2004in2017\yptDataAnalysis2022\speciesIdDataEntryBySpidVerified.csv
Field datasheets from summer 2022 are located here: ~Dropbox\ypt2004in2017\YPTsummer2022
Specimens collected:
Bees collected in summer 2022 were stored 7 coolers of vials. Mike has pinned bees from coolers 1-3, and these specimens are labeled with SPIDs and stored in a case in the lab. Cooler 4 is in the freezer at CBG, and Stuart has coolers 5-7.
Zach Portman identified all specimens from 2004-2019, and the specimens are stored in eight cases at the CBG lab.
Team members involved with this project: Geena Zebrasky (2022), Mia Stevens (2020-2023), Alex Carroll (2021-2023), Erin Eichenberger (2019-2020), Anna Stehlik (2020), Shea Issendorf (2019), Mike Humphrey (2018-2021), John Van Kampen (2018-2019), Kristen Manion (2017-2018), Evan Jackson (2018), Alex Hajek (2017), and Steph Pimm Lyon (2004)
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). The Trust Fund is a permanent fund constitutionally established by the citizens of Minnesota to assist in the protection, conservation, preservation, and enhancement of the state’s air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources. Currently 40% of net Minnesota State Lottery proceeds are dedicated to growing the Trust Fund and ensuring future benefits for Minnesota’s environment and natural resources.
You can read more information about the pollinators on roadsides project here.
In late summer 2021, we began collecting data in remnant patches of prairie to quantify fire effects on the reproduction of Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii). In summer 2022, we revisited the same 378 random points across 27 remnant patches and counted the number of flowering Andropogon culms rooted within 1 m of the random point. Across the 378 plots, we counted 2442 culms. The highest density we observed was 197 culms in one plot at Loeffler Corner West, which beats our record from last year, 163 culms at KJs.
We also collected seed heads from all culms within 1 m of the random points to x-ray and quantify seed set. We initially visited random points on September 8, but some of the Andropogon was not ready to harvest, so we returned a few days later. We finished harvesting on September 19. In the lab, Elif has been developing a cleaning and x-ray protocol for Andropogon. Stay tuned for more details!
Manogya harvests Andropogon at Loeffler Corner West
Start year: 2021
Location: Patches of remnant prairie in and around Solem Township, MN
Data collected: Field datasheets are located in Dropbox: ~burnRems\remAndro\fieldData2022\remAndro2022DataSheet.scanned.pdf. We still need to do data entry.
Samples or specimens collected: Seed heads collected during summer 2022 are currently in the seed dryer but will reside in Jared’s office. These samples will be cleaned, processed, and x-rayed to quantify seed set.
Products: Stay tuned!
You can read more about the Andropogon fire and flowering in remnants experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
As Native American Heritage Month draws to a close, it’s a good time to post an update on our land acknowledgment process. Last year, our lab group met to discuss writing a land acknowledgment for the Echinacea Project study area. At the beginning of November, we revisited this discussion at lab meeting. We reviewed the Chicago Botanic Garden and Cook County’s land acknowledgment for the area where our lab is located. Our main conclusions from the meeting were: 1) we need to educate ourselves more and 2) having a land acknowledgment without taking actions to support Indigenous people is counterproductive and disrespectful.
We brainstormed ways that we could support Indigenous communities and concluded that inviting Indigenous people to join the summer team, whether as teacher-researchers (RET) or undergraduate researchers (REU) would be a good first step. Once we know more about the history of our study area and have taken some action, we’d like to write land acknowledgment and post it on the Echinacea Project website, along with a list of the actions we are taking.
At the lab meeting, we made action plans for moving forward:
Sophia and Wyatt are researching the history of our study area and the Indigenous groups who are still present today
Drake and Lindsey are contacting Indigenous speakers about the PBC seminar
Alex is emailing professors at tribal colleges and at Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and tribally controlled high schools to advertise the RET position and later the REU and field assistant positions
Lab members will send a more personal follow-up email to these contacts
Before reviewing applications, we plan to revisit our rubric for scoring applicants to ensure that we are scoring applicants from groups underrepresented in science fairly
Applications for the RET position opened this month. So far, I have sent an initial email to professors at numerous tribal colleges across the U.S. who have partnered with NSF in the past. Now, I’m searching for contacts at BIE and tribally controlled high schools.
We are currently seeking applicants for RET position, so if you know any educators, especially from groups underrepresented in science, please encourage them to apply!
Last week, we drove to MN in the middle of the week for our last chance for field work before the snow. Jared and Wyatt stayed behind to take care of the Lake Forest College students who are doing a project in the lab on Wednesdays. Our goal in MN was to plant seeds for the seed addition project, an experiment measuring the effects of prescribed fire on seedling germination and emergence in Echinacea.
For the study, we established 4-meter-long transects at 36 sites across the Echinacea Project study area, for a total of 84 transects. Each transect is divided into 4 segments, and this fall, we planted one of those meter-long segments with either 1 or 2 packets containing 50 seeds each. Since we know how many seeds we planted (we know exactly how many because Wyatt x-rayed them!), we can record how many seedlings emerge in the spring and calculate accurate germination rates.
Lindsey plants a seed addition transectWe sprinkle seeds between 5 and 95 cm
Our goal on Wednesday was to plant all 84 transects before sunset at 4:50 pm. November 9th, 2022 dawned cold and rainy. Stuart, Lindsey, and I started the day at Tower and Nice Island to do a practice run together. We soon learned that the drizzle would make planting seeds difficult. The achenes stuck to everything: the envelope, the grass, the meterstick, and our fingers when we tried to remove the achenes from the meterstick. Nevertheless, we persisted. After sprinkling seeds along each transect, we carefully checked meterstick to make sure there were no renegade achenes. We finished 59 transects in the morning and regrouped to put on dry clothes and feast on Jean’s delicious hummus for lunch. I greatly regretted that I had no rain pants.
After lunch, the sky was still overcast, but the rain stopped, which made it much easier to sprinkle seeds. This year, we added several new locations, and we needed the GPS to map them out: Torgeson (east and west), Hutchings (east and west), Fern, and Bengston. Unfortunately, Taylor the GPS hadn’t been used since the end of September, so I waited for three excruciatingly slow Windows updates while Lindsey and Stuart headed out to plant more transects. Finally, at 2 pm, Taylor finally finished updating, and we met at Hutchings to install the new transects. At Hutchings East, both of the initial transect locations were in dips between hills, so we moved them both 20 m east. Next, at Hutchings West, one transect started on a rock, so we moved the transect slightly north. This was not an auspicious start to the GPS portion of the afternoon, and we had only 2 hours of light left.
Lindsey and I raced off to Torgeson, the most distant site. I used the GPS to flag the transects. Lindsey followed with nails and planted the seeds. The transects at Torgeson were on two hills separated by a pond. To reach the second hill, I tried to cut across a patch of mud. It looked stable, but when I took my second step, I felt my boot sink deep into the slurping mud. When I tried to pull my foot out, it wouldn’t budge. I nearly toppled over, but I managed to escape with both boots and the GPS unharmed.
Fortunately, the other transects were uneventful. Lindsey and I left Bengston, our second-to-last site, at 4:50 pm, right as the sun was setting. The clouds had trapped a bit of light, so Stuart jumped in the truck, and we headed to our final site: Krusmarks. We needed a flashlight for last two transects, but we finished planting them all! Exhausted, we returned to Hjelm and discovered that Jean had prepared a fabulous dinner: bean soup, homemade bread, pumpkin custard, roasted cinnamon apples, and piping hot gingerbread. It was the best meal I’ve ever eaten.
