This morning the whole team got together to pull as much sweet clover as we could from p01. After the drippy morning faded, we split up to collect pollen from Echinacea angustifolia at sites throughout the area. This is part of an MN ENRTF funded project to help determine the impacts of prescribed burns on pollen and nectar quantity and quality in echinacea. After lunch, some people went to retrieve and deploy emergence traps and the rest of us went to collect nectar from echinacea plants. To collect the nectar, we are using tiny glass microcap tubes carefully inserted into the florets. Overall, we had a productive day, and enjoyed the nice weather after a wet 4th!
I graduated from Smith College this spring with a B.A. in Biology and concentration in Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation.
Pronouns: any pronouns
Research Interests
I am interested in botany and entomology, particularly plant-insect interactions such as pollination and herbivory. I am also interested in taxonomy and biodiversity and enjoy learning about organisms that fill unique biological niches.
Statement
I am from Boone, North Carolina and grew up exploring the biology of the southern Appalachian mountains. I love hiking, hammocking, and spending time in the woods. I also enjoy playing music and painting.
Today we explored two prairie sites, one which had been burned recently and one which had not. It was startling to see the dramatic difference in the plants inhabiting each site, and the mosaicism that shows in the landscape of the burned site.
ALF West, the site that hadn’t been burned, was overwhelmingly dominated by non-native brome grass, while at the site that had burned, ALF East, we observed more diversity in grass species, as well as a very noticeable absence of the brome grass where it looked like the site had burned. We also noticed the impact of the fire on shrubs and trees in ALF East, and compared that to the new saplings coming up in ALF West. There were two Echinacea angustifolia plants that we observed in ALF West, growing in the gravel on the side of the road.
The shiny heads of the brome grass in the ditch bordering the road, with the burned area behind it
