To start the week, the team measured echinacea that was planted in 1996 in p01. The morning flew by, and after lunch the team split up into teams of two, and set out to do total demo in the remnants. We have been tackling larger remnant sites while we have a larger team since it is my (Kyra) last day tomorrow and Gael’s last day this Friday.
Tuesday 08/12/2025
After it rained about an inch last night, the six foot grass in the remnants and experimental plots was soaking wet so we decided to have independent project time (look out for updates). Grace and I worked on summarizing and analysing the data from our pollinator project, while Maddie did a meandering protocol for her thesis, Gael wrote a summary of pesticide project, and Maddie D. organized the data for the experimental plots. After lunch, we went to p08 for more measuring, and we’ve completed about 80%.
To our relief, the thunderstorm that lasted through the early hours of the morning ended right before we arrived to work. After a quick meeting to discuss our daily agenda, the team headed over to yellow orchad hill to begin total demo. We split into two groups and worked in the east and west regions to take data for a combination of 136 points.
After lunch, the team went to experimental plot 1 to take care of various afternoon activities. Aaron and Maddie S. worked on the pollen and limitation experiments, while the rest of the team worked on measuring the plants in each row. Gael and I (Kyra) finished a row and a half before I returned to Hjelm to write this post. After everyone finished their activies in p01, we completed support activities and set up for tomorrow morning.
I am a rising junior majoring in biological sciences at North Carolina State University.
Pronouns: She/Her
Research Interests
I am broadly interested biological research. I enjoy investigating how living things are affected by their physical environments, and especially how climate change is impacting them.
Statement
I have lived in North Carolina my entire life, and I enjoy adventuring out and experiencing new places. In my free time I enjoy hiking, camping, observing wildlife, and cooking dishes from different cultures.
Maddie and Kyra went to two remnant sites in Aanenson and West Aanenson to observe individual characteristics and compare the differences between the two sites and transects within. The transects at both sites were located on a natural hill, however the transects at West Aanenson were closer in proximity to a roadcut. Among both sites, it did not look like there were any recent burns. We observed more echinacea plants among transects in Aanenson in comparison to the transects in West Aanenson. Both sites seemed to have no history of agricultural use, though there were active corn crops across the road. We observed a larger diversity of plants at the Aanenson site, and we hypothesize that this is due to a difference in land management techniques as sites are owned by different agencies, though overall there are more similarities than differences between the two sites.
We saw many different plants at the different sites including:
