Another successful field day in the books! I started out the day by joining a group at KJs to learn some demography techniques on some freshly emerged echinacea sprouts. KJs was one of the remnants that was burned in the spring, so there was plenty of bare ground for us to practice our “active searching silly walk.” Our first mission upon arriving at KJs was to find as many flowering echinacea heads as we could and mark them with red flags.
Our team was about to find a whopping 43 flowering heads at KJs today!
Once they were all marked, we were able to go back and gather demography data, like the amount of flowering heads and rosettes a single plant had, and once all our data was recorded we could switch out the red flags for neon ones. Before heading back to Hjelm for lunch we decided to explore Elk Lake Road East and check how many flowering echinaceas we could find. Though this site was significantly larger than KJs, we weren’t able to find nearly as many flowering heads (I unfortunately didn’t find any at all).
Miyauna searching for the elusive echinacea
After lunch the whole team gathered to listen to presentations from both Ruth, who described the interconnectedness of genetics and environmental factors on an organism’s phenotype, and Jared, who taught us why fires are so important to some prairie plants and introduced a few unanswered questions that the team could attempt to pursue.
For our final activity of the day, the team once again split up to work on different projects. My group headed out to P1 with Mia to do some flag maintenance. After much flag replacement and meter stick wielding, we were able to cover the entirety of the P1 plot with four minutes to spare!
Flagging complete (photo credits: Mia)
Looking forward to another prairie perusal tomorrow!
The Landfill sites are a pair of hills separated by a small gully.
Landfill West was not burned this spring. When walking around the site, there was lots of duff and old plant material, making the soil difficult to see. In general, plants were around knee-height or higher. Bromegrass was abundant and flowering. The woody plants in Landfill West were green and lush, showing no signs of fire damage. Echinacea plants on this site were about 4-6 inches tall and it seemed like most of the ones we came across were not flowering.
Landfill East was burned this year. The burn line was very clear between the two sites. The previous year’s duff had been burned away and the soil was easy to see. It sounded crunchy to walk on. Plants were shorter than Landfill West, more around the middle of the calf. It was very easy to spot stipa everywhere, and much of it was flowering. The Echinacea plants on the east site were taller than the west plants, probably closer to 8-10 inches tall and a lot more of the ones we identified were flowering.
Here are some of the flowering Echinacea Allie and I noticed at the East Landfill site!
Below is a look at the hillside of East Landfill. You can see some of the characteristics of this site are the grove of trees on the south end and a fence that runs along the north and south sides.
What’s up, flogland! Today was day two of the field season for Team Echinacea. In the morning, Jared, Allie, Maris, Emma, Alex, and I went to KJ’s to learn how to search for flowering Echinacea and how to make demo records. We found and made records for 43(!) flowering plants at KJ’s and then went to search for more at East Elk Lake Road. At lunch, Ruth presented a talk about the entanglement of environment and genetics in the expression of traits and Jared presented some of the background for the experiment looking at the effects of fire on reproduction in the remnants. After lunch, while the rest of the team either learned how to use the GPS or flagged P1, I went out to some of the sites in the northwest corner of the study area (where I’ll do my crossing experiment this summer) to search for and flag more flowering plants. I’m sure there are plants that I missed, but I hope this helps us get a good start! Here are the totals for flowering plants I found at each site: South of Golf Course – 15, Golf Course – 9, North of Golf Course – 2, North of Northwest of Landfill – 9, and Northwest of Landfill – 14.
Day one of the field season is done and we are so excited for what is sure to be a summer full of discovery. On our first observation trip, we visited two site, KJs and East Elk Lake.
The KJs field had trees on the edge of the field yet not inside of the field. Inside of the field there was not a lot of diversity within the plants, it was mostly clump warm season grasses. We saw some Stipa grasses in the field which were seeding. There were a few flowering plants, but on the whole the plants were not flowered. There was also some exposed soil and charcoal present, evidence of a burn.
We finished up at East Elk Lake, and the very first thing we noticed was several Echinacea plants! We counted 5 in total in a small stretch along the road. There were quite a few plants flowering in this plot, and the plants were about double the size as they were over at KJs. One stark difference between the two sites was while KJs had an abundance of clump grasses, East Elk Lake did not. This site has an abundance of the cool weather non-native Brome Grass spread throughout the site. There were also trees with healthy green leaves scattered throughout the site.
We are excited to continue to visit these sites and others throughout the season and watch the changes that occur as we creep further into summer!
After grabbing some lunch, Maris and I headed over to the Loeffler corner remnant to check out the differences between its burned eastern side and unburned western side.
Getting a closer look at Loeffler Corner’s recently burned eastern side.
The prairie remnant located on the eastern side of the road is smaller than its counterpart, is uphill from the gravel roadway and has a large tree casting a shadow over much of its surface. The western part of the remnant, on the other hand, is about twice the size, dips downhill from both the gravel road and the highway and is home to a few saplings.
While both sides contained echinacea, we observed more on the western side, including stems from last year, which were absent on the eastern side. Other forbs were also present on both sides, though the species were distinct; on the eastern side we observed alfalfa, wild parsnip and anemones, while the western side only had prairie rose.
In terms of grasses, in both parts of Loeffler Corner we observed about equal quantities of stipa, though on the western side it was much more clustered together. We saw other grasses on both sides as well, such as brome and panic grass.
Hmmmmmmmm, plants.
Our observations seemed to suggest that there was a higher species diversity on the side of the remnant that had been burned. During a rousing discussion on the car ride back to the field house, we talked about how that might have been in part due to more nutrients in the soil due to the burn, and even more open soil overall might be helpful during a seed’s germination.
Personally, my favorite part (Maris concurred) was getting distracted by some awesome butterflies at the site. I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of a beautiful fritillary that flew by, but I was able to snap a photo of a smaller butterfly, maybe a variety of skipper or dash, sitting on an alfalfa!
Here’s to another day of prairie prowlin’!
I was so focused on taking a pic of this feller, I didn’t even notice the echinacea plant behind it until taking a closer look at the picture. Made us wonder what else we missed on our first day!
For many months I have been eagerly awaiting summer in the prairie. After a long winter and a busy spring, I found visiting local prairies during the past couple weeks incredibly restorative. Each step is accompanied by a familiar crunch as new “green friends” come into view. Their distinctive color palettes fuse into a vivid mosaic. As the summer progresses, I know incredible hues of green, yellow, white, purple, and orange will wax and wane producing a shifting mosaic of colors that simply enthralls the senses. I know what is coming, yet I can hardly contain my excitement.
Welcome Team Echinacea 2021! Here’s to a safe, productive, and illuminating summer of science filled with kaleidoscopic prairie sunsets and a menagerie of new friends, green and otherwise.
Team Echinacea is back in full force! With one of the biggest field teams in history, we are all excited to get started on research.
Today was the first day of the field season, full of lots of information. We started the day picking up the iconic fanny packs and some supplies. Then we headed to Staffanson and Hegg Lake to see the prairie.
After lunch, the team split up to visit some remnants to compare burned and unburned sites. I went to Landfill with Kennedy – stay tuned for more details later.
A look down the hill at Landfill East – check out all the stipa!
Once back at Hjelm we learned how to make tags for demo tomorrow and then called it a day. Tomorrow we will be ready to go bright and early for more prairie adventures!
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I joined the Echinacea Project in 2014 as a Research Intern. Before returning to Team Echinacea this winter, I finished up my PhD at UW-Madison in 2020.
Research Interests
I am a plant ecologist and conservation biologist. My research investigates how fire influences the plant reproduction and population dynamics in fragmented prairies.
Statement
In my spare time, I enjoy spending time outdoors: birding; botanizing; exploring the natural world by foot, bike, and canoe; and working on restoration projects. My fascination with ducks borders on obsession.
Last week Stuart, Gretel, Jared, and I headed northward from Chicago to Minnesota to perform the first prescribed burn of the season! On our drive up we hit some snow that was almost whiteout conditions very exciting, especially for April. We arrived in Douglas County late Wednesday night and quickly bundled into our sleeping bags.
Stuart examining the test fire of the Island
The next morning, we walked the unit/p8 and saw two bald eagles flying over the plot, we decided that this was a good omen for the burn. There are two areas in the unit that haven’t been burned in the past that we decided to burn this year, this was the island that is northeast of the plot and the “bee trees”. After examining the unit we set off to prep the unit and gather supplies. After a break for lunch, we ran a test of how the wooded area would burn by burning the island area. This burn went well, the fire moved slowly but we did kill a frog :(. Halfway through this burn Ruth and Frank arrived from the Cities, they were greeted with excitement and backpack sprayers.
After the success of burning through the woods in the island, we decided to burn through the bee trees. The bee trees burned very slowly Frank and I spend most of the burn focused on ensuring that no sparks from the bee’s trees got taken in the wind downhill. To the south of the bee trees, the burn brake is only mowed and still has quite a bit of brome that could be fuel. We were all shocked by the civilized behavior that the fire had around this burn break. Once we had a sufficient backfire Stuart light the head fire in the windward portion of the plot and boy it was spectacular. Our civilized fire politely ripped through the brome of p8 and even left many pin flags untouched!
The backfire heading southThe head fire heading through p8
After we were satisfied with the large p8 unit fire being out we gathered, including John VanKempen who arrived during the course of the p8 burn. We then headed down to Jean’s prairie plant garden and Jared, who was the burn boss for the final two burns, light a nice line around the perimeter of the garden, this burn only took 16 minutes. When we were waiting for the garden to burn we noticed a small adjacent patch of dried duff and we decided to burn that too! This burn went even faster than the prairie garden it was also much more powerful.
The burn crew! Left Gretel, Jared, Mia, John, Ruth, Frank (Stuart not pictured)
After the prairie garden and adjacent area were done burning, Stuart, Gretel, Jared and I made sure that everything was put out back at p8. We found a smoldering log and made some s’mores!
The next day, Jared and I inspected the remnant sites that we are planning on burning. Jared, Stuart, and I also broadcast some native prairie seeds (mostly two grasses: side-oats grama and little bluestem) that we collected in the fall in p8.
We performed this burn a week ago now, on Earth Day, performing a prescribed burn that aids in the restoration of the prairie was a wonderful way to celebrate. This was my first prescribed burn, overall it was really fun, impressive, exciting, and also boring. I am very excited to be heading back up to Minnesota to conduct more burns but also to see how the community changes after the burn.
The charred and snow-sprinkled plot on Saturday morning
Hi again, it’s Emma––it’s been three weeks already and I’ve finished the majority of data analysis for my independent project! I presented about it at our lab meeting this morning and it was good to show what I’ve learned to the team and to get some helpful feedback.
To summarize my experiment’s goal, I was investigating whether there are differences in microhabitat between areas with surviving Echinacea seedlings and areas where Echinacea seedlings established but have died. This involved collecting data on site characteristics like litter depth, vegetation cover, slope, aspect, distance to roads and fields, plant community composition, and floral neighborhood at circles where seedlings monitored in the Sling project sprouted between 2007-2013. After analyzing my data, I can report that I found no differences in microhabitat between living and dead seedlings, and that I did not find differences in survival by prairie remnant, either. This suggests that the microhabitat variables I collected data on are likely not the most important factors driving seedling survival and mortality in this long-lived prairie perennial plant. Instead I propose that other factors, like climate, soil moisture & nutrients, pesticide drift, light limitation, herbivory, and genetics, may have greater impact on whether seedlings establish or die. Luckily the Sling project is ongoing and members of Team Echinacea are working to find out what drives seedling fitness in fragmented Echinacea populations!
I learned a LOT about doing data analysis in R during this project. I’m super grateful to Mia and Stuart for all the help they gave me when I had questions about R during the internship! The highlights probably are learning about, and doing, some multivariate analysis and using the R package vegan. It was so cool getting to create my own NMDS and species accumulation graphs after seeing them in many ecology papers I’ve read. From here I plan to do a few final analyses and edits with the intention of presenting my project findings at an ecology conference next summer.
That’s all from me for now! Stay tuned for a groovy poster…
