experiments « The Echinacea Project

File for Stuart

let me know of you can open this one..

So I think I have my basic setup for the time-lapse photography for checking out those stipa awns. Using one of Greg’s aquariums, a camera, tripod, computer and such. I’ll be able to change the humidity soon enough and really start the experiment.

Some of the stipa, just as a test

And here’s my setup. Off to the left of the aquarium is the 500W halogen light. The seeds and black felt are inside the aquarium. In front of that is the camera with a blind on the front to help knock down some glare from the front glass. Attached is the computer, which is what I’m using to control the time-lapse.

Export For Stats data

ExportForStats.csv

2010 Echinacea Common Garden Flowering Status

This graph summarizes the First and Last Day of Flowering for Echinacea plants in the common garden. It looks like peak flowering was July 8, 2010.

Pollinator Results!

I analyzed my data and put together a couple of tables and figures.
I do have large standard deviation error bars.. but that is due to the pollinators being so variable. Within the same species, one bee could stay on Echinacea and shrivel a ton of styles while another could spend not even a minute collecting pollen and only shrivel a few styles. But overall, I believe the data gives a sense for which bee is the most effiecient and by how much. Take a look for yourself 🙂

tables and figures.pdf

one thing that is interesting to me is that each species of bee was more sucessful in pollinating styles that had been 2 days old rather than 1 day old styles. hmmm? Maybe styles that are out for more than a day are more susceptable to shriveling..?

Also, when Gretel compiles the data for CG phenology into a figure, I will use the figure to match up dates for when I did the insect visits and which species I saw most on those days. It should be interesting because it seems to be that in the beginning of flowering and towards the end of flowering, the smaller bees such as Augochlorella appear. Whereas during the peak of flowering, Melissodes dominated and I didn’t see any Augochlorella.

-Katie

Pollinator pictures, anyone?

I have some pictures of pollinators, but more to choose from would always be helpful for putting together my poster in a couple weeks.
I know Gretel and Josh said they had some, anyone else?

If so.. I would like any good pictures of Melissodes, Agopostemon, Augochlorella, Ceratina, and Lasioglossum. Preferably on Echinacea.

If you could go through them and put them on a USB for me, that would be greatly appreciated. And I would acknowledge you for the picture if I use one of yours.

Thanks,

Katie

Flowering Phenology in South Dakota and Minnesota

Last week I assessed Echinacea flowering phenology at Grand River National Grassland south of Lemmon, SD, Samuel H. Ordway Prairie west of Leola, SD and Staffanson Prairie near Kensington, MN. Here are a couple of figures I generated to compare phenology at the 3 sites.
First, I made pie charts to show the relative proportions of flowering plants.

Next, to show more quantitative information, I used a stacked bar graph.

These figures illustrate that the flowering phenology is most advanced at Staffanson and least advanced at S. H. Ordway Prairie. Nevertheless, I am encouraged that there are lots of flowering plants at all 3 sites, suggesting that a long-distance cross involving plants from these 3 locations would be possible. I am considering tackling that project next summer, to assess whether there would be lower seedling recruitment from between-population crosses compared to within-population crosses at these 3 sites.

Here’s a picture of some flowering Echinacea at Perch Lake, which is near the S. H. Ordway prairie.

Survivors in central South Dakota plot

Here is a picture of 2 of the 3 surviving plants in my experimental plot at Perch Lake Waterfowl Production Area, southwest of Leola, SD.
Each of the 2 Echinacea seedlings is marked with a red party toothpick. We (Shelby, Janelle and I) found them in May when we censused my 2 SoDak plots. We found a total of 10 new seedlings at the Perch Lake site, all of which had 2 cotyledons but no true leaves. I returned to Perch Lake last Thursday, July 8. Sadly, 7 of the seedlings were gone, but I was able to verify that the 3 survivors are, indeed, Echinacea angustifolia.

The Perch Lake site is 1 of 3 experimental plots I (and my assistants) sowed in November 2008, to ask whether Echinacea from western South Dakota, central South Dakota and Minnesota exhibit local adaptation in seedling recruitment. More background and results from the 1st 2009 census are displayed in a poster that you can find in the September 2009 archives of the FLOG.

Unfortunately, the Perch Lake site was sprayed with a combination of herbicides (Tordon and Telar) in August 2009. The treatment was lethal to ALL the Echinacea seedlings that emerged in 2009. Thus, the 3 surviving seedlings from this year are the only living Echinacea in this plot! Fortunately, I was able to census the plot shortly after it was sprayed, and I am confident that I found the survivors up to that point.

I plan to present a talk about my local adaptation experiment at the North American Prairie conference in August.

Common Garden Measuring Protocol 2010

Today we will start measuring Echinacea in the Common Garden. Here is the link to the protocol: CGmeasureprotocol2010.htm

fl pla in CG

Four plants are flowering in Andrea’s garden this year. Andrea Southgate planted this experiment (aka inb2) in 2006 as part of her Master’s research project. Andrea and Jennifer made a photo essay about their plantings that year. These are the first plants to flower in this experiment–about 4/1500 in their fifth growing season!

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