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Well, another picture-dump type entry tonight. Ian apparently like’s Jameson’s (now unused) mattress. He doesn’t have this beetle in his collection. I probably should’ve put it in my pocket for him. Speaking of beetles, I met a very friendly ladybug.
This morning we took phenology data on our Visors. For our non-biology inclined readers, phenology is the study of the timings of various organic systems (reproduction, migration, etc) in relation to the climate. Visors are the Palm-Pilots with which we take data. Open this picture in a new window. Note the single row of stamens (the yellow pollen-bearing male parts) and the three rows of styles (the stigma is on top; it’s the pollen-receptive bit). This is essentially the bulk of our observation for the phenology data.
In the afternoon, we flagged and twist-tied every (possibly) flowering head in the entire common garden. We have allegedly 1000 or more flowering heads in the garden. Jameson observes a few of these flowering heads.
Finally, Jameson throws a sandal.
I’m a little behind in my blogging so I’ll write yesterday’s blog today. I’m sitting here in my closet office. I have maps of Wisconsin and Minnesota hanging on the wall. Yesterday I cut them out and pieced them together. It looks pretty cool even though the maps aren’t the same scale. I put up a map of PA, my home state, on the wall above my desk last night too, before I went to bed. I took some pictures around Andes yesterday to show everyone what it’s like here. The top of the tallest part of the hill is the highest point in Douglas county. From the top there is a beautiful view of North Lake Oscar, which is just to the south, and all around there are rolling hills dotted with small farms and small patches of trees. The native landscape of this region, prairie, is hard to find. At the foot of the hill on the north side is our summer residence. They call them Condos, one has two bedrooms and the other three. The men got the three bedroom condo, which Andy has graciously named the Mando. The women have started calling their condo Raj Mahal. Except for the Andes employees who are there when we are at work we have the whole place all to ourselves. We have a pond that we can swim in. We have places of ride bicycles, and catch insects, and read, and dig gardens. I put in most of the tomato stakes yesterday. I think it gives the garden a lot of character that it was previously lacking. Living with so many Bio people is interesting. We have had a bowl of soapy water outside for a week to catch insects. This makes the fact that I’m using a plate to catch the water under one of my peace lilies seem normal. I brought a betta fish and a newt with me from school. Ian catches insects everyday and puts them in kill jars so he can pin them later. There are video cameras everywhere, that are solely for taking video of flowers to monitor pollinator activity, and then there is the garden, and several other house plants (including a small potted grapefruit tree).
Today I got my first verified case of chiggers. They are apparently burrowed in my skin, producing itchy raised red bumps.
Stuart came back today or last night with his family and two mattress-box spring sets from Chicago. So I upgraded my mattress from the one I had, which had to be the worst quality mattress that i have ever slept on. We started our group/individualer projects today. I’m supposed to be tracking insects that visit Echinacea with binoculars.
This afternoon for work, a kite was flown. Now, this was not just any kite. This kite had a name that involved “16”, as that presumably is roughly the square footage of this beast. Being a gusty afternoon (Rachel clocked the wind speeds at anywhere from 7 to 27 mph). Having trouble getting the kite up by just letting the gusts grab it, I went to the house to grab a few more pairs of gloves (didn’t want rope burn). As I returned, Rachel and Julie figured out the trick to get the kite up: run with it.
In fact, two people run with it. One holds the kite, the other the spool. They both run into the wind. At the right time (during a gust, most likely) the kite-holder lets go and the spool-holder keeps going. This will launch the kite high into the air. It’s interesting to note that the kite pulls back. Hard. We didn’t hook up the camera apparatus, though; our kite-flying skills are not yet honed (we’re not well-oiled enough, probably) and we didn’t want to break an expensive camera. The kite came down hard, incidentally.
Taking the kite down is a three-person job, ideally. One person spools the string (vertically! horizontally it twists, shortening the life of said string) while another pulls the kite down by the string. The third person is between them, feeding the slack to the spooler and preventing the kite from slipping back up while the puller is, ah, pulling. We had gardening gloves on to prevent rope burn. Effective in preventing rope-burn, ineffective in actually holding onto the damn string. We could really use gloves with rubber grips.
The final step is the actual photography part. Once we’re good at flying the kite (Stuart says some call it “poor-man’s sailing), we’ll send up the victim camera to take our aerial photos. We tested the camera at various distances from the side of the storage building (looking for an echinacea-sized X of tape). At 40m (lower than our flying height, I fear), the tape was indistinguishable from the building. It may have been the settings, it may have been the shaded lighting, and it may have been the camera’s tiny screen. We can’t say until they’re on a computer (not easy, as the card reader seems to have failed). While I’m not worried that the camera’s 7.1MP resolution will be too small to discern detail, my concern is that the optics on the camera are simply not good enough to resolve something the size of flower-heads. The camera is a semi-compact camera; ideally, we’d have a good dSLR (Canon Digital Rebel XT[i] or Nikon d40[x]) with a high-quality and fast lens. This is expensive, though, and quite a bit heavier.
Anyway, since the images need to be meshed into a giant map-type image (we’re like Google Earth, only without the satellites), there needs to be a way to have consistent landmarks in the fields we plan on photographing. This is where the painted wooden sticks come in. We’d (preferably) put flat, white-painted pieces of wood on stakes and place them in the field as markers to line up the images later. The final plans for this have yet to be made.
For now, though, we need to consistently get the kite into the air and onto the ground safely before taking pictures. We’ll see how this goes.
Trying to make sense of the batteries!
For the camcorders, the batteries themselves carry a charge of 7.2V and 4.9 Wh. But, the AC adapter’s output is 8.4V and 1.7A. Which to use? Perhaps the adapter is higher because there is some resistance in the cord going to the camcorder, but maybe I am just making that up.
Here is a link to a promising product, a 8.4V NiMh battery with a charger included! 40 bucks, though, so it would be $400 for all 10 cameras. Well, this may be worth it…would love your thoughts on this, SW.
There is a nice primer on choosing batteries here.
For our purposes, we can calculate battery capacity using the formula:
Ah = Watts x Time (h) you want to run the camera / voltage needed for the camera
So,
Ah = 3W x 8h / 7.2 V = roughly 3.3 Ah or 3300 mAh
Here’s a nice closeup of styles waving in the breeze and some shameless anthers shedding pollen:
Major initiatives for this week:
Flowering phenology in the CG: get the visors ready for data collection on Tuesday & Thursday AM.
Herbivory of rays in CG: get the visors ready for data collection. This data we could collect in the afternoon. We’ll probably get better quality data if we do it separately from the phenology data collection.
Style persistence in CG: This data is best collected in the morning. Probably better to collect separately from phenology, but they could go together.
FA: Make bracket for camera and design sampling scheme to take digital images of heads (esp. rays) to quantify symmetry.
Pollinator observations in CG
1. Use video cameras to quantify visitation. The power source is an issue. Batteries would be much easier to use than electric cords. 12V DC sources are cheap & readily available. Andy, what is the voltage output from the transformers on the AC plugins?
2. Use binoculars to estimate flight distances.
Set up computer infrastructure: set up computer network (printer, visor sync station), set up hard drives (is 2.5 GB enough?), get software for raw digital images (UFRaw or irfanview), determine how to back up video footage efficiently.
Aerial photos. This can be an afternoon activity. We need to figure out camera settings, ground markers, and practice.
Style persistence in SPP. Collect data every 3rd day.
Move mowed duff in CG.
Discuss projects & teams with everyone.
These could wait:
Finish data collection in last 3 recruitment experiment plots.
Trimble.
Collect CG tissue.
For the past 12 years I’ve been studying Echinacea angustifolia on this little part of the prairie and I thought I knew a few things about the timing of its flowering. Every year, I’ve started the field season before flowering begins, so that we have time to get settled in and trained before we start taking data. Just after solstice has been our typical time to start. This year, I had originally planned the first day of work to be 24 June. Ruth & I thought we would want a week to search for seedlings, so we decided 18 June. That start date fit in with Dennison’s summer schedule too. But we were a little worried that we may not have enough to do before flowering started.
Echinacea in the common garden started flowering a lot earlier than normal this year. Arg. We are behind in the sense that our equipment hasn’t all arrived, we don’t have all of out data collection protocols, the crew isn’t a well-oiled machine yet, we missed the first days of flowering phenology data for a few plants, our computers aren’t set up, reinforcements from Illinois (Gretel, Per & Hattie) arrived only hours ago, etc.
On one hand, I am bummed to feel behind and know that we need to catch up. This unanticipated stress, frantic rushing about, and sleeplessness is unpleasant. However, we will do the best we can, problem solving and thinking on the feet are the name of the game in field biology!
On the other hand I am exhilarated. The unknown is the raw material of science. Research is learning about things we don’t understand, gaining new knowledge, making discoveries! We have learned so much about Echinacea and from that new knowledge, we have gained insight into basic biological processes common to other species. But, there is still much to learn, even very basic things, such as what causes variation in flowering time.
Well, when I feel like a headless chicken running about, then I know it’s time to make a list. Hmm, a bummed, sleepless, exhilarated, headless chicken. I’ll write the list tomorrow.
We ladies of the Raj (Rachel, Amy, Julie) Mahal are officially joining the flogging scene. In an effort to increase our cyber space visibility, and also repudiate rumors started elsewhere in this blog about potential negative characteristics of ours, we have decided to take Jung-Meyers-Briggs personality tests and offer to you, the readers of this field journal, the results. Amy was a iNTj, also known as a mastermind rationalist…. now aren’t you glad we have her Stuart. Rachel was a eStJ, also known as a supervisor guardian…hurray she can lead the team and make good food later that night. Julie was a eNFj, also known as a teacher idealist…. so she can explain the significance of the project and keep us motivated with her random facts as we sweat and toil in the field.
Also, we have just been graced with the arrival of our fourth roommate, Amy Mueller.
This morning we kicked off the flowering phenology experiment in the common garden. It was a successful and efficient morning, despite a couple of small errors with our hard data sheets. Hopefully switching to data taking on our Visors on Tuesdays will take care of this. After we finished up in the field, we headed to the local berry farm, where each condo quickly picked themselves a large flat of delicious strawberries. Ian and Josh took pictures; maybe they’ll post them at some later date.
Something not to forget this coming week is to get to Stuart our banking info, so that our labors do not go un-payed.
If any future summer residents of the Ande’s Condos are T-Mobile users, be warned: the service here is non-existent. All phone business must be conducted 12 miles east of here, which although inconvenient, is quite a nice bike ride.
I am sitting here feeling the pain of many mosquito bites on several different parts of my body. I want to scratch them but I know that will only make them feel worse. The mosquitos are terrible here and at dusk you have to go indoors to avoid being eaten alive. I stayed outside to finish planting my garden. After I put on long pants and a long sleeve shirt I thought I could brave the outdoors, but after putting 4 plants in the ground I was forced inside by the relentless attacking horde. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
Today we went into Alexandria. Alexandria in the only town around with more than 1,000 people. I don’t know if that number is exactly right but it gives you an idea. Kensington is the closest town and it has a population of 286. Alexandria is a big deal around here. It’s right off of I-94. It’s motto is Easy to get to. Hard to leave. We went there to go to the grocery store and the laundromat. It’s about 30 mi away. The grocery store is pretty cool -you can go to the website petescountymarket.com. They even have a link to a live webcam of Alexandria there, which you can control yourself with the click of your mouse. To get there click on the bell at the top of the page in the banner. I bought some tomato plants at K-mart today while we were in Alexandria too. I asked in the grocery store if they had seeds but he thought I meant seeds for eating and directed me to the produce department. I asked where i might be able to get seeds to plant a vegetable garden and he directed me towards Wal-mart. He said, and I paraphrase, ‘If you’re looking for anything, Wal-mart’s probably the best place to go’. I have a nice vegetable garden here now at Andes Tower Hills. Andes is a winter wonderland, except that the downhill skiing is a bit lacking. Now thought is hot and stuffy and mosquito infested. There are some beautiful lakes on the property as well as some cool forests that the cross country trails go around and through. I’ll put some pictures up later.
Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes. It certainly seems so when driving around here. We probably go by 10 lakes on the 8 mi drive to work everyday and we see many more went we’re out collecting data at the prairie remnants. Nearly every remnant has a lake next to it or in it or at least in sight of it. There are lots of wetlands and wetland birds. Everyday while working we see groups of pelicans floating in the sky or cooperatively chasing fish in one of the lakes. But enough of that, this place is also infested with mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, non-native cool-season grasses, and it’s freaking hot. The temperature has been approaching 90 for the last two days and will for the next two. it’s not supposed to be so hot in Minnesota. It is? As I sit here scratching my mosquito bites. It’s 22:44 and I have to be at Stuart’s by 8 tomorrow. The Echinacea are flowering early this year. There is a lot of data to collect. I really need to get to bed.
Dearest floggers:
Well, it is 7am on my day off, but I can’t stop thinking about science and the possibilities to learn more about how Echinacea fares in the rich community we have in the common garden. Florid, yes, but I am pretty excited about possible data. It is like gold.
Truly, there are tons of projects to do, but the trick is to find the ones that:
1) Can be done in a timely manner,
2) Are interesting and important in advancing our knowledge about Echinacea and prairie plants in general,
3) Are educational for the students (and researchers!),
4) Can be repeated well into the future of the CG or remnants, and
5), Have a good chance of filling a gap in the literature so they can be published in good journals (this, of course, is related to #2).
This last point is not crucial in the moral sense, but crucial in the practical sense, as papers are the currency of our profession, as my advisor, Rick Karban, once told me.
Anywho, as we do phenology every other day it occurred to me that we could also quantify the percentage of ray florets with herbivore damage at the same time. Perhaps some genotypes accrue damage faster than others…I’m not sure if many researchers have looked at florivory over time in such detail. There seems to be quite a bit of damage this year. I did some ‘quick and dirty’ sampling last year, but did not have the plant IDs recorded, DOH , oh well, live and learn.
We also have to figure out how to measure fluctuating asymmetry (FA) so that we have multiple measurements to account for measurement error. Measurement error is important to quantify because the small deviations from symmetry that we may observe may smaller in magnitude than our error, but we can’t know unless we have replicate measurments! One way to do it is to take several pictures of the same plant, perhaps by different people. Or, you could have several people measure the same plant. Also, I wonder if FA changes with phenology or with organ under consideration…
Stuart and I are going to try and run electrical cord from the granary to the CG so that we can run the videocameras for a good long time each day. It is 120m from the granary to the SE corner of the garden, so this will take lots of cord to complete. Since I know very little about electrical wiring, save that you shouldn’t stick live wires into tubs of water, I will wait until Stuart gets some advice in Chicago before diving in.
BTW, I took video of the biggest plant in the CG yesterday and didn’t see any pollinators in 90 minutes of filming, so perhaps an even longer interval would be better to get good, non-zero data.
Signing off until this afternoon. I never knew I would like blogs, but they are useful, especially if people read them (hem hem)
Reminders:
We should measure style persistence as a measure of pollen limitation when we can (perhaps on Tuesday). Also, damage to ray florets would be excellent to measure. I wonder if damage to ray florets has greater indirect effects through reduced pollination than the direct damage to styles that we have seen?!
😉 Andy
here is a series of photos that I shot of colin
Colin would like you to know that he was very angry at the time these photos were taken even though you may not be able to tell from his facial expression
i actually just decided that I am going to put every picture that I have taken of Colin so far this summer in this flog
ok not every picture but almost
Here Colin is bending over to pick something up
Here Colin points awkwardly
Here Colin searches for Echinacea plants
In this series Colin emerges from a dense forest still carrying a large storage container
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photos best viewed in rapid succession
I don’t remember what Colin was doing in this photo
Colin reads a compass from nail to Echinacea
Colin with flags
Colin stares down his enemy
Colin checks himself for creepy crawlies
Colin searches for a nail in the duff
I’m going to cut you
here Colin is watching Ian kill insects
In this series Colin plays with his hat and sits on the tailgate of Stuart’s truck
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And this is the series that you’ve all been waiting for
Colin after a long hard day in the Common Garden
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