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My name is Chris Woolridge and I’m very excited to begin as a Seasonal Researcher with the Echinacea Project this summer! I’ll be helping Danny and the citizen scientists in the lab while the rest of the team is in Minnesota conducting field work. I’m currently a graduate student in the Plant Biology and Conservation Program at the Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern University. My research is focused on better informing seed sourcing for restorations. Some researchers and managers have proposed sourcing seed from more southern latitudes to foster populations that are pre-adapted to climate change. In order to test this strategy’s feasibility, I’m conducting a common garden experiment in Grayslake, IL, investigating relative fitness of plants sourced across a latitudinal gradient in five savanna/prairie species used in restorations. With that being said, I’m very interested in the questions the Echinacea Project is asking and I’m thrilled to be joining the team!
We are excited to introduce members of Team Echinacea 2015. Each member has a page of introduction. Read about their backgrounds and interests:
Yay summer!
Hello everyone,
My name i Alli Grecco, and this is my first Flog entry! I thought I would start by telling you a bit about myself. I grew up in Minnesota, and love being back to the beautiful prairies! But now I live in Chicago, and am a student at DePaul University. Please view my profile page here: https://echinaceaproject.org/people/2014-team-members/allison-grecco/
I am so excited to be a part of Team Echinacea 2014, and cannot wait for the exciting research and fun ahead!
Hello! My name is Keaton Holsinger and I am honored to be a member of the 2014 Team Echinacea. If you would like to find out more about me, check out my background at website. Also, just for fun, here is a picture of a fish I caught!
Hello Floggers! My name is Claire Ellwanger and I’m excited to be a part of Team Echinacea this summer. Since graduating from Bowdoin College in 2012 I’ve spent the past two years gaining experience in the field of plant biology and conservation in Maine, California, and Puerto Rico. I’m already enjoying time in the mid-west getting to know prairie plants and how their reproductive success is impacted by habitat fragmentation. More about me and my research this summer can be found on the Echinacea Project website.
I graduated from Jefferson High School in June, and I will be attending the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities next fall. This is my first real research experience but last summer I spent some time with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the University of St. Thomas doing some work with stable isotope ecology.
This summer I plan to study pollen longevity and determine a method for long term storage of the pollen. I am also very excited to work with other team members and help with their projects.
I am incredibly excited to be a member of Team Echinacea 2014, I think it is going to be an amazing experience and I am going to be working with some very awesome people! you can learn more about me at my page on the Echinacea Project website.
My name is Cam Shorb, and I’m a junior Biology major at Carleton College. Click here for more about me and my summer research interests.
Sara Zufan, aka “Miss Z,” arrived from Chicago, IL (pop > 1 x 10^6 people) to Kensington Minnesota (pop = 280) this weekend and is already hard at work measuring plants and searching for the elusive Stipa grass in the sea of other grasses that is our common garden experiment. Miss Z is teacher in Chicago Public Schools at the Multicultural Academy of Scholarship. Next year she is teaching AP Biology, Regular Biology, and Earth & Space. This summer Miss Z plans to gain some hands-on cutting-edge field biology experience to enhance her professional development as a secondary school science educator. Miss Z is going to figure out how to bring her new knowledge into her classroom this coming school year.
Stay tuned! Miss Z will keep you posted via this blog and twitter on her research endeavors and experiences in the field this summer as she investigates the ecology and evolution of plants and animals in the fragmented tallgrass prairie with the Echinacea Project.
I am a Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. I just started my year-long sabbatical and it is great to begin it as a member of Team Echinacea! Historically, I always have worked in grasslands, Pacific coastal, Montana and Minnesota sites, so one could say I love prairies.
My research questions focus on processes that generate and maintain diversity in plant populations. This summer Mike, Reina and I will examine three related questions: 1) Do plants from different genetic crosses experience different levels of herbivory? 2) How do morphological and physiological traits such as photosynthetic rate, WUE or leaf area vary as a function of different genetic crosses? 3) What is the feedback between herbivory, physiological traits and genetic identity, and how might this influence plant fitness?
I am originally from Colorado and lived 10 years in California, but I have lived in Minnesota for the past 15 years. I love being outdoors, especially in natural areas where I can hike, canoe, ski, bike, and camp. I also like to garden, read, cook or watch birds (my second favorite avian species with red plumage is the Rose-breasted Grosbeak). Travel to new places, from Kensington to India and beyond, has always given me new perspectives of the world.
 My entry on the website is at: The Echinacea Project People PK
Hello, everyone! If you couldn’t tell from the title, I am Sarah Baker. I am a rising Junior at St. Catherine University and an REU intern this summer. I am a biology major with an interest in wildlife and conservation biology. During the academic year, as well as being a student, I work as a teaching assistant for ceramics courses at my school. I will also be working as “animal room technician” this upcoming semester, taking care of organisms used in labs and research for biology related courses.
Anyway, a bit of information about me: I grew up in Golden Valley, Minnesota and spent a lot of time in my childhood and teenage years outdoors. I often went hiking, canoeing, biking, and other types of adventuring outdoors with my family and learned much about nature from those experiences. My father, being a biologist, would often point out various plants and animals to me and identify them, teaching me what they were and interesting facts about them. These excursions fed my interest in wildlife and conservation. In the future, I plan to attend graduate school to study wildlife or conservation biology.
When I’m not doing cool science-y things, I enjoy making pottery, being out in nature, sailing, and hanging with friends. I am also the president of the ceramics club at my school where we host Empty Bowls community service projects to raise money for Minnesota Open Arms.
This summer, my independent project will focus on flowering phenology of various remnants. I will be adding to a data set from 2011 and 2012. My main interest with this project is to see if there are correlations between peak flowering times of the same remnants across multiple years. I look forward to all I will experience this summer!
If you are interesting in learning a bit more about me, check out my webpage on the Echinacea Project website!
Sarah Baker
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My entry on the website is at: The Echinacea Project People PK 