I’m interested in studying all sorts of ecology, but I’m especially curious about our Lepidopteran friends and the organisms they interact with! I’d also love to learn more about how ecosystems respond to disturbances.
Statement
I’m originally from Minnesota, and I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to return to my home state to work in its prairies. I love to cook, learn plant and bug facts, and wear convertible pants (shants)!
Student, Alexandria Area High School ’21 , Alexandria Technical and Community College ’21
Research Interests
I am interested in studying how human interaction can effect plants and wildlife. I also am interested in learning all about the plants and the animals that live in the prairies too. I love learning!
Statement
I am from Alexandria, Minnesota. In my spare time I like to go on adventures, hangout with friends and family and play music. I play the harp and percussion!! Some of the things I love in life are: the mountains, marching band, music, sleeping, plants, fun hats, flannels and dancing.
When I graduate high school I plan to move out to the mountains and go to school either at Colorado State or Montana State. I want to major in math and environmental studies, and then go into environmental law. I am so excited to work with everyone this summer and to be able to learn!
My research interests are in how plants interact with their surrounding organisms and environment. And in this pollination biology perfectly is nesseled quite nicely. I have enjoyed using molecular work to follow where pollen is moving in populations of plants. I have been on Team Echinacea before (Summer 2018 and Team Echinacea East 2019) and I am looking forward to be back on the team and in the field!
Statement
I am from Buffalo, NY, and yes it finally stopped snowing around a month ago. In my spare time I like to knit, embroider, and most recently bake (it became my quarantine pass time). My dog Ellie is my sidekick and we love to go on adventures together, trying not to get in too much trouble.
This is me presenting a poster of my senior thesis dressed as a saguaro cactus
I am interested in studying the genetic traits of wildflowers in prairie ecosystems, with a focus on natural selection and advantageous phenotypes. Often times, flowers are overlooked when speaking of biodiversity. However, flowers are necessary to the structure of every ecosystem, as they allow symbiotic relationships for basic and complex organisms alike. By indicating and preserving advantageous traits, I hope to learn how scientists may help endangered plants through assisted breeding and appropriate preservation practices.
Statement
I am from Alexandria, Minnesota. In my spare time, I like to practice violin, study languages, and write historical fiction pieces on Eastern Europe. I love classical and folk music, especially the works of Vaughn Williams, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich. When I have the time, I enjoy researching and recreating historical dresses from around the world.
When I graduate high school, I plan to attend college and apply my love of language, history, and science to become either a medical geneticist or sociocultural anthropologist. I also hope to use my voice to spread awareness about environmental conservation. As of recent, my favorite animated movie is Howl’s Moving Castle, which always goes well with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I’m looking forward to this research experience, and I’m excited to see what summer of 2020 has in store!
You may not be able to see it, but I’ve got a big smile under that mask!
Biology Major; Spanish minor, Carleton College 2021
Research Interests
Hi! I’m Emma, a senior biology major at Carleton College. I did a mini-internship with the Echinacea Project in December 2019 and I’m excited to spend the summer as a part of the team in the field! I am passionate about prairie ecology and I’m especially interested in prairie plant communities. I’m looking forward to learning more about population ecology this summer, and finding out how my community ecology interests fit into the Echinacea Project’s research.
Statement
I’m from Aurora, a small town on northeast Minnesota’s Iron Range, and this spring I spent time at home while finishing my spring term classes online. I’m also on Carleton’s cross country and track teams and am a Spanish minor. Besides plants, I like to run, read, explore, spend time outside, and hang out with friends and family.
This picture of me is from last summer which I spent doing restoration monitoring with the Nature Conservancy in prairies across the Dakotas and Minnesota!
Biology and German Studies, Binghamton University, 2022
Research Interests
I am interested in studying the effect of non-native species on ecosystems, with a particular interest in developing sustainable ways to control and prevent further damage from invasive species. I am excited to learn more about how research done by the Echinacea Project can be applied on a larger scale to promote conservation of prairies.
Statement
I am from around Albany, NY. In my spare time I enjoy baking pies and bread, traveling, and reading. I especially like watching The Great British Bake-Off and other wholesome cooking shows. I am also interested in research regarding the development of animal models and treatment methods for obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Biology and Environmental Science, the College of William and Mary, 2019
Headed to the Applied Ecology department at North Carolina State University
Research Interests
My main interest is in how natural populations of plants respond and adapt to changes, such as habitat fragmentation, pollinator decline and invasion by other plants. With the Echinacea Project I have primarily worked on managing our database of the demographic characteristics and spatial positions of Echinacea angustifolia in remnant prairies. This summer I’m excited to help collect and add the 26th year of data to this database. I’m hoping to continue cleaning and improving our dataset in order to understand how plants’ spatial positions are related to their flowering efforts. In my graduate work I’m looking forward to learning more about pollination biology and North Carolina’s own prairies!
Statement
I’m from Raleigh, NC, and I’m headed back there this summer to begin a PhD at NCSU! I love to draw and bird, and I’m hoping that Stuart will let us take the canoes out again this summer because that’s another one of my favorite things to do. On the weekends you’ll find me traipsing through the prairies chasing birds, soaking up the sun in a hammock or feverishly farming pumpkins in Stardew Valley, which the team introduced me to last summer. On Bach Night you can catch Riley and I watching The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, Listen To Your Heart or old seasons of these shows (for when a global pandemic has halted their production.)
Me and my favorite member of Team Echinacea, Chekov!
Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has contributed to severe biodiversity loss worldwide and is expected to have lasting negative impacts on remnant communities in the coming years. One great consequence of fragmentation is the loss of genetic diversity and adaptive potential within individual remnant populations. Many studies have demonstrated the loss of neutral genetic diversity within remnant plant populations and linked this phenomenon to reduced population fitness. However, few studies have been designed to understand how remnant plant populations with varying sizes and degrees of isolation are differentially affected by climate change and how neutral and quantitative genetic variation may predict population persistence in a changing environment. Thus, it is my goal to understand the additive effects of habitat fragmentation and climate change for the persistence of remnant plant populations.
Statement
I grew up in Bloomington, MN, and went to college in Saint Peter, MN, where I learned to appreciate the biodiversity of the Midwest. I really enjoy being outdoors with no people around, and I am really looking forward to getting out of the big city (Chicago) and into the field in West Central MN again. Some of my other hobbies include: playing board games, playing video games, engaging in scientific discussions, participating in sports, reading (when I feel like it), and watching shows produced by the Bachelor franchise. My summer with Team Echinacea will be slightly truncated because I am starting a Ph.D. at the University of Georgia in August, but I am really looking forward to participating in field work and meeting folks this summer!
In the past, team members have observed Echinacea heads while sitting on buckets. I hope to revolutionize fieldwork this summer by teaching folks to observe buckets while sitting on Echinacea heads.
My name is Anna Stehlik and I am participating in a short-term internship at the Chicago Botanic Garden during my school’s winter term this January. I am a senior at DePauw University studying environmental biology and am a part of the Environmental Fellows Program which is an environmentally- an sustainability-based honors program. I am also involved with the Sustainability Leadership Program and have been a campus farm intern for the past several years. On the campus farm, I have helped to establish a bee hive and deliver pollinator education programs to local school groups. I first became interested in pollinator health and habitat when my family began beekeeping about seven years ago and I focused my Girl Scout Gold Award project on creating a honey bee education program. I am also an avid hiker and spend my summers working at a backpacking ranch in the mountains of New Mexico. This past summer at the ranch, I had the opportunity to teach about the plants and wildlife in the area as well as the history of wildlife conservation.
My passion for the outdoors has driven me to pursue an education and career in environmental biology and conservation. I am very excited to explore the work done in the conservation lab here at the Chicago Botanic Garden. On my first day, I have learned about the fragmentation of prairie habitat and the work done here to learn how purple coneflower is affected. So far, I have been able to clean and process Echinacea flower heads to remove the achenes, and have also gotten to count achenes on scanned images.
