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2010 GPS Surveying Draft Protocol.pdf
Here’s the GPS Surveying Protocol. Post some comments with thoughts, ideas, and changes.
2010 Stipa Draft Protocol.pdf. The Google Docs wasn’t really working out… Comment with your thoughts and changes.
In case we need help 🙂
Materials:
Visor
Petri dish
paintbrush
mesh bags
twist ties
a partner!
1. Sync visor, get randomized plant (row and position) from Hillary.
2. Collect aphids from several plants in Common Garden. Find leaves with fat, dark aphids (aka mature). Gently disturb aphids with brush tip. When aphids start to scurry (remove stylets), brush them gently into the petri dish. Do not mash them by rubbing paintbrush against the plastic (attempting to dislodge them).
3. When approximately 20 mature aphids have been collected (not including tiny green ones), find assigned plant.
4. Check transfer plant for ants and aphids and record presence in form.
5. Find a suitable leaf (close to ground and small enough to fit in bag) that is free of any ants and aphids (if there are no empty leaves, squish present aphids).
6. Prepare bag over most of the leaf (opening bag and pulling over leaf). Then lift the bag up enough to stick the aphids in.
7. Transfer two random aphids to the top of the leaf (one big aphid and one slightly smaller). It works best if one partner holds the leaf and bag and the other transfers the aphids. Then the bag holder pulls the bag down and the transferrer twists the tie.
8. Pull bag completely over leaf and gently twist tie it closed. Avoid strangling the leaf or squishing or dislodging the aphids.
9. If aphids take a death plunge or fall off make sure they are not in the bag and transfer additional aphids as needed.
Today we will start measuring Echinacea in the Common Garden. Here is the link to the protocol: CGmeasureprotocol2010.htm
View image
So these are the Stipa that have been collected so far. I’ve labeled a couple of the places on the map.
I was having trouble projecting the data exported from GPS Pathfinder Office (trimble) and noticed that no coordinate system was defined (same issue with the DOQ maps Stuart gave me; the GeoTIFFs didn’t have a spatial definition). The GPS data should be North American 1983 in the Geographic Coordinate System folder (right click on the data in ArcCatalog, hit the XY Coordinate System tab and hit the Select button). The DOQ maps ought to be using the NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_15N from the Projected Coordinate System folder. Dumping all of these files into ArcMap (and a little fiddling) gave me this nice map.
Next plan of attack is to make it work in GPS Pathfinder Office, as it’s much less complicated than ArcGIS.
Josh, Gretel, Hillary, and Ian are also trained on the TopScan to collect the GPS data. The ideal is that the radio signal is at 100% and the designation of the location is described as Fixed – (Float will do and Auto works if you are unable to connect to a radio signal)
Josh and I plan to collect from Hegg Lake and the road adjacent on Monday. In the quest to collect from 300 parent plants, we are likely onto roadsides – where we are trying to stay at least a meter off the road and using plants about 5m apart from each other. Generally, as the black color appears and as the capsule opens around the pointy head, the seeds are ripe and will pop off as you gently pull up the stem containing the seeds.
I plan to be around Sun afternoon and Mon. to finish the collection before starting to cross some plants.
Here are the data on the three pollen types and the protocol for measuring.
I used the same plant/pollen from each plant and measured at least 30 different pollen grains from each. I didn’t use any pollen if its pole faced forward – only if it was sideways.
Bad news – the Ech. ang. and Heli. heli. are very close. Good news – maybe the pollinators and plants can’t tell them apart either.
Book1.xlsx
PS – I am in SE Minn and the Monarda Sunflower and Miss. Goldenrod are in full bloom all over.
Protocol for slide image recording and measuring.docx
So, I’ve been working hard creating slides from all the styles everyone helped to collect (thanks!), and this is the protocol I’ve been using:
II. SLIDE PROTOCOL:
A. ORGANIZE THE STYLE VIALS BY SITE
B. CREATE SLIDE LABELS
C. RANDOMIZE THE STYLE INFORMATION ON EXCEL
D. CREATE THE SLIDES IN THE RANDOM ORDER GIVEN BY EXCEL
1. Place the blank slide on a clean surface
2. Pull out the correct vial, open carefully (sometimes the styles are on the lid of the vial), use clean tweezers to remove the contents. Place vial contents onto the slide.
3. Remove any anther parts from the slide; organize the stigmas so they are separate/easily differentiated from each other.
4. Place one drop of glycerin on top of the stigmas. If there are any bubbles, try to move them away from the stigmas.
5. Place a cover slip carefully over the glycerin and allow it to settle.
6. Use mounting medium to seal the cover slip to the slide. Allow the slide to dry on a flat surface for 24-48 hours.
E. Put completed slides into slide boxes.
Of the approximately 380 slides I started with, I have 150 left to do, so I’m more than 1/2 way there. Once I’ve created all these slides, I’ll start taking photos and uploading pictures.
Anyway, just felt like it was about time I updated. Gonna go make slides now… ^_^
We have made a few changes to the protocol for tomorrow’s FINAL outing for pollinator observation and collection:
1) DO NOT capture syrphid flies!
2) If you observe a small common syrphid fly (Family: Syrphidae, Sphaerophoria sp.) on your Echinacea head, make a note that one SCSF was observed. Here are some photos of syrphid flies:
http://echinacea.umn.edu/insects/images/poll2005vin1948side.jpg
http://echinacea.umn.edu/insects/images/poll2005vin1927top.jpg
http://echinacea.umn.edu/insects/images/poll2005vin1927front.jpg
Here’s a video that might help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkjPfAMGmiw&NR=1
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As for pollinator collection and analysis…
We’ve gone out collecting three times now (tomorrow is the fourth and final day), and we have about 140 Echinacea insect visitors in vials in the freezer. Here is my protocol for making slides and labeling specimens:
1) Remove vial from the freezer and allow insect to thaw
2) Cut a very small (2mm cubed) piece of agar and situate it in the middle of a slide.
3) Remove the insect from the tube and dab and sweep every surface of the body across the agar cube. This is intended to simulate the amount of pollen that might be transferred to Echinacea styles during a visit.
4) Set the insect aside on Styrofoam.
5) Sweep the inside of the vial with the agar cube for any loose pollen.
6) Place a cover slip atop the agar cube and put the slide on the edge of a hotplate on LOW heat. Watch the slide carefully and remove it when the agar is soft but not melted (once melting starts, it will quickly boil and create bubbles in the slide).
7) Pin the insect (for identification if it is an unknown species, or quick-n-casual for a known species) and pin it with a new one letter, three number code.
8) Label the slide with the vial code and the specimen code.
Photos:
I photograph the slides on the same day as I make them so that the agar doesn’t dry out before the photo. To sample the slides, I have generated random pairs of numbers from 1 to 22 (inclusive). The cover slips are 22 x 22 mm and I use the ruler on the microscope to scroll to the randomly selected “plots” from one corner of the cover slip. From there, I take the photo at 40x. I take ten photos for each slide, and sometimes take more than one photo per plot if I capturing all of the pollen grains requires multiple focuses.
I will post some photos of this process soon, so hang in there!
As always, feel free to leave questions or comments.
Thanks!!
Amanda
Ech jenkins FNC protocol revised.doc
Ech Guide to Co-Fl Sp.xls
I have a photo guide but I can’t upload it b/c the file is too large.
If you plan on helping with FNC, please read the documents above. It’s important that everyone counts inflorescences the same way. Thanks!
Also, for tomorrow, there are a couple of notes I thought I’d add:
>Please make a note if you see ants on the head of the plant you are observing.
>Also make a note if it is mostly cloudy.
>Try to get to your site with about 10 min to spare so you can get your supplies ready and orient yourself with the placement of the flags to avoid time spent wandering in search of flags.
>Please try to start your observation as close to 8am as possible. End at 11am. Do not start an observation if you can’t finish by 11.
>Remember that you will only be collecting styles at the end of the observation pd from now on. Clean your tweezers with your shirt in between collections.
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