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This project builds on the Echinacea Project’s longitudinal demographic dataset from remnant prairies to explore the role fire plays in the reproduction of Echinacea angustifolia. In 2014, Claire Ellwanger and Jared Beck monitored the daily phenology of 324 flowering heads belonging to 143 plants that flowered in 2014 and gathered demographic information on 523 individuals within burned and unburned portions of Staffanson Prairie Preserve. Additionally, we collected 84 flower heads to assess seed set in 2014. Using this data and the data collected in previous years, we will integrate spatial, phenological, and demographic information from individuals at Staffanson Prairie to build a longitudinal database and evaluate the effects of prescribed fire on Echinacea survival and reproduction.
Our methods for collecting demographic and phenological data were identical to the procedures used in the projects “EA demo”, “phen in six remnants,” and “phen for Aii” except that we mapped nearest flowering neighbors. We mapped out to the 7th nearest flowering neighbor for focal plants on the SPP transect. Jared wrote an R function (looky) to streamline searching for nearest neighbors in the field. This function specifies a search radius and creates a map of all mapped flowering plants for a given site within that search radius. In addition to using looky, we targeted our searches near the edges of Echinacea clusters and where there were known Echinacea plants near the transect to increase the efficiency of our searches.
Read previous posts about this experiment.
Start year: 2007
Location: Staffanson Prairie Preserve
Products: Survey, demography, phenology, and style persistence datasets need to be made readyR. The Echinacea heads collected in 2014 are being processed at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Overlaps with: EA demo, phen in six remnants, and phen for Aii
Description: In 2014, Alli Grecco developed and implemented a project to characterize the composition and abundance of plants that flower in 5 remnant prairie Echinacea populations. During her community surveys, Grecco identified 32 co-flowering species. This dataset will be used to describe variation in flowering communities both between and within sites over time.
Start year: 2014
Location: SPP, NWLF, EELR, ALF, NNWLF
Products: Preliminary dataset is located in Alli Grecco’s Dropbox folder. Dataset needs to be made readyR.
 This collection plant had some of the most aphids we’ve seen yet in one place!
Aphis echinaceae is a recently-discovered aphid species believed to specialize on Echinacea angustifolia. In 2014, Cam Shorb designed and implemented an experiment to test whether aphids could survive on the closely related Echinacea pallida or hybrids of the two Echinacea species. He added a total of 1600 aphids to 88 Echinacea plants at Hegg Lake WMA. Although the aphid survival rate was only 9 percent, Aphis echinaceae survived on all Echinacea variants suggesting the aphid may be more flexible than previously believed.
Start year: 2014
Location: Hegg Lake WMA
Products: A preliminary dataset is located in Cam Shorb’s Dropbox folder. This dataset needs to be made readyR.
With over 15 years of data, the study of Echinacea demography is among the Echinacea Project’s longest running research projects. During demography, Team Echinacea maps and collects basic demographic information about plants within 30 prairie remnants. In 2014 we collected demographic information for over 500 individual plants including 179 flowering plants at our largest site, Staffanson Prairie Preserve, alone. Across the other 29 sites, we found 897 flowering plants and visited a total of 1226 plants. For each plant visited, we recorded whether the plant was alive, whether the plant was flowering, and how many flowering heads it produced. With this extensive dataset, we hope to explore inter-annual flowering patterns, assess longitudinal plant fitness, and monitor numerical population dynamics in remnant populations of Echinacea.
Read previous posts about this experiment.
Start year: 1995
Location: 30 remnants prairies
Products: Stuart, Jared, and Gretel are working to clean, organize, and integrate demography, survey, and phenology data (project “demap”). Also see the demography protocol.
Overlaps with: fire and flowering at SPP
To examine the role flowering phenology plays in the reproduction of Echinacea angustifolia, Jennifer Ison planted experimental plot 2 (P2) in 2006 with 3961 individuals selected for extreme (early or late) flowering phenology. In 2014, we measured traits for all 2123 living plants and monitored the daily phenology of 247 flowering heads. Echinacea flowering began on July 2 in P2 and continued through August 24. Using the phenological and trait data collected this summer, we will explore how flowering phenology influences reproductive fitness and estimate the heritability of flowering time in Echinacea angustifolia.
Read previous posts about this experiment.
Start year: 2006
Location: experimental plot 2 (Hegg Lake WMA)
Overlaps with: pollinator efficiency
In 2014, Cam Shorb continued an experiment designed to assess the effects of aphid herbivory on Echinacea angustifolia survival and fitness. The plants are located in experimental plot P1. Cam removed aphids from the 44 plants in the exclusion treatment and added over 220 aphids to the 43 plants in the addition treatment.
Read previous posts about this experiment.
Start year: 2011
Location: P1
Products: Fitness measurements were collected during our annual assessment of fitness in P1. A list of focal plants and addition/exclusion datasheets are located in Cam Shorb’s Dropbox folder.
Overlaps with: Overlaps with: Phenology and fitness in P1
Greetings from Chicago Botanic Garden! A new year is upon us and it is time to recap a busy 2014 summer. Over the next several weeks, we will be posting flog updates describing research projects from the summer and the status of the Echinacea Project’s long-term experiments. Stay tuned!
Click here to Browse all of the updates!
This project investigates the role of three fundamental constraints on mate availability – temporal asynchrony, spatial isolation, and reproductive incompatibility – in remnant Echinacea angustifolia populations. During the summer of 2014, we conducted two studies related to The Mating Scene project. In the first study, we mapped 991 Echinacea plants and monitored the phenology of 1360 flowering heads across 31 remnants to quantify spatial isolation and flowering asynchrony. At the end of the season, we harvested 193 flowering heads from 25 remnants to assess seed set. In the second study, we performed 364 pollen crosses to characterize patterns of reproductive incompatibility within 10 remnants. With the data collected in 2014 and subsequent years, we aim to elucidate how the interactions between temporal asynchrony, spatial isolation, and reproductive incompatibility influence reproductive fitness in fragmented prairie remnants.
|
site |
# of flowering plants |
# of flowering heads |
# of crosses |
# of heads harvested |
| 1 |
aa |
60 |
83 |
36 |
5 |
| 2 |
alf |
63 |
78 |
|
6 |
| 3 |
btg |
3 |
3 |
|
2 |
| 4 |
dog |
1 |
2 |
|
|
| 5 |
eelr |
33 |
17 |
28 |
5 |
| 6 |
eri |
38 |
54 |
|
5 |
| 7 |
eth |
9 |
46 |
|
5 |
| 8 |
gc |
6 |
6 |
|
3 |
| 9 |
kj |
7 |
8 |
|
5 |
| 10 |
lce |
90 |
70 |
24 |
5 |
| 11 |
lcw |
51 |
95 |
24 |
5 |
| 12 |
lfe |
64 |
103 |
24 |
5 |
| 13 |
lfw |
89 |
57 |
24 |
6 |
| 14 |
ngc |
8 |
5 |
|
|
| 15 |
nnwlf |
2 |
13 |
|
5 |
| 16 |
nrrx |
20 |
25 |
|
5 |
| 17 |
nwlf |
13 |
16 |
|
5 |
| 18 |
on27 |
92 |
96 |
42 |
5 |
| 19 |
ri |
82 |
112 |
44 |
5 |
| 20 |
rrx |
43 |
47 |
33 |
5 |
| 21 |
rrxdc |
3 |
3 |
|
2 |
| 22 |
sap |
29 |
13 |
|
5 |
| 23 |
sgc |
8 |
243 |
|
5 |
| 24 |
SppE |
92 |
81 |
41 |
42 |
| 25 |
SppW |
51 |
38 |
44 |
42 |
| 26 |
th |
8 |
9 |
|
5 |
| 27 |
tower |
7 |
11 |
|
5 |
| 28 |
waa |
4 |
8 |
|
|
| 29 |
wood |
4 |
4 |
|
|
| 30 |
yohE |
4 |
5 |
|
|
| 31 |
yohW |
7 |
9 |
|
|
Start year: 2014
Location: Phenology in 31 total remnants, compatibility in 10 remnants
Products: The phenology and compatibility datasets need to be made readyR. The harvested flowering heads are being processed at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Overlaps with: phenology in six remnants, fire and flowering at SPP
Description: The Echinacea Project’s recruitment experiment examines the germination and survival of Echinacea angustifolia seedlings in oldfields and restored grasslands under different fire regimes. In 2014, Team Echinacea searched for and measured Echinacea plants in 60 study plots spread across 10 experimental blocks. After data collection was complete, we mapped all newly flowering plants. The goal of this study is to identify the environmental factors that influence the recruitment of seedlings and the long-term fitness of Echinacea plants.
Start year: 2001
Location: 10 experimental blocks located in oldfields and restored grasslands
Products: Raw data taken on paper were entered into database and verified. Flowering plants with new tags were mapped and the spatial data is located in the 2014 SURV files. Flowering plants with old tags were not mapped in 2014.
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