A close up of an Agapostemon specimen with its tongue sticking out. The current collection of bees. Many more to come!
As of a few weeks ago, Emergence trapping for the ENRTF project is finished! It was a massive endeavor to complete, and I’m thankful for everyone on the team who pitched in. Now that our vials of bugs have been moved from Minnesota to Illinois, it’s time to start going through them to look for bees. It’s smelly work, but also a great opportunity to brush up on taxonomy and identification skills. We’re planning to hire a work-study student to help with pinning and data entry in the next few days. Until then, more for me!
NOTE: Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
Currently, I’m writing this from my new apartment in Chicago! Classes start next week for me, and I’m moving on to the data management portion of my summer project. This summer, I looked at pollen and nectar quantity in Coreopsis palmata (prairie coreopsis) in burned vs. unburned sites. But why does this matter? Pollinators depend on pollen and nectar from flowers to supply the nutrients they need to survive. However, there has yet to be a strong comparison between common Asteraceae plants identifying the quantity and quality of plants that can be shared with land managers to help create more viable resources for pollinators in their prairie restoration efforts. Therefore, I wanted to conduct a study looking at pollen and nectar quantity in common non-Echinacea prairie plants to examine how prescribed fire affects plant resources for pollinators.
The sites I collected data from included Torgeson North and South, Tower and Nice Island, and Yellow Orchid Hill West. Pollen data was collected by selecting three immature florets from three flower heads in a “patch,” defined as five or more stems in one central location. These immature florets will then go through a lab process where they are sliced open and placed into an agar solution, allowing the pollen to float to the top, where it can be counted. Nectar collection was done using microcapillary tubes, where we measured the amount of nectar in each tube in millimeters. The volume of nectar can then be calculated based on the size of the microcapillary tube in relation to the measurement in millimeters obtained from the tube. In total, I had around 75 pollen and nectar measurements. I also collected transect density data for each “patch” that we sampled and mapped them in Avenza for future reference. This allows me to identify and see how dense the populations are within a certain site, and to determine if there is a difference between burned vs. unburned areas.
I was not able to study more than one species this summer, but we shall see what the next summer holds!
NOTE: Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
Team Echinacea finished Total Demo today! That was a big undertaking. We visited 2640 locations to search for Echinacea plants in our remnant sites. But we’re not done with our remnants yet. Today we started de-mopup or demopup. In the likely event that we missed a few flowering Echinacea, we revisit each site to do a thorough search. I am not sure if we are as thorough as this AI puppy mopping the floor, but we strive to find the Echinacea Plants that no one else will find.
Hailey hand pollinated flowers on six silver-leaf scurf pea plants (Pediomelum argophyllum). We are harvesting the plants as the pods ripen. Wyatt harvested two plants on 30 Aug, I harvested two today (9 Sept). Two remain–each is attached to a pin flag so it doesn’t tumble way. But don’t seem like that will happen soon.
Yesterday I squeezed every pod from the plant that Wyatt harvested S of 23518-L. They all felt the same (empty), including the treatment pods that have yellow & blue twist-ties. Many of the pods had fallen off the stem, but not the bagged one. This time I gently put the entire plant into a large paper grocery bag to keep the pods on the stems. I regret i didn’t take any photos of the plants.
Stay tuned to learn about effects of hand pollination on seed set in the silver leaf scurf pea!
Let’s consult our total demometer to see how much progress we’ve made. The team has tackled some large sites in the past few weeks. We’ve made lots of progress! We’re about 45% done with all locs.
Throughout this summer Stuart, Jared, and I have been discussing the possibility of a new addition to the production plots at the Hjelm. The main goal was to create a production plot for the Prairie Violet. It is a notoriously difficult species to collect seed for in the wild due to its relatively early seed set period and its tendency for seed pods to burst open and scatter seeds the moment they are ripe. Our first obstacle was determining exactly how we wanted to get local viola plants. Would we need to be exhaustive in harvesting local seeds and sprouting them; could we attempt to propagate from cuttings; or were transplants our best course of action? After some discussion and reaching out to the Chicago Botanical Garden we found that cuttings weren’t a good option and attempt to harvest and sprout seed was going to be too difficult and possibly provide low yields. Next, we worked on sourcing a growing vessel that will prevent weeds while providing well-draining soil, perfect for the violets. An old cattle trough from a local farmer was the perfect solution.
Holes were drilled and a piece of drain tile was placed inside of the bottom the planter to allow drainage. and then the clay-rich soil that was dug up to level the bed was used to fill the first 1/3 of the planter. Weed free garden soil and washed sand was then mixed approximately 1:1 to fill the rest of the bed with high quality soil that will drain enough for the violets. On Aug 7th Starting at around 6:45 am Stuart and I both went out to collect violets from 5 different sites we had determined to be good host sites. Five plants were taken with each being at least 5 meter away from each other per site. We then recorded the gps postion of the collection point and gave each violet a number to identify it.
Once all the violets were collected a random position was chosen for each plant to ensure fair representation per site. And then finally we could plant each violet after washing its roots to ensure no weeds become established.
Now have a finished production Plot full of V. pedatifida that seem to be doing well only a few weeks on and some are already producing new leaves a good sign they are enjoying their new home.
The team has dwindled, and so has our progress on p1 this last month… With other priorities such as demo/surv and e-traps wrapping up in the next couple weeks, hopefully we can get back to it!
