As part of the Echinacea Project’s long-term efforts to monitor reproductive fitness in the remnant populations, we harvested 124 Echinacea seed heads from 16 remnants during summer 2023. All sites burned in 2023 were included in remnant harvest selection and we also prioritized sites with small population sizes. We randomly selected heads from each population at the sites we visited.
Harvesting seed heads and quantifying seed set can help us to better understand how the spatial location and flowering phenology of Echinacea contribute to reproductive fitness. However, this year, we did not conduct field work for phenology, so we were less interested in relating remnant harvest to phenology and spatial mating opportunities. Our primary focus was to examine fire’s affects on reproduction in different sized populations. We narrowed our remnant harvest efforts to small sites where extra data would be helpful in answering questions about how fire influences mating opportunities and seed set across different populations ranging in size. The heads harvested in 2023 are currently in the CBG lab. We have entered the harvest data, and the heads are awaiting inventory!
Echinacea harvest in action!
In order to ensure that we are not disrupting remnant populations, we return achenes to their maternal plants in a way that mimics natural dispersal after they have been processed in the lab. On a recent trip to Minnesota, we visited many small sites, where this process is essential as well as a few bigger ones.
Start year: 1996
Location: Roadsides, railroad rights of way, and nature preserves in and around Solem Township, MN
Data collected: The verified harvest list and legend is located here: ~/Dropbox/remData/130_harvestSeedSet/harvest2023/2023remHarvestDataEntry/2023remEaHarvestDE/remEaHarvestVerified
Samples collected: ~124 seed heads were collected and are currently at the Chicago Botanic Garden lab awaiting inventory.
Products:
We will compile seed set data from 2023 into a dataset with seed set data from previous years.
Padmini, a student from Carleton College, used some of the remnant data for her externship project in winter 2022.
Jared, Amy, and Stuart’s paper “Habitat fragmentation decouples fire-stimulated flowering from plant reproductive fitness” was published in PNAS. Find links and more information here
You can read more about the reproductive fitness in remnants experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
This recruitment experiment was established in 2000 to quantify seedling emergence and juvenile survival of Echinacea angustifolia during reintroduction to sites with varying land-use history and burn schedules. Before 2014, we collected detailed data on each plant in the plots. Since 2014, Team Echinacea has censused each plot yearly to collect demographic data for every flowering plant.
In 2023, Team Echinacea visited 7 recruitment plots and searched for 163 Echinacea angustifolia plants that had flowered previously. Across the 7 plots, we found 118 basal plants and 46 flowering plants, and we were unable to find 16 plants. Of the flowering plants, 11 plants flowered for the first time in 2023. For each flowering plant, the team collected demographic data (number of rosettes and flowering heads) and shot a GPS point at the exact location of the plant. There was at least one flowering Echinacea plant at 6 of the 7 recruitment plots where plants had flowered previously, but we did not find any flowering plants at one site, rhp.
There were also two sites, rhr and rhw, that we have no 2023 demographic information for. We did not visit these sites for total demo censusing, and it’s possible that we never visited them over the summer. Alternatively, we may have visited them and found no flowering plants. Rhw was present on “demopup” (a list of demo sites for mopping-up any flowering plants that may have been missed), so there were likely no flowering plants there this year. Rhr was not on the demopup list. Bizarre! Stay tuned for any updates we may uncover.
Abby, Alexa, and Blaire search for plants at rkw, a recruitment plot located at Kensington WMA. We found 4 flowering plants and 4 basal plants at rkw this year.
This year, we used “demopup” to track progress as we revisted sites where we searched for and demo’ed flowering plants. Rhw made it on the list, but no such luck for rhr.
Start year: Plantings in 2000-2002
Location: Seven study plots on state land with different land use histories: old-field and restored grassland
You can read more about the fire in recruitment experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
We established an experiment in 2021 to investigate the effects of fire on Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii). reproduction. For the third year, we visited 378 randomly placed plots across 27 remnant patches and counted the number of flowering Andropogon culms rooted within 1 m of the random point. We also harvested seed heads to directly examine reproductive outcomes. In 2023, we counted a total of 1814 culms. The highest density we observed was 165 culms in one plot at KJs, but it wasn’t enough to beat the standing records from 2022 of 197 culms…
With the help of Elif and Carleton externs, we are making progress on a protocol that will enable us to efficiently quantify seed production. Stay tuned!
Should we tell Lindsey that isn’t an Andropogon plot? Nah, what’s the worst that can happen…
Start year: 2021
Location: 27 patches of talgrass prairie near Solem Township, MN
Data collected: All reproductive effort data have been curated and are housed in remag repo.
Samples or specimens collected: Seed heads collected during summer 2023 are in Jared’s office. These samples will be cleaned, processed, and x-rayed to quantify seed set. All 2021 samples have been cleaned and weighed. Most 2022 samples have been cleaned and weighed. All samples will be x-rayed this winter.
Products: Stay tuned!
You can read more about the Andropogon fire and flowering in remnants experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
In summer 2020, Team Echinacea established two plots south of experimental plot 8 for a pilot experiment examining fire effects on Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) reproduction. Neither plot was burned during 2020. During spring 2021, we randomly selected the western plot to be burned. In spring 2022, we burned the western plot. Team Echinacea did not collect any new data from the Andropogon pilot experiment during summer 2023. In the lab, Elif and Stuart made progress on developing a protocol for x-raying Andropogon seed heads and processing the X-ray images. During December 2023, Carleton externs Vo and Rebecca are developing a protocol for quantifying seed set. Exciting times ahead!
Data collected: All reproductive effort data are housed within the remag repo. We are currently generating data on reproductive outcomes in the lab.
Samples or specimens collected: All harvested seed heads have been cleaned and x-rayed.
Products: Stay tuned for an updated in the next couple weeks!
You can read more about the Andropogon fire and flowering in exPt08 experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
You guessed it! Jared AGAIN mapped a bunch of lilies in summer 2023… What a goof. We mapped 277 flowering plants within seven 60 x 40 m plots. Pods were harvested from ~20 plants.
Wait, what were you saying about Echinacea? I got distracted…
Start year: 2021
Location: Remnant patches of prairie in and around Solem Township, MN
Overlaps with: The setting sun and a full night of sleep
Data collected: Spatial and demographic data are housed in the remlp repo.
Samples or specimens collected: Harvested pods are in Jared’s office. They have been cleaned. All unprocessed seeds from prior years were returned to western Minnesota.
Products: Stay tuned!
You can read more about the Lilium fire and flowering experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
We did not collect any additional data on Echinacea angustifolia flowering phenology in remnants during summer 2023. During spring 2022, we curated remnant phenology data.
Rays up, rays spreading, first day flowering, and second day flowering all in one plant. If only there was someone studying how this variation influenced reproduct… oh wait, nevermind.
Start year: 1996
Location: Roadsides, railroad rights of way, and nature preserves in and around Solem Township, MN
Data collected: All data have been curated and added to the Echinacea Project’s ‘remPhenology’ data set. Jared also curated all remnant style persistence data.
Products: Check out our recent PNAS paper investigating fire effects on plant reproductive which utilizes our extensive phenology data set!
You can read more about the Flowering phenology in remnants project, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
In spring 2023 we planted about 100 Asclepias viridiflora seedlings in plugs to transects at site eth. The planting data sheets with all details are in Jared’s office. We did not monitor these seedlings after planting.
During summer 2023, we collected demographic data on 172 individual Asclepias viridiflora plants across 17 sites. We also collected 52 seed pods from 26 maternal plants.
A very charismatic cryptid
Dathon Maton and Mary Ashley at the University of Illinois at Chicago have made great progress genotyping tissue collected from seedlings and potential parents in remnant populations. These genetic data coupled with our spatial and demographic data will help us understand the genetic structure of milkweed populations and patterns of gene flow within and among remnants.
Start year: 2021
Location: 17 patches of remnant tallgrass prairie near Solem Township, MN
Data collected: Spatial and demographic data have been curated and are housed within the remav repo. Harvested pods have been cleaned, counted, and x-rayed but need to be classified.
Samples or specimens collected: 2023 harvested seeds are in Jared’s office. Previous year’s seeds were returned to remnant populations.
Products: Stay tuned!
You can read more about the Asclepias viridiflora demography experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
In summer 2021 and summer 2022, we investigated fire effects on Liatris aspera across 30 patches of remnant prairie in Solem Township, MN. We did not collect any new Liatris data in 2023. All harvested samples were processed in the lab during spring 2023. All data has been curated and are analysis-ready.
Had to go back to 2021 to get a Liatris photo, good riddance!
Start year: 2021-2022
Location: 30 patches of remnant prairie in and around Solem Township, MN
Data collected: Spatial location, reproductive effort, and reproductive outcomes data have been curated in the remLa repo. All data are analysis ready.
Samples or specimens collected: All harvested reproductive material have been processed in the lab. Half of the collected seed was sowed in the recently burned southeast hill at the farm. The other half have been reserved for sowing in P2 (provided it burns in spring 2024).
Products: Jared has conducted preliminary analyses. Stay tuned in 2024 for more info!
You can read more about the Liatris fire and flowering experiment, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
Since 1995, the Echinacea Project has been mapping and collecting demographic information on Echinacea angustifolia to generate long-term records detailing individual fitness in prairie remnants. In summer 2023, Team Echinacea visited 42 prairie remnants to search at 2443 locations where adult Echinacea plants had been previously mapped. We call this “total demo.” At small sites, the team took records for all adult plants found at a site (no change in total demo protocol from previous years). At larger sites, we scaled down and visited a subset of adult plants. Burning led to high flowering rates and lots of newly flowering plants entering the census, which stressed our system for total demo. This year we did not visit plants that were “not present” for the past 3+ years and we also capped total demo points at 100 per site. For example, at Landfill, we searched at 100 locations at Landfill East and 100 Locations at Landfill West.
We used stake files on our high-precision GPS units to stake to each Echinacea plant in our total demo visit list, where we recorded flowering status, number of flowering heads, number of rosettes, and near neighbors of the plant on handheld data collectors (visors).
In addition to total demo, we searched and took records for all flowering plants in our remnant sites. For flowering demo, we visited 50 sites. In summer 2023, we took 5,601 demographic records in prairie remnants (demo) and 1929 GPS records (surv). We saw a much lower flowering year following 2022, with ~1586 flowering plants total. At Landfill, there were ~262 flowering plants and at Loeffler’s corner, there were 285.
Alexa and Jak step carefully through Kjs as they search for flowering Echinacea plants. 63 plants flowered at Kjs in 2023!
We also took demo and surv data as part of our Pollen and Nectar project where we will compare characteristics of pollen and nectar in burned vs. unburned prairies. We collected demographic data at a subset of plants at several sites where we have never done demo or surv. We put out our first tags at hulze, hulzw, torges, torgen, hutche, hutchw, and koons.
This year, we put out 528 new tags which started at 28001. Two 29000 tags were accidentally created and placed in Landfill East, but those were quickly removed during our demo rechecks following completion of flowering demo and total demo.
Lindsey visits an 18 headed Echinacea plant at Steven’s Approach. This plant produced the most heads of any this year.
After revisiting a final round of recheck plants during a trip to Minnesota in mid-November, we are just getting ready to move data from aiisummer2023 into demap.
Start year: 1995
Location: Remnant prairie populations of the purple coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, in Douglas County, MN. Sites are located between roadsides and fields, in railroad margins, on private land, and in protected natural areas.
Total demo: Bill Thom’s Gate, Common Garden, Dog, East of Town Hall, Golf Course, Martinson’s Approach, Near Pallida, Nessman, North of Golf Course, South of Golf Course, Sign, Town Hall, Tower, Transplant Plot, West of Aanenson, Woody’s, Yellow Orchid Hill, plus the recruitment plots REL, RHE, RHP, RHS, RHX, RKE, RKW
Annual sample: Aanenson, Around Landfill, East Elk Lake Road, East Riley, KJ’s, Krusemarks, Loeffler’s Corner, Landfill, North of Railroad Crossing, Northwest of Landfill and North of Northwest of Landfill (lumped), On 27, Riley, Railroad Crossing, Steven’s Approach, Staffanson Prairie
Plant status (can’t find, basal, dead this year’s leaves, dead last year’s leaves, flowering), number of rosettes, nearest neighbors, and head count, if flowering
All GPS files are found here: Dropbox/geospatialDataBackup2023
All demo and surv records are stored in the aiisummer2023 repo
The most recent copies of allDemoDemo.RData and allSurv.RData can be accessed at Dropbox/demapSupplements/demapInputFiles
Samples or specimens collected: NA
Products:
Amy Dykstra’s dissertation included matrix projection modeling using demographic data
The “demap” project is a long-term dataset that combines phenological, spatial and demographic data for remnant plants
You can read more about the demographic census in the remnants, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
For many, the end of the year brings thoughts of final exams, final reports, and final projects. Here at the Echinacea Project, we don’t believe in final anything, but we do believe in updates! Last week, two of our Lake Forest College interns, Sophia and Olivia, shared project updates with the lab: a culmination of their semester in the lab.
Olivia shared results from her study on plant and reproductive health indicators (more here)
Olivia and Sophia present research updates at lab meeting!
Sophia shared a poster with the lab and also with attendees of a Lake Forest College research symposium! Sophia’s research focuses on the effects of pollen limitation on life history fitness in Echinacea. (More info to come!)
Sophia Presents a poster at Lake Forest College’s Glassman Symposium.
