The Echinacea Project

Stipa Search Round 2

Today the team conducted the second day of Stipa search. This time we came back to know points with Stipa plants using our visor and confirmed if a plant was present. The team learned how to differentiate basal Stipa plants from other grasses in the plot and confirmed the presence of many Stipa grasses that weren’t logged during our first day of Stipa search. In the afternoon the team worked on staking more BB points and collecting/setting up more emergence traps.

Demo Day #1

Today the team went out to Hegg Lake to flag flowering echinacea along with decapitating some pallida. We were joined by collaborators from NDSU who collected pallida samples for pollen and nectar studies. It was the first day of taking demographics of the echinacea this season. Taking the demographics went well and we estimated finding anywhere between 80 to 300 flowering echinacea pallida. Later in the afternoon the team split up to work on independent projects. Including, shooting bb points with the gps, working on proposals, and flagging more echinacea.

**Photo of an echinacea pallida being decapitated**

A Tale of Flora and Fauna

Today the team learned about Hesperostipa spartea (Stipa) which is affectionately known as porcupine grass. After reviewing the protocol for collection, we made our way down to experimental plot p01 where we received a lesson on identifying flowering Stipa and counting the fruits (imagine a long seed with a tail). We documented the number of culms (stems) and fruits as well as missing fruit in our field notes. This was only the first step but the information collected will help determine how the fitness – an organisms ability to survive and reproduce in an ecosystem – of Stipa grown in experimental plots differs from Stipa growing in prairie remnants.

**Dr. Wagenius teaching** **team Echinacea how to identify *Hesperostipa spartea* in experimental plot p01.**

Later that afternoon, a small team retrieved and deployed emergence traps. The contents of the traps were examined and the specimens were prepared for classification.

**Ian straining the contents of an emergence trap.**

**The contents of an emergence trap. That’s a big bee!**

June 21st

Today was a busy Friday full of many activities! It is officially the first day of summer! Ning, Liam, and Maddie worked in P1 today fixing flags that might be out of place or not in line and also putting signs for positions so it is easier to know where you are. They also checked the flags in the 99 garden. Zach and Emma headed out to P8, where they watered the prairie turnips planted yesterday and planted extra plants. An interesting thing they noticed was that the prairie turnips seemed eaten across the first 3 rows. The team hypothesized that it might be hungry rodent. Ian helped Elise learn how to use the GPS and how to shoot some BB points.

At lunch, the team had a discussion about their ABTs (And, But, So), which are goals for what each person wants to research or study further this year. There were many great ideas and lots of feedback in our discussion.

In the afternoon, Liam and Zach shot some more BB points. Ian, Maddie, Elise, and Emma and placed some more emergence traps!

Zach with an emergence trap placed yesterday(6/20/2024)

The best birthday gift anyone could ask for:

A smooth start to the first emergence trapping deployment! Today we placed 23 traps at three sites, making good use of our new color-coded flagging system. So cool to see our work from the last few weeks starting to pay off!

Some emergence trapping sites are a lot smaller than others! It will be interesting to see whether size is associated with catch rate. Do bees prefer to nest in big sites?

REU student Zach deploys a trap at our first site of the day. This site was burned earlier in the spring, can you see how short the vegetation is?

These traps will be out for four days, then emptied and sent back out to new sites on Monday. Fingers crossed we’ll see some bees!

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).

Day in the Life

Today was a full day for team Echinacea! Not only is it Elise’s first day on the team, but it’s also summer solstice. This morning Brittany and I went out to Staffanson Prairie Preserve West to finish shooting bb-points. While another team started flagging/planting P8 for a new experiment. The new common garden experiment being added to P8 involves planting prairie turnip to learn how to grow and measure the species while establishing a basis for future studies.

This afternoon was busy finishing up planting in P8 while a handful of others went out and set the first emergence traps for the season! Woot woot!

Many more updates to come, along with daily posts from other members of the team.

Hailey (left) and Maddie (right) flagging in P8.

Wyatt (left) and Elise (right) standing with some prairie turnip plugs.

Brittany (left) and Emma (right) planting some turnips in P8.

bad hawkweed

We have a patch of an invasive weed in our main experimental plot. We have been trying to keep this non-native hawkweed from spreading for several years. This year we did a really good job. First, we found all the satellite patches and used the opportunity to practice reading and making maps. Then we pulled all the flowers stems–we estimated 369 stems. Here’s a map of all hawkweed patches and the main infestations is the 10m x 10m square.

Then we pulled all the stems in the square of infestation, counting as we pulled. Here are the counts & the total in the square:

sum(172, 120, 165, 108, 142, 103, 128, 121, 206) [1] 1265

After we counted and pulled, we each made an independent estimate of the number of flowering stems we missed. We could have missed stems that were trampled or difficult to see with the current light conditions. Here are our counts with the mean and median:

mean(37, 30, 25, 40, 120, 20, 40, 48, 32) [1] 37 median(37, 30, 25, 40, 120, 20, 40, 48, 32) [1] 37

Stuart went back when it was cloudy and found 47 stems in the infestation square, mostly trampled. The next day he systematically walked the square and found 4 more. So that’s 51 missed. One person had a pretty close estimate (48). All but one of our estimates were optimistic about our thoroughness.

round(c(37,51)/(1265+51), 3) [1] 0.028 0.039

We estimated a miss rate of 3% and our actual rate was closer to 4%. We practiced estimating, pulled a lot of stems, ~1700, and have maps to go back and get the plants later this season. Good work, team!

Zach Zarling

Echinacea Project 2024

I’m a junior in Environmental Science at Western Washington University, expecting to graduate winter quarter 2025.

Pronouns: He/Him

Research Interests

I’m very interested the ecology of botany, mycology and soil. I’d be very interested in learning about how invasive species and fire ecology affect community structure of prairie ecosystems.

Statement

I’m currently going to school in Bellingham, WA but I grew up in Eden Prairie, MN, glad to be back in the plains.

In my spare time I like to rock climb and kayak, birdwatch, forage mushrooms, read, and play banjo and guitar.

first day of field season

Today begins the field season! We had many activities planned to get everyone off to a good start for a productive and learning-filled summer.

introductions
safety training
getting gear
visiting sites
lunch
mapping orientation
directed observations & flogging
scheduling rest of week

We wrapped up with watermelon and a group photo:

First row: Ning, Hailey, Abby, Liam. 2nd row: Emma, Jared, Ian, Wyatt, Maddie, Brittany. Not pictured: Zach & Elise will start next week because their schools run late. Ruth will come up Thursday or Friday. Stuart took the photo.

Observations at LCW and YOHW

LCW- The study plot sits at the intersection of two roads, one of which is fairly busy. There were copious amounts of tall Brome grasses (cool season plant), and Lead plants (legume). These plants were observed throughout the study plot. There were also prairie roses lining about 5 feet of the roadside. We also observed one Echinacea angustifolia plant near the roadside. The study plot also contained trees and shrubs. It is suspected that this area was not involved in a recent burn. My group came to this conclusion based on the presence dried plant matter under the living plants. If there were a recent burn in this area, this would not be observed. There were not many flowering plants in this area. I hypothesize that it may be too early in the season or there is a lack of pollinators in the area.
YOHW- The study plot is located in an area with less observed vehicle traffic. There were no tall grasses or dead plant matter. We observed very few identifiable plant species. I hypothesize that this area was burned in the spring. In conclusion, these sites were vastly different. We observed far more plant species at the LCW study plot likely because the area had not undergone a recent burn.

Categories

Experiments