Liatris aspera 2021 progress in the lab is steadily marching on. Thanks to the work of the Carleton externs last winter, we began Northwestern’s spring quarter essentially halfway done (only needing to do some brief back-peddling due to a change in protocol).
With the help of work study Mia V., cleaning, the process of removing the achenes from the flowering heads and gather data on achene-per-head count, is completely finished. Mia has also made excellent progress on randomizing, the step where we select a random sample of achenes to be x-rayed as well as quantify seed predation. We’re on track to finish randomizing later this week or next. Following that, we can x-ray the final batch of 56 liatris, allowing us to quantify seed set, and all the hands-on work for our 234 liatris from 2021 will be complete!
Priorities going forward:
- Finish randomizing and x-raying for batch D
- Complete randomization data entry and verification
- Develop methods of data analysis to compare
- Burned vs. unburned predation rates
- In regards to density
- In regards to number of heads per plant
- Burned vs. unburned predation rates
- Develop methods of classifying seed set from x-rays (low priority)
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