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Today was a big day for remnant phenology surveys–possibly our biggest of the season. We made the process more efficient by not recording style persistence on flowers on their 3rd, 6th, 7th, and 8th days of flowering.
But we didn’t stop there. We also collected pollen, painted bracts, and performed the first crosses with the 10 focal plants at Riley. Each focal plant was crossed with its nearest neighbor, its farthest neighbor within the remnant, the earliest flowering plant, and the latest flowering plant. This is to help us understand how compatibility varies across space and flowering time.
In other news, Will and I saw an immature bald eagle amongst the gulls and turkey vultures at the landfill.
Today Team Echinacea 2014 completed our fourth week of work. All in all it was an eventful week complete with phenological observations and an orchid adventure but fireworks still awaited us…
While the team has grown accustomed to watching sparks fly in the field (between compatible Echinacea plants of course), we were not entirely prepared for the sparks that surged forth during dinner this evening. Content with our fine meal, Team Echinacea was reveling in stimulating conversation as our refrigerator (Sparky) began to hiss, pop, and buzz before bursting into flames (only a slight embellishment of actual events). Though the electrical fire and accompanying pyrotechnic display was short-lived and the damage negligible, the smell of melting rubber lingers on.
RIP Sparky, we will miss your cold touch.
Here is the latest draft of my proposal to investigate the survival rates of Aphis echinaceae on Echinacea hybrids and the impact they have on host fitness:
CMS_proposal_8Jul2014.pdf
I’m excited to get started. In addition to my main project, I will be conducting and coordinating a variety of side projects related to aphids and Echinacea hybrids:
1. Katherine Muller and Lydia English’s aphid addition/exclusion experiment in P1.
2. Assessing fitness of the two Echinacea species and their hybrids in P6 (Josh’s Garden) and P7 (at Hegg Lake).
3. Recording flowering phenology of Echinacea pallida at Hegg Lake, where they were planted in a prairie restoration.
Today Jared, Will and I spent the afternoon at Staffanson Prairie Preserve wrangling the blooming Echincea with flags and twist ties while also updating our flowering map of 2014. We’re working to find plants that were used in phenology studies in previous years so we can look at how a single plant’s flowering pattern changes over time. Here’s a map of the plants we’ve found so far this year, overlaid on multiple years of previously mapped plants.
staffmap.pdf
While out and about in Staffanson it’s easy to get drawn into the morphing landscape as new species begin to bloom. Here’s a picture of one of our favorites, Delphinium carolinianum.
Today the whole team was busy mapping and monitoring the phenology of Echinacea at numerous remnants. Although mosquitoes, gopher holes, and construction crews conspired against us, we were able to complete all monitoring before a bout of afternoon rain.
Here is a quick and dirty map of flowering Echinacea plants at Staffanson prairie that were mapped between 2011 and 2013. Please note that west, rather than north, is “up” on this map (the unusual orientation of this map is just for my convenience)…
sppmap
Having mutually pledged to the Echinacea Project our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor, we set out this fine Saturday morning to survey the flowering phenology of Echinacea in the prairie remnants. We are interested in phenology (the study of recurring phenomena) because just as distance can genetically isolate fragmented populations, so can time. Since Echinacea cannot reproduce with itself, it needs to be flowering at the same time as a compatible mate if it wants a chance to reproduce.
To quantify flowering phenology, we have to check on the flowers every few days. Echinacea is just beginning to flower now, and we don’t want to miss anything. Today we split up into two-person teams, went to different remnants, and recorded the progress of every flowering Echinacea. All our work locating and flagging plants earlier this week allowed us to move efficiently through the sites, finishing our survey by mid-day. Here we are converging at the final site:
A formidable crew undertaking a daunting task in pursuit of a noble goal: what a glorious Saturday!
Team Echinacea has been hard at work in the field the last couple of weeks! But behind the scenes, we have also been working hard on designing our research projects for the summer. I am interested in looking at the asynchronous patterns of flowering phenology in E. angustifolia, and would also like to describe the co-flowering community. If you would like to know more, check out my draft of my project proposal!
Hello everyone,
My name i Alli Grecco, and this is my first Flog entry! I thought I would start by telling you a bit about myself. I grew up in Minnesota, and love being back to the beautiful prairies! But now I live in Chicago, and am a student at DePaul University. Please view my profile page here: https://echinaceaproject.org/people/2014-team-members/allison-grecco/
I am so excited to be a part of Team Echinacea 2014, and cannot wait for the exciting research and fun ahead!
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