Today was a day for independent projects. I’m not really sure what everyone did and Marie is currently trying to hit me with a mini beach ball.
Ok. I’m back now. This morning, I woke up at the usual time to meet with my parents and go to Staffanson to collect data for my flowering phenology project. Today, we found about 5 or 6 heads that look like they could flower within the next few days!
Ilse and Reina spent the morning sewing more pollinator exclusion bags for Kory’s project and Lydia spent some more time with her aphids (this seems to be her new favorite activity) while Kory and Sara Z practiced capturing and identifying pollinators.
Marie and Dayvis went to Hegg Lake where they measured plants and practiced videotaping flowering.
Back at the Hjelm house, Stuart, Pete, and Dwight worked hard installing gutters to keep the basement from flooding when it rains.
Marie made us all some delicious pizza for dinner! I highly recommend the one with tofu and buffalo chicken wing sauce.
A good Friday for all, I think. 🙂
Enjoy the weekend!
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Sara Zufan, aka “Miss Z,” arrived from Chicago, IL (pop > 1 x 10^6 people) to Kensington Minnesota (pop = 280) this weekend and is already hard at work measuring plants and searching for the elusive Stipa grass in the sea of other grasses that is our common garden experiment. Miss Z is teacher in Chicago Public Schools at the Multicultural Academy of Scholarship. Next year she is teaching AP Biology, Regular Biology, and Earth & Space. This summer Miss Z plans to gain some hands-on cutting-edge field biology experience to enhance her professional development as a secondary school science educator. Miss Z is going to figure out how to bring her new knowledge into her classroom this coming school year. Stay tuned! Miss Z will keep you posted via this blog and twitter on her research endeavors and experiences in the field this summer as she investigates the ecology and evolution of plants and animals in the fragmented tallgrass prairie with the Echinacea Project. Here is my first draft of my research proposal for this summer! Hello all, This is the first draft of my research proposal regarding fitness and heritability in the offspring from Shona’s crosses last summer. I still have a bit more research to complete – in particular, brushing up on quantitative genetics. Nevertheless, I have enough information to go forward, and hope to get a good chunk of my measurements done by next week. -Marie Today the team accomplished a variety of projects. The morning began by searching for grasses in the common garden. A decent amount of grasses were located and the garden was resounding with choruses of “woots” shouted out when the grasses were located. The rest of the morning the team worked on individual projects. Throughout the day, Pam and I measured the Amax, transpiration, and conductance of echinacea plant leaves in the hybrid garden within the common garden. We managed to measure 42 plants before Helga (our fabulous machine) needed to take a rest and recharge until tomorrow. In the afternoon, more grasses searches were done. The team also ventured out to Hegg Lake to help Kory find echinacea plants about to flower in common garden 2 and to help Davis find flowering echinacea pallida plants. Overall the day was beautiful to be outside, and it was a very productive day! -Reina
I am a Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. I just started my year-long sabbatical and it is great to begin it as a member of Team Echinacea! Historically, I always have worked in grasslands, Pacific coastal, Montana and Minnesota sites, so one could say I love prairies. My research questions focus on processes that generate and maintain diversity in plant populations. This summer Mike, Reina and I will examine three related questions: 1) Do plants from different genetic crosses experience different levels of herbivory? 2) How do morphological and physiological traits such as photosynthetic rate, WUE or leaf area vary as a function of different genetic crosses? 3) What is the feedback between herbivory, physiological traits and genetic identity, and how might this influence plant fitness? I am originally from Colorado and lived 10 years in California, but I have lived in Minnesota for the past 15 years. I love being outdoors, especially in natural areas where I can hike, canoe, ski, bike, and camp. I also like to garden, read, cook or watch birds (my second favorite avian species with red plumage is the Rose-breasted Grosbeak). Travel to new places, from Kensington to India and beyond, has always given me new perspectives of the world.
Hello, everyone! If you couldn’t tell from the title, I am Sarah Baker. I am a rising Junior at St. Catherine University and an REU intern this summer. I am a biology major with an interest in wildlife and conservation biology. During the academic year, as well as being a student, I work as a teaching assistant for ceramics courses at my school. I will also be working as “animal room technician” this upcoming semester, taking care of organisms used in labs and research for biology related courses. Anyway, a bit of information about me: I grew up in Golden Valley, Minnesota and spent a lot of time in my childhood and teenage years outdoors. I often went hiking, canoeing, biking, and other types of adventuring outdoors with my family and learned much about nature from those experiences. My father, being a biologist, would often point out various plants and animals to me and identify them, teaching me what they were and interesting facts about them. These excursions fed my interest in wildlife and conservation. In the future, I plan to attend graduate school to study wildlife or conservation biology. When I’m not doing cool science-y things, I enjoy making pottery, being out in nature, sailing, and hanging with friends. I am also the president of the ceramics club at my school where we host Empty Bowls community service projects to raise money for Minnesota Open Arms. This summer, my independent project will focus on flowering phenology of various remnants. I will be adding to a data set from 2011 and 2012. My main interest with this project is to see if there are correlations between peak flowering times of the same remnants across multiple years. I look forward to all I will experience this summer! If you are interesting in learning a bit more about me, check out my webpage on the Echinacea Project website!
Sarah Baker |
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My entry on the website is at: The Echinacea Project People PK 