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We had a big year for censusing plants in natural remnant populations. In 2017 we did both total demo, visiting all plants, and flowering demo, visiting just plants that flowered this year. Check out the chart below to see what we focused on at each site:
| Total Demo |
Aanenson, Around LF (partial), Common Garden, East of Town Hall, East Riley, Hegg Lake, Landfill West, Loeffler Corner East, NRRX, recruit he, recruit hp, recruit hs, Riley, RRX, South of Golf Course, Steven’s Approach, transplant plot |
| Flowering Demo |
Around LF, BTG, DOG, Elk Lake Road East, Golf Course, KJs, Krusemark, Landfill East, Liatris Hill, Loeffler Corner West, Near Town Hall, Nessman, NNWLF, North of Golf Course, NWLF, On 27, recruit el, recruit hw, recruit ke, recruit kw, RRXDC, Staffanson East Unit, Staffanson West Unit, Tower, Town Hall, West of Aanenson, Woody’s, Yellow Orchid Hill East, Yellow Orchid Hill West |
 We stake to locations where flowering plants have been found in the past and place a flag there. This is the East Riley roadside remnant, an area with a lot of Echinacea close together and a high chance of getting mowed. When we find a new flowering Echinacea plant, we give it a tag and get its location with a survey-grade GPS (better than 6 cm precision). Then, we can revisit this plant for years to come and monitor its survival and reproduction.
This season we added 5945 demo records and about 1375 survey records to our database. After over 20 years of this method, we now have a very rich longitudinal dataset of life histories including thousands of plants. REU Will Reed was a huge help organizing demo tasks for Team Echinacea over the summer and helping out with demap (the demographic census database) during the year.
Year started: 1996
Location: Roadsides, railroad rights of way, and nature preserves in and near Solem Township, Minnesota.
Overlaps with: Flowering phenology in remnants, fire and flowering at SPP
Data collected: demo records include Flowering status, number of rosettes, number of heads, neighbors within a 12 cm radius of plants found. These are all taken with PDAs that sync with an MS Access database. They are all transferred to the demap R repository in bitbucket with git version control.
GPS points shot: Points for each flowering plant this year shot mostly in SURV records, stored in surv.csv. Each location should be either associated with a loc from prior years or a point shot this year.
Products:
- Amy Dykstra’s dissertation included matrix projection modeling using demographic data
- Project “demap” merges phenological, spatial and demographic data for remnant plants
You can find out more about the demographic census in the remnants and links to previous posts regarding it on the background page for this experiment.
Over the next several weeks we are going to post updates on all the projects we worked on during summer 2017. Whew we did a lot–it might take a couple of months!
 Team Echinacea summer 2017 Put a bookmark on our update page to stay caught up. We’ll post all updates on that page.
Two new projects to look out for are Richardson’s “Liatris and Solidago phenology” and “Pollinators on roadsides.” Also, we’ll recap Barto’s & Braker’s REU projects. Stay tuned!
We didn’t work on the project Fire & flowering at Staffanson Prairie Preserve
or on Mating compatibility in remnants this summer. We didn’t do the first one because no burns were conducted at the preserve before this growing season. We contemplated assessing compatibility for another year, but there seemed to be more things that we wanted to do than there were people and time to do them.
My time here as a 2017 summer team member of the Echinacea Project is nearing its end. During my REU internship, I have had the opportunity to work under great mentors and with some great peers, and I’m sad I only have one week left. Nonetheless, I hope to make the most of my last week, and the data analysis part of that week continued today. This morning, I worked on my generalized linear model of my shrivel rate data in R using a model problem Stuart gave me. Lea helped me work through some errors returned to me while creating my models, and she used her Solidago figures to help explain the difference in additive and multiplicative interactions. Tomorrow, I hope to find what is significant in my study using the
 Viking set-up at Andes GLM!
While I worked on my analysis, there was a mountain bike race at Andes, and part of the set-up included a 3 meter viking near the finish line. Taking a picture with it was somethings I definitely could not pass up.
In the afternoon, Lea, Tracie, and I enjoyed a evening celebrating a great summer. Since it’s my last weekend before returning to my university in Arkansas, we wanted to have a great evening, so we enjoyed a night out in Alexandria!
 Tracie, Lea, and I in Alexandria We are excited to welcome our new roommate, Kristen, tomorrow!
Good afternoon, Flog readers!
As an REU intern and member of Team Echinacea, I get to do an independent research project of my choice. I’m excited to be studying the effect of style age, resource allocation, and pulse pollination on Echinacea angustifolia. I’ve attached my research proposal for your enjoyment and others’ future reference.
I’m excited to conduct this study!
My proposal: BARTO_Proposal_2017
 Bracts of rows 1, 3, and 5 painted.  Pollinating Echinacea
Like Wes said yesterday, it’s pretty clear the crew living at the Andes ski condo enjoys quiet and relaxing mornings. After I made myself waffles and enjoyed a tall cup of hazelnut coffee, Lea and I ventured out to Alexandria to run errands. We stopped by the trusty laundromat to wash our clothes, some of which had wild parsnip oil on it. While our clothes were in the wash, we went grocery shopping for the week. I’m making pasta salad on Wednesday, and I had fun searching the store for all the ingredients I needed. When we checked-out of the store, we returned to our trusty laundromat and switched our clothes to the dryer. To utilize our time, we stepped next door to the coffee shop. There, Lea thought through some of her research questions, and I worked on my experimental design for my summer REU project.
Lea working in the coffee shop When we collected our laundry, we came back to Andes, and we all enjoyed the braut dinner Wes made. After dinner, we all drank tall glasses of chocolate milk. Yum. 🙂
Team Echinacea spent our Sunday morning relaxing around Andes Tower Hills. Over breakfast and coffee, we decided on a time to leave for the Runestone Days lunch buffet and parade. A bit later, I walked around the Andes property to investigate the nearby lake and enjoy the late morning’s cool breeze. Even though I’ve been in Minnesota for nearly a week, I am still refreshed by the temperate climate and the vast stretches of prairie-covered hills in this area.
By the time I walked back to our cabin, the rest of the team was ready to head over to Kensington to feast at the Father’s Day buffet. Wes gathered his tuba, we all gathered our appetite, and soon enough, we were enjoying delicious fish, carrots, potatoes, and pudding. Yum! Around 1:00, Wes headed out to meet up with the Morris County Band, so they could rehearse before floating in the parade. The other four of us enjoyed the beautiful weather as we watched. We collected candy and ice cream treats distributed by parade participants, and we cheered for the Morris County Band when their float passed. What a fun afternoon!
Now, Leah is setting up her drone, others are relaxing, and I have plans to continue research on my REU project. I’ve enjoyed my relaxing weekend, but I’m ready to continue work in the prairies tomorrow!
Ashley
Leah watching the Runestone Days parade.
Today was the third day in the field for Team Echinacea 2017. We all started out in P1, where we split up and did various tasks. Alex and Ashley took on the riskiest task and weeded some invasive bird’s foot trefoil around the plot that was among some poison ivy. Will, Lea, Wes, and I got the 10-meter signs and flag markers up and organized. Stuart and Anna started taking on the invasive hawkweed that has been getting into the plot and spreading, and eventually all of us were wrestling with it. The hawkweed has some incredible rhizomes that spread around to nets and nets of rosettes. Will and I found an estimated 45% hawkweed cover in one part of the plot. Here are some of the comments you might have heard from all of us while trying to get these out of the ground:
“Anytime you think you’ve found them all, you haven’t.”
“You will be champion of the longest rhizome!”
“I think I am becoming allergic to hawkweed.”
Weeding was fun, but I think we were all ready for lunch when it came around. At lunch we talked about doing a yellow pan trap experiment this year to catch and identify bees and see how their abundance and diversity relates to surrounding vegetation. Lea also gave an intro to her experiment for the summer, and we talked about potential REU projects.
After lunch we headed over to P8 and started learning how to collect data on the Echinacea growing there. Returners helped the newcomers start to get a hang of navigating the plot site, collecting data on visors, and finding and measuring Echinacea. We finished the day with a watermelon on the porch.
It was a great week. I’m excited for more.
Tracie
Lea, Gretel, and Ashley in P8.
An ideal position for either an undergraduate or a graduate interested in gaining field experience.
The Echinacea Project is looking for interested and enthusiastic summer field assistants for the 2017 summer field season. Our project investigates how small population size and reduced genetic diversity influence individual fitness, population demographics, plant-insect interactions and evolution in the purple coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia. Summer field assistants will help maintain experimental plots, observe pollinators, remove invasive species, harvest seed, collect data for several long-term research projects, and establish new experiments. This is a great opportunity for aspiring ecologists, conservation biologists, and evolutionary biologists to gain research experience and learn about the ecology and evolution of plants in fragmented prairies! Read about what it’s like working and living in Minnesota.
Qualifications: We are looking for undergraduates or recent graduates who are willing to work outdoors in adverse conditions, exhibit patience, possess good hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, work well independently and as part of a team, and have an interest in scientific research. No experience is necessary, but you must be enthusiastic and hard-working.
Details: The field season runs from June to October. We anticipate hiring assistants from June through August, with the possibility of extension later into the fall. There is a $500/week stipend and housing is supplied.
How to apply
- Please fill out the online form at this link.
- Send a cover letter, your resume, and a transcript (unofficial OK) in one email to echinaceaProject@gmail.com. Use the subject line: “Summer Field Assistant 2017” and format your cover letter, resume, and transcript as pdf files. Begin each file name with your surname. Please ask one of your references to send a letter of recommendation to echinaceaProject@gmail.com.
 Laura taking data In your cover letter please include…
- why you are interested
- what are your future plans
- when you can start and end
- who will serve as your reference
- your email and phone number
Send your application via email to echinaceaProject@gmail.com by 2 March 2017.
Students who are now and will be undergraduates in Fall 2017, should also consider an REU internship.
You are welcome to apply to multiple positions with the same application. Please indicate which positions you are interested in on the form you submit with your application.
Review of applications will begin on 2 March 2017. We’ll accept applications until positions are filled. Be sure to include an email address and phone number where you can be reached during March.
Members of groups underrepresented in science are particularly encouraged to apply.
More information
First, read about our field season! If you have any questions, contact a team member via e-mail. Read about our lab and field activities on the flog and more about the project’s background.
Good afternoon floggers! As far as progress goes, we are moving along steadily on cleaning and counting. I have randomized about 180 samples of achenes and I have finished rechecking the three trays of randomized achenes. We are on the 9th bag of Echinacea heads that need to be cleaned. In other news from the lab, the REU students have completed their research and are presenting their scientific posters today. We have had lots of interesting information and studies to read about over the past few days! Today will be my last day volunteering in the lab. I am off to University of Michigan to complete my undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences. The opportunity to volunteer in the lab this summer has been truly unbelievable. I have learned so much, not only from staff members, but also from the incredible volunteers who kept me company. I am so grateful to have been given this job and I would like to thank everyone who made this summer internship unforgettable. This is Ivy Klee signing off! Goodbye and good luck with the rest of project Echinacea!
We are down in numbers this week. Leah, Alyson, Alex, and Jennifer headed back to Ohio last week, and Amy and Will are in Florida for the ESA meeting this week.
Even with the low numbers we’ve been very productive these past two days. On Monday, we did phenology on the few plants that are still flowering. Then people split off and worked on individual projects and aphid treatments. Ruth Shaw and Margaret Kuchenreuther, a biology professor from Univ. MN Morris, came in for lunch.After lunch we headed out to Loeffler’s Corner to do some (former) seedling refinds.
This morning, we all split up to accomplish a lot. Scott and I finished up the aphid treatments from yesterday, Laura rechecked her project plant positions, Lea went out to Staffanson to put more plants into her project form, and James GPSed some more edges. Laura and Scott also found time to measure P6. At lunch, we had a delicious chocolate cake from Gretel and Hattie. YUM! After lunch we did full demo at Tower and South of Golf Course. We headed straight to Elk Lake after work to cool down and have fun!
Unfortunately, today was my last day with Team Echinacea. Thanks for a summer full of fun, learning, and prairies!
 Teamwork makes the dream work.  Scott searches for a tag during demo.  Yay! We’ve found a tag! Saying goodbye to Roxy was the hardest. 🙁
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