Long time no see! I am a grad student at the University of Colorado now, but thankfully I have still had plenty of time to work on some Echinacea work. Last week I got to present at Botany in beautiful Tucson, Arizona 🌵.
First I presented a poster about fire and Echinacea demography. This is something we started in Chicago and Stuart, Amy Dykstra and I have been working on since. We used demap, the seedling search dataset, and the seedling recruitment experiment dataset to estimate vital rates (survival, flowering, and recruitment) within several Echinacea populations. We then estimated how these vital rates varied with fire. To see how these changes in vital rates affected actual population dynamics, we then constructed matrix models to estimate the average growth rates of several remnant populations under various fire frequencies. Finally, to see which demographic pathway was primarily responsible for changes in population growth, we decomposed the changes in population growth rates under different fire regimes into contributions from each vital rate’s response to fire. We used Bayesian modeling to estimate the vital rates. Stuart, Amy D. and I are putting the finishing touches on a manuscript for this project, so keep your eyes open!
I got some good questions from people at the conference. One is: would seed addition help bolster growth rates? Very interesting question – I think it probably would in populations with high juvenile survival, given that under these circumstances higher recruitment has the largest contribution to population growth. Another person asked about climate change and whether I thought the Echinacea range was likely to move north with warmer temperatures. I can’t answer that question but we did use climate data in our models; climate was warmer and wetter in our observation period than they were in the 100 years prior, and these covariates were featured in some of our models. It would be fun to incorporate climate change into estimates of vital rates and population growth.
I also gave a three-minute lightning talk to briefly present an idea I have had since I was in Chicago in 2017. Amy, Jennifer, Gretel, and Stuart have done some prior work looking at synchrony, mating opportunity, and mating success in Echinacea. I have been curious about whether populations exhibit nested structure in their flowering schedules, i.e., whether or not individuals which flower less often flower in the same years as plants which flower most often. There are some interesting potential consequences of deviation from non-nested structure. Hopefully I have time to study this in Colorado.
Also of note: Jennifer gave an awesome talk synthesizing a lot of the pollinator work done in the Echinacea system the last several years. It was great to see so many facets of Echinacea pollination discussed together. One of the most interesting parts of this talk was Mia’s poster, looking at the diversity of male pollen donors on bees, and how they varied by pollinator species. I remember when Laura was collecting this data in 2016. She was so good at wiping! Very cool to see final results for this project!
Otherwise, there were some great talks and posters. A couple of good ones: Joseph Braasch from Katrina Dluglosch’s lab at the University of Arizona talking about community shift with climate change and Jessa Finch (from CBG) talking about how gene flow affects early life stages of milkweeds. Maybe the best talk I saw came from a student in Julie Etterson’s lab at UM Duluth talking about how seed collections for restorations is artificially selecting for traits. Very cool question!
I’m glad I was able to make it out to the conference. Huge thanks to my advisors Brett Melbourne and Kendi Davies for allowing me to work on this project for the last two years. Also thanks to the BioFrontiers Institute at CU Boulder for providing me funding while I worked on this project, the United Government of Grad Students at CU Boulder for funding my trip to the conference, and friends at CU Boulder and Colorado State who allowed me to drive down with them and crash in their hotel rooms in Tucson. Hope to see everybody at ESA in Louisville, KY later this month, where I will have a poster about some of the non-Echinacea work I am doing in Colorado.
Dining in Tucson: Mexican food, no, waffles, yes!Ipomopsis longiflora I spotted on the drive back outside Taos, NM. The CO crew identified this plant with a key while I tried to find a gas station.
PhD Student, Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota
Research Interests
I’m interested conservation biology, especially as it relates to pollination, phenology, movement ecology, and population genetics. For my dissertation, I’m studying pollinator-mediated gene flow and trying to figure out under what conditions pollinators maintain connectivity between plant populations in fragmented environments. I think a lot about how the processes that drive how species respond to habitat fragmentation vary among spatial and temporal scales.
Statement
I grew up in a suburb of the Twin Cities and currently live in the silver city of St. Paul. I started working with the Echinacea Project as an intern in 2015. In my free time, I like to spend time outside, read, garden, and go on walks with my dog Gooseberry!
In summer 2018, I harvested 80 seedheads from 12 remnant Echinacea populations (ALF, EELR, KJ, NWLF, GC, NGC, SGC, NNWLF, LC, RRX, NRRX, YOH) to study patterns of reproductive fitness. I sampled heads in two ways – (1) I randomly selected 20% of the individuals at each site (43 individuals) and (2) I randomly sampled up to 5 individuals from full factorial combinations of high, medium, and low spatial isolation and early, peak, and late flowering time (i.e., high spatial isolation/early flowering, high spatial isolation/peak flowering, etc.) across all sites (37 individuals).
In January 2019, I dissected seedheads that I collected from the NW sites (ALF, EELR, KJ, NWLF, GC, SGC, NGC, KJ, NNWLF). I extracted the achenes by row to observe temporal variation in seed set within heads. I x-rayed the achenes and assessed seed set in January.
Xray images that show whether achenes contain embryos or not
Products: Check back with the flog for preliminary results and annual reports.
You can read more about reproductive fitness in remnants, as well as links to prior flog entries mentioning the experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
Inbreeding has negative effects on Echinacea, leading to reduced survival andfitness. In isolated populations, populations could benefit from genetic diversity introduced by mating with individuals from other populations (“outcrossing”). However, gene flow from other populations may compromise a population’s adaptation to its local environment. Amy Dykstra designed an experiment to test how mating with individuals from other populations affects Echinacea fitness. In the summer of 2008, Amy and Team Echinacea performed 259 crosses between individuals randomly selected from 6 of the largest remnant populations. That fall, Amy planted the offspring of these crosses (15,491 achenes) into an experimental plot at Hegg Lake WMA.
Every summer, including 2016, we measure plant status, number of rosettes, number of leaves, and length of the longest leaf of the individuals in the plot. We also note damage (herbivory) to the leaves.
Hegg Lake WMA (Amy’s plot is visible on the horizon to the right of the lake)
Data collected: We collected plant fitness measurements (plant status, number of rosettes, number of leaves, and length of longest leaf) electronically.
GPS points shot: We shot points at all surviving plants (and a few that we couldn’t find this year, but will check next year) in the experimental plot, which will make finding and monitoring these plants much more efficient in the future. The points are stored in ‘AMYSCROSSIG_20160712_SULU.tsj’ and some rechecks to those points are in “AMYSCROSSING_20160830_SULU.tsj’.
Products: Read about Amy’s analysis of the interpopulation crossing experiment in her flog post from last summer.
You can find more information about Amy’s experiment and links to previous flog posts regarding this experiment at the background page for the experiment.
Seedlings are marked with toothpicks to make them easier to find the following year
In 2008, Amy Dykstra began an experiment designed to assess the effects of inbreeding and outbreeding on small isolated populations of Echinacea. Inbreeding can result in the fixation of maladaptive alleles in populations and experiments by Team Echinacea have shown that the offspring of related Echinacea individuals have reduced fitness (Wagenius et al. 2010). In some cases, a population may benefit from new genetic material introduced by cross-breeding with another population. Alternatively, outcrossing may result in “genetic swamping,” where the adaptation of individuals to their local environment is compromised by gene flow from other populations.
In the summer of 2008, Amy and Team Echinacea performed 259 crosses between individuals randomly selected from 6 of the largest remnant populations. That fall, Amy planted the offspring of these crosses (15,491 achenes) into an experimental plot at Hegg Lake WMA. She weighed the achenes to estimate the success rate of the crosses and found that 40% of the achenes contained embryos. The experimental plot is divided into three blocks and achenes from each cross were divided into three groups. Amy sowed one group per cross in each block, randomly assigning location within the block.
Every summer, we measure plant status, number of rosettes, number of leaves, and length of the longest leaf of the individuals in the plot. We also note damage (herbivory) to the leaves.
Start year: 2008
Location: Hegg Lake WMA
Products:
Dykstra, A. B. 2013. Seedling recruitment in fragmented populations of Echinacea angustifolia. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Minnesota. PDF
Overlaps with: Dykstra’s local adaptation, inbreeding experiments– inb1 and inb2
Link to flog posts: Read updates and annual reportsabout this common garden experiment on our flog (field blog) as written by members of Team Echinacea.
In May 2014 I graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in biology with a focus on Organisms, Evolution & Ecology and a minor in environmental issues. I grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago where I got to know about tall grass prairie and oak savannahs. I enjoy traveling the world and learning about new cultures and ecosystems.
Research Interests
Ison & Wagenius found that seed set in the bottom florets of Echinacea angustifolia is lower than that of the top florets. This summer I am interested in investigating factors that may contribute to this finding. I will explore temporal differences in the style persistence of both groups of florets. I will also observe frequency of pollinator visitations for each set. I am very interested in learning how the differences in phenology of florets within a single Echinacea angustifolia head may impact gene flow in fragmented prairie habitat.
Junior biology and studio art double major at Gustavus Adolphus College.
I am very exited to be a part a the Echinacea Project this summer. I hope to gain experience working in the field and enjoy the summer. I am interested in genetics and the gene flow of plants. As of this post, I believe I will be continuing the research done by Katie Koch and Andrew Kaul looking at the efficiency of pollinator on Echinacea angustifolia.
My previous research experience was examining the proteins of the Kinetochore complex in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with regards to chromosome transmission fidelity. Through this I helped develop a protocol for a electrophoretic mobility shift assay.
I grew up in Montana, but spent my later years in Eau Claire WI. I enjoy reading, a good video game, running and yoga. I also spend my time working on art; my favorite mediums being ceramics and found art. I recently put on a small solo show at my school titled “The Alchemist.”
Reprints on this page are available online or in PDF format. They can be read and printed using Adobe Reader.
Waananen, A., Ison, J.L., S. Wagenius, R.G. Shaw. 2025. The fitness effects of outcrossing distance depend on parental flowering phenology in fragmented populations of a tallgrass prairie forb. New Phytologist 247: 968-978. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70240.
Beck, J. and S. Wagenius. Herbivory exacerbates pollen limitation by isolating unconsumed plants from prospective mates. American Journal of Botany 112(2): e70002. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.70002.
Thoen, R. D., A. Southgate, G. Kiefer, R.G. Shaw, S. Wagenius. 2024 The conservation value of small population remnants: Variability in inbreeding depression and heterosis of a perennial herb, the narrow-leaved purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia). Journal of Heredity esae055. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esae055.
Richardson, L.K, S.W. Nordstrom, A. Waananen, R. D. Thoen, A. B. Dykstra, G. Kiefer, D. E. Mullett, E. G. Eichenberger, R. G. Shaw, and S. Wagenius. 2024. Juvenile survival increases with dispersal distance and varies across years: 15 years of evidence in a prairie perennial. Ecology 105(7): e4331. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4331.
Waananen, A., L. K. Richardson, R. D. Thoen, S. W. Nordstrom, E. G. Eichenberger, G. Kiefer, A. Dykstra, R. G. Shaw, S. Wagenius. 2024. High juvenile mortality overwhelms benefits of mating potential for reproductive fitness. American Naturalist 203:6, E188-E199. https://doi.org/10.1086/730112
Beck, J., M. McKone, and S. Wagenius. 2024. Masting, fire-stimulated flowering, and the evolutionary ecology of synchronized reproduction. Ecology 105(4): e4261. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4261
Beck, J., A. Waananen, and S. Wagenius. 2023. Habitat fragmentation decouples fire-stimulated flowering from plant reproductive fitness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (39): e2306967120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2306967120
Pearson, A.E., Z. Zelman, L.A. Hill, M.A. Stevens, E.X. Jackson, M.M.N. Incarnato, R.M. Johnson, S. Wagenius, and J.L. Ison. 2023. Pollinators differ in their contribution to the male fitness of a self-incompatible composite. American Journal of Botany 110(6): e16190. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16190
Richardson, L. K., J. Beck, D. J. Eck, R. Shaw, and S. Wagenius. 2023. Fire effects on plant reproductive fitness vary among individuals, reflecting pollination‐dependent mechanisms. American Journal of Botany 110(4): e16160. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16160
Reed, W. J., J. L. Ison, A. Waananen, F. H. Shaw, S. Wagenius, R. G. Shaw. 2022. Genetic variation in reproductive timing in a long-lived herbaceous perennial. American Journal of Botany109(11) 1861–1874: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16072
Richardson, L. K. and S. Wagenius. 2022. Fire influences reproductive outcomes by modifying flowering phenology and mate-availability. New Phytologist 233(5): 2083-2093. online version
Nordstrom, S. W., A. B. Dykstra, and S. Wagenius. 2021. Fires slow population declines of a long-lived prairie plant through multiple vital rates. Oecologia 196:679–691. online version | supplemental info | reproducible analysis
Richardson, L.K, M.K. Gallagher, T. E. Hayes, A.S. Gallinat, G. Kiefer, K. Manion, M. Jenkins, G. Diersen, and S. Wagenius. 2020. Competition for pollination and isolation from mates differentially impact four stages of pollination in a model grassland perennial. Journal of Ecology 109: 1356–1369. online version |supplemental info | reproducible analysis
Wagenius, S., J. Beck, and G. Kiefer. 2020. Fire synchronizes flowering and boosts reproduction in a widespread but declining prairie species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117:3000-3005. online version | more info
Page, M. L., Ison, J. L., Bewley, A. L., Holsinger, K. M., Kaul, A. D., Koch, K. E., Kolis, K. M., and Wagenius, S. 2019. Pollinator effectiveness in a composite: A specialist bee pollinates more florets but does not move pollen farther than other visitors. American Journal of Botany 106: 1487–1498. PDF
Waananen, A., G. Kiefer, J. L. Ison, and S. Wagenius. 2018. Mating opportunity increases with synchrony of flowering among years more than synchrony within years in a nonmasting perennial. The American Naturalist 192: 379-388. PDF | Appendix | online version
Ison, J. L., L. J. Prescott, S. W. Nordstrom, A. Waananen, and S. Wagenius. 2018. Pollinator-mediated mechanisms for increased reproductive success in early flowering plants. Oikos 127: 1657-1669. PDF | Supplement | online version
Gallagher, M. K. and S. Wagenius. 2016. Seed source impacts germination and early establishment of dominant grasses in prairie restorations. Journal of Applied Ecology 53: 251-263. PDF | online version.
Muller, K. and S. Wagenius. 2016. Echinacea angustifolia and its specialist ant-tended aphid: a multi-year study of manipulated and naturally-occurring aphid infestation. Ecological Entomology 41: 51-60. PDF | online version
Shaw, R. G., S. Wagenius and C. J. Geyer. 2015. The susceptibility of Echinacea angustifolia to a specialist aphid: eco-evolutionary perspective on genotypic variation and demographic consequences. Journal of Ecology 103: 809-818. PDF
Kittelson, P., S. Wagenius, R. Nielsen, S. Qazi, M. Howe, G. Kiefer, and R. G. Shaw. 2015. Leaf functional traits, herbivory, and genetic diversity in Echinacea: Implications for fragmented populations. Ecology 96: 1877–1886. PDF
Herman, B., S. Packard, C. Pollack, G. Houseal, S. Sinn, J. Fant, A. D. Lewis, S. Wagenius, D. Gustafson, K. Hufford, B. Allison, K. Shaw, S. Haines, and C. Daniels. 2014. Decisions . . . Decisions . . . How to Source Plant Material for Native Plant Restoration Projects. Ecological Restoration 32: 236-238. PDF
Ison, J.L., and S. Wagenius. 2014. Both flowering time and spatial isolation affect reproduction in Echinacea angustifolia. Journal of Ecology 102: 920–929. PDF | Supplemental Material | Archived Data
Switzer, C. 2014. Using place-based inquiry to inspire and motivate future scientists. Science Scope 37: 50-58. PDF
Ison, J.L., S. Wagenius, D. Reitz., M.V. Ashley. 2014. Mating between Echinacea angustifolia (Asteraceae) individuals increases with their flowering synchrony and spatial proximity. American Journal of Botany 101: 180-189. PDF
Ison, J.L., S. Wagenius, D. Reitz., M.V. Ashley. 2013. Development and evaluation of microsatellite markers for a native prairie perennial, Echinacea angustifolia (Asteraceae). Applications in Plant Sciences 1: 1300049. PDF
Wagenius, S., A. B. Dykstra, C. E. Ridley, and R. G. Shaw. 2012. Seedling recruitment in the long-lived perennial, Echinacea angustifolia: a 10-year experiment. Restoration Ecology 20: 352-359. PDF
Ridley CE, Hangelbroek HH, Wagenius S, Stanton-Geddes J, Shaw RG, 2011. The effect of plant inbreeding and stoichiometry on interactions with herbivores in nature: Echinacea angustifolia and its specialist aphid. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24762. http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024762
Diersen, G. T. 2011. Team Echinacea & construction of a key using online images of fresh prairie plant pollen. The American Biology Teacher 73:35-38. PDF
Wagenius, S., and S. P. Lyon. 2010. Reproduction of Echinacea angustifolia in fragmented prairie is pollen-limited but not pollinator-limited. Ecology 91:733-742. Abstract | PDF | Supplemental Material
Wagenius, S., H. H. Hangelbroek, C. E. Ridley, and R. G. Shaw. 2010. Biparental inbreeding and interremnant mating in a perennial prairie plant: fitness consequences for progeny in their first eight years. Evolution 64: 761-771. Abstract | PDF
Ruth G. Shaw, Charles J. Geyer, Stuart Wagenius, Helen H. Hangelbroek, and Julie R. Etterson. 2008. Unifying life-history analyses for inference of fitness and population growth. American Naturalist 172: E35 – E47. Abstract | PDF | Supplemental Material
Geyer, C.J., S. Wagenius, and R.G. Shaw. 2007. Aster models for life history analysis. Biometrika 94: 415-426. PDF | Supplemental Material
Wagenius, S., E. Lonsdorf, and C. Neuhauser. 2007. Patch aging and the S-Allee effect: breeding system effects on the demographic response of plants to habitat fragmentation. American Naturalist 169: 383-397. PDF | Supplemental Material
Wagenius, S. 2006. Scale dependence of reproductive failure in fragmented Echinacea populations. Ecology 87: 931-941. PDF | Supplemental Material
Wagenius, S. 2004. Style persistence, pollen limitation, and seed set in the common prairie plant Echinacea angustifolia (Asteraceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 165: 595-603. PDF
Neuhauser, C., D. A. Andow, G. E. Heimpel, G. May, R. G. Shaw, and S. Wagenius. 2003. Community genetics: expanding the synthesis of ecology and genetics. Ecology 84: 545-558. PDF
Manuscripts
Muller, K. E., G. Hallaman, S. Zufan, J. Gall, and S. Wagenius. Structure, composition, and biotic interactions of ant communities in a fragmented prairie landscape. In revision.
Beck, J.J. and and S. Wagenius. 2024. Seedling recruitment after fire: Disentangling the roles of microsite conditions and seed availability. bioRxiv 2024.11.12.623237. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.12.623237.
Beck, J.J., A. Peschel, S. Wagenius, and R. Shaw. Emerging evidence supports local seed sourcing in the era of climate change. In revision.
Beck, J.J., G. Kiefer, R. Johnson, B. Winter, R. Dana, and S. Wagenius. Long-term effects of haying and
prescribed fire on the composition and diversity of wet prairie plant communities. In review.
Maton, D., J.J. Beck, S. Wagenius, and M. Ashley. Paternity analysis reveals spatial extent of gene flow within and among fragmented Asclepias viridiflora populations. In review.
Techniques and Protocols
Our favorite statistical analysis: aster. The package is available for use with R.
My current research focus is to understand and quantify ecological and evolutionary consequences of habitat fragmentation for the prairie plant Echinacea angustifolia. I enjoy working on this project because it helps plant conservation, it trains the next generation of scientists, and it advances basic science.
Conservation. Prairie plants, like many plants worldwide, live in habitat remnants that are now very small compared to the previous few thousand years. I’m interested in addressing practical questions such as: Will these small populations persist? Which factors contribute to population decline and how much? What are the best things people can do to help populations persist? We can apply what we learn about Echinacea to many other plants because Echinacea has many common traits. For example, Echinacea is a long-lived plant, like many other prairie plants, but not much is known about the population dynamics of such plants.
Education. I enjoy working with people at all stages in their education by teaching, mentoring, and advising. I am especially committed to working with students who are interested in ecological or evolutionary field research at the undergraduate or graduate level. I supervise undergraduate field research assistants every summer and advise graduate students through UIC and Northwestern University. I teach Conservation Genetics at several venues, including Northwestern University, where I am an adjunct assistant professor. I also teach a statistics class each year (Quantitative Methods in Ecology and Conservation). This class is a core course for the Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation at Northwestern.
Basic Science. The practical questions that motivate my empirical research also raise new questions that push the frontiers of scientific understanding. Some of the issues we are trying to understand better include: 1) the relationship between spatial scales of habitat fragmentation and density-dependent gene flow, 2) interactions between genetic, spatial, and temporal constraints to reproduction, 3) dependence of fitness traits on ecological parameters that change over time (fires, insects, conspecific density). It is intellectually stimulating to try to understand the Echinacea system, where both ecology and evolution influence basic biological processes.
After spending a good while talking about our independent project and looking over the work of last year’s Bee Team, Denise and I have come up with a preliminary plan for the next two weeks, sure to be revised once we actually get out there and figure out what works and what doesn’t. We considered how many different topics might affect bee behavior, including home ranges and the quantity of pollen on an echinacea head, but we ultimately decided that observing flight distances in relation to local daily densities of pollen-presenting echinacea would be the best complement for the lab work we’ve just finished. How will bee flight patterns change throughout the season–will they fly farther than usual between two echinacea before and after peak flowering, causing beneficial gene flow, or will the extra distance between the echinacea heads cause the bee to move to a neighboring non-echinacea, reducing the chances that the pollen will reach another echinacea plant? Due to the late flowering the year our observation time has shrunk to just two weeks, but hopefully it will be enough time to catch pre-peak and at least part of the peak flowering behavior.
The key data we’ll want to gather during our observations are:
– species of bee
– the row/position/head of echinacea visited, and in what order
– any other plants species visited between echinacea visits, and approximate location
By combining this data with a daily map of pollen-presenting echinacea heads in the Common Garden, we’ll be able to chart the bees’ flight patterns and analyze their behavior.
Thanks to the time spent by last year’s Bee Team working out the kinks in their painting and observation protocol, we should be able to save a good deal of time by adopting their methods. So, following their lead, here’s the general plan:
Last year’s team suggested that 7:30 AM would be the best time to begin catching bees. Because of our reliance on others for transportation to the garden, this may or may not happen, but we will try to get started as soon as possible each morning. Using a row number randomly generated by our visor as a starting point, Denise and I will search for bees in that row plus the row to the west and two more to the east. When we find a bee on an echinacea head we will catch it with a net, place it in a vial, and label the vial with the row, position, and twist tie color. The vial will be placed in a soft-sided cooler underneath an ice pack so the bee can calm down while we continue searching.
Once we have a few bees in the cooler we will return to the original capture site, take the first bee out of its vial and place it on a plastic bag on top of the icepack. Using handy dandy paint holsters made out of eppendorf tubes and duct tape, we will place a small dot of paint on the bee’s back, being careful to avoid the wings and antennae. The previous bee team suggested applying the paint with a short piece of metal from a flag, bent, sanded, and taped to a stick, but we will probably have to make do with toothpicks for the first day or so. Once the bee is painted and has warmed up a bit, it will be returned to the echinacea head where it was collected and observations will begin.
For observations, last year’s Bee Team suggested having teams of 3-5 people, with one person recording data and the others a few meters back from the bee, standing in a circle. When the bee lands on an echinacea head, the observers will call out the color of the twist tie and, if they can, the specific position of the plant. If the bee is moving from plant to plant too quickly for the observers to check the position, one of them will put a stake in by the plant before moving on and the data recorder will check the position. Due to the difficulties voiced by last year’s Bee Team over consistently recording accurate start and stop times for the bees on each head, and because we plan to use paper forms rather than the visor this year, we will not be recording these times. We will, however, make note of the collection and release times, as well as the time at which we lose track of the bee.
According to this plan, it looks like the materials we will need are:
– bee catching nets
– vials (glass was recommended)
– sharpie & labeling tape
– soft lunch cooler (1 per group?)
– hard ice packs (2 per cooler?)
– clipboard, data sheets, and a pen
– duct tape/eppendorf tube paint holsters filled with acrylic paint and marked with each color’s 3-letter abbreviation
– painting apparatus (toothpicks, until we can rig up the metal/stick deal)
– plastic bag, to keep the bee dry on top of the icepack while we paint it
– flags for marking echinacea if the bee is too fast for us
Things that we probably will not want:
– bug spray
– eye patches
– cement shoes
