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Dear Flog,
 The team comforts Roxy as she contemplates life’s transience Today was bittersweet. We began the day by assessing phenology in the remnants, a task which takes far less time now than it did a few weeks ago. Many sites are completely done flowering, so we won’t visit them any more. To make matters worse, today was Jennifer’s last day. Roxy was so upset that she hitchhiked to Barrett in a last ditch attempt to make Jennifer stay. However there were also some rays of hope today. Most notably, Lea found a shirt that Alyson had left in Staffanson two weeks ago. We thought it was gone forever! Also, Ruth and Carlee, an REU student, visited. We all had a very productive afternoon measuring hybrid plots at Hegg. The day kept getting better. After work we went and had a nice dinner at Mi Mexico, a well-decorated restaurant in Alexandria. Tomorrow, Will, Gretel, and I will head up to Pembina to check seed set of the western prairie fringed orchids that we found earlier in the summer. Hopefully it will help take my mind off of the sad thought that more team members will be leaving soon.
Yours truly,
Amy
An ideal position for either undergraduates or graduates interested in gaining field experience.
The Echinacea Project is looking for interested and enthusiastic summer field assistants for the 2015 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 2016” 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 4 March 2016.
Students who are now and will be undergraduates in Fall 2016, 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 4 March 2016. 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
If you have any questions, contact Stuart via e-mail. Read about our lab and field activities on the flog and more about the project’s background.
For his REU, Ben Lee designed an experiment to test different methods of seed collection and sorting on Galium boreale. In the 2015 fall burn unit of Hegg Lake WMA, he placed six square ten by ten meter plots around patches of Galium. Ben randomly selected three plots to be machine harvested and the other three plots were chosen to be hand harvested. Hand harvesting was conducted by two team members at one time whereas machine harvesting was done by one person using a modified STIHL Shredder Vac. After harvest, Ben randomly selected three plots for machine sorting and the other three for hand sorting. Machine sorting was done using the dockage tester at the Hoffman Grain Elevator and hand sorting was done by pushing seeds through a standard window screen to remove the duff. Ben found no significant difference in efficiency (g/min) between the two harvest methods but did find that machine sorting is significantly more efficient than sorting by hand.
 The team at Hegg, close to Ben’s plots Start year: 2015
Location: Hegg Lake WMA
Products: Ben wrote a report and created a poster that was presented at his school’s (St. Mary’s College of Maryland) summer research symposium. The poster can be found here.
For his REU research project, Will is investigating heritability of flowering phenology in experimental plot 2 (p2), which was planted in 2006 with 3961 individuals selected for extreme (early or late) flowering phenology. This summer Will and Team Echinacea monitored the phenology of all 646 flowering plants (1216 individual heads) in p2, as well as the phenology of their parents in p1. Flowering in p2 began on the 4th of July and ended on August 26th. The peak day of flowering was July 27th when 1018 heads were flowering. The average duration of flowering for a head was 12.1 days. It was a huge year for flowering in p2 with nearly 5 times more heads than 2014 and over 16 times more than 2013. Will is comparing the flowering schedules of the p2 plants with the 2005 phenology records of their parents. As the plants in p2 mature, and perhaps flower more frequently, we will continue to gather data on family lines of Echinacea to discern the genetic component of their flowering phenology.
Many flags indicate many flowering plants in experimental plot 2 Start year: 2006
Location: Experimental plot 2 (Hegg Lake WMA)
Overlaps with: phenology in experimental plots
Products: The 2015 phenology records from p2 will be added to the existing multi-year ExPt2 phenology dataset. Will is using tools from the R package echPhenology developed by Team Echinacea to analyze and produce visualizations of the flowering schedule observed in p2. He plans to present his findings at a conference in spring or summer 2016.
 2015 flowering schedule of all heads in p2: First day of flowering was July 4th, peak was July 27th, and the last day was August 26th.
Read previous posts about this experiment.
Dear Reader: Before you embark on this adventure, may I recommend some easy listening? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc-P8oDuS0Q
This morning Abby, Gina, Katherine and I reluctantly returned to Loeffler’s Corner again to harvest heads. I say reluctantly because the last time this quad ventured to Loeffler’s it was to do demography rechecks. And that ended with us in the back of Abby’s car consoling our somewhat broken spirits with unroasted s’mores. However today with renewed spirits, we harvested with the vim and vigor of girls with clear hearts. In harvesting heads we knew we must take off everything, leaving nary a twist-tie in our wake. This ensures that heads can be uniquely identified, throughout the sorting process.
No longer beaten-down by Loeffler’s, we were far too young and clever to be confused by metal tags and dud flowers- no not us! Before getting in the van we cried too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye aye as we drove back to Hjelm house.
By the time we got back to Hjlem, Stuart had returned from his sojourn in Chicago! No longer do we wear beaten-down eyes sunk in smoke-dried faces, we were so happy to be reunited with Stuart. Abby could barely hold back a too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye aye she was so overjoyed, and Gina sang along and said she would surely hum this tune forever when she remembered the reunion. Who’d blame them for being glad, things round here have changed since Stuart’s been back and now we will have plenty of demo rechecks to do tomorrow!
The rest of the team spent the morning doing demo rechecks at Riley and East Riley, and sorting various harvest maps. They replaced many red twist-ties, because the red ties we put on plants at the beginning of the summer had lost their color and the poor old ties looked more clear than red! With each twist-tie added, members of Team Echinacea felt like they were putting pretty red dresses on the flowering plants.
At lunch, Gina talked about her findings from the aphid project. As Gina explained the statistics behind her analysis, I confess, I thought to myself: “Aah these things, I know they are real, but I swear what [s]he means could be said in plain english.” Stuart taught us how to explain our statistical results in language that is accessible to a broader audience, a valuable lesson for all scientists! Gina and Abby studied the same plants that were used in the 2012 aphid research and since then the plants have grown, so grown, and I must say now more than ever that there are more flowering than there were in the original data-set. To look at how more flowering plants may affect the data, the girls must come on out to P1 and assess herbivory on the cauline leaves. They were so resigned to what their fate was that they went straight to P1 after lunch to look at the leaves. These people round here really know how to tell a story of plant/insect interactions that captures the changes that occur in Echinacea populations over time.
After lunch, Katherine and I headed out to P1 to repaint Echinacea used in Q3 all the while humming Jonny Ray. Although his voice sounded sad on the radio, we can sing [his music] just like our fathers and that small comfort motivated us to do the best we could with the painting.
The Echinacea Project has taught me so much about teamwork, and at this moment, I remember that Katherine’s help means everything to me. You feel as if you can do the work alone, but when your hair verges on dirty, and you have shown weakness in the afternoon heat, it is your partner who will make you feel like saying too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye aye!
I look forward to the days when the Echinacea Project’s papers are as popular as Dexy’s Midnight Runners, a band who moved a million albums in mono. In the mean time, we spend our time fighting off hornets here at Hjelm House, unrecognized heros in the world of evolutionary ecology.
 Eileen- rendered in lunch
On our day off, some members of Team Echinacea went up to Glendalough state park to camp for a night. It was a great weekend because lots of things could have gone wrong, but we were super lucky and almost nothing did! For example, one of our tents didn’t have a rainfly, but then Stuart and Gretel let us borrow one of theirs! Thanks Stuart and Gretel! But we didn’t even end up sleeping in it—more about that later!! We also didn’t have a reservation, but it turned out that there was a no-show at a campsite, so we got that one! The lady at the park office told us that if a person named Nathan showed up, we would have to tell him that we had taken his campsite, but fortunately Nathan never showed up. Confrontation avoided! It was a canoe-in site, but lacking a canoe, we hiked there. Thanks for carrying the cooler, Gina!
We ate sandwiches and then went to the water. We decided to try to swim across the lake even though we agreed we weren’t very good at estimating distance across water. Then we swam across the lake! The water was really nice and it only took 45 minutes. We saw a loon and a bald eagle while we were swimming. Katherine and Gina walked to meet us at the beach on the other side. Next, we all spent a good 10-15 minutes giggling in the waves by the shore because we were happy and probably a little dehydrated. Then we realized that the beach we were on was being rented out for a family reunion and everyone around us was probably related and wondering who the heck we were, especially because they would have been able to see us bobbing across the lake for the past half hour! Thanks for sharing the beach, Will family!
Intrepid swimmers bob along swimmingly Next we walked back to our campsite. We built a fire in about 15 minutes which Katherine thought was kind of a while, but many of the rest us agreed was “about as fast as we had ever started a fire before.” We had corn and hot dogs and took a lot of pictures of the fire, hot dogs, and the sunset (see example below).
See similar pic on Gina’s instagram Once it got dark we started looking at the stars and were doing that when two park rangers showed up. “Hey folks just wanted to let you know that your tents are a little bit off the tent pad and also there is a storm a-brewing in North Dakota that has hurricane-force winds and golf-ball sized hail and it’s heading this way,” was approximately what he said. We mumbled responses and then he said, “Tell you what, the folks at the yurt campsite vacated the premises early so I’ll go ahead and leave that unlocked so you can go there if things get dicey.” So we said, “Thanks officer!” and after several minutes of discussion we decided that the opportunity to sleep in a yurt was too good to pass up, especially with the possibility of inclement weather. So then we got to sleep in the yurt and it was warm and dry which was nice because it sounded like a pretty gnarly storm!
The yurt was very sturdy and well furnished. We woke up and took some more pics (see below). Next we ate breakfast at a nice little place in Battle Lake, which we all agreed was “a really cute town.” Then Ali drove us home and we made it back to Town Hall safe and sound! What a great and lucky weekend!
Da yurt!
We are starting to review applications for summer research internships for undergraduates (REU). Get your application in! We’ll accept applications until positions are filled.
Apply!
https://echinaceaproject.org/summer-reu-internship-2015-ech/
An ideal position for either undergraduates or graduates interested in gaining field experience.
The Echinacea Project is looking for interested and enthusiastic summer field assistants for the 2015 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, 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 for both 10 and 18 week durations. There is a $440/week stipend and housing is supplied.
How to apply
Please 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 2015” 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 5 March 2015.
Students who are now and will be undergraduates in Fall 2015, should also consider an REU internship.
Review of applications will begin on 5 March 2015. 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
If you have any questions, contact Stuart via e-mail or phone (847-835-6978). Read about the project’s background.
This weekend has been very busy and exciting. Last Wednesday I left the comfort of Town Hall for the hustle and bustle of Chicago. On Thursday I had a chance to visit the beautiful gardens and meet the other CBG REU participants. The Chicago Botanic Gardens are stunningly beautiful and they have plenty of Echinacea purpurea.
I even saw some that looked super funky.
On Friday I gave a presentation on my project at the Chicago Botanic Garden / Field Museum / Morton Arborium Symposium. The presentation went well and I received more questions than any other speaker! I was very impressed by the other presentations as well and it was great to see the different types of projects that students were working on while I was in Minnesota.
Saturday was my day to be a tourist so I took the opportunity to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. Viewing Monet’s lily paintings was a pleasant compliment to seeing the real thing at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Although it was great to have the chance to explore the city, I am very ready to return to the Field to harvest achenes, do some (far more relaxed) data analysis, and help out with the other projects. I miss everyone terribly and am excited to see the rest of the crew in just a few hours!
Stay tuned for the posting of my poster/final data!
With love,
Maureen Page.
Join the summer fun in West Central Minnesota!
Kensington Runestone Days
13 – 15 June 2014
Old Settlers’ Reunion, Barrett
18 – 22 June 2014
Heritage Days, Starbuck
3 – 6 July 2014
Ashby Appreciation Days
18 – 20 July 2014
Grant County Fair, Herman
17 – 20 July 2014
Waterama, Glenwood
22 – 27 July 2014
Flekkefest, Elbow Lake
1 – 3 August 2014
Show White & The Seven Dwarfs Prairie Fire Children’s Theatre, Barrett
8 – 10 August 2014
Hoffman Harvest Festival
8 – 10 August 2014
Douglas County Fair, Alexandria
14 – 17 August 2014
Don’t forget the Minnesota State Fair!
21 Aug. – 1 Sept. 2014
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