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!
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.
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.
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!
Sarah Baker presented “Flowering phenology of Echinacea angustifolia in Minnesota tallgrass prairie remnants over three years,” the results of her summer 2013 REU project, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, University of Kentucky, on 4 April 2014.
Here’s the presentation…
An ideal position for either undergraduates or graduates interested in gaining field experience.
The Echinacea Project is looking for interested and enthusiastic summer field researchers for the 2014 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. This is a great internship or summer co-op for aspiring ecologists, conservation biologists, and evolutionary biologists! Read about what it’s like working and living in Minnesota.
Qualifications: College student or recent graduate, wants to work outdoors, is patient, has good hand-eye coordination and fine motor skill, willing to work hard even in inclement or hot conditions, and interested in ecological research. No experience is necessary, but you must be enthusiastic and hard-working.
Details: The field season runs from June to September. The exact start and end dates are negotiable.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 Researcher 2014” 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.
Students who are now and will be undergraduates in Fall 2014, should also consider an REU internship.
Review of applications will begin on 6 March 2014. 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.
There are opportunities to work on the Echinacea project as a volunteer, a research intern, summer field researcher, REU intern, graduate student, undergraduate lab investigator, short-term undergraduate intern, K-12 educator RET participant (Research Experience for Teacher), research collaborator, or visiting teacher/researcher. We’ll post information as new opportunities become available, but feel free to contact us.
If you are enthusiastic and want to gain field research experience, please read about summer field research positions available for this summer. These are great internships or summer co-ops for those interested in one or more of these topics: insects, plants, ecology, evolution, conservation biology, habitat fragmentation, pollination, tallgrass prairie, and geographic information systems (GIS). We welcome applications to these positions from anyone. We encourage members of groups underrepresented in science to apply to all positions. Some spots on the summer team are reserved for undergraduate students through the NSF-funded REU program…
REU (Research Experience for Undergraduate) participant
The Echinacea project offers several REU summer field research positions. Please read the general description for summer field research positions and note the details for both REU programs. All REU participants must be enrolled as an undergraduate student during the upcoming summer and must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Students in groups underrepresented in science are encouraged to apply.
Postdoctoral researcher
A postdoctoral position is available on the Echinacea project. The postdoc will collaborate with Stuart Wagenius (Chicago Botanic Garden) and Ruth Shaw (University of Minnesota) on quantitative genetic and demographic studies of the fragmented population and associated field experiments and will have the opportunity to participate in developing evolutionary models that incorporate our accumulating understanding of genetic and demographic processes within the study system. There is considerable potential for the postdoc to develop further research projects pertinent to the overall goals of this study.
Volunteer at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Many volunteers help with all aspects of research at the Chicago Botanic Garden, September through May. We always need help 1. cleaning seedheads, 2. scanning, counting, and weighing seeds, and 3. extracting DNA & running PCR. We also usually have a few other projects going on involving microscope work, curating our insect collection, working in the molecular lab, taking photographs, database maintenance, web development, or something else. Also, we can always use help with data entry! Let Stuart know your interests, skills & expertise and we’ll see how you can help the Echinacea project!
Callin assesses reproductive status of an Echinacea plant
Graduate student
There are several ways for graduate students to get involved in the Echinacea project. Ruth and Stuart advise students in several programs. Current students are working on a variety of thesis projects. Please contact Ruth about programs at the University of Minnesota. Please contact Stuart about programs at Northwestern University and at the University of Illinois–Chicago. Please contact Stuart about working at the research site.
Undergraduate during academic year
If you are a current undergraduate student interested in an independent study or a short-term internship (e.g. J-term), please contact Stuart at the Chicago Botanic Garden or Ruth at the University of Minnesota.
We are seeking highly motivated Chicago-area undergraduates interested in gaining experience and training in molecular genetics and population biology research. We are studying how pollen moves in prairie plant populations using Echinacea as a model species. We collected seeds from tagged plants and are using DNA fingerprinting techniques to determine which nearby plant is the pollen donor for each seed. There are a number of aspects of this research that students could turn into an independent research project for academic credit. Past students have presented their work at conferences and written up their project as part of their senior thesis.
For more information or to apply, please email Stuart at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
K-12 science educators
Are you a K-12 science educator interested in gaining summer field research experience? Please consider this paid professional development opportunity that involves collaborating with Echinacea project research scientists.
During a summer at the research site in western Minnesota, teachers will participate in the design and implementation of new experiments, assisting with ongoing field projects, modeling or analysis of experimental data, or other activities that will contribute to the Echinacea project. Teachers will develop a plan to bring their new experiences and knowledge at the emerging frontiers of science back into their classrooms (with funding to support the plan!). Teachers may also help develop a summer research program for their students. We are looking for educators interested in integrating research and education about one or more of these topics: insects, plants, pollination, ecology, evolution, habitat fragmentation, conservation biology, modeling, geographic information systems (GIS), computer modeling, spatial mathematics.
If you are interested, please contact Stuart with a brief email explaining your interests and qualifications. We are particularly interested in working with teachers at urban or rural schools and those at less well-endowed school districts. We urge Teach for America teachers to apply. Also, we encourage the participation of science educators who are members of underrepresented groups. Contact Stuart before 22 November to be considered for a position during the next summer. Note: Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and be currently employed as a K-12 science teacher or community college science faculty.
Dayvis (REU 2013) collects pollen from an Echinacea head
The main research project is to determine evolutionary and ecological consequences of habitat fragmentation on purple coneflower, a beautiful and relatively common prairie flower. The research site is in western Minnesota and Dr. Stuart Wagenius is the field supervisor.
The narrow-leaved purple coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, grows in the former tallgrass prairie and plains of North America, a habitat now fragmented by human activities such as agriculture, development, and roads. Echinacea now exists in isolated populations of various sizes. We know that seed production in isolated plants is limited by pollination and that genetic diversity is lower in small populations compared to large populations. We still don’t know the long-term consequences of reduced seed set, low-fitness seedlings, and reduced genetic diversity on the persistence of these populations.
During the summer, we will systematically map about 2000 plants in natural populations that have been observed annually since 1996 to compare the fecundity and mortality of plants in small and large populations. For another ongoing project, we will measure growth, flowering, and fitness traits of plants growing in research plots. The goal of this project is to estimate the genetic and environmental influences on Echinacea plants originating from small and large remnant populations. In addition to measuring plants and collecting data, we will maintain plots by weeding and establishing more native species.
You will gain skills in identifying plants, surveying natural plant populations, measuring plant traits in experimental plots, hand-pollinating plants, and observing & collecting insects. You will learn many techniques for experimental field work in plant ecology, genetics, and plant-insect interactions. Specific skills you may gain include collecting seed, surveying and GPS techniques, artificially pollinating flowers, identifying insects, mapping plants, and characterizing communities. You will also gain appreciation for long-term experiments and work as part of a team.
Jared (postdoc) gives a lunchtime talk on fire in prairies
A day on Team Echinacea:
There is no “typical” day with the Echinacea Project. Each day comes with a different set of opportunities and challenges, but there is an overall theme. We usually begin at our research station, the Hjelm House, with a team meeting at 8:30 am to discuss the plan for the day. Then we split up to complete that morning’s tasks. What we do varies a lot from week to week, but we often map Echinacea plants, measure plant heights, and assess timing of flowering. Most days, we head out to a nearby native prairie remnant sites or to one of our experimental plots. We then return to Hjelm for lunch. We eat lunch together at picnic tables and discuss project ideas, practice giving presentations, and bond as a team. After lunch, we head back out to the experimental plots or remnants. At the end of the day, we again meet as a team at Hjelm to debrief before leaving for the day.
Some of the 2019 team hanging out on a weekend at their housing in Kensington, MN
Living:
The study area is a rural agricultural community. In Solem township there are dirt roads, a highway, railroad tracks, wetlands, and lots of corn and soybeans. There are prairie remnants scattered throughout the township. The closest towns to our field station are Kensington (zip code 56343) and Hoffman (zip code 56339), MN. Alexandria, a larger town with a selection of grocery stores, is 20 miles east. Morris is another town 25 miles to the southwest, which is home to a University of Minnesota campus. The non-local team members (REUs, field assistants, and RETs) live together near the field site and often share meals. You’ll live in a house with basic amenities and share the common area and kitchen with other team members, but you’ll have your own space and a bed. Outside of work, team members have enjoyed exploring local natural areas, canoeing, river tubing, fishing, going to movies, bowling, board/card games, visiting the county and state fair, traveling to Twin Cities Pride, and even embarking on weekend camping trips around the rest of the state. Several times throughout the summer, we like to host team bonfires, where folks bring a dish to share and we enjoy a meal and marshmallows over the fire.
The 2023 team celebrates finishing measuring experimental plot 1
Interested in applying to one of our positions? Check out our current opportunities. Keep in mind the positions we offer may vary from year to year. Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this page. We like to have people who read carefully & pay attention to details on our team. To indicate that you have read this page & paid attention to details, please include the word runestone in your cover letter. We’ll note that favorably when we review your application.
Ian, Abby, and Wyatt (2024 team) borrow a canoe from Stuart for an adventure
We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and is embracing the cold weather and snow! A couple big things have happened in the lab over the last few weeks.
We have two interns, Grace and Aaron, from Carleton College who are working in the lab during their winter break.Their main project has been deciding how to proceed with the Echinacea pallida and E. angustifolia heads we harvested from Hegg Lake this fall. Dayvis observed pollinators and took phenology data on these heads during the summer for his REU project and now we’re interested in seeing if these two species have actually hybridized in nature. Grace and Aaron are currently working on making flowering schedules for the heads we collected.
Stuart heard back from the NSF with good news! They’re funding the proposal he submitted this summer! With this grant money he plans to examine constraints on reproductive fitness of Echinacea in remnants by combining data on spatial isolation, flowering phenology, and mating compatibility. Really cool stuff!
Other than that, it’s business as usual here at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Our volunteers have been working hard cleaning heads and counting seeds. We’re definitely making headway on this year’s harvest!
