The Echinacea Project Field Log http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/ Investigating ecology and evolution in fragmented prairie habitat since 1995. This field log documents our research projects, observations, and experiences. For more information, visit our website. en Copyright 2011 Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:32:51 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.31-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Aphid searching begins! Today we surveyed a patch of the common garden for aphid infestation. I chose my survey area based on observations I made Wednesday morning, during my initial search for aphids. I wanted my square to include at least one heavily-infested plant with ant domatia (dirt structures that ants build to cultivate aphids). Otherwise my choice of positions and rows was random.

Here is a description of today's survey. This weekend I will go over the data and make a map of aphid infestation. Because it's still early in the season for aphids, I hope to repeat this survey one or more times this summer to look for spatial and temporal patterns of infestation. Thank you to the Echinacea team members for your diligent data gathering.

Aphid survey protocol 1June2001.doc

I'm happy to say the survey went smoothly. Everyone seemed to have an easy time recognizing aphid life stages and ant domatia. My only goof-up was accidentally assigning the same row to two people, leaving us one row short, but thankfully we caught it in time to finish up before a thunderstorm hit. Next time I will be more careful about my row assignments.

I would like to repeat this survey several times throughout the summer--maybe once every two weeks. Here are some thoughts I have based on my observations in the common garden:

1. We have observed that plants with heavy infestations early in the season tend to have wrinkly, stunted leaves--possibly due to aphid overwintering. I suspect that these plants may serve as aphid source populations that spread to surrounding host plants. It will be interesting to see whether aphid infestation is more prevalent among plants nearby heavy aphid infestations (i.e. plants with all three aphid life stages, wrinkly leaves, and ant domatia).

2. I noticed that on plants with small infestations, ants seemed to be carrying away gravid females. Perhaps ants play a role in mitigating population-wide aphid infestation by concentrating aphids on a few heavily-infested plants. This survey won't tell me much about the role of ants, but I am curious to see whether some plants lose their aphids throughout the season.

Thanks again everyone for helping me gather my first data set!

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2011/07/aphid-searching-begins.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2011/07/aphid-searching-begins.html Projects Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:32:51 -0600 The seedling search has begun! Today we started the seedling search at Steven's Approach (SAP). The wind was strong and air temperature was chilly. We searched 3 circles; in one of the circles we found 6 seedlings! We drew a map and filled in a matrix, as we have done in previous years. We also tried out the new coordinate frame.
I (Amy) have revised the protocol. Please read it and feel free to suggest ways it can be improved.
Seedling Search Protocol 2011.doc

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2011/05/the-seedling-search-has-begun.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2011/05/the-seedling-search-has-begun.html Seedling Searches Tue, 31 May 2011 15:04:43 -0600 Tag Making Protocol Here is the rough draft of the tag making protocol. Edit away!

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2011/05/tag-making-protocol.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2011/05/tag-making-protocol.html Protocols Tue, 31 May 2011 15:01:13 -0600 DemoMerge2010 Here's the protocol for creating demoMerge.csv
Protocol for creating DemoMerge.doc

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/08/demomerge2010.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/08/demomerge2010.html Protocols Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:01:14 -0600 Seedling refind protocol 2010 Here's the protocol for re-finds in the remnants. Please look it over, and critique!
Protocol for seedling refinds 2010.docx

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/08/seedling-refind-protocol-2010.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/08/seedling-refind-protocol-2010.html Seedling Searches Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:53:36 -0600 GPS Surveying Preliminary Protocol 2010 GPS Surveying Draft Protocol.pdf

Here's the GPS Surveying Protocol. Post some comments with thoughts, ideas, and changes.

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/08/gps-surveying-preliminary-prot.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/08/gps-surveying-preliminary-prot.html Protocols Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:00:35 -0600 Draft 2010 Stipa protocols 2010 Stipa Draft Protocol.pdf. The Google Docs wasn't really working out... Comment with your thoughts and changes.

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/08/draft-2010-stipa-protocols.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/08/draft-2010-stipa-protocols.html Stipa spartea 2009-2011 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:12:24 -0600 Aphid Transfer Protocol In case we need help :)

Materials:
Visor
Petri dish
paintbrush
mesh bags
twist ties
a partner!

1. Sync visor, get randomized plant (row and position) from Hillary.
2. Collect aphids from several plants in Common Garden. Find leaves with fat, dark aphids (aka mature). Gently disturb aphids with brush tip. When aphids start to scurry (remove stylets), brush them gently into the petri dish. Do not mash them by rubbing paintbrush against the plastic (attempting to dislodge them).
3. When approximately 20 mature aphids have been collected (not including tiny green ones), find assigned plant.
4. Check transfer plant for ants and aphids and record presence in form.
5. Find a suitable leaf (close to ground and small enough to fit in bag) that is free of any ants and aphids (if there are no empty leaves, squish present aphids).
6. Prepare bag over most of the leaf (opening bag and pulling over leaf). Then lift the bag up enough to stick the aphids in.
7. Transfer two random aphids to the top of the leaf (one big aphid and one slightly smaller). It works best if one partner holds the leaf and bag and the other transfers the aphids. Then the bag holder pulls the bag down and the transferrer twists the tie.
8. Pull bag completely over leaf and gently twist tie it closed. Avoid strangling the leaf or squishing or dislodging the aphids.
9. If aphids take a death plunge or fall off make sure they are not in the bag and transfer additional aphids as needed.

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/07/aphid-transfer-protocol.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/07/aphid-transfer-protocol.html Aphids 2010 Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:27:05 -0600 Common Garden Measuring Protocol 2010 Today we will start measuring Echinacea in the Common Garden. Here is the link to the protocol: CGmeasureprotocol2010.htm

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/07/common-garden-measuring-protoc.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/07/common-garden-measuring-protoc.html Measuring Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:53:11 -0600 ArcGIS: conquered! View image

So these are the Stipa that have been collected so far. I've labeled a couple of the places on the map.

I was having trouble projecting the data exported from GPS Pathfinder Office (trimble) and noticed that no coordinate system was defined (same issue with the DOQ maps Stuart gave me; the GeoTIFFs didn't have a spatial definition). The GPS data should be North American 1983 in the Geographic Coordinate System folder (right click on the data in ArcCatalog, hit the XY Coordinate System tab and hit the Select button). The DOQ maps ought to be using the NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_15N from the Projected Coordinate System folder. Dumping all of these files into ArcMap (and a little fiddling) gave me this nice map.

Next plan of attack is to make it work in GPS Pathfinder Office, as it's much less complicated than ArcGIS.

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/06/arcgis-conquered.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/06/arcgis-conquered.html Stipa spartea 2009-2011 Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:16:27 -0600 Hesperostipa spartea collection protocol Josh, Gretel, Hillary, and Ian are also trained on the TopScan to collect the GPS data. The ideal is that the radio signal is at 100% and the designation of the location is described as Fixed - (Float will do and Auto works if you are unable to connect to a radio signal)
Josh and I plan to collect from Hegg Lake and the road adjacent on Monday. In the quest to collect from 300 parent plants, we are likely onto roadsides - where we are trying to stay at least a meter off the road and using plants about 5m apart from each other. Generally, as the black color appears and as the capsule opens around the pointy head, the seeds are ripe and will pop off as you gently pull up the stem containing the seeds.
I plan to be around Sun afternoon and Mon. to finish the collection before starting to cross some plants.

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/06/heterostipa-spartea-collection.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2010/06/heterostipa-spartea-collection.html Stipa spartea 2009-2011 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:42:16 -0600 Link to Measuring Protocol Download file

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2007/07/link-to-measuring-protocol.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2007/07/link-to-measuring-protocol.html Measuring Thu, 19 Jul 2007 10:31:46 -0600 Videos A protocol for Team Video is in the early stages, and there are many aspects to consider. While it started slow, we have found a relatively quick and efficient system for placing cameras, taking down and storing cameras, and uploading videos. Unfortunately, many additional challenges await.

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2007/07/videos.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2007/07/videos.html Pollinator Videos 2007 Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:31:31 -0600 Bee Painting Protocol Our initial protocol for painting bees called for painting bees as they were collecting pollen on the flower heads using a small paintbrush. Before starting painting, we had created "paint bandoliers" that consisted of microfuge tubes filled with different colors of paint and then taped in a line with duct tape to keep them together. We ordered the colors according to the rainbow to make it easier to keep track of the colors. Each color was given a three letter abbreviation. Painting the bees with paint brushes was fairly easy, but the shape and thickness of the dot had the possibility of being very variable. After researching bee painting, in particular queen honeybee marking, it appeared that the ideal dot that would last the longest amount of time is circular and uniformly thin. To obtain this ideal dot, it was suggested that a piece of wire whose diameter was the size of the desired dot be used.

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2007/07/bee-painting-protocol.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2007/07/bee-painting-protocol.html Bee Team 2007-2008 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:38:18 -0600 Updates from the Bee Team The frequency of bee sightings has slowed down in the past couple of days, but in the mean time we have been typing up our updated protocols, and begun looking at the data that we've collected. Read on for detailed protocols, the musings of this year's Bee Team, and tips for next year's Bee Team.

]]> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2007/07/updates-from-the-bee-team.html http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/2007/07/updates-from-the-bee-team.html Bee Team 2007-2008 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:17:18 -0600