Field work season begins!

I headed out into the field today with my advisor. We visited my central Illinois site where this past fall I had collected and then redistributed samaras into my plots. Some plots contained samaras from the northern range, some contained samaras from the southern range, while still others contained samaras from the central area (their original origin). Each square meter plot received 1,000 samaras, except the five plots designated for Tennessee seeds. Those received 500 samaras as they were assumed to have a higher viability rate because they were sorted by the company we purchased them from.

The test runs I have been conducting for about 2 ½ - 3 months now, in which I distributed 100 samaras from each location into small plots with soil, show that all locations have some germination action. This confirms that all locations had viable seeds and after I count the germinated seeds I will know better what that viability rate is for each location. Either way since the samaras were sprouting in the test run, I was hopeful that they would also be germinating in the field.

The first plot we can upon at the site falsely got our hopes up that all the distributed samaras were flourishing. It was covered with a blanket of seedlings much like what one would expect from a mast year and much like the area that surrounded it. As we walked around to all the other plots however, there were definitely smaller numbers of seedlings when compared to that initial plot. Some plots didn’t even have any seedlings in them and we speculated that it was because they were located in low lying areas that may have become to wet. We took a density count for all the plots and determined that it would be the maximum density count for each location that we would be interested in rather than the averages, since we are ultimately interested in seeming how well these plants could establish in these different geographic areas. We intend to return to this site and also go to the northern site in August to get the official density counts and other measurements for my first growing season. Everything is moving forward though…exciting progress!

The down side to all of this is that it seems one of the main competitors for the forest floor space is garlic mustard at the central site, which may represent somewhat of a problem. We’ll see, I guess. Also it will be interesting to see how the cicadas affect things as this is going to be the year they emerge in masses! As many as seven billion in some predictions may emerge to mate as it has been another 17 years in their 17 year cycle. I believe they only feed on and lay their eggs in mature trees, but I am not positive.

I took a few pictures of this latest field adventure as well as of the preparation and set up of my official first temperature trial run for my thesis. If you are interested you can view these pictures and more by clicking on the Research pictures link under related links, then click on the Goal: M.S. set.