Feeding Trials – Round 2

Things have been trucking right along with the project, so much so that I’ve barely had a moment to myself, much less a moment to update the site. So I’m sure all of you, my loyal boggers are probably on the edge of your seats just waiting for some news…right? Well I won’t disappoint. The following covers just about everything that has been going on with the project since January. Enjoy!

Feeding Continues…

All through January and February the plants were fed according to their grouping. Because it can be a long and tedious process I ended up recruiting several helpers on more than a few occasions to help get the job done. Thanks guys! Although it may seem like I gripe about the feeding, it is actually probably my favorite part of the project. The real work comes when I have to take measurements. As I mentioned in the last post, this involves regular monitoring of specific health factors such as each plants’ growth (or lack of growth) which is represented by height (mm) and new growth, represented by the number of new traps and new phyllodial (non-trap) leaves. In addition I am also measuring the pH and temperature (C°) of each trap of each plant… talk about work that can become tedious…

However the work is certainly starting to pay off as I am already starting to see some interesting trends in my data. And while I can’t state anything definitive until I  have collected all my data and then run all my statistical analysis, I can say that I am getting excited to see my final results!  How about you? Have any thoughts on what the data might tell me? I’d love to  hear your thoughts. I especially love hearing from my young scientist friends who have been collaborating and following the project. Take a moment to send your hypothesis in the comments section at the bottom of the post! I will make sure to address it in my next post! The best ideas and comments I get will get included in the Students Speak section of the Bog in a Box curriculum! So put your thinking caps on and get to writing!

Round 2 Begins

The first round of feeding trials wrapped up at the end of February. At that point I began to analyze my data, looking for patterns while my plants, troopers that they are, took a rest before the second round of trials. If it sounds like I am humanizing my plants, I probably am and do. I know I have caught myself talking to them during long hours alone in the lab. But I’m not ashamed, after all who doesn’t become attached to their work? (haha!) Do you ever talk to your house plants? Do you think it helps them grow? I happen to think it does, and there are many who agree with me, including the show Mythbusters. For those who prefer a more scientific resource over a television show however, there has actually been a by-the-book scientific study done by the Royal Horticultural Society that published the same conclusions. So maybe me talking to my research plants isn’t so nutty after all!

Okay, back to my preliminary data: For those of you following the project from your classrooms, think about what it means to analyze data and look for patterns. What might I be looking for? Do you remember my hypotheses? If not jump over to the About the Project page and take a quick look to refresh your memory. Remember that my primary concern when I designed this study, was to determine if an introduced invasive species like fire ants, would end up causing detrimental ecosystem-wide effects to the mountain bogs where my rare plants are an anchor species. In case you have forgotten, being an anchor species for an ecosystem means that you provide important ecosystem services to so many different members of the community that without you, the system falters and eventually collapses. This makes anchor species extremely important when it comes to conserving specific habitats. The Mountain purple pitcherplant provides a safe haven for the larval stages of many invertebrates found nowhere else. These invertebrates then become food for a number of small reptiles, amphibians, birds and even mammals that make the bog their home. Ecosystems are both complex and simple in that they involve many characters, but all are in balance with one another like a house of cards. Remove one and the rest will come tumbling down.

After nearly a month off, it was time to put the plants to work again and so Round 2 began on April 2nd. It was nice to get back into the lab, and back to feeding the plants after several weeks of just looking at graphs and trying to analyze what can seem like miles and miles of numbers… otherwise known as my data. Don’t think I wasn’t busy though. The warmer weather brought  with it the return of many types of insects, awakening from their long winter dormancy, including ants. For me that means a return to the field to trap fire ants for Round 2. This time I didn’t have to travel far to find the mounds, as there were so many right in my own neighborhood. I am thankful that I pretty much have my method down after so many false starts during Round 1, and so far I’ve captured almost enough ants for the entire second round of feeding with no bites (yippee!) so far.

In addition to trapping ants and analyzing data, I have also been working on the Bog in a Box program, outlining the project curriculum, refining the existing K-12 activities and adding new ones. I have been lucky in that I have gotten to work with some great students and teachers during this time, and so far the Project is shaping up to be even better than I ever hoped it would be. Once finished there will be a complete curriculum addition for K-12 focused on resource conservation, ecology, life science and biology that meets the state science standards for each grade accordingly. If you are a teacher or student interested in using the curriculum, make sure to keep checking the Bog in a Box page for updates and activities. The final project should be uploaded sometime shortly before the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year. Have an idea or want to contribute to the project in some way? I am always open to collaboration with both students and teachers. Leave a note in the comments section below, on the Bog in a Box page or send me an email and I’ll be sure to get back with you!

Working with Future Scientists

I have had the honor and privilege of working with several different groups of students over the last couple of months, so I want to take a moment to thank them for not only taking an interest in the Project, but for taking an interest in conservation-ecology and science in general. No matter where they go in life, or what they choose to do for their own career, they will go forward from here, right now and today with an excellent understanding of conservation, what it means to them, why science is important, and how it relates to everyday life and the things they care about. Seeing their faces light up each and every time I visited a classroom, hearing their ideas on creating a better, more sustainable future and working with them to learn about creating their own Bog in a Box, truly made me feel like I had made a difference in their lives. They certainly  changed mine…for the better. So I want to send a very special thanks to the Ms. Drummond’s 3rd grade class at Winterville Elementary, the 7th graders at Hillsman middle school, and of course the kids right here at Statham Elementary.

Interested in having me come out and work with your students or group? Leave a note in the comments section here or on the Bog in a Box page. You can also send me an email.

Okay, it is time for me to get back to the plants for now. But stay tuned as the end of the project is drawing near!! I will leave you with these images: Progress pictures of one of my plants…first photographed before the feeding trials, another in the middle and then one during the waiting period between feeding trials, and the last at the beginning of the second feeding trial. Can you guess which group this plant is in?

1-18-13

2-8-2013

3-21-2013

4-1-2013

Feeding Time!

Wow…the time has flown by and I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to stop and write! But never fear…I am now going to fill you (my awesome “boggers” in the community) in on everything that is happening with the project!

fire ants for dinner!

The last time I posted The Scifund Challenge had just wrapped up and I was preparing to start the feeding trials, which are the most important, primary part of the whole project. The trials involve feeding groups of pitcherplants either fire ants, regular ants (native red ants), fruit flies (drosophila) or some combination thereof. If you have checked out the “Why Ants” page then you’ll remember that my research is looking at how the addition of an invasive species (fire ants) to the fluid within the pitcher trap (home to a unique phytotelma community that aids in prey digestion), may actually cause detrimental effects and thereby contribute to the mortality of these rare plants. Whoa! That’s a mouthful!

I have my plants, which consist of both the rare Mountain purple pitcherplant and the more common Coastal purple pitcherplant, set up in five groups:

1. 1/2 regular ants & 1/2 fire ants

2. 1/3 regular ants, 1/3 fire ants & 1/3 fruit flies

3. 1/2 fruit flies & 1/2 fire ants

4. 1/2 fruit flies & 1/2 regular ants

5. control group – I don’t feed these, but allow them to feed naturally, meaning whatever insects happen to be around.

Feeding Time!

The plants are fed every three days. When feeding them I am careful to weigh the insects to ensure that the amounts the plants are receiving remains consistent. Additionally, all the plants are watered with distilled water and also receive 12 hours of continuous “sun” via the Grow Lab, which simulates the conditions that would be present if I were doing this in the middle of the summer. I monitor the plants for visible signs of distress which can be measured by lack of new growth, decaying traps, and an  increased putrid odor. The things I can’t see such as pH, level of nitrates/nitrites and temperature within the pitcher traps, I measure using a meter and/or other equipment.  All the data is carefully recorded and input into the computer so that I can run  statistical tests to see if any patterns are beginning to emerge. Sounds exciting right!

Well despite the fact that it takes hours to complete each feeding, and that it can be very tedious measuring each portion before placing them into the pitcher traps, I am learning so much and am really excited to run my statistics to see if my hypothesis holds up. Are fire ants bad for the bog? Should we be developing a management plan in anticipation of their arrival? Every time I start to go cross-eyed from weighing teeny-tiny ants and flies I remind myself of one thing; I’m almost done!!!

weight needs to be consistent throughout the project

Wondering aloud while working has invited all kinds of opinions from the crew at the State Botanical Gardens. It seems everyone is anxious to find out if fire ants will be detrimental to these special plants. Linda Chafin, author of “Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Georgia” (awesome book!) is wondering if my research will necessitate a revised edition, and Heather Alley, bogger extraordinaire claims she can’t wait to find out if she needs to relocate invading fire ants with extreme prejudice!

As data collection winds down, I am preparing to complete the arduous task of data & statistical analysis which I am not ashamed to admit is my least favorite part of research. I will get through it though knowing that the results are so close. I’ll be sure to post an update as soon as I am finished – and of course once my thesis is finished, a copy will be uploaded and available for download in pdf format.

Stay Tuned!

Thank You!!

Such an exciting time for the No Bogs No Bugs No Plants No People project! The Scifund Challenge officially wrapped up yesterday (12/15) and although we didn’t meet our funding goal this time around, we were still successful on more than one front, meaning that with a little creative configuring, brainstorming and  innovation (coincidentally a few of my specialties) the project will still be completed and what’s more it will be done while fully staffed and on time! How’s that for a Christmas present? Want to know more…read on!

So while I was “rushing around” (you know, zipping through the internet jungle) during the last few hours of the challenge trying to spread the word to as many people as possible, hoping to collect a few last minute donations, a couple things were happening on my behalf.

For those of you who are regular readers. you may remember that the Comprendia company chose my project as one of four to be a part of their Scifund Holiday Challenge. Up for grabs: $300 to be split three ways, determined by whoever received the most votes. Thanks to the voting power of my loyal friends, family and social network, the project came in second! I first got the notification that I was one of the winners via Twitter

which was only fitting considering that was where the bulk of my votes came from!! When I checked the Rockethub project page and saw that Comprendia’s Mary Canady had made a $100 donation I was literally jumping for joy. It put me over the halfway mark which was definitely more than I had hoped for.

And so the challenge came to an end with my final funding total at $1280 of which Rockethub will take 12% (their fee for hosting) leaving the project with a net profit of $1126.40! While this is indeed short of what we were shooting for this round, things are working out because of a couple incredibly lucky opportunities that led to a few important developments.

1) Donations from the King Lab – Running into Lizzie on several occasions when I hadn’t even planned on being at school led to some fortunate conversations about the project. Although a member of my committee, Lizzie has shown total faith in my abilities to get things done my own way, never once doubting the validity of a crowdfunding opportunity. Even when the second round (this one) wasn’t the success that the first one was back in May, and things didn’t go as planned she never made me feel as if I had messed things up, instead helping me to refocus and move forward. Her can-do attitude, determination and of course, generous donations of key equipment including both a micro-scale (so we could weigh individual ants) a while back and just now a combination pH and temperature meter, (probably the most vital piece of equipment we needed) were indeed critical to making this project actually happen. I can’t express just how thankful I am that she was able to donate these items. Additionally, the donation of the expensive pH meter also means that we can use those funds to instead purchase the rest of the equipment and pay my research assistant her stipend to continue working! Yeah!!!

2) Countless Volunteer Hours from Friends & Family – While attending graduate school and trying to finish a master’s research & thesis is certainly hard enough for anyone, it is even harder when you are also trying to keep up with being a mom to three kids (spread out from high school to Pre-K), a teacher, and deal with a chronic illness. I couldn’t have done any of the things I have completed up to now, or will continue throughout the rest of the project without the tireless dedication of the entire team. That is why I so often refer to it as our project, rather than my project…because it truly is a team effort. Whether it is my daughter helping to mist or feed the plants, my sons trapping ants, my husband or father assisting with building materials or making the drive to the mountains, my social networks spreading the word about the project or my research assistant faithfully taking data and organizing my notebook for me so that I can actually find things…I couldn’t make this project happen without them.

3) All of YOU! – That’s right, all of you out there reading this, whether via email or withing the Bog Community here on WordPress. It is only with the help of all of you that I have been able to make this project a reality. Through this project website the Bog in a Box program will continue to grow as the research continues. That’s right, we still have lot’s of work to do, and I am counting on all of you to stay tuned for the updates that will be coming your way.

One last thing for today – If you made a donation on Rockethub and are due a reward I will need your mailing address. Please email me ASAP so that I can get those rewards out pronto. I will also be listing all Project “Fuelers” (both past and present) on the Project Wish List page as a way to say thanks! That list also appears below! I hope everyone who supports the project will take a moment in the comments to say thank you to these awesome individuals.

Project Supporters – Scifund Challenge Round 3

Alyssa Larsen

Melanie Craft

Todd Palmer

Duncan Carson

Mary Canady (Comprendia)

Moving Day

Going Dormant

With things moving slower with The Scifund Challenge than expected, I have had to make decisions regarding the plants in order to extend the field season in the face of dropping temperatures. One of the things that has always fascinated me about pitcherplants is that they take cues from the amount of daylight hours they receive. In the winter when they begin to get less and less exposure to the sun’s rays they enter a period of dormancy that can last for up to three or four months depending on their location. During dormancy the plants just  shut down and do not feed or produce new tissue. It is just as well since there are few insects around in winter in most habitats. The fact that the plants shut down based on the amount of day light hours rather than say temperatures is much like the act of hibernation you would find in mammals, which to me, makes my plants all that much cooler.

This coolness though was recently threatening the integrity of my study however when you consider that my research involves feeding my plants and so I kind I of need them to stay happy and alert and well…not dormant.

So what’s a poor researcher to do? Well I will give you a hint…it involves trickery…and electronics…but mostly trickery and frolic (Okay the trickery is based on science but I frolicked while doing it so I am claiming that one.) Yes, what I am referring to is using a set of specially designed lights referred to as grow lights that are attached to a timer to fool my plants into thinking that the days are not in fact getting shorter; That Mr. Sun is happy in the sky for a full 12 hours each and every day for as long as I need to get things figured out. Soooo…

Time to Move to The Grow Lab

Okay, so let me back up for a minute so you can understand a little about how I got to all the frolicking and trickery to begin with. So now that you know something about the behavior of purple pitcherplants, let me tell you a little something about Mother Nature. First off though, know that I have the ultimate respect for this beautiful planet and everything in it as I believe that there is a brilliant design in even the tiniest microcosm of a habitat within a droplet of water in a spider’s web. Therefore understand what I am about to say is said with humor but in complete seriousness, with a side of reverence many a researcher, conservationist and ecologist will understand. I think Mother Nature would get it too.

First and foremost, never trust a weatherman’s forecast and make plans of any sort based on it (and especially not any for ecological research) because Mother Nature works spectacularly hard at making the Earth run the way it is supposed too and trying to act as if we tiny humans are in any way capable of doing a better job is really a slap in the face  and will only make your life and everything in it meet with mass resistance from Ms. Nature herself. Case en point: Living in the south, particularly north Georgia from October to March is enough to make anyone think the one at the controls is more than a little bi-polar. Cold.Hot.Freezing.Balmy.Rainy and Dreary. Drought! One day you are wearing a scarf, mittens and Pea-coat paired with your favorite boots  while you hunch against a bitter wind and literally the next you’re sporting one of your many retro national park tee shirts, jeans and Tevas and bopping to the iPod while working in the garden in the bright sunshine. Someday’s I wake up and the first thought that crosses my mind is that between God and Mother Nature, someone lost a bet. Because of this, all good botanists and ecologists, everybody really, knows doing research with plants can be a little frustrating during this time and that it’s just a much better bet to try to get things accomplished during Spring and Summer. Those seasons are really not any more predictable, but for some reason Ms. Nature just seems a little more relaxed…

I knew this of course when I began my work but you know that little thing called “Murphy’s Law” that states, “If anything can go wrong, it will”? Yeah that essentially applies to most parts of my life and definitely to the project, often in ways that become hugely humorous later…as I laugh and cry and recount all the lessons I have learned along the way…but I digress.

So without the money for the equipment (specifically the pH meter) to continue the study and nothing on the horizon from The Scifund Challenge I made a decision to move the plants to the Grow Lab. The Grow Lab is exactly what it sounds like, an area specially designed to help plants grow by exposing them to light for a set period of time. By moving the plants I would be able to have them exposed to 12 hours of light on a daily basis, more than enough to trick them into thinking it is still fall for a little while longer, extend the field season and buy myself some time to keep the project going while I figure out what my next steps are.

Decision Time

The trade-off of course is that the plants are in-doors now rather than the greenhouse, so there are not a whole lot of bugs around and the plants look a little hungry. There have only been two since I have moved them four days ago…I am reluctant to dip into my research supplies (ants) because that will mean I will have to capture more once I get the pH meter and can start the trials (feeding them fire ants too), which might prove difficult as it is much harder to collect insects in the winter, part of why the plants go dormant in the first place.

I could buy insects but even that small expense at this point might be counter-productive if I can’t get the rest of the equipment soon. Additionally another effect of the grow lab is that my plants are growing and it looks like they will soon need to be transplanted into bigger pots. As it is they are already requiring much more distilled water and much more often since they were moved and while not expensive, it does add up for 45 plants. (Distilled water is a requirement of the study primarily because the water at the State Botanical Gardens has such a high pH that it isn’t good for the plants and two I need to remove as many confounding factors as I can as far as things that may affect the health of the plants.)

Mural on the new outdoor classroom wall (see the pitcherplant?)

I never like to end these posts on a bum note and I won’t do that tonight either. I posted on the Scifund Project page that no matter the outcome of the challenge, the project will continue and survive…primarily because I refuse to let it fail, and also because one way or another I am graduating in May and this project will be completed, period. And the good things that are happening because of this project (Bog in a Box, Bog Conservation) will continue way beyond graduation, the Scifund Challenge or the University of Georgia because doing this has changed both me and conservation for the better and changed how I will leave my mark on this wonderful, beautiful planet.

Thanks to all my wonderful supporters, especially to new friends like Todd Palmer of the The Palmer Lab who just recently donated to the project. I couldn’t have done it without all of you! Still want to help? You still can by logging on to the project page and clicking the Fuel this project link.

The Truth About Research

What I am about to say may shock you…but here goes. Research is not always glamorous and cool. Sometimes it is not even fun. Whoa! I bet you’re thinking I am just having a bad day, but no rest assured this day is really no worse than any other. I suppose what is prompting this post full of harsh truths is a particular conversation I happened to overhear while tending to my plants. Who the participants are is not important but what was said was indeed of great value.

The younger student (appeared to be an intern of some sort) was complaining about having to complete her duties at the gardens on such a cold and rainy day. The older person, (a woman I don’t know but have seen around, probably a volunteer) then asked the student why they were there. (I am assuming now that they were talking about whatever program the student was taking that dictated her being there on that cold and rainy day.) The girl responded by saying how much she loved plant conservation and had always wanted to work with plants, especially rare plants and had always pictured herself dashing off to exotic locations to complete her research on some endangered plant that of course would then end up being the cure for cancer. The older woman regarded the student for a moment and then said, “You know you are doing what you love, what you were meant to do, when you still love doing it even when it isn’t fun; when it’s tedious and never-ending, when it’s rainy and cold and the closest you get to an exotic location is the inside of your greenhouse, but you still really look forward to doing it again tomorrow. That’s when you are in the right place.”

I am really glad that I heard that when I did and I know I will never forget it. There have been many times during the course of my studies that I have felt frustrated. But always I felt renewed in the morning and willing to get back on the horse which told me that I had made the right decision in trading the business world for one dedicated to ecology and research. Does it get tedious sometimes? absolutely! In fact here is a picture of me sorting fire ants from dirt and other debris…can it get more tedious than that? Tiny frozen balled up little ants look just like the dirt (especially when you are half blind like I am) and staring at them for hours while you sort the pile will make your neck ache and your eyes cross. But now there is no chance that either I or my research assistant will get bogus results because we put in a wrong weight because of dirt in the ant mixture. And that is really important to me.

In other news, the other group of research plants have arrived! These plants are the more common species, Sarracenia purpurea or Purple Pitcherplant grown from seed from one of the coastal plain bogs in middle Georgia. They are a beautiful red color and were propagated by the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and then given to me for the project. They will provide a wonderful comparative group to  my Mountain Purple Pitcherplants since there are already fire ants in south Georgia although their interaction with the plants and the bog system has not yet been studied.

The project is moving along smoothly and we go live with The Scifund Challenge early Monday morning so please check back to get the link to our Rockethub project site.

 

 

 

Photos taken by Kristina Summers and The Amazing Raceman. Used with permission.

Heather to the Rescue!

Thank goodness for small miracles! While I spent days worrying about budgets, buildings and which roofing material would let enough light through it, a wonderful thing was happening over at the Gardens. Heather Alley who works over there as the coordinator of the Botanical Guardians Program somehow made room for us in the greenhouse in the old Center for Native Plants! I nearly jumped out of my seat when she told me the good news.

So now our space is set up, the plants are on their way and Katie and I are just bursting at the seams to get started. We also just found out that we have been accepted for Round 3 of the Scifund Challenge which will certainly help our quickly dissipating project budget. So keep checking back folks to see how things are going and to see our new Scifund proposal which will be posted real soon on Rockethub! From here on out things will begin moving quickly but we hope to keep the site updated as often as possible. Feel free to send us your suggestions and questions.

– The Bog Lady