In addition to the green roof experiment we set up last week on the Quinlan terrace garden, we set up Kelly Ksiazek's gene (pollen) flow experiment on 9 different green roofs around campus this week (we walked a total of 5 miles that day in order to do it!). The experiment will aim to track the movement of pollinators on all of the green roofs. In order to identify if pollinators travel to different roofs and pollinate a variety of locations, a DNA analysis will take place on three different varieties of native plants (Asclepias tuberosa, Penstemon hirsutus, Oenothera macrocarp) once they have been pollinated. There will be 15 of each of these species arrayed in a square with three plants (one of each species) at the corner points and in the center of the square. The square will be identical on all of the green roofs.
In this experiment, Kelly hopes to identify that pollinators do in fact move from green roof to green roof, or micro-climate to micro-climate, in order to relay the importance of neighboring green roofs acting as a diverse, pollinator-attracting, habitat islands that rely on and influence one another.
Here's a picture of the three plant species amongst the existing green roof:
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| Top: Penstemon hirsutus, Left: Oenothera macrocarpa, and Bottom: Asclepias tuberosa |
Each
native species is pollinated by a different pollinator! The asclepias is
pollinated by bumblebees and butterflies, the penstemon by small sweat
bees and the oenothera by hawk moths. Kelly hopes to do many hours of pollinator observations (>100 hours) in order to verify the patterns she hopes to find in the DNA analysis.
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| A corner of the "native" square |
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| The natives surrounded by sedum! |
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| Flourishing green roof |
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| The green roof on de Nobili |
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| The de Nobili green roof overlooking IES |
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| The hatch to the green roof on Quinlan LSB |
It
was quite a task to install this experiment on 9 different green roofs,
but it sure was fun seeing all of the green roofs on campus. We even
had to open a hatch to get to one of the green roofs. I felt pretty
official.
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| Green roof lover |
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| MIP |
In other news, the MIP is doing very well and will be ready for analysis in a couple of weeks. I'm still working on writing the outline for my prospectus and researching soil nutrient analysis methods. There is certainly lots to do! See ya later!
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