NPARL plant ecology lab - nparlplantecologylab

downed flags
flagging on the plots suffered some from the cows

cow in plots
if you look hard you can see a flag by the front hoof

flags repaired
here's what the tableland site looks like with flags restored

cover treatment
I used burlap bags for a "non-biotic" cover treatment

simulated drill seeding
These are the "drill rows" in a plot.  I am comparing drill seeding to broadcast seeding.  I think that the two will have different seedling establishment in space, and that plant-plant interactions will therefore be different in the two seeding types.  These plant-plant interactions may have an influence on seeding success.

Transplanted plugs
This is what the neighborhood looked like after we were done transplanting grasses from the intact vegetation into the restoration plots.

Transplanting
Here, Jill, Jeannie, and Mary are transplanting grass plugs into the pots.

More transplanting


GPS team
Mo and Laura are working out the sampling methods for tracking natural vegetation recovery along the pipeline.

Co-operation
Vern, one of the ranch owners, and Mo share a laugh.

The good news is that I learned a lot about the need for infrastructure in restoration out here. No small experiments allowed.  For my next trick, I will collaborate with people who are doing large-scale restorations and put my tiny little plots inside.

I am still going to work at the ranch, though, on natural vegetation recovery and weed encroachment.

My common garden with the Poa secunda (pictured) is proceeding non-agronomically, unlike the other gardens.  Lots of my plants died over the winter.  Lots of them got a little green this year and died before reproducing.  Some are sending up sterile inflorescences.  Some are actually heading and filling seeds.  And some are these happy little green bushy things, not flowering yet.  It makes measuring the plants pretty herky-jerky, as measurements are supposed to take place at certain phenological stages.

I'm happy to be out in the field again.  It's been a long winter inside.

One project is to determine if existing perennial bunchgrasses help or hinder the establishment of restoration seedings.  We spent Friday transplanting grasses into disturbed areas for one of our experimental treatments.

The other project is to examine the natural revegetation process of disturbed areas in the Northern Prairie.  In particular we want to know if colonization occurs from neighboring vegetation, or from roadside (weed) populations.