Female scientists = lipstick, heels, and pink?

Serious sexism.

You all have probably already seen this, given the waves it's caused on the internet, but you might not have seen the website it's advertising:  

http://science-girl-thing.eu/

The website isn't that bad.  It has interviews with female scientists, spotlights some major achievements in science spearheaded by women, and has a good jobs section which includes all the STEM fields, not just the "soft sciences" women are often encouraged to pursue.

So why did they create this video as the teaser to the website?  The most "science-y" thing the young women in the video do is put on safety glasses.

SMBC posted a comic a while ago that I immediately thought of after seeing this video:

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1962

We all have a responsibility to encourage and educate the young men and women considering careers in STEM fields, regardless of sex or gender-identity, and the best way to do this is leading by example.

Less gender-stereotyping and more profiling of successful female scientists will go a long way, European Commission.

Jeez.

Scorcher

Folks, bad times are coming for the OP plots.

We all know it's been dry.  High temperatures and low rainfall for the last 2-3 weeks have been rough on the wildflowers, and it's only going to get worse.  The wildflowers that had already peaked or were in full swing a few weeks ago are getting pretty crunchy at this point, and those species that should be taking the crunchy flowers place are not coming in very strongly.

For example, bergamot has been pushing its way up for the last month, and has been preparing to bloom for the last week... but bloom it has not.  The few flowers it did put out are looking a little ragged.

What the early bergamot blooms* from two week ago looked like:

And here is what it looks like now.  Kinda rough, for still being in the early stages of bloom.  And there are not a lot of these guys.

I really, really hope it rains soon.  Unfortunately, the current forecast looks a little like this:

So I'm steeling myself for rough times ahead for the ol' OP plots.

We do have a few species that are doing exceptionally well, considering the heat.  Rudbeckia, or Black-Eyed Susan, is definitely still chugging along.

We have a handful of Rudbeckia that are expressing a really odd morphotype.  My personal hypothesis is that this single bloom is just a a weirdo that tripled or quadrupled its expression.  Not the prettiest.  I thought it was a caterpillar fat-ass at first.  It still appears to have a lot of pollen available.  I wonder if pollinators don't recognize it as a flower?

If it ever rains, there will be more flower pictures.  For now, it will mostly be raggedy looking sunflowers and rudbeckia.  C'est la vie.

*Vick, Albert F.W., Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

We're famous!

Operation Pollinator was written up on Turfnet.com!

The story!

It's not a perfect article.  I've participated in these things before for the lab, and they are always a little bungled.  I don't think that a single one of those quotes isn't heavily paraphrased.

Also, my Liberal Arts senses.  They tingle.  Writing is a skill.  I'm not trying to pronounce myself an excellent writer, I just wish that we had a few more technical writers that could piece together sentences with some degree of craft.

I see plenty of these excellent writers in the blogs that I regularly read, and I know many of them are scientists or work in a technical profession.  Why isn't this skill--a skill that is clearly evident through their non-academic writing!--something that is prized, slapped at the top of C.V.'s, and encouraged in scientific journals?

Academia, you slay me.

Bee bowls, hand collections, and stung thumbs

Here's the thing about bee bowls:  they only kind of work.

It's important to use them because they provide a passive way to document pollinator populations without the inescapable biases that come with hand collections.  People will inevitably collect brightly colored, large, and slow insects with greater frequency than camouflaged, small, and speedy insects.

So we have to use bee bowls in conjunction with hand collections, no matter how disappointing their results may be.

Here's what they look like in the field:

I was expecting a soapy plethora of pollinator soup.  Bug soup it ain't.

We turned up a surprising number of flies (few of which were in the major pollinator family, Syrphidae), and waaaaaay more Japanese beetles than we wanted.

Gross.  Those guys are stinky after a couple days.

During the same couple of days that the bee bowls were out, we also performed some hand collections.  I'm specifically interested in which pollinator species are active at which wildflower species.  The wildflowers that make the final cut will attract a diversity of native bees in fairly large numbers.  If a wildflower species only attracts one pollinator species (especially if other wildflowers attract that pollinator just as well) or attracts only small numbers of pollinators, it gets the boot when it's time to recommend a final mix.

In order to do this, we're collecting 25 pollinators from each wildflower species at each site when it is in its most dominant blooming period.  That's 150 pollinators total from each wildflower species.  We'll later ID those insects as far down as we can--probably to genus or species.

There are a couple different methods for catching pollinators.  

The classic (and the one that gets you the most crazy looks from golfers), is an insect net.

Weirdly enough, we found that the best method was to simply use a plastic cup.  It was sneakier and allowed for a little more precision.

Unfortunately, both methods resulted in bee stings.  Those little jerks got both of my thumbs while I was holding them in the net.

Fortunately, I'm not allergic to bee stings.  So far.

Phew.

Funding and Field Day

Oh man has it been a busy week.

The meeting with the Syngenta folks went really well.  It's always nice to get an outsider's perspective with these things, and the two guys who came down were full of helpful suggestions and provoking questions.

Also, they agreed that the whole thing was money well spent.  Phew.

Since that meeting last Wednesday, I've also been busy collecting the bee bowls I put out last week, doing some wildflower species-specific pollinator collections, and speaking at the annual Turfgrass Field Day put on by my university's Plant and Soil Science Department.

I love Field Day.  I really, really love Field Day.  I get to speak to a ton of people, most of whom actually want to be there, on a topic I'm wild about.  Several hundred laypeople show up to this event to get their CEUs (Continuing Education Credits) so that they can continue to commercially spray herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers and run their horticulture/turf based businesses:  nurseries, landscapers, lawn care applicators, etc.  My lab always participates by running one of the "tours" where we talk about current issues in turfgrass management and our own research.  It's refreshing to speak to people who are excited about the practical applications of my research and rarely question my methodology, statistical analysis, or whether I really think the literature supports my leading hypothesis.  Academics.  Whattayagonnado?

And did I mention it's outside?  It's outside.  Field Day is a beautiful thing.

And did I mention they feed us?  They feed us.  They even provided Boca burgers for us vegetarians.  Field Day is a beautiful thing.

Here's my lab, all pumped up and happy to be talking to these folks.  We talked for about one hour collectively, though each individual's presentation varied in length.  I was feeling chatty and excited, so I might have taken a little bit more time than the rest of the group...

I've got to cure myself of this.  I talk with my hands.  I look like a wimpy velociraptor.  

And we were lucky enough to do the tour right in front of my Operation Pollinator plots, so extra publicity for me!

I love how enthusiastically people respond to these presentations.  I did two interviews on the spot--one for Turfnet.com, the other for the Plant and Soil Sciences web designer.  I'll link to them if they ever are published.

The whole thing turned out to be totally worth the wicked sunburn I picked up on the backs of my legs.

Though not by much.  Sunburns are the worst.  Especially in the crinkly part of your knees.

On meeting with the folks funding my research

I'm always nervous.  Always.  Before each of these meetings, I convince myself that they're going to withdraw my funding and I'm going to have no more money and all my paychecks will have to go to PVC and grass herbicides and I'll have to eat ramen and stale bread for the next year and a half.

So I'm having one of these meetings tomorrow afternoon.

Here's the thing:  I actually really like the Syngenta turfgrass representative that oversees my Operation Pollinator project.  He's consistently super-pleasant, and everyone he brings with him to check up on my work has always been helpful and engaging.  This time he's bringing the manager of their Lawn & Garden Research Development staff with him.  They're interested in setting up their own OP plots in Wisconsin based on the work/methodology that I've already developed.

So I'm nervous.

Big day tomorrow.  Plus, I'm putting out my first round of bee bowls tomorrow morning, which I'm super excited about, even if it does add an extra dose of time-crunchy stress to tomorrow.

On being a semi-reluctant weekend researcher

This last weekend, while millions of Americans were enjoying the beautiful outdoors in a pleasant, relaxing way via farmers' markets, minor league baseball games, and walking their cats (or at least, this is what my overheated, slightly grumpy brain was telling me), I spent mine tending the Operation Pollinator sites.

Not that I don't love my OP sites.

I just don't love them quite as much on Saturday mornings.

Fortunately I had a helper this time around.  I had to bribe Boyfriend out of bed and into the field with the promise of Waffle House, and even then it was a tough sell.

Here he is.  High point of the morning.  Epitome of happiness, because he knows waffles are on the way.

Later, a barely-disguised look of total disgust.  The waffle-induced euphoria has passed.  What is he doing with his life?

We spent Saturday prepping my sites for the bee bowls which will go out later this week for the first sampling set EVER for Operation Pollinator.  A bee bowl is a passive way to collect pollinators (not just bees!).  It is usually a brightly colored bowl (often in fluorescent yellow or blue) filled with soapy water, which has a much lower surface tension than regular water.  Pollinators are attracted to the color, and fall to their doom in the soapy water, where I collect them after the bowl has been out in the sun for a few hours.

Most bee bowls are just set on the ground, but I am elevating mine so that they are at the approximate level of the wildflower bloom, which is also where the pollinators are.  In order to elevate these suckers, I've made a relatively simple contraption, mostly consisting of PVC pipe and gorilla glue, which should be mobile and easily removable from the site when I'm not actively sampling.

It looks like this:

My Paint skills leave something to be desired.

More to the point--you see that purple/brown bar at the bottom of the elevated bee bowl?  That's supposed to represent an 18 inch piece of half inch diameter rebar.  You see how it's 6 to 8 inches in the ground (this should be obvious, given the precision with which this diagram was constructed)?

Yeah.  That's what we were doing.

The tools of the trade:

We pounded the hell out of that rebar.  We showed it who was boss.  And we put in eight rebar stakes at six different sites.

The end product:

Aw yeah.  Rebar never even knew what hit it.

It was me.  With a sledge hammer.

Before/After Shots

This is cool.  Thought I'd share.

Same site, same weather.  8 months apart.

September:

Early May:

Yesterday!

Awesome!  Thank you, warm May!  Now rain!

What is Operation Pollinator?

Operation Pollinator is a program which started in the United Kingdom in 2010 and which is funded by Syngenta.  The purpose of the program is to create native wildflower banks on golf courses, which could then serve as sources of pollen and nectar sources and refuges for native pollinators and other beneficial insects, such as parasitoids and predators.  Several hundred golf courses are currently participating in Great Britain.

Most golf courses, while quite aesthetically pleasing, are fairly barren of plant, insect, and vertebrate biodiversity for two basic reasons:

First, it takes a very high input level to maintain the aesthetic charm and faultless playing surfaces of traditional golf courses.  These high inputs often take the form of:

• Fertilizers
• Irrigation
• Herbicides
• Fungicides
• Pesticides
• Mowing

Together, these inputs create not only a heavy economic burden, but also a heavy environmental burden.  It is very difficult for wildlife to continue to live on golf courses due to their populations' constant displacement, whether chemical or physical.

Second, there is very little variation in the landscape of traditional golf courses.  It's pretty much the same two or three species of turfgrass, cut at rough height, collar height, or putting green height.  Aside from a handful of ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowering annuals, that's it.  The near complete lack of architectural and plant species diversity severely limits the species diversity of arthropods which can live on golf courses.

Operation Pollinator will hopefully help to change that.  We have pioneered the first branch of Operation Pollinator for turf systems in the United States.  We began this project in September 2011, and over the next several seasons we will be evaluating the three wildflower seed mixes we developed for this project--both for appropriateness to the landscape and to native pollinators.  By the end of the project, I hope to have created a single appropriate seed mixture which can then be used by golf course superintendents over a large part of the Midwest and South to beautify and their golf courses while also creating refuges for our struggling native pollinators (and creating areas that don't need fertilizer, mowing, irrigation, pesticides, etc.).

Besides, who wouldn't rather look at this...

than this?

There are several other trends towards increasing the habitat complexity of golf courses, and therefore increasing populations of beneficial insects, but I'll talk more about that at some other time.

BzzzBzzz, Operation Pollinator is blooming!

So, today was a big day for Operation Pollinator.  Probably the first of many big days.

I may have to downgrade my scale of big to small days, but whatever.  Today felt big.

Today I went with my horticulture expert and my PI to check out three of my six OP sites, one of which was performing pretty poorly:

One of which was looking pretty good:

And one which was truly blowing all the others out of the water.  BAM!  Come at me, pollinators!

Can you tell I'm excited about this?  I am.

And guess what's bloomin'?  Lots of stuff:

Plains coreopsis.  The two pictures above are the same species.  Isn't that amazing?!

Lots of you folks will probably recognize Rudbeckia, or Black-Eyed Susan.  This stuff is coming on in a big way.

 A really big way!  Look at all that Rudbeckia!

Lance-leaved coreopsis is still chugging away.

And now the sunflowers are out!  We scared up a few yellow finches in this plot.  Hope they weren't eyeing my sunflowers!

This New England aster is preparing to bloom.  

We even found a tiny handful of asters already up and blooming.  I wasn't expecting these guys until much, much later in the season.  Like, three months from now.

This weirdly phallic, but pretty, flower is a prairie coneflower.  It's the first of our coneflowers that I've spotted so far this season, but we have several more species that should appear soon.

Finally, I do have a few (SO MANY!) weedy species that have popped up in my plots.  A few of them, while technically not native, are lovely and seem to attract lots of pollinators.  These include:

Poison hemlock.

Fleabane.

And nettles.

And a few others which I absent-mindedly forgot to take pictures of, including Queen Anne's lace, larkspur, and a form of mallow.

The larkspur I plucked to bring back for ID'ing (but also for making my desk purty).

I'm thinking of allowing these guys to grow throughout the season as long as they don't take over too aggressively.  The pollinators seem to love them.  The reason they weren't originally included in our wildflower mixes (particularly the Queen Anne's lace and the larkspur, which are both near and dear to my heart), is because they are not technically native to North America.  These guys were brought over from Europe at some point in the distant past, but are now fairly ubiquitous throughout this part of the country.  We'll see.

Finally, who wants to see some pollinators?

Oh yeah, native pollinators of all shapes and sizes.  We've got your bees, we've got your flies, we've got your wasps and butterflies.

I'm excited.

Still have to explain exactly what this project is about, but I'll get to that.

Later.  Sometime in the future.

Here's me!