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- Photo of the Week – May 16, 2013
- Join Us For The Platte River Prairies Field Day: July 12, 2013
- Keeping a Low Profile in the Spring
- Photo of the Week – May 9, 2013
- A Prickly Confrontation
- Photo of the Week – May 2, 2013
- Capturing Post-Wildfire Recovery Through Timelapse Photography
- A Dandy Little Predator
- A Prairie Ecologist’s Perspective on Arbor Day
- Photo of the Week – April 25, 2013
- Tuning Into Fire Frequency
- Photo of the Week – April 18, 2013
- The Annual Grassland Restoration Network Workshop – Coming to A Prairie Near You (If You’re Near Columbia, Missouri)
- A Weekend Walk in the Woods
- Photo of the Week – April 11, 2013
- An Ill Wind…
- Is Poison Hemlock Repelled By Plant Diversity? Early Results Say Yes
- Photo of the Week – April 5, 2013
- Why A Warming Climate Is Making This Spring So Cold (… and Last Spring So Warm)
- An Exciting New Discovery – Unless You’re a Bug
Tag Archives: research
Tuning Into Fire Frequency
HOW OFTEN SHOULD PRAIRIES BE BURNED? It’s a question prairie ecologists and managers have been wrestling with for many years. Unfortunately, research on the impacts of fire management is somewhat limited and often contradictory. Much of the best research has … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Animals, Prairie Insects, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Plants
Tagged bowles and jones 2013, burning, controlled burn, eastern tallgrass prairie, fire frequency, frequency, grassland, how often prairie fire, how often should prairies burn, konza prairie, marlin bowles, prairie, prairie management, prescribed fire, repeated burning, research, tallgrass prairie
13 Comments
Is Poison Hemlock Repelled By Plant Diversity? Early Results Say Yes
How important is plant diversity? Most ecologists think it’s a critical component of resilient ecosystems. Last week I collected some data that lends support to that view. In some experimental prairie plantings we’ve established in our Platte River Prairies, plant diversity appears to be suppressing the invasion … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Natural History, Prairie Plants, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged conium maculatum, data, diverse seed mixture, grassland, nebraska, plant diversity, platte river prairie, poison hemlock, prairie, prairie planting, prairie reconstruction, prairie restoration, prairie seeding, research, seed mixture, species richness, value of plant diversity
8 Comments
Lessons From a Project to Improve Prairie Quality – Part 1: Patch-Burn Grazing, Plant Diversity, and Butterflies
We recently completed a large multi-year restoration and management project at our Platte River Prairies. Our specific objectives were to improve habitat quality for various at-risk prairie species and evaluate the impacts of our management on at-risk butterflies – particularly … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Animals, Prairie Insects, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Photography, Prairie Plants, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged at-risk species, burning, butterflies, conservation, conservation grazing, conservative plants, fire, floristic quality, grassland, grassland management, grazing, grazing impacts on prairie, grazing prairie, habitat quality, land management, lessons learned, nebraska, patch-burn grazing, platte river, platte river prairies, pollinators, prairie, prairie management, prairie restoration, prescribed fire, regal fritillary, research, state wildlife grant, stewardship, the nature conservancy
13 Comments
Wildfire Recovery at The Niobrara Valley Preserve – Asking The Big Questions
Most of you are familiar with the wildfire that affected our Niobrara Valley Preserve this summer. Well, we’re still trying to regain our footing after that event. A great deal of time and money has already been spent on rebuilding … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Photography, Prairie Plants
Tagged 2012, documentation, eastern red cedar, erosion, evaluation, invasive species, monitoring, nebraska, niobrara valley preserve, ponderosa pine, recovery, research, research questions, seed bank, soil erosion, wildfire
22 Comments
Can Aphids Photosynthesize?
Well, no. But recent research shows that at least some may be able to convert sunlight into energy in a process very similar to the way plants do it. A study published in Nature magazine back in August looked at a … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Insects, Prairie Natural History
Tagged aphid, energy, insect, nature.com, photosynthesis, photosynthesize, research, science, sunlight
5 Comments
Evolution in Milkweed-Eating Insects
Not many insects can feed on milkweed. Milkweed plants produce a toxin that disables a protein in animals – a protein that facilitates important functions such as muscle contraction. Only a small number of insect species around the world have evolved ways to get around this … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Insects, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Photography, Prairie Plants
Tagged eating, evolution, feeding, insects, milkweed, photography, protein, research, science
8 Comments
An Update on a Wetland Project (Remember the Sludge?)
Several people have asked me to provide an update on the wetland restoration project I posted about last November. At that time, we’d just completed our second (last?) phase of the dirtwork to convert sand pit lakes to a stream … Continue reading
More to the Stories
This is one of those blog posts that feels like a cop out because I’m just redirecting you to things others have written. On the other hand, I’ve chosen two stories that build upon topics I’ve dealt with in earlier … Continue reading
Quantifying the Value of Plant Diversity
Why is plant diversity important? I can come up with lots of reasons, including the value to pollinators, correlations between plant and insect diversity, and contributions to ecological resilience – among others. But it’s much more difficult to quantify the specific functional differences between high-diversity and low-diversity … Continue reading
Restoring Cottonwoods to the Missouri River – Part 1
Last week, I had an experience that doesn’t come often to a prairie ecologist. I participated in a tree planting project. Well ok, we weren’t exactly planting trees, but we were laying the groundwork. It’s kind of a long story. … Continue reading
