In the Field with Seed Biology Lab

Master’s student Amber Gardner and Dr. Pérez checking research plots within the Apalachicola National Forest.

Managing data loggers in the field.

Amber Gardner checking field plots for Harper’s Beauty (Harperocallis flava) seedling emergence.

Amber collecting seedling emergence data. Dr. Pérez downloading soil temperature, soil moisture, air temperature and relative humidity data.

Taking light intensity readings in the field.

Checking seedling emergence and downloading data. Note the Ecotone site between upland pine (left) and bog (right). Harper’s Beauty grows in this ecotone.

Harper’s Beauty (Harperocallis flava) plants.

Seed burial experiment (foreground) and full-sun germination phenology study within a bog site.

Amber checking for seedling emergence in the shaded site of the bog habitat.

Grasses form the “canopy” in this experiment.

Largeleaf Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia grandifolia) flower. This is a rare and state endangered species.

Full-sun experimental field plot in the bog site.

Our study sites in a bog within the Apalachicola National Forest.

Taking precautions to make sure that roadside mowing crews avoid our experimental plots.

Checking for seedling establishment.

Figuring out how to deal with moles digging under and displacing trays then re-inserting.

Amber ‘Botany Sorceress’ Gardner identifying native grasses.