*Getting Down to Business!*

I completed the experimental design for the greenhouse portion of my research project. I have also been using the scientific papers from my literature searches to locate companies that sell activated carbon and have been contacting them. Activated carbon will be used in two treatments of the experiment and it is often used to reduce the interference of allelopathic chemicals in the soil. It does this because it has a high affinity to organic compounds and a weak affinity to inorganic nutrients (Prati and Bossdorf 2004). The seeds for my experiment also came in and they will stratify for a month in cold, moist conditions at about 5 degrees. I’ve been watering them every other day with deionized water.

Cold Stratifying Seeds

Seeds of Eurbia divaricata That Are Stratifying

For the past two weeks I have been participating in a research project with Dr. Aronson that observes the response of Hempstead Plains’ prairie plants in urban environments. We have been conducting this project on a field plot on campus. Hofstra’s Public Relations crew has interviewed all of the participants and created a video on this exciting research. Last week, I continued to measure the initial growth of these plants as well as label and maintain each specific plot.

Dr. Aronson and I have also started another research project with Dr. Sanford looking at the dispersal rates of the bulbils that are produced by the invasive species that I am working with, Ranunculus ficaria. I am excited about this project because it takes my research a step further and I will be able to make a direct correlation to its dispersal rates and its invasiveness. This plant is a major ecological problem in the Northeast as well as the Pacific Northwest, therefore, I am eager to gain some understanding to how it is dispersed and how far the bulbils can travel so that native plant conservation can be managed as well as provide some insight on other invasive species.

I have done literature searches on seed dispersal in water because this plant usually grows along streams. These papers have helped me a great deal in organizing an experimental design for this project. In order to start this project, we need to find the buoyancy of each bulbil. Therefore, I have weighed over 200 bulbils and will begin to find the volume of each. Each bulbil weighs approximately 0.1 grams. Dr. Aronson and I were not exactly sure how to find the volume of an object this small so we reached out to the chair of the Physics Department, Professor Hastings. He is also excited about the project and is prepared to assist us in any questions we might have. This process makes my research experience richer with all of the possibilities and ideas that we have collectively discussed for the rest of the summer and upcoming year with these projects. I am honored to be a part of such a profound cause and it gives me a sense of fulfillment to know that my research will significantly contribute to the control and management of this species.

Bulbils produced by Ranunculus ficaria

In the lab weighing bulbils