January 2008. Rob studies creosote populations in the deserts of Arizona and California. The diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid “races” of Larrea tridentata co-occur regionally but are rarely found together within populations.
April 2008. Tara crawls an algae-covered catwalk to reach an island near Lekeitio, Spain. Atlantic Coast forests of central and northern Europe are the natural home of Hedera hibernica (4x), an aggressive invader of lowland forests on the Pacific Coast of North America.
April 2008. Justin and Friedrich Ehrendorfer in the Vienna Woods, Austria. Ehrendorfer conducted post-doctoral work with Jens Clausen, David Keck and Bill Hiesey at the Carnegie Institute before returning to Austria for a professorship position in 1952. Prof. Ehrendorfer is the world’s authority on Achillea systematics.
April 2008. Justin at Col du Soulor, France. Alpine meadows of the Pyrenees Mountains are inhabited by Achillea millefolium sensu strictu, a close relative of the North American Achillea borealis.
May 2008. Rob and Emily assemble gate for the Ramsey lab experimental garden. The goal is to keep plants in and deer out!
May 2008. Adam and Justin setting fence posts along the experimental garden’s perimeter. Erin, Emily and Rob secure the tops and bottoms of the seven-foot tall deer fence.
May 2008. Clausen the flame-point siamese inspects the lab’s handiwork. Now where are those damn chipmunks? Mmmm, chipmunks.
July 2008. Achillea growout comparing stem elongation across ecotypes and inter-ecotype hybrids
July 2008. Ivy growout comparing morphology and performance of H. helix (2x), H. hibernica (4x) and spontaneous triploid hybrids.
June 2008. Ramsey family additions-- Keck the siamese and Hiesey the border collie. Yes, the Ramsey pets are really named “Clausen, Keck & Hiesey.” In our defense, we would point out that Daven Presgrave’s chihuahuas are named “Fisher” and “Darwin.”
September 2008. Adam, Tara, Rob, Melanie and Owen de-randomize plants for harvest. Clausen “helps.”
October 2008. Adam harvests ivy plants in the chilly morning hours, and later roto-tills a plot for an overwintering transplant experiment.
August 2008. Lab party for Brian Husband (with guests Rob Unckless et al. and Andrea Sweigart et al.). Yummy grilled food on a beautiful summer evening!
May 2008. Burly-men Rob and Adam making quick-set concrete for establishing the experimental garden’s corner posts.
January 2008. Sarah and Julienne collect creosote leaves in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts for flow cytometry analysis back in Rochester. Fun in the sun!
October 2008. Hiesey plays frisbee at Hamlin Beach, just north of Rochester. Hiesey loves the beach but not the water-- Justin wades out to rescue the frisbee while Hiesey cheers him on from the shore.
March 2008. The Chihuahuan desert, home of diploid creosote. Mattsia chases Larrea-feeding bees, a guild that includes numerous specialist taxa.
November 2008. Adam and Justin “discuss” how best to keep plastic connected to cold frames. Winter is coming!
December 2008. We underestimate the weight of Rochester snow (it’s damn heavy) and the cold frames start to sag. Solution = bamboo stakes and 100 tennis balls, kindly donated from the campus recreation center.
October 2008. Undergraduates enrolled in BIO 225 (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Lab) survey water, soils and woody vegetation in the UR woodlands. Excellent field learning opportunities only twenty minutes from the biology building!
March 2009. Spring arrives in Rochester, and undergraduates begin studies of vernal pools, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates in the University of Rochester woodlands. Pool locations are mapped with GPS and artificial shelters (wooden boards) are spread through the forest.
March 2009. A crew of undergraduate researchers pose for the cover of their indie rock album, “Coarse Woody Debris,” due out Q1 2010.
April 2009. The Ramsey lab applies white-wash to the biology greenhouse using sophisticated, state-of-art equipment, i.e., paint rollers and super-soaker squirt guns. The UR accountants love to deal with our receipts! Whitewash greatly reduces the heat-load of the greenhouse during the summer, dropping daytime temperatures by 5+ degrees F.
May 2009. Undergraduate Margaret Ball surveys early-flowering plants in terrestrial and aquatic habitats on the UR south campus.
April 2009. Cold frames are dismantled in the experimental garden and the yarrows, ivies and fireweeds (flow cytometry controls) greet the spring!
June 2009. The two Justins discuss vegetation sampling methods for meadow habitats on the south campus. Over the course of the summer, undergraduate Justin Budnik surveys 120 5 x 5 meter plots throughout the UR woodlands and nearby forests owned by the Town of Brighton as part of his senior thesis project.
June 2009. Justin Ramsey takes a break from fieldwork to eat some snakes he finds in the UR woodlands. Mmmm, snakes.
May 2009. Potted Achillea plants that overwintered in the experimental garden are dug up and randomized on freshly-roto-tilled soil. These plants will be used to examine genetic contributions to C13 fractionation in ecotypes adapted to different climatic conditions.
July 2009. For her senior thesis project, Laney Widener surveys invasive plants-- including oriental bittersweet, honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, and garlic mustard-- in forest and meadow habitats throughout the south campus. This work establishes a baseline for forthcoming eradication efforts.
August 2009. Adam measures ivy specimens grown in the experimental garden. Adam is evaluating morphological variation amongst currently-recognized Hedera taxa as well as growth performance between Hedera species that currently do or do not invade North American forests.
June 2009. Native wildflowers growing in the UR woodlands (counter-clockwise from upper left: baneberry, wild geranium, horse-balm, jewelweed, Indian pipe). The Ramsey lab has identified ~250 species of vascular plants occurring on the south campus-- additional information can be found in “UR woodlands” page of the website.
September 2009. Hannah McDonough processes and analyzes garden-grown Achillea plants for fractionization of carbon isotopes. For her undergraduate thesis, Hannah is evaluating C13 and water use efficiency of Achillea ecological races.
September 2009. Undergraduates Maria Strangas, Margaret Ball and Katie pose by American chestnuts they found in a randomly-positioned plot in the Lynch Woods property, adjacent to the UR south campus boundary. One of the chestnuts is reproductive-- there are fruits scattered on the forest floor at the base of the tree.
October 2009. Adam Green and undergraduates Julia Cosgrove and Layla Hatem finish harvesting second-year ivy plants in the experimental garden. Material from this two-year experiment will be used for evaluating morphometric distinctness of Hedera species as well as growth performance of triploid interspecific hybrids.
