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In: Biodiversity, Citizen science, Econotes, EcoU, Research

Earth Day is April 22nd and is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year. This year we want to celebrate the month of April by showcasing our commitment to protecting the environmental health of our local communities, Wisconsin and the planet through environmentally based education, research and outreach at UW—Green Bay, the Original EcoU!

 

Freshwater Mussels from the Oconto River.
Freshwater Mussels from the Oconto River

North America has the highest mussel biodiversity in the world, with over 300 species, but more than 40% of those species are imperiled, especially in the Midwestern states. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, no other group of animals in North America is in such grave danger of extinction! The major threats that these species face are siltation, water pollution, damming or conversion of streams, and the presence of invasive mussels (zebra mussels). Wisconsin is home for 51 species of freshwater mussels and 33 of those are considered endangered, threatened or rare enough to be of special concern. Only 18 species currently have healthy populations.

Jesse Weinzinger with fellow UWGB graduate student Chelsea Gunther at the Wisconsin Wetlands Association Meeting.
Jesse Weinzinger with fellow UWGB graduate student Chelsea Gunther at the Wisconsin Wetlands Association Meeting.

UW–Green Bay graduate student Jesse Weinzinger is on a mission to better protect Wisconsin’s freshwater mussels, one of North America’s most diverse and ecologically important aquatic species. Mussels are ecosystems engineers that filter nutrients and particles improving water quality downstream. They also stabilize stream bottoms and provide habitat and food for fish and mammals.

Jesse uses a mask and snorkel to monitor mussel populations.
Jesse uses a mask and snorkel to monitor mussel populations.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, along with the help of university researchers and citizen scientist volunteers, are surveying mussels in streams to learn more about the lifecycles and population structure of these important animals. However, the current survey protocol is very labor intensive and the state lacks the funds and staff to maintain long term monitoring efforts. Jesse is investigating ways to make the monitoring of Wisconsin’s mussels faster and easier. He is working with the WI DNR to establish a rapid assessment protocol for volunteers of the Mussel Monitoring Program of Wisconsin. The end result will be an efficient, teachable, and easy-to-use protocol that will provide new volunteer opportunities and, if the method is applied successfully, results will provide rigorous quantitative data to inform the DNR as it makes management decisions.

Jesse’s research is partly supported by grants from the Heirloom Plant Sale Fund and from the WI DNR.

How can you help? Become a mussel monitoring volunteer!

Original Article

Biodiversity

Biodiversity

https://blog.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/2015/04/mussel-man/

Vicki Medland

On:
In: Biodiversity, Econotes

Did you get a shamrock plant for Saint Patrick’s Day? It was most likely one of a few species in the genus Oxalis. Over 800 different species of Oxalis occur throughout most of the world, especially in Central America and South Africa. Their common name wood sorrel or in Europe wood sour refers to high concentrations of oxalic acid in the leaves and stems. Some are cultivated for their nutritious rhizomes, especially acta (O. tuberosa) in South America. Others like candycane sorrel (O. versicolor) and purple shamrock (O. triangularis), are prized by florists and gardeners because of their showy leaves and flowers and it is likely that you received one of these.

But is Oxalis “the” shamrock? According to Bess Lovejoy writing for Smithsonian.com, nobody is sure what plant species the stylized 3-leaved shamrock represents. Some, like 19th Century British botanist James Ebenezer Bicheno claimed that wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) was the “true” shamrock. Perhaps unconvinced that the British would best know which plant the Irish should call shamrock, Dublin native and amateur botanist Nathaniel Colgan decided to conduct a poll in 1892. He had people from different counties in Ireland send him specimens of shamrocks they had collected. Although there were no single winner based on his results, it seems that the Irish favor a few species of Clovers (Trifolium) especially white clover (Trifolium repens). Botanist E. Charles Nelson, repeated the study in 1988 and found similar results. Although most people selected among several species of clovers, about 5% of participants selected Oxalis as their shamrock.

Oxalis acetosella f. montana
Wisconsin’s Shamrock (Oxalis acetosella f. montana)

White clover is common in our region especially in agricultural and other grassy open fields, however, it is not native and can be invasive, so we are choosing one of our native species of Oxalis, the northern wood sorrel (O. montana or O. acetosella f. montana), as our symbol of the season. The plants are still hunkered down as underground rhizomes, but you will be able to find these forest plants blooming throughout the western Great Lakes region in June. Look for it in boreal and mixed evergreen-deciduous forests or in northern maple beech hardwood forests.

We have several bright yellow flowered Oxalis species in WI which are somewhat associated with disturbed sites, and only two white to pale purple/rose flowered species as in O. acetosella. There is a similar species in southern WI called the violet wood sorrel (O. violacea). The two species are almost perfectly segregated geographically in the state—SW dry and sunny (violacea) versus NE moist to wet and forested (acetosella f. montana).

By Vicki Medland and Gary Fewless

Read more about the history of shamrocks in Smithsonian Magazine online: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/no-one-really-knows-what-shamrock-180954578/

Original Article

Biodiversity

Biodiversity

https://blog.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/2015/03/shamrocks/

Vicki Medland

On:
In: birds, Econotes, graduate students, Point au Sable, UWGB, volunteer opportunity

Almost 80% of songbirds that nest in Wisconsin are migratory, many traveling vast distances every spring and fall. Songbirds typically migrate at night and seek out patches of natural habitat at daybreak where they can rest. These areas must provide shelter from storms and predators, as well as provide high quality food resources so the birds can refuel for the next leg of their journey.  Unfortunately, stopover habitats are becoming scarcer as natural habitat is converted for human use and landscapes become more fragmented.

UW--Green Bay graduate student Stephanie Beilke measures a bird while undergraduate Kirsten Gullett records data.
UW–Green Bay graduate student Stephanie Beilke measures a bird while undergraduate Kirsten Gullett records data.

Stopover habitats are a critical resource for these birds, but the ecology of birds during stopover periods is not well understood. And because increasingly large numbers of birds congregate in these fragmented habitats, ecological interactions can be intense. This may because there are many species interacting under highly variable environmental conditions. Graduate student Stephanie Beilke is banding birds to learn more about how migratory birds are affected by the type of stopover habitats they choose.  Her research on migratory bird assemblages will provide insights into the resource demands and evolutionary history of migratory birds and will ultimately provide a better understanding of stopover site ecology and help guide the conservation and protection of Great Lakes coastal habitats for migratory birds.

Point au Sable offers a perfect opportunity to learn more about stopover ecology. It is a mosaic of different natural habitats including lowland and upland forest, wetlands, and Great Lakes beach.  Since the late 1990s, migrating passerines have been studied at Point au Sable Natural Area, a peninsula that juts out into the lower Green Bay, just north of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus.  Through the years, Point au Sable has experienced many ecosystem changes including invading exotic vegetation, declining water-levels in the Bay of Green Bay, and ongoing habitat management and restoration. Despite these changes, point counts and mist-netting operations conducted by UW – Green Bay researchers have shown that large concentrations of avian migrants use Point au Sable during both spring and fall migration

This fall Stephanie and her group of volunteers set up nearly invisible finely-meshed mist nets in openings where birds are likely to fly through. Birds fly into the nets and become entangled. Trained technicians collect the birds, and then take measurements and either read the existing band or place a new a U.S. Geological Survey aluminum numbered band on the bird’s leg. Volunteers help to set up and take down the nets, alert the technicians to new arrivals, and help to record data collected.  In this study netted birds will be weighed and scored for visible chest fat.  Different length and width measurements are also collected.  Technicians work quickly and carefully to limit the amount of stress endured by the birds.

They banded birds on 25 different days at two locations at Point au Sable Natural Area. Six mist nets were set up in either coastal shrub or in upland forest. The average capture rate was 40 birds per net, but one net in the coastal area caught 79 new birds as well as 3 recaptured birds. Forty-seven different species were banded, including 100 Tennessee Warblers. They also captured large numbers of White-throated Sparrows, American Robins, Hermit Thrushes and Golden-crowned Kinglets.

Some of the species they caught were “firsts” for the project, meaning they had never been captured before, including Black-billed Cuckoo, Blue-headed Vireo, Purple Finch, and Winter Wren. The crew also banded one Yellow-bellied Flycatcher on October 12, which, according to the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, makes it a record late observation for the state. Most Yellow-bellied Flycatchers have migrated south by the end of September.

Stephanie will be banding again Spring 2014, stay tuned to the blog or like us on Facebook to find out how to volunteer.

Some of the birds captured in Autumn 2013

Blue-headed Vireo Blue Jay Female Northern Cardinal Brown Creeper Downy Woodpecker Golden-crowned Kinglet Magnolia Warbler Nashville Warbler Orange-crowned Warbler Ovenbird Red-bellied Woodpecker Wilson's Warbler Winter Wren Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

Original Article

Biodiversity

Biodiversity

https://blog.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/2013/11/bird-banding-at-point-au-sable/

Vicki Medland

On:
In: Buckthorn, Cofrin Memorial Arboretum, Econotes, invasive species, Natural Areas, trees

In the area around the City of Green Bay many trees have lost all or most of their leaves, especially the commonest and most abundant species such as green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), box elder (Acer negundo), and cottonwood (Populus deltoides). Other species generally leafless now include: white birch (Betula papyrifera), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), and wild cherries (Prunus serotina and Prunus virginiana).

Species still holding leaves include the invasive buckthorns (Rhamnus cathartica and Frangula alnus), Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and to a lesser degree silver maple (Acer saccharinum). The oaks also tend to hang onto their leaves, even after they turn brown (see Nov. 4). The photo at left shows still-green leaves of European buckthorn under the mostly bare branches of other species. If you look carefully, you may also notice green leaves still on the branches of a crack willow (Salix fragilis, another alien species) behind the other trees, toward the right side.

Close-up of leaves of European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). European Buckthorn remains green late into Autumn. Oaks proovide late season color. Most trees are now bare of leaves.

 

Original Article

Biodiversity

Biodiversity

https://blog.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/2013/11/past-peak/

Vicki Medland

On:
In: Biodiversity, birds, Econotes, native landscaping, recipes

If birds summering in the Western Great Lakes region have a favorite fruit, it has to be the Juneberry (Amelanchier spp.). Two weeks before the fruit were ripe our resident American Robin would make a daily visit to the trees outside my office, hop from branch to branch, cocking his head to get the best eye-full of berry.  He would sample ones that had already brightened to rosy pink, sometimes dropping the fruit if it was too green. On the day the first fruit ripened, she had the tree to herself for about 3 hours before the first Cedar Waxwings arrived. At the height of the harvest on the single tree, I counted one adult Robin, three juvenile Robins, 8 Cedar Waxwings, a pair of Northern Cardinals, and one shy Grey Catbird that was immediately chased off by the Waxwings.

Cedar Waxwing and American Robin feed on Serviceberries
Cedar Waxwing and American Robin feed on Juneberries

I usually cannot help myself, and sneak out to pick a handful of the fruit for myself. The flavor is reminiscent of blueberries, but has definite plum or dark cherry flavors as well. A serving of juneberries provides 23% of  the recommended amount of iron and are high in potassium, and magnesium, vitamin C, B6, A and E.  Cooking the berries improves the sweetness and flavor of the fruit, so feel free to eat that whole juneberry pie!

There are 20 named species in the genus Amelanchier (Rosaceae). There are almost as many common names to describe these shrubs and small trees  including juneberry,  shadbush, shadwood, shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, wild pear or chuckley pear, sugarplum or wild-plum, and even chuckleberry, currant-tree, or saskatoon.  In the southwest, Amelanchier denticulata is referred to as Membrillo, Membrillito, Madronillo, Cimarron, Tlaxistle, or Tlaxisqui. The common names often vary by location and many relate different phenological events together. Juneberry is obvious, and is most often used for the species that occur in the Midwest where the berries usually ripen in June, (however this year they did not ripen in Green Bay until July 2nd).  Several names refer to the flavor or shape of the fruit including membrillo, which is Spanish for quince, or to location, such as Saskatoon or Cimarron.  Names that include shad are derived from New England and eastern Canada, where the shrubs bloom in early spring at about the same time that Shad (fish in genus Alosa) return to rivers to spawn. Service or “Sarvis” supposedly relates back to the time of itinerant preachers that traveled in New England. The plants bloom in early spring shortly after the trails are clear of snow and the preachers were able to travel to the towns. I could find no source for chuckleberry, but it seems likely a corruption of the older chuckley pear, another name that I could find little history on.

Amelanchiers are important plants for native landscapes. These shrubs provide nectar for early emerging pollinators especially native bees and overwintering butterflies, fruit for birds, and are hosts for the larvae of several species of butterflies. The plants provide four season interest, including beautiful white flowers in early spring, berries in early summer, foliage that that turns to brilliant oranges to deep reds in fall, and beautiful vase shaped silver barked stems in the winter.  There are a variety of forms available to suit most areas from small shrubs to branching specimen tree that can grow to 25 feet in height. The eastern varieties are understory shrubs that are well suited to woodland or shady areas. And if you are lucky and can beat the birds to harvest, the sweet fruit can be used in almost any recipe that calls for blueberries.

Flowers, form, and berries of Amelanchier laevis, a common serviceberry in Wisconsin and the eastern United States. Other species have similar flowers and fruit.

There is at least one species of Amelanchier that is native somewhere on mainland North America and all species are edible, so it should be possible to find a variety that will thrive in your yard. Native varieties should be available at specialty nurseries and many nurseries carry the Apple Serviceberry (Amelanchier X Grandiflora), a hybrid between Amelanchier canadensis and Amelanchier laevis that grows 15 to 25 feet tall and has large showy flowers. There are several named varieties with different growth habits, fall coloration, and disease resistance.  “Autumn Brilliance” is one hybrid variety that is most readily available in the Midwest. All species are edible, although some produce more or larger fruit and new disease resistant horticultural varieties are now available that make growing these plants easy for home gardeners.

 

More information and Recipes

Original Article

Biodiversity

Biodiversity

https://blog.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/2013/07/juneberries/

Vicki Medland