Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 12d

🏞️ Ian plans to continue working in conservation; bringing together plants, pollinators, and the ecosystems that connect them.

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 12d

These results are key for pollinator conservation. While many efforts focus on flowers (bee food), Ian’s work shows that nesting habitat matters too. Bees, like people, need both food and a place to live.

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 12d

🌼🐝 After surveying many sites, Ian found that fire history didn’t predict bee nesting, but land use history did. More bees were found nesting in remnant prairies than in restorations. He also found that fire alters the microhabitat conditions bees rely on for nesting.

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 12d

To do this, Ian spent long days in the field setting up bee tents, collecting microhabitat data, and leading a team fueled by watermelon, ice cream floats, and the occasional cupcake.

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 12d

His work focused on how prescribed fire affects where bees choose to nest, the conditions they prefer, and whether remnant or restored prairies support more nesting activity.

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 12d

🔥🌾 Prescribed fire is widely used in prairie restoration, but what does it mean for insects, especially bees that nest underground? Ian set out to answer that question with fieldwork in the prairies of western Minnesota.

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 12d

Congratulations to Ian Roberts on successfully defending his master’s thesis for the Northwestern University / Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology & Conservation: “Impacts of Prescribed Fire on Ground Nesting Bees” under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Wagenius! 🧪

2 2 17

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 18d

Slag, it turns out, mimics two ecosystems once common in the Midwest but devastated by quarrying: alvars and dolomite prairies.

The resemblance sparked an idea: what if slag could be a refuge for the plant species with nowhere left to go?

2

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 18d

“This wetland was so damaged that we know it will never be a wetland again. So we asked ourselves, can we support a new type of Illinois plant community here?” - Jeremie Fant, Ph.D., a conservation scientist at the Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action

1 1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 18d

To grasp the marvel of this daisy, look beneath it. It grows not in soil but in slag: a rocky, nutrient-poor byproduct of steelmaking. Few plants can handle slag’s extremes. It floods in spring, bakes dry in summer, and holds traces of heavy metals.

1 1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 18d

On Chicago’s Southeast Side, a wetland scarred by decades of steelmaking has yet to heal. But against the odds, a single endangered lakeside daisy has bloomed here. 🧪
www.chicagobotanic.org/blog/plant_s...

Can a Wasteland Become a Garden?

www.chicagobotanic.org

1 17

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 19d

🔎 Next up, she’s heading to Kansas to work as a research assistant in the perennial oilseeds lab at the Land Institute.

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 19d

🏞️📊 Her findings? It’s complicated. While wild-collected seeds showed more variation in traits tied to drought resilience, overall, seed source didn’t explain most differences. Still, her work reinforces that even subtle within-species differences matter when it comes to restoration outcomes.

1 1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 19d

To find out, she focused on Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem), a native prairie grass widely used in restorations. She ran a drought experiment comparing plants grown from six different seed sources, measuring traits both above and below ground.

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 19d

🌾💧 Teagan’s work asks an important question for habitat restoration: if seeds of the same species come from different sources (wild or commercial), will they respond differently to stress like drought?

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 19d

Teagan successfully defended her thesis: “Intraspecific Trait Variation in Wild and Commercial Schizachyrium scoparium,” advised by Dr. Alicia Foxx and Dr. Andrea Kramer!

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 19d

Congratulations to Teagan Levar, who completed her combined bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Northwestern / Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation. 🧪

2 4

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 23d

Clint Stevens spends his weekends gathering clues to save rare plants. As a volunteer with Plants of Concern, he’s part of a dedicated team of nature enthusiasts trained to monitor threatened species across Illinois. Protecting rare plants = protecting healthy habitats. chgobg.org/3K2pSv3 🧪

The Guardians Between Plants and Extinction

Clint Stevens spends his weekends on a high-stakes scavenger hunt across Southern Illinois, gathering clues to save rare plants from disappearing.Traversing steep prairie hillsides and swampy lowlands...

chgobg.org

2

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 24d

He’s excited to get started and share what they discover!

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 24d

To get those answers, Andrew will be trekking into the highly threatened and fragmented Chocó biodiversity hotspot of Northwestern Ecuador to collect seeds and leaf samples, then return to the University in Quito for DNA extraction and analysis.

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 24d

Andrew and the team will use conservation genetics to find out if it’s worth making a two-hour drive and four-hour boat trip to collect seeds from a distant magnolia, or if the genetic diversity from trees near reserve headquarters is enough.

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 24d

- How many fruits should we collect to start a new population?
- How many mother trees do we need?
- How far apart can new trees be planted without isolating them from wild ones?

Common wisdom might say “plant them close together” or “collect as many fruits as possible,” but...

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 24d

He’ll be working with magnolia expert Álvaro Pérez at PUCE-Quito and multiple reserves across Ecuador to answer key questions about endangered magnolia conservation, like:

1

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 24d

Congrats to Northwestern University / Chicago Botanic Garden Ph.D. student Andrew Davies, who is studying magnolia trees in Ecuador for 10 months on a Fulbright Open Study/Research Award.

Learn more about the newly discovered magnolia species they'll focus on: https://tinyurl.com/rare-magnolia

🧪

Andrew Davies standing among plants with low mountains in the background

A large group of researchers posing for a photo in a classroom

1 2 9

Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action @negauneeinstitute.bsky.social · 26d

🌱 Emma is currently working as a research assistant for the NSF-funded New Roots for Restoration project at CBG and plans to continue working in plant conservation, focusing on habitat restoration, biodiversity monitoring, and applied research in the future.