Citizen science
The growing field of public participation in scientific research (PPSR) includes volunteer monitoring, and other forms of activity in which members of the public engage in the process of scientific investigations: asking questions, collecting data, and/or interpreting results.
PPSR collaborations yield new knowledge by providing access to more and different observations and data than traditional science research. PPSR often focuses on a question or issue that requires data to be gathered or processed over long periods of time and/or wide geographic areas. Although projects vary in the degree of collaboration between science researchers and volunteers, in most projects volunteers receive some degree of training in project procedures to ensure consistency in data collection and accuracy in data analysis. Current projects cover a breadth of scientific content ranging from aquatic invasive species to native bees, from pollen to stardust, and from urban birds to arctic glaciers. Projects may engage a handful of participants in a small watershed or many thousands of observers located across several continents.
PPSR projects have goals for science-for example, to document changes in populations of plants or animals or variations in the quality of air or water-and/or goals for learning, for instance, to improve participant understanding of scientific content or capacity for addressing scientific issues. Many projects also have goals for actions based on resulting scientific outcomes and/or learning. Over the past few years several models for PPSR have been developed to meet varied goals. All models share the same basic strategy, however, in which volunteers collect and share data that can be analyzed by scientists, project participants, or both.
PPSR projects have achieved notable outcomes for both science and education. In recent years over one hundred articles have been published, in peer-reviewed scientific literature, that analyze and draw significant conclusions from volunteer-collected data. Many articles and book chapters describing learning outcomes for participants also have been published. Numerous publications document action outcomes as well, and offer strategies for linking research findings with management and decision making in different contexts.
Designing PPSR projects to achieve specific goals is not a simple process. Ensuring that projects will be meaningful to all participants, that project data will be collected accurately, that data will be analyzed with rigor, and that project results will be communicated to participants and to the greater scientific community all take careful planning and "intentional design."
The following questions are suitable for gardeners to set about trying to answer.
Why do flowers change colour after opening?
The biggest and best floral displays attract the most pollinators and ultimately produce the most seeds. One way plants can increase the size of their show is to maintain blossoms for longer before they fade. In this situation it would be advantageous to provide a signal to pollinators telling them which are the older flowers because these are likely to have been pollinated and also have lesss nector. This seems to be the strategy of some plants where the flowers change colour as they age. Insects soon learn that the altered colour of older flowers means not to waste time visiting them. Probably the most familiar examples of this strategy in the average garden are the lungworts (Pidmonaria spp.) with flowers that start out red and become blue as they age. The whole lungwort family is prone to changing flower colour, sometimes dramatically. The wild forget-me-not (Myosotis discolor) opens yellow, before changing to blue.
It's a clever example of natural selection, but why don't all plants do it? In fact most flowers just stay the same colour until they start to fade. The same question occurred to two Japanese biologists, who decided to investigate using a pair of weigelas: Weigela coraeensis and W. hortensis. The flowers of the former open white but over about three days become red-purple, whereas the flowers of W. hortensis open pale pink and stay that way. Both are grown in gardens, although neither is as common as a third species W. florida.
In coraeensis and kortensis nectar production peaks in one-day-old flowers but the flowers normally last about four days.
In coraeensis bees were warned off the older flowers, which had little nectar, by their red colour.
In hortensis bees were unable to distingish young flowers (with lots of nectar) from older ones (with little nectar) and visited both young and old with similar frequency.
Differences between the plants emerged when the researchers controlled pollination by transferring pollen between flowers with a paint brush, or prevented pollination altogether by enclosing flowers in bee-proof bags.
If pollination is prevented, flowers of hortensis last about four days and then fade, as usual. Flowers receiving pollen, however, last only just over half as long. In other words, in hortensis, pollination speeds up the ageing of the flowers, which in turn accelerates the process of making seeds. In this species therefore there is always a good show of fresh flowers ready for pollination.
In coraeensis, flowers that have been pollinated last about four days as usual, but if pollination is prevented, it retards the flower’s ageing process, so bagged flowers last for six days.
In these two ways weigelias ensure that each visiting bee always has a good chance of being rewarded with nectar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weigela
What controls the ageing of flowers?
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-950.pdf
More than 15,000 varieties of annual and perennial herbs and vines -- as well as a handful of shrubs and trees -- belong to the morning glory (convolvulaceae) family. The majority of the plants are native to tropical climates. Most have a climbing or trailing habit. Their funnel-shaped flowers open and close in a single day. The lifespans of the plants themselves, however, range from a single growing season to decades.
Annual morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea) is a 1- to 6-foot vine native to Mexico. This twining plant with heart-shaped green leaves typically blooms from early summer until frost before dying. The original vine has white-throated, purple blooms up to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Popular annual morning glory cultivars include wine-red Darling, white-edged, red Giant Cornell, Pearly Gates with pure white flowers and Violacea with deep purple, double blooms. Blue, pink and lavender varieties are also available. Annual morning glory grows quickly to cover trellises, porch columns and fences. it needs a supporting structure and sunny, well-drained moist soil.
This species offers much scope for investigating the production and ageing of flowers in relation to pollination.
When does and ornamental become a weed?
Berrying in barberries
Berberis is a genus of about 450-500 species of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from 1–5 m tall with thorny shoots, found throughout the termperate and subtropicalregions of the world (apart from Australia). Species diversity is greatest in South America, Africa and Asia; Europe has a few species, and North America two. The most well-known Berberis species is the so-called European barberry, Berberis vulgaris, which is common in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia.Berberis vulgaris has been recorded from Neolithic deposits at Grimes Graves (W. Norfolk). It might be native in England and Wales, but it was cultivated in medieval times and later widely planted for hedging. All records are mapped as if they are native. Its deleterious effect on wheat crops was appreciated before it was known to be a host of the Black Rust of wheat Puccinia graminis and consequently eradicated from many hedgerows in the 19th century. Berberis are easily raised from seed.
The European barberry is an attractive, medium-sized shrub with pendulous racemes of small, pale yellow flowers (with unusual, sensitive stamens) followed by bright red, translucent berries. These are edible and make an excellent jelly, indeed, the plant was once much cultivated for them. The bark yields a beautiful dye and was also once used in the treatment of jaundice.
Darwin's barberry (B. Darwinii)
Berberis darwinii is a species of barberry in the family Berberidaceae, native to southern Chile and Argentina and naturalized elsewhere. Common names include 'Darwin's Barberry' and (Argentinean-Chilean Spanish) 'Michay'
.
It is an evergreen thorny shrub growing to 3-4 m tall, with dense branches from ground level. The leaves are small oval, 12-25 mm long and 5-12 mm broad, with a spiny margin; they are borne in clusters of 2-5 together, subtended by a three-branched spine 2-4 mm long. The flowers are orange, 4-5 mm long, produced in dense racemes 2-7 cm long in spring. The fruit is a small purple-black berry 4-7 mm diameter, ripening in summer.
B. darwinii was discovered (in Western science) in South America in 1835 by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the 'Beagle'; however, the berries of this species were consumed by prehistoric native peoples in the Patagonian region over millennia. The species was one of many named in honour of Darwin.
It is a popular garden and hedging shrub in the British Isles. The Royal Horticultural Society has given the species its Award of Garden Merit. The edible fruit is very acidic.
B. darwinii is regarded as an invasive plant pest in New Zealand that escaped from gardens into indigenous plant communities via its bird-dispersed seeds. It is considered a serious threat to indigenous ecosystems throughout New Zealand and is listed on the National Pest Plant Accord. In Australia, the species is naturalised in the states of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. The species has also become sparingly naturalized in the US states of California and Oregon.
http://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/Documents/Berberis-darwinii-assessment.pdf
A species can be defined as invasive if it
a) has been introduced (usually by human action) to an area where it did not previously occur naturally,
b) b) successfully reproduces and/or spreads in the new location without further intervention by humans,
c) and c) becomes a pest in the new location, threatening the local biodiversity or ecosystems in some way. Invasive weed species can profoundly alter the structure and function of natural ecosystems and are currently considered one of the most serious threats to global biological diversity Accordingly, ecologists have long been searching for a universal set of biological and ecological attributes that define—and thus predict—“weediness” in plants .
http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/149/thesis.pdf?sequence=6
The first questions to answer in B darwinii is what pollinates the flowers, and to what extent is berry formation dependent on pollinators in British gardens.
What sort of water lily have you got?
Water-lilies are perhaps the most picturesque of our native plants. They are characterised by their circular floating leaves and white or yellow flowers. They grow at the edges of slow flowing rivers, in canals, lakes and ponds. They can grow in water of up to 5m deep, but prefer depths of between 1m and 3m.
Nuphar lutea (Yellow Water-lily) and Nymphaea alba (White Water-lily) are the most frequently encountered species with Nuphar pumila (Least Water-lily) being less common.
Nuphar comprises 13 species of aquatic perennials distributed in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The European species N. lutea and N. pumila in Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany are pollinated by bees and flies, including apparent Nuphar specialists. This contrasts with reports of predominant beetle pollination in American N. advena and N. polysepala.
http://www.ceh.ac.uk/sci_programmes/documents/waterlilies_nuphar_nymphaea.pdf
http://www.amjbot.org/content/87/6/898.full