Photos & News for the Ramsey Lab at Black Hills State
Please click here to view photos & news from our time at the University of Rochester.
Photos & News for the Ramsey Lab at Black Hills State
Please click here to view photos & news from our time at the University of Rochester.
July 2014. The Ramsey Lab begins the migration from Rochester to its new home (Black Hills State University) in Spearfish, South Dakota. Research infrastructure-- including live Achillea and Hedera plants, garden supplies and cold-frame structures, field gear and sampling equipment, and lab items-- are packed carefully for the 1,600 mile drive on I-90 through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. All told, we fill a 26’ trailer, a U-Haul truck, and three personal vehicles with research equipment and supplies. Special thanks goes to Michael Wallis, Olivia Morgan, Jeff Love, and Dylan Love-- these folks worked 100s of hours organizing, packing, and transporting research infrastructure and made a job that at times seemed impossible, do-able.
The departure is a big (and emotional) event for the Ramsey Lab, as we leave behind people and place we’ve grown to love over the years. We are nonetheless excited to move to the Black Hills region-- a beautiful and biologically diverse location with many opportunities for research and teaching.
Yes.
August 2015. The Ramsey Lab unloads and starts setting up research infrastructure a few blocks south of the Black Hills State campus in Spearfish, South Dakota-- just a few days after the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (that’s by plan, not a coincidence). The plants survive the journey and, while a bit overwhelmed by the dry heat and bright sunshine here, adjust pretty well to their new home. Everybody scurries to store and protect equipment and supplies from the elements, while starting to assemble the facilities needed for research-- plant benches and raised garden beds surrounded by deer-exclusion fencing, a temperature-controlled grow-room, and a small greenhouse-- and attending to start-of-semester activities at the university. As with the packing process earlier in New York, special thanks goes to Michael, Olivia, Jeff, and Dylan for long hours worked in hot conditions and under a tight deadline here in South Dakota! The move never would have been completed without the generous assistance of employees, students, and volunteers.
September - December 2015. Work continues on research set-up in Spearfish, with help from BHSU students Chris Roseland, Anna Hafele, Brett Montieth, Alissa Iverson, Darlene Coppe, Kendall Murie, and Michael Wallis (who starts in the MSc. Integrative Genomics program here). We are fortunate to have a long, warm autumn season to work with here-- plant stocks remain outside with minimal protection until the end of October, giving us time for finalizing work on the grow-room and greenhouse spaces.
September - December 2015. Justin and Tara teach BIOL 301 Plant Systematics. The course is nearly full-- 24 students-- and includes Biology and Outdoor Education majors. We have a lot of fun learning the local flora and visiting habitats in the vicinity of Spearfish-- our special thanks go to Mark Gabel (professor emeritus of plant biology) and Ben Van Ee (now at University of Puerto Rico) for sharing their knowledge of S. Dakota plants and experience with botany courses at BHSU.
January - February 2015. With super helpful assistance from Profs. John Dixson, Dan Asunkis, and Dave Siemens + graduate students Michael Wallis and Anna Hafele, the Ramseys introduce some new lab exercises to BIOL 153 (second-semester introductory biology). Shown here, an “algae ball” experiment (testing photosynthesis and respiration in contrasting light conditions using colorimetric assays of solution pH) and investigation of leaf traits (sizes and densities of stomata and trichomes) that may be associated with plant water relations.
Dammit, Clausen.
April 2015. Spring sessions of BIO 153L focus on diversity and ecology of plants, and include walks on the BHSU campus + visits to a Spearfish-area natural area, Lookout Mountain.
May 2015. Visit to Wingsprings in south-central South Dakota. To learn about the flora of Bennett Co. -- a diverse area that is botanically poorly sampled -- the Ramsey Lab is working with Mark Gabel, Grace Kostel, and other botanists in the region to document species and communities. The first session is at Wingsprings, home to CAIRNS and well-preserved habitats. Here, Grace and Mark introduce students Darlene Coppe, Anna Hafele, Michael Hurst, Zachariah Kay, Kendall Murie + the Ramseys to plants of the Great Plains.
Prickly Pear Pad Pulp Party-- who knew cactus goo was so much fun?
May-June 2015. More construction efforts for the Ramsey Lab's off-campus plant facilities with students Michael, Zak, Darlene, & Kendall. Shade cloth is up, raised beds prepared, and electrical power ready for fans, evaporative cooling, and fluorescent lights!
June-August 2015. Investigations of wild yarrow in the Black Hills and Great Plains. The Ramsey Lab is studying ecological differentiation across native populations as well as exotic invasion (occurrence of Achillea millefolium sensu stricu from Europe) along an elevational transect in w. South Dakota, from ~2,500’ - 7,200’. Here, students Darlene, Anna, Michael, Zak, and Kendall assist the Ramseys with field vegetation surveys and phenotypic measurements on yarrow plants.
June 2015. Teacher workshop sponsored by CAMSE (“Center for Advancement of Math & Science Ed”) and instructed by the Ramseys + professor Janet Briggs at BHSU. Emphasis this year is on life science concepts, including biological diversity and community structure, organism physiology, ecosystem services, invasion of exotic species, and the South Dakota native flora and fauna The workshop includes lab + lecture sessions and travels to field sites around the Black Hills and Great Plains.
June-July 2015. Plants encountered during fieldwork in the Black Hills and Great Plains. Left-to-right from top: balsamorrhiza, bergamot, prickly pear, Collomia, prairie smoke, larkspur, pinedrops, leadplant, death camas, mariposa, milkweed, monkshood, beardtongue, ground cherry, pasqueflower, prairie clover, columbine, pyrola, owl’s clover, blanket flower, buckwheat, twinflower, musineon, spiderwort.
June - August 2015. Dog Days of summer -- canines Hiesey (“crazy eyes”), Odin (“I <3 cow shit”) and Mogley (“is that a mouse?!”) travel to sites in western South Dakota.
September-October 2015. Final sampling of the field season and camping in cooling weather.
May 2015. Visit by Mark Gabel, Anna Hafele, and the Ramseys to McKenna Ranch, a diverse site in Perkins Co. The site harbors sand dune habitat -- including both dense grasslands and “open” areas (recent blow-outs) -- and a lot of native plants.
