An Epic Field Trip

One main motivation for starting this blog was to post updates from my first research field trip of grad school. Originally this trip was planned for after the semester, in about Mid-May. However, my advisor and I realized that Funaria, the genus I'm looking for, matures a bit earlier than we had previously thought. If they fully mature before I get there, they'll release their spores and be useless to me. So the whole field trip was moved up to... next week. Starting tomorrow.

I'm looking for populations of Funaria across a wide range, like the Northeast US. There are two objectives:

1) To examine the genetic structure of populations- how related are populations from NY to populations in Virginia? Remember, we're talking mosses here, so you have to think on a really small scale- is there a lot of mixing across the Eastern US, or are populations isolated?
2) How variable are populations? Moss can increase in numbers in two ways: either through sexual reproduction and spores (which fly through the wind to land on new soil), or vegetative reproduction. The latter would produce a population that is, essentially, one clone. This question is interesting if you're inclined to think about philosophical questions such as: What is an individual.

The other objective on the trip is to collect two species of moss: Funaria hygrometrica, and Funaria flavicans. These species are related, and it is possible that they can hybridize. If I can collect populations where both species occur, I may be able to find evidence that genes have been exchanged between the species. If this is true, it would open up a whole set of questions for my thesis, regarding the field of speciation. Briefly, the principles of natural selection make predictions about how species form and how they remain distinct. For closely related species, there is often something preventing them from crossing, which typically results in unfit offspring.

Both species of Funaria grow in similar areas: disturbed, sunny soil. For example, the first population I sampled was right next to the Duke greenhouse:



It's right there near those piles of dirt. It's most "natural" habitat is in recently burned areas, but mostly during this trip I will be look for cemeteries, forest paths, and railroad tracks. When they are completely mature and ready to release their spores, they're actually pretty distinctive, having a bright orange color that stands out from the surrounding grass or other moss:



My guide will be Piers Majestyk, who is a post doc in the lab and an excellent field bryologist and taxonomist. He's real laid back and should be fun to travel with, and I'm looking forward to learning a lot from him. This trip is small potatoes for him, as later this year he's going to be gone for three months, collecting a tropical moss genus (Daltoniaceae) from: Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Philippines, and Hawaii. That's intense.

So, where am I going? Here's the preliminary plan:

Sunday night: Bethesda, MD
Monday night: Scranton, PA
Tuesday night: Ithaca, NY
Wednesday night: Saratoga Falls, NY
Thursday night: Providence, RI
Friday and Saturday night: Hardyston, NJ
Sunday night: Salisbury, MD

Of course, that's just the sleeping places (200 years from now, there may be historic sites: Matt Johnson slept here!). There are a few interesting places I'm targeting:

Day 1: Central Virginia. I'll be taking the long way to the DC area, up US-15 rather than I-95. This way, we'll be able to stop at sites that look promising- cemeteries, open fields, forests that look recently burned.
Day 2: Pennsylvania: We'll leave the DC area and return to US-15, which goes through Gettysburg on its way to Harrisburg. One place I'm looking forward to exploring is Palmerton, PA, which is further east near Allentown. Over 100 years ago, it was the site of a coal smelter, and half the mountain near Palmerton has very contaminated soil. The southern half of the mountain, meanwhile, is clean. If I can find Funaria on both sides, there could be different population dynamics depending on the contamination.
Day 3: Ithaca: My advisor spent a lot of time at Cornell and Ithaca College in the 1980s, and so he is familiar with the areas. He's suggested some filtration ponds near Cornell's campus, and some hills near Ithaca to explore.
Day 4: Southern Adirondack Mountains: This is probably my best chance to find Funaria in a "natural" environment, one that won't be too terribly disturbed by humans, which could make it a good comparison to other, more disturbed populations.
Day 5: Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts: We'll end this day in Providence, and hopefully collect Funaria from at least once site in each state I pass through.
Day 6: Rhode Island, Connecticut: Most of this day will be catching up with friends/family in Providence, with some bryologizing on the side :-)
Day 7: Sussex County, NJ: I may be biased, but I'm hoping there's an interesting population or three here, so that I can have a good excuse to go home to "study." We'll be hitting up High Point State Park and Stokes State Forest, perhaps also Wawayanda.
Day 8: Central/Southern NJ or Delaware. This will depend on how successful we've been, but one plan would be to visit some small parks in New Jersey, as well as the Pine Barrens. Another plan would be to head down the middle of Delaware towards Saisbury, MD. I already have an extensive collection from near Middleton, DE, but further down the penninsula could be interesting as well.
Day 9: Eastern North Carolina. Piers says that some of the swamps/parks in northeast North Carolina have been undercollected. While there may not be Funaria, it will be good to end the trip on a high note for the Duke Herbarium.

And then, back to Durham. My aim is to write interesting things that happen on the trip, and when I have internet access, update frequently, so check back soon!