EVOME’s genetics researchers have arrived to the field, and with them all of the Salix alexensis plants for the Willow Common Garden. These willows were collected from ten different sites (fifteen trees per site and six cuttings per tree) last summer, then overwintered outdoors in a covered exclosure at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Survival was surprisingly low at around 36%, with only 320 plants making their way up to Toolik Field Station last week. The team brought the willows to the boardwalk built earlier this summer at Toolik Field Station, where they planted them in twenty sections, in which one of each mother tree is present and positioning is randomized. This boardwalk will allow researchers to repeatedly visit the willow plantings without degrading the tundra. Additionally, each individual cutting in the Common Garden has been assigned a unique barcode label. Barcodes are scanned using an app created by Postdoctoral Fellow Brandon Lind in which data from the original site, mother plant, and sampling location are combined with data collected during the Common Garden experiment. This allows the collection process and record keeping to be more efficient, consistent, and to avoid the errors of hand-written records. The app compiles collected information into one large datasheet which will be used for analysis. Now that the garden is built and planted, the EVOME team will measure the growth and phenology of each individual Salix alexensis in the subsequent years of the project, with hopes to extend the study long-term if additional funding can be secured.
A group of EVOME genetics researchers sets up the Willow Common Garden at Toolik Field Station. Photo: Samira Obbu.
Only one week later, the Willow Common Garden is weathering its first summer snow since being planted. Photo: Dana Drake
Each individual Salix alexensis plant in the Willow Common Garden has a corresponding barcode tag to track the individual’s data in an app. Photo: Jill Wegrzyn
This grid illustrates the randomized placement of each willow cutting in the Common Garden. Within each 4×4 section, there is one cutting from each mother tree. Photo: Brandon Lind
