Moss Workshop and Walk

The announcement is up for my next moss walk this summer through the Connecticut Botanical Society. The details are listed below or you can check out the information here on their website.  Moss Workshop and Walk - July 24, 2010 (Saturday 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.)
Hiding beneath your feet are an array of bright green plants, just waiting to be discovered. Come explore the trails and lake-shore of the James L. Goodwin State Forest in Hampton, Connecticut with Jessica Budke, a PhD student studying mosses at the University of Connecticut. After a brief indoor introduction we will head outside to identify and experience a diversity of mosses that are common in Connecticut forests. Participants should wear sturdy shoes and dress for the weather.  (Update  2 July 2010 - The Workshop is currently full. If you would like to be placed on the wait list feel free to contact me.)
Registration:	This workshop is open to the public and is limited to 14 people. Call or email Jessica Budke (jessica.budke@uconn.edu) to register - (860) 486-6306. Directions will be sent to registrants.

Connecticut Botanical Society Workshop

An Introduction to Moss Identification

Saturday April 17, 2010 - 9:30am-12:30pm

Nature Center, 269 Oak Grove Street, Manchester, CT

I will be leading this workshop sponsored by the Connecticut Botanical Society next month. It is free and open to the public. Space is limited to 14 people, so if you are interested in attending please contact me.

Have you every walked through the woods to observe a carpet of mosses? Upon closer inspection you notice that there are a wide variety of patterns, shapes, and colors within such a small amount of space. In this session you will learn how to indentify and explore mosses. This introduction to mosses will be based upon properties that can be observed with a hand lens. Participants should wear sturdy shoes and dress for the weather. After the indoor introduction we will car pool to the field site (Bolton Notch State Park).  Coffee and light refreshments will be available at the start of the workshop.

Call or email Jessica Budke to register -  (860) 486-6306  jessica.budke@uconn.edu 

(Update 10 April 2010 - The Workshop is currently full. If you would like to be placed on the wait list feel free to contact me.)

Corticolous Mosses at Bioblitz 2009

The Bioblitz a couple of weeks ago went well. I think that we counted about 40 bryophyte species and 40 lichen species in the survey area. We were in both Keney Park in Hartford, CT and in a floodplain area of the Connecticut River. I got some good shots of some pretty cool corticolous mosses. A moss that is corticolous grows on tree bark. Many of them had sporophytes peeking out from amongst the green, as you can see from the photos below.




In the floodplain area that we visited there were tons, I mean tons, of mosquitoes and poison ivy. I have encountered worse mosquitoes before. When I went on a field course to the Bahamas as an undergraduate I was eaten alive by mosquitoes over the two week course. I counted and had hundreds of bites on one leg. However the poison ivy on this Bioblitz excursion was more than I have ever seen before. Knee and hip high patches galore. Vines climbing almost every tree. I often went to bush a branch out of my way only to realize that it was not coming from the tree but from the poison ivy attached to it.

Here is a photo of me hiding from the mosquitoes in my rain jacket. Can you spot all the poison ivy in the background?

The poison ivy is above my head and to the right.

Thanks to Dr. Emmanuël Sérusiaux for taking this photo.

Bryology Outdoors

I have decided to add an additional heading to the left side of this blog entitled "Bryology Outdoors". I realized that I know about a number of outdoor field-trips and workshops that focus on bryophytes. A few of them are local here in Connecticut, which I will be attending. Others are further afield, such as the SO BE FREE 15 in New Mexico, which I may want to attend, but may be a little far for my travel budget this year.

Here is a list of the outdoor events that I have posted thus far. If you know of any others to add to the list please let me know.

What: Mysterious Mosses - Moss Walks
When: May 30, 2009 10am-12noon or 1:30-3:30pm
Where: West Redding, Connecticut, New Pond Farm (non-profit environmental education center)
Who: I am leading this program.
Fees: $20 per NPF member, $30 per non-member
More Details: Contact the staff at New Pond Farm (203-938-2117) for reservations or click here for more information on their website.

What: Connecticut Bioblitz - 24 hour biological survey of a Connecticut park with scientists, students and members of the public.
When: June 12 & 13, 2009
Where: Goodwin College (Hartford, Connecticut) on Riverside Drive with parallel public events at Keney Park. We will be looking for wildlife along the Connecticut River corridor south to Wethersfield Cove and throughout the 693 acres of Keney Park and the Matianuck State Preserve.
Who: Sponsored by the Center for Conservation and Biodiversity and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History at the University of Connecticut. My laboratory, headed up by Dr. Goffinet, will be surveying all of the bryophytes during the blitz.
More Details: Check out the Bioblitz website here. If you are interested in joining the bryophyte team for all or part of the bioblitz feel free to drop me an email (jessica.budke@uconn.edu). We would be happy to have additional help with the collecting and identifying. I also have a PDF of a flyer for this event if you are interested in advertising in your area.

What: 34th Annual A. Leroy Andrews Foray, Exploring valleys and bogs of northeastern Connecticut.
When: September 18 - 20, 2009
Where: Woodstock, Connecticut, YMCA Camp Woodstock
Who: Contact person for the foray is Juan Sanchez (jasdarwin2@charter.net). (I will also be attending, probably with other members of my lab.)
More Details: Additional information can be found here at the Goffinet Lab Website.

What: Spring Outing, Botanical Excursion, Foray, Retreat, and Escape into the Environment (SOBEFREE 15)
When: March 23 - 26, 2010
Where: Sacramento Mountains, southern New Mexico
Who: This event is sponsored annually by the Bryo Lab at the University of California Berkeley.
(I probably will not be in attendance as this event is quite a trek from Connecticut.)
More Details: Additional information about this event can be found by linking here to the BryoLab's website.

Off to Study Mosses in Japan

Well this is my last day in Connecticut before heading off to Japan tomorrow. My laundry is done, the lab is tidy, and some of my fabulous fellow graduate students will be taking care of my mosses here in Connecticut while I am gone. I still have a full day ahead of me with packing and cleaning my apartment, but the anxiety about the trip is starting to fade away and I am finally getting excited about the whole adventure.

One of the items that is quite important when meeting people professionally in Japan are business cards. Thy are called meishi in Japan. There is a formal method of meishi exchange that includes bowing. Here is a link to the entire story regarding meishi exchange. Hopefully I will not completely botch the exchange process and I can avoid embarassment.

Of course the business cards that I ordered got tied up in the printing and shipping process and will not arrive before I leave. Hopefully I will be able to have them sent to me so that I can use them while I am there.

I have posted versions of my business card in english and the one the my Japanese research advisor translated into english. The translation is pretty rough. Looking up Japanese characters is not easy. It says Connecticut University Ecology and Evolutionary Biology on the first line. Doctoral University student on the second line. The third line is my name. The prevaling comment that I have gotten is that it is pretty fun that my name in Japanese has two smiley faces. : ) The following lines are my contact information at the National Institute for Basic Biology.

On the at home front, the moss walk this past Saturday went well. We had six participants who came on the walk. We didn't walk very far, which is usually the case when looking at mosses, but everyone had a good time. Since everyone on the walk was new to mosses I introduced several of the common genera that can be found in Connecticut.

Atrichum Hypnum Leucobryum Polytrichum Plagiomnium Sphagnum

Well that is all for now and I will next be posting from Japan. Wish me luck.

Japan, a Moss Walk, a New Website, and Busyness Galore!

Apologies for my recent lack of posting. I am currently in the throes of preparing for a trip to Japan. I was awarded a summer internship through the National Science Foundation's (NSF) East Asia Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI). I will be spending 10-weeks in Japan working with Dr. Hasebe's lab group at the National Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki. I will be working with some mutant strains of Physcomitrella patens and running experiments on them. Yes you heard it right, Mutant Mosses. Now I can truly become a mad scientist with a cackling laugh and messy hair! Not to worry though the mutants will not be leaving the lab and they would not try to take over and conquer the world even if they did manage to escape.

I will have internet access while I am in the lab, so I am hoping to keep up with blog posts from Japan. I am planning to visit the city of Kyoto where there are a number of temples that are surrounded by moss gardens. I am hoping to stretch my camera's legs/lens from its photo taking hiatus and get some pretty pictures to post on the blog. I will also be in a number of major cities and it is always fun to hunt for urban mosses. They can grow in some of the oddest nooks and crannies. Additionally, there will be a workshop all about cool lab techniques for Physcomitrella patens held at the lab I will be visiting while in Japan. It should be a great learning experience and put me in touch will many moss researchers across the country. Hopefully I will have fun stories about the mosses and the moss biologists that I meet over the summer.

Also I have updated my personal University Webpage and it has a whole new look. Check it out and let me know what you think. Any comments or critiques are welcome. I have to say a special thanks to my sister who is a graphic designer and gave me assistance/pointers when making the website.

Finally, before I leave I will be leading a short moss walk this upcoming Saturday (June 14th) 11am-12noon at the Goodwin Conservation Center in Hampton, Connecticut, located in the James L. Goodwin State Forest. This is the 4th year that I will be leading a walk at Goodwin, but the last year that I will be working with Emily Komiskey, one of the outdoor educators who is also a graduate student at UConn. Goodwin just won't be the same without you Em! On Saturday the weather forecast is looking much more comfortable than today, partly cloudy skies and 79F for the high. Hope to see you there!

Click here for a link to more details and directions to the moss walk at Goodwin.

2008 Connecticut Bioblitz

Mark your calendars, this year's Bioblitz is quickly approaching! It will be held May 30 & 31 in Stratford, Connecticut and is sponsored by Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

A bioblitz is a 24 hour survey of the biological diversity of a designated area, such as a park or an entire town. Researchers who study all types of plants and animals, assisted by school children and the general public, hunt for as many species as they can find and identify. Thus taking a biological inventory of the biological diversity in an area. There are also events, activities and presentations given by the researchers. Yes this is a 24 hour event and quite a few people stay up all night, but sleeping is permitted. Usually the general public is just there during daylight hours, but trapping of insects and other nocturnal creatures does happen throughout the night which the general public can participate in. (We just collect the mosses during the daytime and then identify them through the night.)

I have attended two previous Bioblitz events (sponsored by the Center for Conservation and Biodiversity and Connecticut State Museum of Natural History) as part of the Bryophyte and Lichen group. Last year we identified 95 species form the Middletown area of Connecticut.

A bioblitz is a really great event! I would highly recommend attending a local bioblitz to anyone who is interested in biology and learning new species. It is also a great chance to interact with expert scientists who work in Connecticut or your local area.

Click here for additional information and a schedule of events for this Connecticut Bioblitz. Sponsored by Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.