{"id":29816,"date":"2013-06-15T06:43:42","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T13:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=29816"},"modified":"2013-06-17T11:20:04","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:20:04","slug":"windy-bugs-in-wyoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=29816","title":{"rendered":"Windy Bugs in Wyoming"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just started my internship working with WYNDD, the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database at the University of Wyoming in Laramie with Dr. Lusha Tronstad, lead invertebrate zoologist, and Dr. Michael Dillon, Assistant Professor in Zoology and Physiology. \u00a0I am helping graduate student, Sarah DePaolo on a very exciting project in cooperation with the BLM.<\/p>\n

Wyoming is very windy. \u00a0I have already experienced many excessively windy days since arriving here two weeks ago — and I’m coming from Chicago, another place known for its wind. \u00a0Because Wyoming has high plains with ridges ideal for turbine development as well as lots of publicly owned land, it is slated to house the largest wind farm in the US. \u00a0Sierra Madre and Chokecherry, the sites we sampled last week and this week, respectively, is the location for this mega wind farm. \u00a0It’s currently wide open and gorgeous — not a power line in sight!<\/p>\n

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Sierra Madre<\/p><\/div>\n

Wind farming has been touted as clean, renewable energy. \u00a0Unfortunately, the turbines are killing wildlife. \u00a0Many studies have documented the toll wind turbines take on bird and bat populations; however, little work has been done to assess the effect of wind turbines on insect populations. \u00a0It’s well known that insects accumulate on the blades of wind turbines, cutting the efficiency of the turbines by up to half and requiring that the blades be cleaned regularly. \u00a0The commonly used colors for the turbines, white and light gray, are insect attractants. \u00a0Migratory insects will have to pass through the wind farms to reach cruising altitudes. \u00a0Some flies mate at the ridges and hilltops where turbines will be located.<\/p>\n

For this project, nicknamed Windy Bugs, we are sampling insect abundance and diversity in plots on rims, mid-slopes, and valleys in proposed wind farm sites and adjacent control sites. \u00a0We are setting out bee cups and vane traps at three times during the summer for 288 plots in four sites. \u00a0We are also recording the floral resources available to insects at each plot. \u00a0This data will be collected next year as well, after the wind farms are up and running to measure the effects of wind farms on insects.<\/p>\n

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Adrienne Pilmanis, BLM botanist, with a vane trap\/bee cups combo<\/p><\/div>\n

We collect the insects after twenty-four hours. \u00a0We have caught quite a variety of bees, wasps, moths, beetles, and more. \u00a0Common bees include\u00a0Anthophora<\/em>,\u00a0Melissodes<\/em>, and\u00a0Agapostemon. \u00a0<\/em>Since we’ve been going out for about four days in the field, we have had time to pin some of the insects right away. \u00a0I’ll post on that later.<\/p>\n

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(L-R) Aaron Strube, research assistant; Joy Handley, WYNDD botanist; Sarah DePaolo, UWyo graduate student; Sadie Todd, CLM intern<\/p><\/div>\n

The plant life here is adorable — lots of little mat plants like Astragalus<\/em>\u00a0as well as some showier blooms, like bitterroot and lupine, and of course Erigeron<\/em> and other smaller asters. \u00a0The\u00a0Opuntia\u00a0<\/em>are budding and I can’t wait for those!<\/p>\n

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A pronghorn skeleton laying among the Erigeron<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

We have seen tons of wildlife in the field! \u00a0Besides insects, we’ve seen a great horned owl, horned toads, mule deer, pronghorn, and three rattlesnakes in the last three days! \u00a0It’s wonderful to see so much life.<\/p>\n

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Rattlesnake!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just started my internship working with WYNDD, the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database at the University of Wyoming in Laramie with Dr. Lusha Tronstad, lead invertebrate zoologist, and Dr. Michael Dillon, Assistant Professor in Zoology and Physiology. \u00a0I am helping … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2528,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29816"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29858,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29816\/revisions\/29858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}