News from the Bernard Field Station

More cattail cutting…

Oct 11th, 2018 by Nancy Hamlett

The Saturday, October 6, volunteer workday continued the cutting of cattails (Typha latifolia) as well as some bulrushes (Schoenoplectus sp.) and smaller rushes (Juncus sp.) on the edge of pHake Lake. This time the work centered on the northeast corner of lake to clear a site on the north shore that is used for collecting samples and to open an area for viewing the lake from a little island.

A determined Christina Valdez moves in on the bulrushes. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Linda Worlow attacks the rushes blocking the path. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Gosh, it’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it! Dick Haskell after piling up cut cattails. ©Linda Worlow.

The work really made a big difference. Here, in lieu of Vanna White, we have volunteer Christina Valdez to point out the areas we worked on:

View of the lake from the little island before (top) and after (bottom). ©Nancy Hamlett.

View from the sampling site on the north shore before (top) and after (bottom). ©Nancy Hamlett.

View looking across the lake to the island. Before (left); after (right). ©Nancy Hamlett.

Weather permitting, we’ll have one more cattail workday on October 20. If you’d like to splash around in the lake, please come join us!

Tags: Broad-leaved Cattail, Juncus sp., Naked-stemmed Bulrush, Rushes, Schoenoplectus sp., Typha latifolia, volunteers

Posted in News | Comments Off

Cattail cutting continues…

Oct 1st, 2018 by Nancy Hamlett

September 29 was another warm fall Saturday and another day of cutting cattails at pHake Lake. This time volunteers concentrated on the south shore of the lake, where access to the lake was almost totally blocked.

After cattails were cut, they were piled into boats and hauled across the lake to the boat landing area, where they were piled for later collection and mulching or composting.

Jeremy Hall and Luke Hall bring a load of cut cattails back across the lake. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Chia-Yun Chin and Kevin Jimenez unload cut cattails from the boat. ©Nancy Hamlett.

The south shore access was dramaticlly improved, as you can see from these photos!

View of the lake from the south shore. Left: before (is there a lake there?); right: after. ©Nancy Hamlett.

View across the lake to the south shore. Left: before; right: after. ©Nancy Hamlett.

We also spend some time clearing more cattails to the west of the boat landing:

Cattails cleared from the west side of the boat landing. Top: before; bottom: after @Nancy Hamlett.

Cattail cutting will is scheduled to continue for the next two workdays so long as the weather cooperates. So if you’d like to have fun splashing around in the lake while improving the BFS, please join us on October 6 or October 20.

Tags: Broad-leaved Cattail, Typha latifolia, volunteers

Posted in News | Comments Off

Volunteer workdays resume

Sep 17th, 2018 by Nancy Hamlett

Saturday, September 15, marked the start of BFS volunteer workdays for the 2018-2019 academic year, after the summer hiatus. As usual for this time of year, the work for the day was trimming back those pesky cattails (Typha latifolia) that keep trying to take over pHake Lake. On Saturday, we specifically worked on clearing out the area around the boat landing.

Volunteers at work. BFS Director Marty Meyer points out areas to cut as Stacy Scibelli and Dean McHenry saw away. ©Nancy Hamlett.

The cattails spread via large rhizomes that essentially make floating peninsulas out into the lake. We try to get rid of as many rhizomes as we can.

Stacy Scibelli admires a fine cattail rhizome. ©Nancy Hamlett

The boat landing area was much improved!

The boat landing before (above) and after (below). ©Nancy Hamlett

Cattail removal will continue on our next workday, September 29, and likely the two Saturdays after that. Please join us if you can for some wet fun and free pizza!

You can see the workday schedule for this academic year at bfs.claremont.edu/volunteer.html.

Tags: Broad-leaved Cattail, Typha latifolia, volunteers

Posted in News | Comments Off

BFS + Green Crew for California Invasive Species Action Week

Jun 10th, 2018 by Nancy Hamlett

The California Department of Fish & Wildlife has declared June 2 – June 10 “California Invasive Species Action Week“, so Saturday, June 9, was the perfect day to have Sustainable Claremont’s Green Crew to the BFS to learn about and remove invasive plants.

After an introduction to the BFS and some of our invasive plant species, the Green Crew together with some of our regular BFS volunteers removed Short-pod Mustard (Hirschfeldia incana), Maltese Star Thistles (Centaurea melitensis), Horehound (Marrubium vulgare), and Tree Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) from two disturbed areas. One is the area that burned in the May 2017 “Foothill Fire“, and this spring it became covered with mustard (and some star thistles), which, if not removed, will prevent the natives shrubs from growing back. The second area was bulldozed during the establishment of sewer connections to the newly renovated Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability. Volunteers planted this area in the fall with native plants that had been propagated from the BFS, but this area was also being invaded by mustard, horehound, and tree tobacco, which would be compete with the newly established native plants.

Here are some photos from the workday:

Jennifer Stark examines Horehound (and a piece of Wild Cucumber that was climbing on it) while Sorrel Stielstra looks on. ©Marcyn Clements.

BFS Volunteer Coordinator Nancy Hamlett shows the volunteers Tree Tobacco. ©Marcyn Clements.

Volunteers remove Short-pod Mustard from the burned area. ©Nancy Hamlett.

A giant Horehound just ready to be removed! ©Marcyn Clements

Marcyn Clements conquers the giant horehound! ©Marcyn Clements

At the end of the workday, we had had several HUGE piles of invasive plants that will be left to decay in place.

A Short-pod Mustard plant goes onto a trash pile. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Jen Pizzolo shows off another big pile of mustard and horehound. ©Marcyn Clements

And the volunteers also took time to appreciate some of the wildlife at the BFS. The toad pond in the burn area was filled with Western Toad tadpoles, and newly metamorphosed toadlets were hopping around on the shore.

Western Toad tadpoles in the toad pond. ©Nancy Hamlett.

A newly metamorphosed Western Toad at the toad pond. ©Nancy Hamlett.

And a Great Blue Heron stopped by to fish in pHake Lake.

A Great Blue Heron at pHake Lake. ©Nancy Hamlett.

All in all, it was most successful day! We hope this will be the first of many collaborations of Green Crew and the BFS.

Tags: Maltese Star Thistle, mustard, volunteers

Posted in News | Comments Off

A Plenitude of Papers!

May 22nd, 2018 by Nancy Hamlett

Since our last publication update in August 2016, BFS researchers have been very active indeed. We’ve posted seventeen new peer-reviewed articles and conference papers on the BFS website!

The new publications report research on a wide variety of projects, including carbon and nitrogen storage in soil, effects of drought on bird species richness, a revised taxonomy of a cleptoparasitic (cuckoo) bee genus, refuges that enable native snails to avoid heat and dessication, genetics of nitrogen-fixing sympbiotic bacteria, interactions of non-native grasses with native annuals, genetics of fairy shrimp, using underwater robots to track marine life and examine archeological sites, effects of leg loss on reproduction of Green Lynx Spiders, effects of disturbance on ground spider populations, and others!

We at the Claremont Colleges are incredibly fortunate to have a resource that supports such diverse research. In fact, Onuferko (2018) states in the Acknowledgements of his article,

I thank the Claremont Colleges and in particular Dr. Wallace Meyer (Pomona College) for giving me access to collect Epeolus and other bees at the Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station in Claremont, California. The area hosts several uncommon/rare cuckoo bees, and its importance as a refugium for native species in an otherwise completely human-transformed environment cannot be overstated.”

Here is the complete list of articles with links to abstracts and the full text of the articles (where available), along with a few photos of some of the experimental subjects:

California Shoulderband (Helminthoglypta tudiculata) – see Osborne & Wright (2018).

Caspi, T., L. Estrada, A.V. Dowling, E. Su, M. Leshchinskiy, A.R.O. Cavalcanti, E.J. Crane, C.R. Robins, and W.M. Meyer III. 2018. Carbon and nitrogen in the topsoils of inceptisols and mollisols under native sage scrub and non-native grasslands in southern California. Geoderma Regional. In Press. Abstract | HTML (subscription required)
Myers, B.M., E.J. Questad, M.D. Hubbell, and D.J. Moriarty. 2018. Trends in bird species richness in the midst of drought. Western Birds. In press. Abstract
Onuferko, T.M. 2018. A revision of the cleptoparasitic bee genus Epeolus Latreille for Nearctic species, north of Mexico (Hymenoptera, Apidae). ZooKeys 755: 1–185. Abstract | HTML | PDF

Bishop Lotus (Acmispon strigosus) – see Pahua et al. (2018) and Regus et al. (2017)

Osborne, T.R., and J.C. Wright. 2018. Seeking refuge in subsurface microhabitats during aestivation aids avoidance of lethally high temperature and desiccation in the snail Helminthoglypta tudiculata (Binney, 1843) (Pulmonata: Helminthoglyptidae). Journal of Molluscan Studies 84: 132-140. Abstract | HTML | PDF (subscription required)
Pahua, V.J., P.J. N. Stokes, A.C. Hollowell, J.U. Regus, K.A. Gano-Cohen, C.E. Wendlandt, K.W. Quides, J.Y. Lyu, and J.L. Sachs. 2018. Fitness variation among host species and the paradox of ineffective rhizobia. J. Evol. Biol. 31: 599-610. Abstract | HTML | PDF (from Sachs lab)
Thomson, D.M., J.W. Kwok, and E.L. Schultz. 2018. Extreme drought alters growth and interactions with exotic grasses, but not survival, for a California annual forb. Plant Ecology 219: 705-717. Abstract | HTML | PDF (subscription required)

Distant Phacelia (Phacelia distans) – see Thomson et al. (2018)

Aguilar, A., A.M. Maeda-Martínez, G. Murugan, H. Obregón-Barboza, D.C. Rogers, K. McClintock, and J.L. Krumm. 2017. High intraspecific genetic divergence in the versatile fairy shrimp Branchinecta lindahli with a comment on cryptic species in the genus Branchinecta (Crustacea: Anostraca). Hydrobiologia 801: 59-69. Abstract | HTML | PDF (subscription required)
Lin, Y., J. Hsiung, R. Piersall, C. White, C.G. Lowe, and C.M. Clark. 2017. A multi-autonomous underwater vehicle system for autonomous tracking of marine life. J. Field Robotics 34: 757–774. Abstract | HTML (subscription required) | PDF (from Clark lab)
Ramirez, M.G., J.N. Takemoto, and C.M. Oliveri. 2017. Leg Loss and Fitness in Female Green Lynx Spiders Peucetia viridans (Araneae: Oxyopidae). Arachnology 17(6): 277-281. Abstract | HTML | PDF (Subscription required)

Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans) – see Ramirez et al. (2017)

Regus, J.U., C.E. Wendlandt, R.M. Bantay, K.A. Gano-Cohen, N.J. Gleason, A.C. Hollowell, M.R. O’Neill, K.K. Shahin, and J.L. Sachs. 2017. Nitrogen deposition decreases the benefits of symbiosis in a native legume. Plant Soil 414: 159-170. Abstract | HTML (subscription required) | PDF (from Sachs lab)
Spear, D.M., T.A. Adams, E.S. Boyd, M.M. Dipman, W.J. Staubus, and W.M. Meyer. 2017. The effects of development, vegetation-type conversion, and fire on low-elevation Southern California spider assemblages. Invertebr. Biol. 136: 134–145. Abstract | HTML | PDF (subscription required)
Thomson, D.M., R.A. King, and E.L. Schultz. 2017. Between invaders and a risky place: Exotic grasses alter demographic tradeoffs of native forb germination timing. Ecosphere 8(10): e01987. Abstract | HTML | PDF

A robot ready for deployment at pHake Lake – see Lin et al. (2017), Viswanathan et al. (2017), Anderson et al. (2016), and Smith et al. (2016).

Viswanathan, V.K., Z. Lobo, J. Lupanow, S.S. von Fock, Z. Wood, T. Gambin, and C. Clark. 2017. AUV motion-planning for photogrammetric reconstruction of marine archaeological sites. 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Abstract |PDF (from Clark lab)
Anderson, J., B. Belcher, K. Clark, J. Faust, E. Hall, J. Sandoval, K. Tozer, and R.N. Smith. 2016. Development and implementation of a marine robotics algorithm validation testbed. OCEANS 2016 MTS/IEEE Monterey Abstract | PDF (from Smith lab)
Fiesler, E., and T. Drake. 2016. Macro-invertebrate biodiversity of a coastal prairie with vernal pool habitat. Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e6732. Abstract | HTML | PDF
Smith, K.D. , S.C. Hsiung, C. White, C.G. Lowe and C.M. Clark. 2016. Stochastic modeling and control for tracking the periodic movement of marine animals via AUVs. 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Daejeon, 2016: 3101-3107. Abstract | PDF (from Clark lab)
Krumm, J.L. 2013. Axial Gynandromorphy and Sex Determination in Branchinecta lindahli (Branchiopoda: Anostraca). Journal of Crustacean Biology 33: 303–308. Abstract | HTML | PDF

Tags: publications

Posted in News, Research, Web Updates | Comments Off

Symposium Celebrates BFS Senior Thesis Research!

May 22nd, 2018 by Nancy Hamlett

This year 14 seniors across the Claremont Colleges did research for their senior theses at the BFS. On April 25, the BFS held a senior thesis research symposium where seniors presented their thesis research in posters and oral presentations so all these students would have an opportunity to find out about all the other senior thesis projects. Here are a few photos from the event:

Jack Halsey presents his poster on the effects of fire on seed germination.

Ellie Harris talks about fire effects.

Jack Litle talks about the effects of herbivory.

Savanah Bird discusses how the 210 freeway affects genetic diversity in coyotes.

Savannah Meadors talks about processes that determine the survival and distribution of White Sage (Salvia apiana).

Kay Garlick-Ott takes questions on her presentation of how temperature impacts mating behaviors in the freshwater snail Physa acuta.

Symposium attendees. Front row, left to right: Prof. Fran Hanzawa, Ellie Harris, Tal Caspi, Savanah Bird, Prof. Nina Karnovsky. Back row: Prof. Diane Thomson, Savannah Meadors, Jenna Loesburg, Jack Halsey, BFS Director Marty Meyer, Jack Litle, Kay Garlick-Ott, Prof. Dave Smith

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE SENIORS FOR A JOB WELL DONE!

Posted in News, Research | Comments Off

Celebrate Earth Day 2018 at the BFS April 21!

Apr 9th, 2018 by Nancy Hamlett

On Saturday, April 21, the BFS is hosting a variety of tours for the Claremont Community in celebration of Earth Day 2018. A list and description of the different tour options is below. We do expect that tours will fill up quickly, so please sign up as soon as possible (see links to tour sign-ups below).

For a taste of what to expect, check out these scenes from last year’s Earth Day Celebration!

Once registered, it is critical that all participants arrive at least 5 to 10 minutes early. Everyone will need to sign a waiver of liability. Everyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent/legal guardian.

Please prepare yourself for the conditions. We recommend that everyone wear closed-toed shoes, long pants, and a hat. Sunscreen and water are also recommended – and critical if it is hot. Specific equipment for each tour is listed under the description.

List of Tours:

Bird Watching Tour – 8:00 to 10:00 AM:
Prof. Catherine McFadden from Harvey Mudd College will be leading a bird-watching tour. For a list of birds that you may see while at the BFS refer to the BFS list of bird species. Records of birds observed during the monthly surveys at the BFS can also be explored on eBird. People of all ages are welcome, but everyone must be in good enough shape to hike for ~ 2 hours.
- Please bring your own binoculars. We do have a few for people who don’t have any, but please indicate on your registration form if you require binoculars.
- Water, closed toed shoes, and sun protection required.
- Click HERE to register for the Bird-Watching Tour
Family Science Tour – 9:00 to 10:30 AM:
This tour will lead groups to a variety of stations:
1. Bird Ecology, where Prof. Elise Ferree from the Keck Science Department will teach people about local bird species and discuss aspects of their ecology,
2. Native Invertebrates, where Wallace Meyer, BFS Director, will provide an introduction to the ecology of invertebrates in southern California, and
3. Mammal Diversity and Ecology, where Prof. Paul Stapp from Cal State Fullerton, will be introducing participants to mammals found at the Bernard Field Station.
People of all ages are welcome, but the focus of this event is for K-12 students interested in science. Everyone must be in good enough shape to hike for ~ 1.5 hours.
- Water, closed-toed shoes, and sun protection required.
- Click HERE to register for the Family Science Tour
Native Plant Tour – 9:30 to 11:00 AM:
Dr. Susan Schenk will be leading a tour focused on native plants found at the field station for those interested in Southern California plant communities. People of all ages are welcome, but everyone must be in good enough shape to hike for ~ 1.5 hours.
- Water, closed-toed shoes, and sun protection required.
- Click HERE to register for the Native Plant Tour
Wildflower Tour – 2:00 to 3:30 PM:
Professor Nancy Hamlett from Harvey Mudd College will be leading a wildflower tour. The late rains and the fire have provided unique opportunities for viewing wildflowers. People of all ages are welcome, but everyone must be in good enough shape to hike for ~ 1.5 hours.
- Water, closed-toed shoes, and sun protection required.
- Click HERE to register for the Wildflower Tour
Night Tour for Families – 8:00 to 9:00 PM:
This tour will lead groups to two stations in the evening:
1. Night Sky, where participants, led by professor Prof. Naftilan from Keck Science, will examine aspects of the night sky using the Keck Science telescope
2. Insects of the Night, where Professor Jonathan Wright from Pomona College will teach participants about various insects active at night.
People of all ages are welcome, but the focus of this event is for K-12 students interested in science. Everyone must be in good enough shape to hike for ~ 1 hour.
- Please bring a flashlight with you.
- Water and closed-toed shoes required.
- Click HERE to register for the Night Family Tour

If you have any questions, please contact the BFS Director, Wallace Meyer, at wallace.meyer@pomona.edu.

Posted in News | Comments Off

And the winner is…

Feb 20th, 2018 by Nancy Hamlett

Just in time for the Academy Awards, the Karnovsky Lab has just released this video of the vertebrate stars of the BFS captured by their wildlife cams:

Enjoy!

For more about the vertebrate monitoring program, check out the PRISSM website.

Tags: bobcat, coyote, raccoon, vertebrate

Posted in News, Research, Sightings | Comments Off

New features for BFS bird data in eBird

Sep 21st, 2017 by Nancy Hamlett

Lots of useful BFS bird data are available on eBird, a public repository of bird records sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. The BFS has been designated as an eBird “Hotspot”, and you can go directly to the Bernard Field Station Hotspot page, which shows the full list of species reported at the BFS:

eBird has recently implemented a number of new features. You can get histograms of sightings by season, find detailed information on a particular species, access photos, audio files and comments, and view an illustrated checklist or download a printable checklist. For more information on accessing all these features, please see our updated instructions for viewing BFS data on eBird.

Many thanks to Prof. Cathy McFadden, Harvey Mudd College, whose monthly BFS bird surveys (2001-present) provided the vast majority of the eBird data. Additional observations have been contributed by the 5C Birding Club as well as other BFS researchers and visitors.

If you have bird observations, photographs, or audio recordings from the BFS, please consider contributing them to eBird!

Tags: birds

Posted in News, Web Updates | Comments Off

Updates to the BFS Bird List

Sep 21st, 2017 by Nancy Hamlett

We’ve recently made some substatial updates to the online BFS Bird List. Here they are (with a sampling of photos of BFS bird life:

Two new species have been added added to the list:
- Brewer’s Sparrow
- White-faced Ibis
The taxonomy has been updated to current usage according to the latest AOU Checklist of North and Middle American Birds. The changes include:
- The ordering of some families and species has been changed.
  An Anna’s Hummingbird perches on a cattail at pHake Lake. © Nancy Hamlett.
- Some scientific names have been changed.
  
  The House Finch, which was formerly Carpodacus mexicanus, is now Haemorhous mexicanus. © Nancy Hamlett.
- Some species have been moved to different families.
  
  A Green Heron skulks through the cattails at pHake Lake. © Nancy Hamlett.
- Western Scrub-Jays were split into two species. The one at the BFS still retains the same scientific name, but is now the “California Scrub-Jay”.
  
  This California Scrub-Jay participated in a study and apparently hopes that the photographer is coming to fill up its seed bowls. © Nancy Hamlett.
BFS photo links now connect to the photo database rather than to individual species pages, and lots of new photos of BFS bird life have been added – a sampling is scattered throughout this post.

The “Source” column has been eliminated. When the online bird list was first created, a variety of sources were used to document the presence of a species at the BFS – hence “Source” column. Since then, however, Prof. Cathy McFadden has collected data from 16+ (!) years of monthly systematic bird surveys, so the original varied sources are no longer relevant.

Conservation status listings have been limited to designations established by US Fish & Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, or Partners in Flight. Bureau of Land Management and California Department of Forestry designations have been removed since they only apply to the lands managed by those agencies.
A Band-tailed Pigeon, which is on the North American Bird Conservation Initiative and Partners in Flight watch lists, does acrobatics whilte reaching for elderberries. © Nancy Hamlett.
The introductory notes have been modified to reflect the various changes and to place important information in a more prominent position.
A Bewick’s Wren takes a crane fly to the nest for its young. © Nancy Hamlett.
Links to the BFS photo database, All About Birds, Birds of North America, and CalPhotos have all been checked and updated as needed.
An American Coot feeds its chicks. © Nancy Hamlett.