Drafts

Today we collected some leaf specimens from the elm trees on campus. It took quite a bit of time to get our specimens and not all of the trees even had leafminer activity. But we wanted to be thorough and it took some time to check. Many of the trees had leafminer activity. Most of them looked like stigmella multispicata but we can’t immediately be sure. It will require a little more investigation to be certain. One tree looked like it was covered in warts. That one did have one leafmine. It started to storm which made things a little more difficult but my partner had waterproof paper. We photographed all the trees that had leafminer and also took individual photos of the branches and surrounding ten leaves. We did see a couple of things that looked like blotch mines too.

The methods used to collect the data for our research proposal I felt wasnt defined very clearly, although they were designed in a rushed manner. As we collected the leaves, the first thing was the termination point when the miners werent found. We had walked to the siberian elms first and had found no leaf miners, however, after circling both trees I did attempt to climb a tree in order to investigate more thoroughly. Earlier I had injured my shoulder lifting and so I was unable to hold my body weight with that arm and couldnt climb the tree. Other collection methods that were unclear, the first found leaf mine was to be marked and the next 10 leaves around it counted. The wording was slightly unclear, and so we counted the next 9 leaves and counted the found leaf as number one. We collected the medium number of mines, but tried to collect leaf 1 if that had the median number of mines. Another missing thing in the methods we followed, was that leaves taken should be whole if possible, and without any other breaks or damage. This was specific to my group as Prof. Long has mentioned, in order to look at the oviposition sites we should omit data where we cant tell if a leaf miner had caused damage or if the leaf had suffered damage. Overall these are just my thoughts on the data collection performed today

Class today we split up into teams of 2 and checked trees for the presence of leaf mines. I worked with Steph for this project and our tearrority was the northwest section of campus. The first tree on the list was a Jefferson Elm. This tree had a few mines on the leaves. There was also an odd staining on some of the leaves that I felt could be looked at some other time. The next tree had a few mines on them also, but no real heavy infestation noted. The rest of the trees went about the same as the first two. There were a few that had no mines that we could find but did have other insect damage. There were two trees that we could not check well because the branches were over 3 meters high, making them out of reach. The weather was not the best but it did not make the study impossible, just a little uncomfortable. We were the last group to return from the field so I was unable to talk to anyone else about how it went. Our samples were logged and photos uploaded into a class file so that all the findings can be shared. Dr. Brewer photographed the leaves and put them into a press. I found this type of work to be interesting and I really hope that it becomes some work that can add to the known information regarding S. Multispicata if this is in fact what we are seeing

Leaf Miners are insects that can cause damage to the plant populations they target. These insects feed on the mesophyll inside of leaves, and leave the leaf vulnerable to infection (Bernardo et. al 2015). Over time, this can destroy the populations of the host plants. A leaf miner, likely to be Stigmella multispicata, was found infesting a Resistant American Elm (Ulmus Americana). The only known host for multispicata is the Siberian Elm (U. pumila), which suggests that this insect has swapped hosts. We aim to collect data on all Ulmus present on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus and determine the presence of leaf miners, and the characteristics of infected leaves. We intend to sample two trees of every species, as far apart as possible on campus, as well observe the mine locations relative to the symmetry of the leaves in order to understand the selection tendencies of the leaf miner. It is important to document and understand these invasive insects because of the possible threat they represent to Elms. The possibility for leaving the elms susceptible to infection, while already being under threat of the dutch elm disease, makes the careful observation of such insects necessary in order to insure the continued existence of the Elm.

Today the grope got together to work on our research proposal. The research that we are doing is to verify the presence of Stigmella multispicata in the American Elms on the UMass campus. I feel that we got a lot done on our proposal today. We started with a basic outline that we had been writing in thoughts and facts that we found while studying leafminers and their unique characteristics. The work we did will still require a lot more polishing and refining but I was very happy with all the progress that we made today. Writing a research proposal is different than the manuscript that we just completed. The writing perspective is future tense rather the past tense so it is a lot like asking for permission to do something rather then telling a story about what you did. I am  a little apprehensive about presenting the proposal tomorrow because like any work that you do for the first time there is always the burning question "did I do this right?". Tomorrow we shall see if our groupe hit the mark. 

Invasive pest species can cause the health of host plants decline and eventually result in the death of host plant (Bernardo 2015). It is important to track the ability of invasive species to infect new hosts in order to gain an understanding of any pest control measures that must be taken. Our study intends to provide data one such pest, and possible factors that may provide insight into the patterns by which these insects select their host. This information may prove useful to future researchers in determining the prevalence and threat these insects may pose to Ulmus genus in the future.

I am trying to come up with the specific aims for the research proposal and I can't think of too many. I guess the main point of this proposal is to see if we have evidence of S. multispicata host switching. If this leaf miiner were host switching, what might be the consequences of that happening? I feel like that is not enough to write, though. I am upset that we can't seem to find leafminer activity on any of the elm trees on campus other than the ones near where Dr. Brewer got off of the bus. But this might be helpful in our research as we can identify the loaction as one of the factors that could be causing the possible host switching. I supppose science frequently doesn't have a "correct" or clear cut answer. It is hard not knowing if you are "right" or "wrong". I guess the process of peer review helps you to better know if your thought process is correct, at least. 

I feel like the need for the proposal is one of the most important parts. The whole point of writing a proposal is the attempt and effort to get the necessary funds to complete your research. I feel like we can use the lesson we learned on pathos, ethos, and logos when we assemble this proposal. I guess I just feel like we don't have a really clear strategy to put this all together. I feel like its so abstract. It is comforting to know that any class can be difficult. I have felt so challenged by some of my engineering classes but this is just as challenging to me. These ideas feel so hard to put into words and nail down. I am going to see if I can find a more flow charty type of template to organize this proposal. It feels too hard just trying to read about it without seeing a few actual examples. I have also tried to watch a couple of YouTube videos about this but I feel like the scope of what they did in the video went beyond what we needed to do. 

Approach and Analysis: This experiment aims to sample leaves from every available Elm on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. There are currently 293 Elms on campus, and 16 unique species. Two of each Elm species, to be chosen in a manner that allows them to be as far apart as possible, will be searched for evidence of leaf miners by observing an accessible branch of the tree. The branch will searched for leaf miners on the last foot of the branch. All observed leaf miners will be removed from the infected tree. The leaves will be kept in a bag marked with the specific identification of the tree.

Abstract (Outline)

Background Info:

• Leafminers are an invasive that can damage commercial crops 

• More from Europe then Asia in North America

• Ornamental trees with leafmines are not aesthetically pleasing

• Poorly studied

• S. multispicata only recently described (2014)

Statement of need

• Not much information on S. multispicata 

• How many species of elm have this leafminer infected

Proposal objective

• Document S. multispicata feeding on elm's other than Siberian

• Add to the scientific community's knowledge base about this invasive

General Strategy

• Randomly select Elm trees to sample based on location and species

• ID Leaf miner activity (on tree and surrounding vegetation)

• Collect samples (Infected or not)

• Determine the species of leafminer 

• Correlation?

Significance

• Our research may add to the data on this species of leafminer

• is this species becoming a generalist ( not feeding/breading on specific species)