Fern Watch WA

Project Background:

Project Lead

Ruth Kirkpatrick, Ph.D.
Botany & Biology Instructor
Spokane Falls Community College
Life Sciences Department
Spokane Falls Community College
3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr. / MS 3280
Spokane, WA 99224-5288
Email: ruth.kirkpatrick@sfcc.spokane.edu

The Fern Watch Washington (WA) project is a long-term ecological study that tracks the response of Polystichum munitum (Kaulf.) C. Presl (Western Sword Fern) to climate.  Sword ferns are particularly good indicators of water availability because they have shallow roots and little water storage tissue, thereby exhibiting signs of drought stress before woody species such as trees and shrubs. Climate change research suggests greater risks to forest health in the future with more frequent events of extreme heat, extreme precipitation, and extreme drought. This project is modeled after and in collaboration with Fern Watch of Save the Redwoods League in California (CA).  Since Fern Watch CA was established in 2012, Dr. Emily Burns, Director of Science at Save the Redwoods League, has learned that in the northern end of the coast redwood range where annual precipitation is highest ferns are taller, have more fronds per crown, and occur at a higher crown density on the forest floor than ferns in the southern end of the redwood range where annual precipitation is lowest. During the drought of 2013-2016 in California, Fern Watchers observed that the plants had fewer and smaller fronds, a trend recognized from the detailed records on sword fern going back before the drought started (Figure 1).  It will be very interesting to see how sword ferns respond to the record breaking amounts of precipitation that California has seen this past winter and spring.

Figure 1: The frond length of Polystichum munitum, Western sword fern, increasing in more northern coast redwood forests. Data collected between 2008-2010. (Figure used with permission from Save the Redwoods League.)

Since moving from California to Spokane, Washington in 2011 I have been looking for a research project that I could establish locally that would involve my students. Emily Burns and I are friends from graduate school at UC Berkeley where we were both performing research on ferns.  Aware of Emily’s Fern Watch project, I was intrigued by the research results and impact of the drought on sword fern growth.  After a bit of online research I learned that sword fern is not only abundant on the west side of Washington, but also grows in and around Spokane!  I wondered, “Would sword fern in the coniferous forests across Washington show similar precipitation-influenced growth patterns as sword ferns in the redwood forests of California?”  I called Emily in January 2016 and asked if she would be okay with me using her Fern Watch protocols to establish Fern Watch sites across Washington. She was excited by my idea and has been an enthusiastic collaborator and mentor ever since.  In February 2016 I shared my new research project with Gita Bangera over a delicious dinner at Nirmal’s, which lead to Fern Watch WA becoming one of the four new ComGen projects of 2016.

With the generous support of ComGen during summer 2016, my field assistants and I established five Fern Watch WA study sites along an east west transect in Washington.  These Fern Watch sites occur across geographically dispersed ecosystems that vary significantly in average annual temperature and precipitation, and contain a larger stature mixed conifer-hardwood canopy and an understory herbaceous layer dominated to varying degrees by P. munitum.  Analysis of 2016 field data by my Fern Watch WA students at Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) revealed sword fern frond density varied between sites, with the Hoh Rainforest site having the most fronds (783) and the Riverside State Park site in Spokane having the least fronds (108) in total across all plots (Figure 2).  In general, data suggests that frond length is positively correlated with precipitation and frond lengths increase in more western and west-facing slope sites, with the longest fronds on average in the Hoh Rainforest site (68.6 cm ± 7.8) and the shortest fronds on average at the Riverside State Park site (44.9 cm ± 7.9).

Figure 2: Fern Watch WA site data summary from 2016 inventories.

Each annual survey documents the persistence of P. munitum within the plots and notes both the establishment of young sporophytes and any P. munitum deaths.  For each sword fern individual within a plot, the numbers of living fronds are counted and observations of blade size and conditions are made on five of the youngest, but fully mature fronds.  For each of the five selected fronds, the length of the rachis is measured from distal frond tip to basal pinna.  To assess reproductive efforts, the length of the blade bearing sori is measured from distal frond tip to the most basal pinnae with sori.  Frond age is noted to confirm if the leaf emerged during the current year, as evident by immature sori with intact indusia and the light green color characteristic of young pinnae.  Incidence of herbivory damage to fronds is also evaluated and herbivory rate recorded.

Dr. Emily Burns and her Fern Watch CA colleagues were thrilled to receive the first year of data from Fern Watch WA.  So far, data supports our hypothesis that Polystichum munitum in Washington forest ecosystems exhibits greater leaf area in wetter, western and west-facing-slope forests than in drier, eastern and east-facing-slope forests.  All of us Fern Watchers are very interested in learning how sword ferns respond to the tremendous amount of precipitation the Pacific Northwest has received since Fall 2016!  I also look forward to more ComGen faculty joining the Fern Watch WA project and together discover how Western Sword Fern responds to climate throughout its Washington range (and beyond?).

GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION:

So far I have only taught and explored Fern Watch WA curriculum with a small group of my Biology 270 (ComGen Pseudomonas fluorescens Project) graduates who enroll in a series of Independent Study courses that I have established (Biol 291, 292, and 293).  In the future I hope to incorporate Fern Watch research projects into my Biology 222: Cell and Molecular Biology, Biology 160: General Biology, Botany 112: Survey of Plants, and Botany 113: Field Botany courses. Scott Rollins, also biology faculty at SFCC, has expressed interest in adding Fern Watch projects into his Environmental Science courses (ENVS& 101 & BIOL& 100).  Students in my Independent Study courses have worked with me to develop projects, procedures, and curriculum for the Fern Watch WA project. These students have also suggested that I invite statistics (Math 146 and 221) students and instructors to use Fern Watch data for their analyses.

During winter and spring quarters of 2017 my Fern Watch WA students performed literature research to learn more about ferns, fern research, fern life cycles, fern mating systems, fern gametophyte culture, and fern gametophyte development.  We have found several review articles on ferns and fern research that we believe would provide a concise and thorough introduction to the fascinating world of ferns and fern research. These Fern Watch students designed, performed, evaluated, and revised several experiments involved with sporophyte field data analysis, gametophyte culture, and fern mating system analysis. One student entered all 2016 field data into Excel spread sheets and performed a variety of analyses on this data that was shared with Fern Watch CA researchers. In addition to measuring sword fern sporophytes during summer 2016, I collected fertile fronds from five sporophytes in each of the Fern Watch WA sites and students helped me transfer spores from dried fronds into sterile vials. Another student worked out gametophyte culture techniques and continues to document gametophyte ontogeny. Please see the abstracts below that summarize these two student projects from winter quarter 2017.

During spring quarter 2017 one student created the mathematical foundation for a computer program that he hopes will generate polar graphs of the plot distributions in each site from GPS coordinates.  These polar graphs will help students and faculty find the ten plots within a site for each annual census.  One student has established an experiment with isolated sword fern gametophytes investigating gametophyte self-fertilization rates.  Another pair of students established a series of crosses between gametophytes from one sporophyte, two sporophytes within one population, and between sporophytes from different populations to investigate levels of outcrossing and genetic load. On Friday June 2^nd we all walked from the SFCC campus down to the Riverside State Park Fern Watch Site to see how the sword ferns were doing after our long, cold, snowy winter and wet cold spring.  The sword ferns had already unfurled many beautiful bright green fronds!  These fronds are still too young and delicate to measure. The Fern Watch WA project continues.  With more and more energetic and creative students and faculty contributing to the Fern Watch WA project the findings will only become more interesting and varied, and the additional data will provide for more soundly supported conclusions.  Please consider becoming a Fern Watcher too!

During Fall 2016 I helped faculty and students at South Puget Sound Community College establish their own Fern Watch Site on their beautiful campus.

During Spring 2017 I helped faculty at Tacoma Community College apply for a permit to set up their own Fern Watch Site in Point Defiance Park.

I have created a Fern Watch WA Canvas course.  If you are interested in viewing this Canvas account and all of the resources there, send me an email and I will invite you to join.

During Summer 2017 I plan to census the ferns in all the sites set-up last summer, establish a Fern Watch WA site in Mt. Spokane State Park, develop curriculum for a Fern Watch WA module that might easily fit into an existing course, and help set-up other Fern Watch WA sites with ComGen faculty and students.

TEACHING DISCUSSION AND REFLECTIONS ON CURRICULUM:

I love the Fern Watch project and am so very grateful to the scientists who have supported me and who have also welcomed students to contribute to the research of sword ferns in Washington forests.  This research project has the potential to generate a significant amount of authentic data that will strengthen the science performed.  This project thus benefits collaborating professional scientists and provides students and faculty the many benefits of including authentic research experiences in undergraduate education.

The beauty of the Fern Watch project is its simplicity in establishing Fern Watch sites and performing the annual census of the sword ferns at each site.  The immediate challenge of the Fern Watch project is in developing the curriculum for a clean project package that any life science faculty could easily and smoothly incorporate into their courses.  The beauty of the Fern Watch project is the limitless possibilities it provides students in data analysis, related experiment design and execution, and widespread collaboration possibilities of Fern Watch participants. The challenge of the Fern Watch WA project is to grow, to recruit more faculty and students to become involved, and together take the Fern Watch project into the future.

What are students saying about their involvement with Fern Watch WA?

• “It was amazing, informative, and fun! I liked using my math knowledge to solve a new problem in a very different realm of science.
• “It’s a great way to fuel passion about the scientific process and generate interest about what’s happening in the world.”
• “I loved my experience with Fern Watch. It’s so cool to be able to do authentic research as an undergraduate.”
• “This experience is empowering and motivates me to seek more research opportunities in the future.”

P.S.  “Many of my students who have heard about my Fern Watch WA project have enthusiastically expressed their desire to help and be involved!”

Last Updated June 19, 2017