Frankia Canopy Research Trip Gallery

In the second week of May 2008, we went to the Olympic National Rainforest to sample Frankia nodules from Alnus rubra stands near Lake Quinalt. We spent four days sampling Frankia nodules from canopy and ground roots. We climbed 16 trees and found nodules in 9 trees. The nodules were most often encountered in areas where a thick matt of epiphytes was present. The project is part of collaborative effort with Dr. Nalini Nadkarni of The Evergreen State College, who first discovered Frankia nodules in A. rubra canopies over 25 years ago. The goal of our project is to characterize the strain diversity of Frankia in canopy and ground roots and examine the effects of nodulation on the nutrient status of canopy soils. Rachel Rogers and Jesse Schouboe are the primary students working on this project as part of a Rogers Summer Research Fellowship at Lewis and Clark. MG Weber, a former Lewis and Clark student and current lab manager, has also worked on all aspects of the project. In the field, David Hooper, Ralph Riley, and Holly Fautisch from Western Washington University and August Longino from Tufts University helped with climbing and nodule collection. We are currently analyzing the results of the project and hope to submit our findings to a scientific journal in the near future. We would like to especially thank "Gear for Good" for helping outfit us with climbing equipment.

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