Questions and comments from UBG staff

[ngoj1]

Here are some of the questions that the UBG staff wanted to ask about the project:

• There's old, physical-copy data of winter weather supplied by Totem Field from 1961 to 1994; would this be useful for us given that we already have data from the airport that spans the entire duration of the project?

• Since long-term data is the limitation for how well we can make predictive models here, is there anything else the garden could supply to remedy or at least ameliorate this problem?

• If the lab is interested in continuing this kind of collaboration, what would we (as the lab) like to gain from it in return?★

• Reciprocally, what kind of things could the garden stand to gain from this collaboration?★

• Cultivars are selected for certain traits, which might cause other unknown traits to rise in frequency or strengthen in effect, e.g. due to pleiotropy. It may then be more logical to treat cultivars as their own "species" instead of grouping them together. That is, to separate M. campbellii 'Borde Hill' from the true species M. campbellii.

• Can we look at other Magnolia phenology networks from the US and the UK to add to this dataset somehow?

• Any way in which the study can be improved to make it more rigorous instead of relying on the garden volunteers to assess things through their current analogue method? (I brought up things like camera traps or ImageJ/Fiji)

• Any interest in presenting this project during a Biodiversity Days event? (The garden hosts a month-long "celebration" of research at the garden in May with things like guided tours, presentations, community events, etc.)

★ While I didn't say anything about the commitment restrictions the lab has in handling this collaborative project with the garden given the plethora of other, higher-priority things the lab already has on its plate, I think the garden staff are aware that any collaboration needs investment of time and resources from both sides. Adriana and Daniel both previously mentioned that they'd wanted the garden to place stronger emphasis on research since, for the most part, much of its relevance to the public is recreational. I believe their intention was to highlight that this would be a mutualistic partnership, especially with Adriana asking if the lab had any interest in presenting during one of their Biodiversity Days celebratory events.

General questions about research on chilling and phenology in general:

• Any chilling models that might be useful for other plants in the garden? E.g. plants that grow during the winter in temperate climates when others are dormant based on our current knowledge (I thought this linked with the chilling concept/callose model we recently talked about; I had no answer for this when I spoke with them as it was my understanding that there is still too much to be deduced about chilling in general)

[lizzieinvancouver]

@ngoj1 Thanks for all your great work on this! I think we should meet up when I am back to discuss responses to these queries.

[lizzieinvancouver]

@ngoj1 and I discussed this together today!