Day 12

Today started out with an early wake up call. To compound having to get up early, I also had dish duty after breakfast this morning. Nevertheless I still made it to the bus by the time we were leaving to go to the glacier. As we were driving out on the bus, we saw a family of musk ox near the river. We were able to see them pretty well and there was even a baby one. It is crazy to think they are in the goat family. They are so big and strange looking. I’m really glad I finally got to see some up closer though.

            Our first stop of the day was at the Penn State camp near Long Lake. It was our first opportunity to really see a field camp. There are three scientists working there now. They have been camping out at the site and occasionally come into town. This field camp was first established in the 1990s and since then they have been using it to collect long-term research regarding the vegetation and plants in the area. Such long-term research sites are important since they provide evidence of changes over time and can be used as references for future investigations. They set up fenced off areas in the area to see the effects of herbivores on the landscape. They also set up warming cones that block the wind and therefore raise the temperature over small patches of vegetation. It simulates the forecasted rise in temperature that should happen in the coming years. So far they have found that increased temperatures have caused the land to become more dominated by shrubs. They have also found that herbivores such as caribou and musk oxen can counteract this warming effect. As we learned before, however, the plants are arriving earlier in the year while the caribou still stick to the same schedule for giving birth since they base their schedule off day length rather than weather like the plants. This change can lead to decreased nutrition available to animals like the caribou. Investigations like this are important for the way they show long-term change in an environment.

            After we arrived, we hiked an hour out over the ridge to get to their field site. Our legs and feet were starting to hurt. There aren’t really any trails around here so getting around can be tough. The terrain is either really shrubby so you have to bushwhack through it or it is really soft and full of holes so it is easy to twist your ankle the wrong way if you aren’t paying attention. Additionally, we have spent a lot of time going uphill through such terrain. My ankles seriously miss flat ground. We finally made it though and were split into three groups and took off to do various work helping the scientists. First my group went to work with Mike, who is researching the population dynamics of caterpillars. We have noticed a lot of caterpillars as we have been here. Apparently they go through population bursts during random years. This year is one of those years. We also learned about parasites that attack the caterpillars. After this introduction, we were set out to do a survey of caterpillars in the area. First we had to set up random plot sites. I spent awhile setting up square meter plots. It took awhile but as the others remarked, I was at least learning the metric system. Once we had the plots set up, we were put in groups of three and assigned a plot. We then had five minutes to search through the plot to try and find caterpillars and caterpillar pupae. It was pretty hard and my group only found a few. I found the most out of my group though. Sadly, it seems that I’m better at finding caterpillars than fossils.

            We then went to learn about gas exchange from Sean. He showed us the photosynthesis chamber and we were able to see how a contained plant used up carbon dioxide. It used the same IRGA technology that Julia used the other day. HE built the system himself though since it is very expensive equipment. It was cool getting to see the things I had learned about in biology class actually happening. We then went and took plant samples of willow, birch, and festuca grass. We then went back to the group only to find everyone had already eaten lunch. I ended up just eating a Clif bar for lunch since we had to hike back and the sandwiches for today ended up being liver. We had to hike back past another camp. Apparently it was some sort of shaman group that had gathered there for spiritual activities. It was kind of random and interesting.

            Once we made it back to the bus we went to the glacier. On the way there we saw an arctic hare. They are pretty big, about the size of a small dog, and are all white. My group hiked out farther onto the glacier today. We spent a lot of time hopping over melt water but we eventually made it out to a different spot to test. It was kind of cold out there but I stayed warm enough with multiple layers, a hat, and gloves. My group took another ice sample and did our atmospheric tests. Once again, the carbon dioxide was a lot lower on the ice than compared to other areas. After we finished our work, we took some time to take some pictures including one with our matching shirts. While on the ice my group tried to teach me some Greenlandic. It is pretty difficult since a lot of the words are really long and there are a lot of sounds that don’t exist in English. Then we headed back to the bus so we could get back in time for dinner. I realized that I had forgotten my iPod to listen to back at the school but the boys kept all of us entertained by singing a mix of songs ranging from the Spice Girls to Flight of the Conchords. Thankfully the bus just dropped us off right at dinner so it saved us half a trip. My challenge to eat more European went rather poorly tonight with me almost hitting the person behind me with a fork. I just have such poor coordination with my left hand that it is really difficult.

            After dinner we were all pretty tired so we decided to set aside our water testing until tomorrow. We spent a while working on our puzzle that we have now figured out is a map of Europe. None of us are very good at European geography, however, and we are pretty sure there are some pieces missing so it is a little bit difficult. We took a break to go get celebratory ice cream at one point too, since a few of us had received good news regarding AP and IB test scores. Then we ended up going to sleep kind of early since we were all pretty tired. 

Getting ready to look for caterpillars

The ice!

Musk ox family