Day 14

Today we began with a visit from some scientists from University of Colorado. They have been doing work regarding rivers and glacial discharge as indicators for ice sheet melt. During the presentation, we were shown the simplified model of: Meltwater Runoff = Rain + Snow + Melt – Refreezing in Ice Sheet. Runoff, rain, snow, and melt can all be measured directly by measuring river flow and weather monitoring. Similar to an algebra problem, if all the other variables can be measured directly, then the refreezing in the ice sheet can then be monitored indirectly. They also do work to determine runoff using remote sensing techniques. The glacial runoff river is filled with lots of sediment. They can look at satellite images to see how far the sediment plume extends into the fjord to help determine how much runoff there is. Once we finished learning in the classroom, we headed out to the river to try to survey the river ourselves. First, we measured the width of the river. Then we set out to measure the flow rate. First we did the more low-tech method. It was kind of a glorified game of Pooh Sticks. Half of us stood on the bridge and the other half stood about 80 meters downstream on the shore. From the bridge, we dropped pieces of wood, starting a timer as soon as it hit the water. We would then wait for the other group to raise their arms when the piece of wood went past them. Evan and I were both timing and got pretty good at it. We were within hundredths of a second of each other by the end. It was pretty hard for the other half of the group since the river was pretty wild when we were doing this. A few pieces of wood got totally stuck. We then measured the flow rate using a probe and found the data was similar to what we got with the other method.

            After being outside for a while, we were pretty cold since the weather was kind of nasty again. As they had predicted at the weather station the day before, it was rainy, cloudy, and cold. Luckily we got to have some more soup for lunch, which tasted really good. After, lunch we had the rest of the afternoon to finish up collecting our data and go to any last minute test spots we wanted to. Half the groups went back out into the field but my group only had a few spots close by so we had most of the afternoon to relax. After taking some time to watch the Tour de France and hang out for a while, we took the last couple data points near the school. Later that afternoon I was bored so I set out trying to make some distilled water that we could use for the probes. Using stuff I could find around the school I attempted to make a water distillery using a pot, stove, tin foil, and rocks. Sadly, this did not work so well and I was left with only a burned finger and no distilled water. I did learn, however, that it is surprisingly difficult to find ice in a country that is almost entirely covered by it. After dinner, we came back to the school and had a movie night. It was a nice way to relax after a bunch of very busy days.

The Watson River Photo Credit: Evan

Measuring the flow rate Photo Credit: Evan

Day 13

The day began with a talk on whales from Kasper, a Greenlandic teacher who is here right now. He has been living in Aasiaat, which is on the western coast of Greenland. There are some whales that live there year-round and during the summer Humpback whales migrate there to feed. The Humpback whales typically go just up to Disko Bay in the summer but they have been seeing them farther north recently. He showed us some pictures of whales that he had seen while kayaking there and also told us about the work they’ve done to catalog the whales according to the patterns on their flukes, which are like fingerprints. They’ve even been able to compare the Aasiaat catalog with the Nuuk catalog from farther south. They found that they have seen some of the same whales. These catalogs help them to estimate populations, set hunting permits, and monitor the effects of climate change. We also learned more about whale hunting here in Greenland and heard stories from some of the Greenlandic students. We heard about how there is a lot of tradition when it comes to the hunt and there is a very specific way that the meat is split up by the hunters.

            Later in the morning we rode our bikes over to the weather station in Kangerlussuaq. We learned about the importance of predicting weather for the planes going in and out of the area. Because we are in a fjord, it is very important to know how low the clouds will be. At the weather center, they take measurements and hand-draw maps showing the different weather systems. They used to do more of the measurements by hand but we were told that they recently automated the system. Throughout the day and night they receive calls from throughout the country asking about the weather in terms of flight conditions. Even in the little time we were there, he got multiple calls from people asking about the weather conditions. Once we finished at the weather station we went to the grocery store to get some snacks since it was right next door. I bought some ramen noodles that Vince later discovered were really good when combined with some other tomato soup that we bought. They were also pretty cheap which was nice since everything here is so expensive. They have some electronic things at the store since it is pretty much the only store in town and all of it is really expensive. An iPhone costs 7000 kroner, which is almost $1500.

            Once we finished at the store, those of us who are going to the ice soon went over to the KISS warehouse to try on our gear. We had parkas, snow pants, big boots, sleeping bags, and a few other things that we had to pull out to make sure they were the right size. It seems like they will keep us pretty warm. Trying on all our gear really pumped up our excitement about leaving for the ice too. I can’t believe we will be there soon.

            After trying on all our gear we came back to the school for lunch. We then drove out to the harbor area so we could all take some more samples. We also heard about a certain type of orchid that grows there. It is one of the smallest types of orchids in the world. We set out hiking down the fjord and eventually found some of the flowers. We hiked down to where the water was and took some samples too. Then we just hung out for a bit and explored some. We found a nest of little baby birds in the space between some big rocks.

            Once we got back from dinner, we spent a while working on our samples and trying to get everything organized for our presentations later this week.

Kangerlussuaq weather station

Hand-drawn weather map

Sondrestrom Fjord

My bag of ice gear

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

Day 11

            This morning started with a rather unpleasant early wake-up call. Tomorrow we have to get up earlier so they decided that they should wake us up earlier today to get ready since everyone has been rather sluggish in the morning. We weren’t aware of this plan, however, and were rather discombobulated when we were woken up before our alarm. We ate breakfast early and used the extra time to catch up on internet things. I’ve eaten cornflakes for breakfast every morning we’ve been here. I’m trying to come up with some more creative ways to eat cornflakes but so far the best has been putting small pieces of chocolate in them. I guess we just miss sugary American cereal.

            This morning the plan was to bike to the Salt Lake. Little did we know this would mean biking around 3 miles uphill over sand and rocks while carrying our gear and samples. If this were the Tour de Greenland, today was definitely a mountain stage. We ended up walking most of the way up and after a little over an hour we finally made it to the top. Once at the top, we then had to hike part way down the other side of the ridge to get to the lake. My group took our water and atmospheric samples next to the water pretty quickly. Other groups data collection was taking longer so we ate lunch and took some time to sing Disney songs. We also collected some plant samples and looked at the permafrost that the geology group found. It was a few feet down under the ground underneath a bunch of tuft (organic material). We started hiking back to the top of the ridge since it was getting cold and we wanted to get another atmospheric sample at the top of the ridge near Tacan. We saw a musk ox skull on the way back up and the boys picked up some of the teeth from it. It was incredible how big they are. There are a lot of bones you can find around here since the climate helps to preserve the bones and prevent decay that would happen in other environments. Apparently we headed up a little too early, though, since some of the people at the back saw a group of musk ox as they were coming back. The trip back to the school was definitely a lot easier since it was pretty much entirely downhill. I used my brakes more than my pedals.

            Once we were back at the school, I caught a few minutes of the Tour de France on the TV. They kept showing the Danish team a lot and it was weird not having to get up really early to watch it. We then hopped back on our bikes and headed into town to get a few things at the grocery store and the gift shop. We also stopped at the pizza shop and split a pizza for a snack. We ended up helping the pizza guy fold pizza boxes while we waited for our pizza. It tasted really good after such a tough morning though. After we got back to the school, I ended up taking a nap for awhile. Once I got up, we worked on organizing our data and trying to figure out the albedo calculations. We then got back on the bikes and headed to dinner. Once again we had the typical meat and starch. I’m starting to get a little bored with it so tonight I just put ketchup on everything. We spent tonight at dinner trying to work on our European eating habits. The others keep making fun of us since our typical American table manners would supposedly be unacceptable in Europe. Now our goal is to work our habits up to European standards by the end of the trip. I also had the misfortune of eating an entire spoonful of spicy mustard this evening. The flavor of my dinner tonight consisted mostly of condiments.

            After everyone got back we had a quick meeting where all the groups reviewed their progress from the day and we talked about the plans for tomorrow. Tomorrow we are leaving early and spending the entire day out at the ice. It should be pretty cool. After the meeting my group conducted our tests and I spent awhile working on our albedo calculations after a quick break for some Cocio (really good Danish chocolate milk). Albedo measures the light that is reflected off a surface. We are measuring how different natural surfaces reflect light as part of our research since this can have an effect on the atmosphere and climate. We are doing this by taking pictures of a white piece of paper against the ground surface and using a computer program to measure the difference in light reflection between the two surfaces. Albedo is important in climate research since the ice reflects a lot of light whereas a vegetated surface absorbs more light. The more light that is absorbed the more heat that is trapped in the atmosphere. Therefore the loss of ice can have a positive feedback effect when it comes to climate change.

            We were all pretty tired as we were working on our data so some of us ended up just lying on our beds while finishing up our work. This calm was soon upset, however, when Vince (Michigan) tried to climb on the top bunk. Of the bed next to the one I was on. It was apparently not very well constructed because as soon as he sat near the corner the bed crashed down. Luckily no one was on that bottom bunk at the time and Vince was fine. I immediately jumped out from under the other bed and we all lost it laughing. We checked my bunk bed and it seems sturdy so I should be ok tonight and if not, at least Maria (Colorado) is pretty light. It seems there is never really a dull moment around here. Right now we are trying to put together a puzzle. We think it is of a world map although we are not totally sure since the top of the box is missing. As the box says, it’s always a good idea to have a puzzle party. It should be interesting how it comes out. 

Vince the bed breaker

The seemingly never-ending hill

The salt lake we tested at today

Puzzle party!

Taking a break at the top of the ridge

           

Day 10: Precipitation Happens

Today started out with some review of proper field technique and safety. The plan for today involved being shuttled out to a drop-off point in our groups. From the drop-off point, we could hike around to collect samples and data wherever we wanted to. After we finished packing up our equipment and making our plans, we headed outside only to find that it had started raining. We all ran back in to grab some more rain gear and plastic bags to wrap our stuff in.

            After we made it to the drop-off point, my group headed out along with the group researching water quality and sea tomatoes. We took some water and atmosphere samples. We had a hard time at first trying to keep all our equipment and notebooks dry. Luckily I remembered my mom gave me a rain-proof notebook to use so once we pulled that out things got a lot better. We worked out a system of covering our probes while setting up and trying our best to keep everything relatively dry. I ended up putting all our equipment in a bag and putting it inside my rain jacket. It looked pretty ridiculous but all our equipment stayed pretty dry. It was difficult getting around the terrain today. Everything was pretty wet and I stepped in a lot of mud. Thankfully my shoes kept most of the water out. It is difficult to walk around since a lot of the land is covered by moss-like growth that you sink down in when you walk on it. As soon as you put your foot down you sink about four inches down. Some places were bad enough we just had to run across to keep from sinking.

My group has settled into a pretty good rhythm. Communication is a little difficult sometimes. Sometimes the same phrase goes through English, Danish, and Greenlandic amongst my team members to get everyone on the same page. Today we sampled at a smaller lake, the lake with sea tomatoes, on the ridge, and at the sand dunes. That brings us up to a total of seven testing sites so far. We still have a lot of work to do analyzing data but it will be interesting to see what patterns come out.

            With a decent amount of data collected and the promise of a hot shower waiting for us, my group headed in a bit early from the field. We all immediately took some hot showers and had some lunch. Our new food obsession is instant cup of soup from the grocery store. It tastes really good after being in the cold and eating lots of unfamiliar food. All of us Americans keep craving random American foods and talking about them. I personally want a watermelon eegee and Mexican food right now.

            Additional excitement came when we got back to the school since they finally got the internet at the school working. The wireless connection is really good in one room so we all piled in there amidst a mess of cords to check email, upload pictures, and update blogs. After a break we set to work organizing our data and analyzing our water samples. I made a color-coded spreadsheet for all our data while Emil tested the samples in our “lab”. We took a break for dinner and then came back to finish working to prepare for the presentations later where all the groups would be presenting their progress.

            The presentations went well. We talked about our data and how so far we’ve found that the highest concentration of carbon dioxide was in the sand dune areas while the lowest was on the ice. Our UV data is a little off since it was so cloudy today but we will wait and look for more patterns as we take more data. The other groups had some other good progress today. The musk ox group even saw two musk ox as they were working today. It will be really interesting to see how all the projects come out.

***If you are really fond of polar bears you might not want to read beyond this point***
As we were working we got the news that there had been a polar bear that was shot and killed in the harbor. The harbor is out near the ocean while we are farther inland at the end of the fjord. It is extremely rare to see a polar bear in this region. Polar bears are very dangerous so they shot it for safety reasons. As we learned later, the polar bear had been surviving on seaweed and was not doing well either. They would be bringing the polar bear into town later to the police station so we could go see it later so we were put on alert to know when to head up to town. 

            After we finished with our work for the night, we walked next door to buy some snacks. As we were walking back we saw everyone jumping in the car since the polar bear had apparently arrived. We all joined in even though I didn’t have my camera and was wearing flip flops while holding an ice cream cone. As soon as we got there it became obvious that nearly the entire town was there. It wasn’t very big and was a female. It was apparently not going to make it. It was a totally strange experience being there. I didn’t know how to really react. Some of the people there were really excited but it was a little upsetting seeing this endangered species. It was clear that I wasn’t in Tucson anymore. It’s amazing how big they are. This one seemed really big and apparently it was a smaller one. It was also interesting hearing from some of the other students who live in northern Greenland. They get polar bears a lot around there. We also heard from some of the people at KISS about how they have unsuccessfully tried to polar bear-proof some of the research stations on the ice.

            We all headed back to the school and started wrapping stuff up for the night. I finally caught up on all these blogs, which was nice. I can’t believe we’ve done so much so far.

We weren't totally thrilled about the rain, but it is all part of the genuine field experience

Some of the attempts to waterproof ourselves and our gear

Team Atmosphere working in the "lab"

***If you want to see a picture of the polar bear there is one after the page break. Warning: It is a little gory***

Day 9

Today started off with Julia and Courtney, from Dartmouth College, talking to us about their work on carbon dioxide emissions over different types of terrains. They are measuring the carbon flux over different types of vegetation and temperature gradients. They use an IRGA (Infrared gas analyzer), a very expensive piece of equipment that we got to try out today, to take their measurements. Julia studies how the different vegetations and soils affect how the soil takes up and releases carbon dioxide. This corresponds to one part of the carbon cycle, which consists of how carbon moves through the air, soil, plants, organisms, and water in ecosystems. With all this in mind, we went out in the field to work with them and take some of these measurements. First we took some samples in areas with shrub vegetation versus grass and herb vegetation. It took my group a little while to be able to identify the shrubs but we were able to find some of the willows that are pretty common around here. Normally shrubs aren’t very tall but without any trees around here, they are the tallest vegetation. My group also took our first atmospheric measurements for our project at this site. Taking our measurements looks a little silly since it involves four probes we have to hold in the air attached by cords to a handheld device that looks a bit like a graphing calculator. We have gotten the process down so I sit in the middle reading the measurements and recording the data into a notebook while the other three stand around me holding all the probes. Hopefully we will get this process down a little faster as we go along. After eating our lunch and being swarmed by mosquitoes again, we headed in the direction of the ice sheet. The road was pretty sandy but after digging and pushing two cars out of the sand we finally made it to the ice. I rode in the Suburban, which was definitely the best car. We didn’t get stuck at all today. The roads here make all the dirt roads around Tucson seem pretty nice. We also had to stop for a little while on the way since we spotted a caribou drinking some water in a pond just off the side of the road. We immediately had to stop and take some pictures. I couldn’t help but think how much it looked like some sort of travel brochure. It was amazing how huge and beautiful the ice was. It was also weird to think we will be standing at the top of that ice in just a little while. We took some more atmospheric samples near the ice. It was really cold there. We measured the temperature at 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit) near the ice sheet and 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) on the ice. All the Americans are still having trouble thinking in terms of metric. All the other kids enjoy making fun of us because of this too. We walked on the ice for a while taking pictures and taking some ice samples and atmospheric data. I was pretty cold by the time we finished, but it was at least nice to be able to pull out some of the cold weather clothes I had packed. With dinnertime quickly approaching we all piled back into the cars to head back to Kangerlussuaq. On the way back, Lauritz (a “Greenlandic” student who is actually German) gave us some dried whale to try. It was pretty fishy and the others described it as really bad, fishy beef jerky. I managed to eat my piece without having to spit it out but I don’t think I will be eating much more whale.

            Dinner followed the typical formula of meat in a sauce and some sort of starch. A lot of the dinners have been Danish. After we came back to the school, we did the water chemistry tests on a sample of the ice we had brought back. We quickly discovered it wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. As we pulled out different probes and tests, we realized we would need some distilled water and glassware. We soon found we do not have either of these things, though. It looks as if we are going to have to come up with some creative solutions in the next few days. Nevertheless we were still able to do the water chemistry tests although we learned that it is probably a good idea to try and finish all your lab tests before eleven o’clock. We started to get a little loopy by the end of our testing. 

At the ice!

Julia working with the IRGA

Taking some measurements on the ice

Team USA and Lauritz

Day 8

Today we started out by getting a lecture on geology from Laura and Patrick, two scientists, from Dartmouth and University of Stockholm respectively, working here. We learned about the different geologic evidence that is left by glaciers as they move through a landscape. This includes rouche moutonees, chatter marks, moraines, and erratic boulders. They are doing work studying evidence like this to help determine the history of glacial movement in the region. We then picked up some bikes that we then rode down to the field. We enjoyed riding around in our “bike gang” and joked around that we were riding in the Tour de Greenland. We looked for some more fossils and learned some more about the evidence in the area that shows how the sea level has dropped and the glacier has receded. We also learned some more about how fossils form. I was able to finally find some fish fossils. I did learn, however, that no matter what kind of fossil you find, there is always someone with a cooler fossil with you.

            After lunch we met in our research groups to work on our projects some more. My group worked on narrowing down what tests we are going to do and where we are going to do them. We plotted out where we want to take data on a big map and wrote up a proposal to turn in for our project. Once we all finished, the Americans headed off to the grocery store to buy some stuff to make some sort of

American-ish food for the Fourth of July. We settled on making grilled cheese and tomato soup as a late night. It ended up being pretty good and we are already planning our next grilled cheese night. Later in the evening we also took another trip down to the puppies. They were cute as always and it seems like they are already bigger than the first time we saw them. 

Rebecca's really cool fossils

Danes approve of grilled cheese

Puppies!