Happy Solstice Everyone!
The clouds here in the summertime are pretty fantastic. The best part is it is never too dark to see 'em!
Mamma moose and some twins running in the Savage River in late May. You can tell it has taken me a while to post this photo (sorry folks!) because these days all the vegetation along the Savage is green.
My co-worker and fellow grad student Elizabeth fording the Sanctuary River during a backpacking trip we took last month. Who needs dry socks?
The CiPEHR experiment on a particularly foggy morning. The solar panels usually generate enough power to keep the autochamber system running 24 hours a day. When we have a few cloudy days in a row, however, it is often necessary to give the batteries a hand with gas powered generators.
When a CO2 flux is being measured the doors on the top of the autochamber close and the gas from inside is pumped through the blue tubes to an infrared gas analyzer. These fluxes are taken at all hours of the day and averaged over time to tell us about overall carbon balance of the ecosystem.
These are some anion and cation binding resins bags that I am installing in the CiPEHR plots as a way to look at the availability of inorganic nitrogen in the soil.
Chunk o'tundra I brought back to the lab. Sometime this year I want to try and decorate a chocolate cake to look like this... any co-chefs interested in participating?
Mt. Healy! I wish I could say this was the summit, but we didn't quite make it all the way to the top on this hike. A lazy morning and evening plans for a BBQ cut our journey short. Clearly too many fun things to do on our day off!
View from almost-the-top-of-Mt. Healy
Dryas octopetala flowering in Denali National Park
Marmot! This lil guy was enjoying a nap in the sun when we found him. He was perturbed, as you can probably tell from his expression.
 |
Getting some deep soil cores with the gas powered auger. I can't believe how lucky... I get to do stuff like this and call it WORK!
Photo credit Dr. Sue Natali
I love my permafrost!
Photo credit Dr. Sue Natali
This is a section of the AK pipeline near Fairbanks. According to the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company's website, in 1988 the pipeline pumped an average of 2,033,082 barrels a day. In 2011 its average throughput was only 582,895 barrels per day.
Two weeks ago I got to go on a tour of the US Army Corps of Engineer's permafrost tunnel in Fairbanks. This tunnel was dug from 1963-1969 and is used as a research site for all sorts of permafrost research. The tunnel is not open to the general public but there is a neat virtual tour available here: http://permafrosttunnel.crrel.usace.army.mil/overview/virtual_tunnel_tour.html.
Ice lenses, small and large! The cylindrical holes are from where samples have been take in the past. The permafrost below the large, horizontal ice lens is lined with what looks like scratch marks: these are actually lots of tiny "reticulate-chaotic" ice lenses. They form in areas where the permafrost has thawed and refrozen while surrounded by continually frozen permafrost
The ice wedge I am illuminating was formed when a crack developed in the soil during the normal seasonal freeze-thaw cycle. This crack was progressively widened as water entered the crack, froze and expanded. There is a nice diagram describing this process here: http://permafrosttunnel.crrel.usace.army.mil/permafrost/massive_ice.html
Different depositional layers in the permafrost
This wheelbarrow and some pretty cool icy stalagmites were located near the entrance of the tunnel. Sadly it was too cold in the tunnel to stay long!
This week I installed some cores that will help me estimate rates of nitrogen mineralization. This core is ready to be incubated for the season underneath a nice mossy blanket.
Though I can't brew beer up here in AK I still have time to play with some yeasty beasties. This loaf of bread came out looking particularly tasty!
.JPG)
