My first day at Toolik was filled with field work all over the tundra, sampling soil and river water to analyze in the lab.
Hiking in to sample soil water at Imnavait.
Eight of us started at Imnavait, near the Toolik Field Station, where we collected samples from water tracks. Water tracks are strips of wet ground running from hilltop to valley, like a stream that runs just below the surface.
Katie using a soil needle to sample soil water.
The samples will be analyzed in the lab to try and figure out what happens to carbon in the groundwater as it flows downhill – do microbes convert it to CO2, or does it remain dissolved in the water?
The sky was hazy from wildfires on the south side of the Brooks Range, which we saw as we were driving in yesterday.
Wildfire in the Brooks Range, driving N on the Dalton Highway.
After Imnavait, Susanna, Katie and I drove north up the Dalton Highway, then trudged across the tundra to take water samples from the Sagavanirktok River.
Katie & Susanna hiking to the Sag River.
The Sag was beautiful, flowing fast and loaded with sediment scoured from the Brooks Range to the south. As with the groundwater in the water tracks, the team is analyzing river water to figure out how carbon is moving from the land to the water, and the fate of carbon over time and as it moves downriver from the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean.
Taking a water sample from the Sag.
After the Sag, we drove back down the Dalton to the Kuparuk River to take more samples and measure the intensity of light from the top of the river to the bottom. This is important because light affects water chemistry and can break down carbon compounds as water flows downstream.
Measuring light intensity in the Kuparuk River.
As you can tell from my work today, the team’s efforts are focused on the carbon cycle and figuring out exactly what happens to carbon frozen in the tundra as permafrost melts. This is a key question for global climate, because if this carbon is converted to carbon dioxide or methane, it will accelerate climate change. This 2 ½ minute video I made last month gives a basic overview of the research.
The chemistry of the carbon cycle is complicated, but I’ll be learning more about it and trying to explain the team's work in my journal entries over the next few weeks. Click on “Ask The Team” if you have questions.