***Schools out for Summer… School belongs to teachers
No more pencils No more books No more teacher's dirty looks,,,
Schools out for summer… School belongs to teachers..*** * Much gratitude to Alice Cooper*
Well that song works great for kids, but not so great for me. Don’t get me wrong I am grateful to be learning about such wonderful cutting edge science in the arctic.
The OTC = Open Top Chamber, but of course what else would it be?
The OTC will make things warmer by about 5 degrees F, which gives us a picture of what things will look like if global temperatures raise. photo by Kim Miller
Some of the plots have the OTC placed around it. It looks much like a green house with out the top, right? So we can all assume that it will heat the plot area a little.
Put on your science goggles and lab coat – Why would we want to do this? In other words, what do you think would be so interesting about doing this?
- Please note we still use the chamber on these plots and still measure CO2. Please send your answers to the Ask the Team space.
***On another note. ***
Lets get a little personal.
I wanted to let you know how I was** feeling.** I love it out here, most of the time. Sometimes the wind is annoying, but mostly I just count my lucky stars that I am here and have this great experience. I know that the heat and humidity in south Florida awaits me. Wait back up! I do not count my lucky stars! I have **not seen a star in 2 weeks **now. Weird huh.
The 24 hours of daylight is interesting. I think I am use to it. I mean when I leave the lab at 10pm I don’t anticipate walking outside to find darkness. But it is bizarre and I really have a strong desire to come back here in the winter and know what it feels like to be in 24 hours of darkness.
Do I miss Rob and Hooch? You bet I do. We have been able to talk and Skype some. But also I am so busy, so, so busy. I literally go from food three times a day to some sort of something else.
I have not **taken **my traditional 15-minute nap since I have been here. I learn, I eat, I go to the field and learn, I eat, I put on extreme weather clothes I take them off, and I do lots and lots of PolarTREC work. I journal and manage my photos. Surprisingly it takes a long time to do. I answer emails, well I try to. If I don’t get back to you, now you know why. It is amazing how much time flies by.
The saying I need more hours in a day, doesn’t work around here. But rest assured, no pun intended, I do get my beauty sleep sometime.
I am happy **to be here – **thrilled **to be here really. I am learning so much that now my brain is becoming saturated. Sometimes I have to ask Dr. Oberbauer to just stop teaching me so I can digest what I just learned. Learning like this, being exposed to so many different research projects and being on the tundra keep my spirit stirred and sparked. I am **exhilarated and renewed!
There are many researchers here doing all sorts of things. Last night I went out with the Lemming guy. He is from anchorage and is analyzing the Lemming populations. I helped him check his 200 live traps. We found one Lemming. They are hard to trap, because they really aren’t into the peanut butter and oatmeal bait. They like to eat grass – I do too.
Lemming on the run! Watch out Paulo it will eat you!
Dr. Ian Gerard van Tests of University of Anchorage says he is trying to measure how many Lemmings are here this year. Some years there are plenty and other years not so many. We took nose to tail measurements, weight, sex id (this one was a female), hind leg length and tongue length – just kidding – I wanted to make sure you were still focusing! He also used a BIG syringe to inject a scan tag just beneath her skin. The tag is just like the one used for dogs.
Dr. Ian Gerard van Tets University of Alaska, Anchorage studies the Lemming Population on the Tundra
We took a few photos and then let her be. I hope she will be okay. I would surely hate to find her little Lemming bones and scan tag in one of the Snowy Owl pellets that I am brining back to St. Mark School!
Bird of the Day
Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea
The Arctic Tern is the PolarTREC symbol, because this little amazing bird travels ovr 22,000 miles a year. It spends most of it’s life in sunlight traveling from the Arctic to Antarctic. WOW. I was thrilled to see one and get a photo!
Bidding you a day of **joyful learning **from the Top of the World.