Collecting data – the field work – is the fun stuff. That's all well and good, but at some point you have to sit down and figure out what story your data is telling you.
Kim and I were able to sit down together these past two days so she could show me how to turn the data that comes out of the gas chromatograph into something meaningful.
In the beginning…
Kim set up some practice files for me, so I was able to load the real data from the gas chromatograph onto my computer. We used the data from the gas we collected on May 30, 2013. I remember that day in the field – it was a near record-breaker for heat.
My trusty ARCUS MacBook ready to work with a gas chromatograph data file.
First Step
The first step was to pull out and organize just the data you need, as the GC machine provides a lot of data that is not needed to calculate the gas fluxes Kim is interested in
Kim set up a practice file for me with some of our data. She guided me through the data manipulation and calculation steps as we worked side-by side.
Notes Invaluable
I did take notes as we worked through the steps. I think that installing soil collars in a local wetland back home and having students take gas samples, is a real possibility. We would need help analyzing the samples, but I think that if we could then get the raw data, students could learn how to calculate the gas fluxes.
This would be a great way for students to learn about something we cannot see – gas being emitted from the soil. It could also give them a better handle on understanding at least a part of climate change. So many times we hear about greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, and melting permafrost and more gases being emitted etc., but it is not a tangible idea. Having students directly collecting gas and then calculating the gas fluxes would really help them understand what is happening. I know it has for me!
Kim teaching Carol how to work with the gas chromatography data. Kim seems at ease with this process…Carol a little less so!
Final Product
In the end, I did mange to create some graphs from our data!
Carbon dioxide flux from the individual soil collars on May 30, 2013.
Methane flux from the individual soil collars on May 30, 2013.
Data Day Bonus:
A young orava (Eurasian red squirrel) provided some entertainment outside the lab window. It kept ALMOST falling…
http://youtu.be/FdoLh3awk1A