Polar Date June 30, 2008
I’m getting into a more regular schedule now, waking up pretty late (7:50 or so), getting dressed and ready for the day and barely making the cut-off for breakfast at 8:30. Actually the only cut-off is for the hot food line. That line has breakfast meat and pseudo-meat (like tofu sausage), pancakes or waffles, hot cereal and different styles of eggs. There is always fruit, cold cereal, assorted breads and muffins available so unless you want to eat hot food, you can eat breakfast-type food anytime. Work begins in this lab around 9:00, although people going out in the field usually arrive earlier to get ready for the field.
I planned to work in the office in the morning to get caught up on computer work and to observe work around the lab and then go out into the field with Matt and Elise after lunch. They were out in the study plots counting flowers. My plans changed with the weather. The skies darkened with large grey clouds moving in over the mountains and it began raining. With the wind, the rain was coming down sideways, and I decided to forego the afternoon counting session. Unfortunately for Matt and Elise, they were out there and even with rain gear on, Elise got really soaked. Fieldwork is not for the faint of heart. (By the way, I looked up the phrase "faint of heart” vs. "feint of heart”.
From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/feint feint: 1. A feigned attack designed to draw defensive action away from an intended target. 2. A deceptive action calculated to divert attention from one's real purpose.
Whereas faint is 1. Lacking strength or vigor; feeble. 2. Lacking conviction, boldness, or courage; timid.
So, it seems that the correct term must be "faint of heart”.
The best part of the day came after a dinner of, well, I don’t know because my lunch of vegetable stew, mashed Yukon gold potatoes and salad was more than enough to make me not hungry for dinner. Anyway, the best part of the day was a planning meeting for the helicopter excursion we will be taking to the "old burn site” on Wednesday.
The area we will be going to was burned in June, 2004 when lightning struck the tundra causing approximately 4 hectares to burn. A hectare is a unit of area equal to 10,000 square meters. Parts of the burn have been plotted and studied since July 2004. There are several different types of plots being studied, Very burned, somewhat burned, not burned, and burned with fertilizer added. The primary work will be to record the percentage of area covered with vegetation, to record the plant species present as a measure of diversity, to add fertilizer to the fertilized plots and to record soil data such as depth of active layer (how deep the permafrost is) pH, temperature and to take soil cores. Light intensity and reflection will also be measured.
People were divided into teams: Dr. Donie Bret-Harte and Dr. Peter Ray, Matt and Laura will be working on the vegetation, Elise and I will be working on soil sampling and coring. All the equipment we will be bringing, our packs and ourselves were all weighed in order that the helicopter pilot would know how much fuel it will take to get us out there and of course to come back and pick us up.
Everything that will be on the helicopter needs to be weighed, even the lightest materials. We were weighed with loaded packs and our rubber boots on, other materials such as these longer ones were weighed separately and will be carried out to the field outside of our packs
This was very important math, and we wanted to make sure we were thinking of everything including water and lunch weight and the weight of the fertilizer and the weight of soil cores when we bring them back.
Matt managed to get enough gear and equipment into his pack that he weighed in at an even 200 pounds.
The meeting lasted about an hour including the time it took for Matt and Elise to measure the amount of fertilizer (Nitrogen, 4 bags with 551.5 grams per bag) and Phosphorus, 4 bags with 471.35 grams per bag).
The Nitrogen and Phosphorus that is used to fertilized the study plots is stored outside the lab in large, waterproof tubs. Elise has her arms full with a bag of Nitrogen.
I grabbed a can of apple juice on the way back to my Weatherport tent then finished up the day with Skype calls home and more journal/picture work for PolarTrec. Signing off from Toolik Lake, and remember, "There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew”. ~Marshall McLuhan, 1964