Polar Date July 1, 2008
Back on the boardwalks counting flowers. In this case we were counting Carex bigelowii. This time Elise was counting the west-side of the plots and Matt was counting the east-side of the plots, I was writing down data again.
Carex bigelowii is seen toward the center. The flowers are the dark purple structures.Counting went along quickly and we were back in time for lunch. We had an evening meeting to finalize plans for the field trip to the 2004 burn site. We discussed the transporting of equipment and logistics of getting everyone there and back.
Everything must be carefully planned for an expedition such as this. The smallest thing forgotten can create the biggest problems if the team gets to the field and has forgotten an item of equipment or sampling material. When being transported to a remote field location, it's impossible to run back and pick up items forgotten or missed.Much prep work is required to go to the field: -Pre-label small ziplock bags to collect old resin bags along the transect. -Make 2 liters of 0.5 molar KCl solution to soak the new resin bags in overnight. -Make 5 liters of 2 molar K2SO4 solution for soil extraction. -Label 90 10ml vials for soil extraction. -Make 50 resin bags using acid-washed nylon stockings, fishing line and mixed bed exchange resin, Ion AC NM-60 H+/OH- Type 1 Beads.
The resin bags will be left in the plots to act like a plant root. The resin will take up nitrogen from the soil that can then be extracted back at the lab, allowing us to know how much nitrogen is being taken up by the plants without disturbing the plants. When we go out to the plots, we will be recovering the resin bags from last year and running extractions on them. The bags we leave behind will stay out until next year just "soaking up” the Nitrogen and Phosphorus like the plants that surround them.
Here are all 48 completed bags sitting in their KCl solution and ready to go into the refrigerator for the night.After making our 48 little resin bags we called it a night. It was pretty cold so I dressed in 3 layers to sleep and zipped up the sleeping bag over my head.
Signing off for now from Toolik Lake and remember, "There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew”. ~Marshall McLuhan, 1964