21 January 2019 Keeping Antarctica Pristine More SLIME At Lake Bonney

Dr. Tom "Topper" Powers on his hike back to camp from the ice crossing of Lake Bonney. After a week at beautiful Lake Bonney Camp, my tent will come down tomorrow as we head back to McMurdo for some lab work. Dr. Adams preparing to cross the ice of Lake Bonney. He's "keeping the stick on the ice".

We had a great plan for the day. Half of our team would fly to Lake Hoare to work on an long-term experiment where the samples are at different elevations along a hillside, the other half of our team would cross Lake Bonney to conduct our SLIME (Soil-Lake Inundation Moat Experiment). One thing I have learned here in Antarctica is...things change. Skies did not allow helicopter flights today. The new plan: All team members from C-507 (Wormherders) were to cross the lake to the SLIME site.

Wormherders crossing ice obstacles on Lake Bonney. Dr. Adams collecting soil samples at the SLIME site at Lake Bonney. Scraping shallow samples to be analyzed for chlorophyl content. A deeper soil sample is then taken. These samples will be analyzed for animals (nematodes, rotifers, and tardigrades). Topper and Byron crossing the moat at Lake Bonney. When I was here a week ago, the only way across was using the moat boat in the photo. It was frozen into the moat. Summer is about over here in Antarctica.

Here is a short video showing how serious we are keeping Antarctica pristine:

I will start doing Utah Penguin Shout-Outs in my next journals. They were sent from my Biology students. Enjoy viewing this "wildlife".

Origami penguins from Utah. Utah Origami penguin shout-out.

For the quickest response to any questions you have regarding my expedition, please email me at: kdickerson [at] alpinedistrict.org