Saturday we were wearing shorts and t-shirts. Yesterday we were wearing rain gear. Today was for multiple warm layers. I was anxious to get my arms back into my sleeping bag as soon as I turned off my alarm. The temperature plunged overnight. I finally gathered the courage to jump out of my bag and start piling on layers of clothes as quickly as I could. I was surprised to open the door to my tent and find a light dusting of snow!
The towers are usually my first stop of the day. This is one of three elevated outhouses in camp. The tank has to be above ground because of the permafrost.
A light dusting of snow covering the foothills surrounding Toolik Field Station.
Flurries continued throughout the day and the temperature was less than optimal for spider activity. Unpredictable weather is part of the game in the Arctic, so flexibility is built into the schedule. We had plenty of prep work to do, so today was declared a lab day! Our lab is a tent with no lights (lights aren't necessary when the sun never sets). It does have electricity, so we gathered our heaters. Plugging in all three heaters wasn't the smartest move of the day, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Apparently the circuit breaker to our lab disagreed with our plans and we quickly found ourselves without power. A quick fix by the support staff restored our power with a practical suggestion to plug in no more than two heaters. Our tasks for the day included data entry, making labels, and prepping pitfall traps for the field. These tasks aren't glamorous, but they are a very important part of the process.
Plastic screens were cut and secured to plastic urine sample cups. The mesh is too fine for spiders to fall through, but will allow us to capture the small prey that they feed on.
After dinner I attended my first Toolik Talking Shop. These semi-weekly talks allow Toolik community members to give a talk about the work they are doing. They are really well attended, and a great way to learn more arctic science. Tonight's speaker was Andy Anderson-Smith, a graduate student at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Andy works with NDVI, or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. NDVI measures the amount of light being reflected by plants. This measurement correlates with things like plant biomass, and vegetation type. NDVI can be measured using satellites (NASA and NOAA both use satellites for NDVI), aircraft, or handheld units. NDVI measurements have been increasing in the arctic, meaning that the arctic is greening. Andy uses handheld units to measure the expansion of shrubs in the moist acidic tundra. Shrubs have an advantage over plants like cotton grass in warmer temperatures. As temperatures increase, the amount of shrubs increases in the tundra. An increase in the amount of shrubs decreases plant biodiversity, and can change a whole range of factors from changes in soil organism communities to changes in nutrient cycling.
Andy Anderson-Smith giving a talk on shrub expansion in the Arctic.
It's time to climb into my sleeping bag, and see what tomorrow's weather might bring.