Quite the mix in the title, but please read on.......
PolarTREC researcher Elizabeth Webb spent about an hour today with the PolarTRECers. She explained the importance of the tundra as a planetary carbon sink and that the impact of global warming on the tundra is worth studying, as increased microbial action due to warming will release stored carbon into the atmosphere.
This instrument and computer were used to show that very frozen ground near the hotel parking lot was releasing carbon dioxide.
There will be an offset by an associated increase in photosynthesis due to the same warming, but the entire balance is worth studying. It was fascinating to witness first hand that even severely frozen soil microbes still respire measurable carbon dioxide. Just because the tundra is in a deep freeze it doesn't mean that carbon stops being cycled out of the soil.
Satellite phone training also occurred today and I was able to call home from the hotel parking lot. As my wife Barbara and I chatted we determined that it sounded like we were both coming out of anesthesia. Perhaps it was the temperature. I never got to ask anyone else about that assessment, but I'm curious if others felt the same way.
20 Below Morning in Fairbanks.
Let's hope this works when I'm skiing around on the glacier.
Arctic Ground Squirrels stole the show yesterday during a visit to the museum on the university campus here in Fairbanks. Researcher Cory Williams enthralled the group with presentations about the squirrels, and, during his first short talk out of the cooler came a "live" hibernating squirrel. We donned gloves and held the squirrel. You could feel its low body temperature. I was fascinated by Cory's information about mitochondria rich brown fat surrounding the squirrels core and its role in enabling the squirrel to manage internal temperature while hibernating. People may find it interesting that during hibernation the male squirrels testes shrink, and that they eat stored food before surfacing in the spring so that they can compete for the females.
Part of the visit to the University Museum in Fairbanks included holding a hibernating ground squirrel. I hear they can be quite agressive at times, so our timing was pretty good.