Sun's rays hit the Brooks Range early in the morning
Sun's rays hit the Brooks Range early in the morning Weather and climate are easy terms to get confused. Both describe atmospheric conditions that affect our lives. Climate, however,…
Start of the hike from the Dalton Highway
Our desitnation. The fossil bed we were looking for is to the left of the river in the distance where the near-black hill obscures the river. Kelvin and I were cold, but we had a great time…
Ermines are a type of weasel. This one was very curious about us and was running in and out of the boardwalk planks.
We've had beautiful weather the past few days and the Brooks Range that borders camp can be easily viewed. We have some mammals in camp that I've finally managed to get some videos and pictures…
8.3.19 Toolik camp scenery
View from my WeatherPort in the morning after a heavy storm the day before. The most apparent form of life on the North Slope are plants. When I look across the tundra from my WeatherPort,…
Root nodule and bacteria relationship
Muskox, like cows, eat plants. They can thank their strong muscles to tiny bacteria and roots in the ground! In the lab, we've spent the past couple days sorting plant matter from the plots we…
Making headway. Plants are divded by live and dead wood. New and old wood are also identified and sorted. Most of the plant matter here is either a willow species or alder.
Making headway Today was lovingly referred to as a "plucking" day. In the previous journal entry I described how we hiked to a research site and removed a square meter of brush and tundra…
Quadrant plot
Alder and other plants are harvested inside the one meter by one meter quadrant. Today was my first day of harvest at our research site, known as Sag 1. This site is next to the Sagwon River…
Dr. Bret-Harte and Emily Reast measure the size of a site that we will harvest plants from in the coming days
Dr. Bret-Harte and Emily Reast measure the size of a research site Today we drove to a site located about two hours outside of the Toolik field station to establish plots for study. The plots…
Glacial valley with heavy smoke
Smoky Drive I finally made it to the Toolik field station. It was a long day of travel with very heavy smoke from nearby fires. No other traveler accompanied me on the trip, so it was only…
Bambuza Vietnam Kitchen
I finished the first leg of my journey to Toolik today. I flew from Orange County in Southern California to Seattle, Washington, and then to Fairbanks, Alaska. I was concerned about making it to my…
Two large bags and a daypack.
Apocalypse Packing Completed I'm done! Well, almost. I still need to pack my carry on. But, with only two large bags and a backpack, I'm feeling pretty good about this. Now, some of you may…
An aerial view of Toolik Field Station
Rooms with a View "Too-what?" is the usual response I get when I begin explaining where I'll be traveling to for my PolarTREC expedition. My expedition, now only eight days away, will take me…