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Hours from Civilization?## Location wise, Toolik Field Station is literally in the middle of nowhere. There are no towns nearby, unless you count the pop-up city of Deadhorse, which is home to all of the people employed by the oil operations at Prudhoe Bay. Even so, Deadhorse is a good 3 hour

Tomorrow we set sail back north. But tonight we were treated to a riveting talk by Ryan Wallace. You already know Ryan as the Marine Tech who was instrumental in launching our Fish Spy. Last year he did the Traverse. Every year there is a traverse across the continent from McMurdo station to South

Soil Dynamics## So know that you know a little bit about the tundra and the permafrost, it seems appropriate to explain how Amanda Koltz’s research connects to the permafrost and the tundra. As mentioned in my last [post]( http://www.polartrec.com

The 4th of July is celebrated on Saturday at Toolik, so today is a regular work day. This is the first day since I arrived last week that I didn’t go out in the field, and it was good to have a chance to catch my breath and think about everything I’ve learned so far. Yesterday I spotted an American

The day began with the American students waking everyone with a rousing (if not pitch perfect) rendition of The Star Spangled Banner to mark the Fourth of July. After breakfast, there was a two hour session in the classroom in which the student groups worked on their SPRINTT modules. During lunch

Geology around here is pretty fascinating. At Palmer Station we have an opportunity to see a slice of this. Sadly, we see more and more with the glaciers melting as quickly as they are. Lisa Crockett and I went for a walk in the backyard and part way up the glacier and found some cool stuff

Spoiler Alert: This job is only partially finished... Working under some pretty harsh conditions, the divers and above water crew did an amazing job getting in the first part of a new boat ramp completed. We stayed at Palmer an extra 5 days so they could wrap it up. Remember the divers from earlier

This morning, Zach and Jess (whom we had met for a hike to the glacier and to sample the biodiversity along the hillside the other day) each gave us a presentation so that we would better understand the lakes we would visit later today. Zach taught us about the three major types of lakes common in

Tundra## When I teach my students about the tundra biome, I usually tell them to think of it as a “cold desert.” There are no trees and the precipitation is relatively low (and it is mostly in the form of snow). There are three types of tundra – Arctic, alpine and Antarctic. Which category does