Coming Home Oct. 1

I am coming home tomorrow!!!!! I will miss Churchill, the people and the research , but am looking forward to seeing all of you. A polar bear tried to make me stay. It got in the first hit, but I countered with a roundhouse kick Chuck Norris would be proud of.

Today, we cored more trees at the second site. But we also got to stand on permafrost! We dug a hole and hit frozen ground at about 65 cm. It was pretty cool (it was frozen). We dug through a rich organic(very black -some stuff still decomposing) layer where we found sand and then pebbles. It turns out this location was where the lake shore used to be (1000's of years ago). A few centimeters into the gravel layer we hit frozen ground. Fresh groundwater seeped quickly through the gravel layer and filled the bottom of the hole, the ice acting as a boundary.

Thats why you dig the hole. See you soon!!!

The predominant species we have encountered are Trumpet, Acrocarpous, Pleurocarpous, Lowbush Cranberry, Blueberry, Buffaloberry, Mixed Lichen, Lime willow, Cloudberry, Lapland Rosebay (purple), Black Spruce, White Spruce, Arrow-leaved Colt's-foot, Sweet Gale, Alpine Azalea, White Rhododendron, Dwarf Labrador Tea (white), Larch, Crowberry, White Mountain-Avens, White Cauliflower, Grey Cauliflower, White branches, Fan (spilt milk), Brown branches, Grass, Bog Birch, Velvet bells, Alpine Bearberry and Bog Rosemary.

We get on all fours crawling over and through "strange" looking vegetation looking for seedlings and saplings of Larch, White Spruce and Black Spruce. The seedlings are small and difficult to find. The saplings are easier to find but sometimes difficult to rip out of the ground. We clear everything that is shorter than two meters (about 6 feet). To "close a plot" we need to find fifty seedlings and saplings. This usually takes several hours .

We then crammed them in the van.

A few of you asked why it is important to determine age structure. The simplest answer is if young trees are establishing themselves, there will probably be a forest of larger trees in years to come.....or no Tundra at that location.

This is destuctive sampling, and is done at several different plots that represent the region as a whole. These particular individual trees are taking one for the team so to speak. The tree boring on the other hand is not destructive, and the tree will ooze sap into the hole to heal its wound.

Several of you asked what is the temperature of The Hudson Bay. Cold! The warmest it gets is 40....right now it is about 35 F. By the way, Labman does not sink as one bright observer noted.

Another group of questions referred to the cause of The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. They are a result of high energy from the sun interacting with the elements in the sky. I am not an expert, but I understand each gas in the atmosphere behaves differently when excited by the energy. Different colors form depending on which element is involved and how low or high in the atmosphere this interaction is occuring. The solar wind is responsible for delivering this energy, and earths magnetic pole attracts it which is why they occur at higher latitudes.

A third group is concerned about Mr. Wojo. He doesn't really snore and I think he is a great guy. He has no intention of moving to Buffalo, but will always have an open door greeting him if he decides to visit my wonderful city.

Swimming with Polar Bears

We had a great day off, exploring this region with the help of our gun toting guide Sheldon. He gave us a great cultural and natural history tour taking a bus to places most buses shouldn't go. We saw a Red Fox, an Arctic Fox, several Arctic Hares, a flock of Snow Geese, a few Grey Jays, hundreds of Canadian Eskimo Dogs and two Polar Bears. Labman went swimming in The Hudson Bay.....temperature.......close to freezing.






The Inuit culture has been part of this challenging environment for thousands of years and has coexisted in this ecosystem. They have learned to live sustainably off the land and continue to share their traditions. I have been lucky to be part of it.

Tomorrow, I will answer your questions concerning the vegetation, permafrost, the Northern Lights and Mr. Wojo. We started a second site and will repeat the same procedure we did at The Rocket Lake site.

Day 5 Boring Trees
Any Questions? After removing the core from a tree, we bring it back to the lab where it will be placed in a low temperature oven to dry. It will then be sanded and have the rings counted. Why would the age of a tree be important if a researcher wanted to know if the forest was changing?

Kyle, you asked what is the exact purpose of why I am 1500 miles away from my home in a place called Churchill, Manitoba? I am working with a research team studying how The Arctic Tundra is being affected by the changing climate. The idea is to read the blog and post questions about what I have written. So please, read The Blog and ask questions…..then convince the person sitting next to you do the same. There have been five postings and a handful of questions concerning the topic. It is a ten week marking period. Two weeks is one fifth of a ten week marking period……Hint Hint Hint.

Mr. Wojo’s class from Milwaukee. He is my roommate and I can see why you want him back in Cudahy. He is a great guy and fun to work with. I am trying to convince him to move to Buffalo even though his snoring has kept me up most nights.

Miss Hyla, I will have some permafrost information and a vegetation list to you and your students by Monday. We are extremely busy, but will have a day off on Saturday…..not Sunday. There are about thirty abundant species, but less than ten that are indicator species. The indicator species are the ones of interest.

Day 4 LABMAN enters the picture.

I have met eleven fantastic teachers. Some teach high school, others elementary or secondary. They teach a wide range of subjects.

Go to one of their blog pages and report to me what you learned from them. If you want, make a comment to them also, go ahead. To access their blogs you must go to “The Earth Watch Landing Page”. There is a link on my South Park Teacher Page.

We finished our PCQ sampling in the morning and began boring (taking a core to count the rings) trees today.

We also found an old rocket. Apparently, in the 1950’s this place was an atmospheric research station. They shot rockets up, and took measurements of the air. The shells fell back to earth. I guess there are hundreds of pieces of “scrap rocket” around.

I am looking for QUESTIONS from you!!!!!

Oh…..and by the way, it seems as though this is the best time of year to see The Northern Lights. Last nights display was phenomenal.

COLD RAIN didn't stop us

Day 3
Point Center Quadrants (PCQ)

I woke up to another beautiful sunrise, rolled over, and fell back asleep. Kurt (my roommate) apparently did the same and as we walked into the morning briefing slightly late, the largest concern was not about the upcoming day, but more about the fact we had just missed breakfast. We have fifteen minutes after the briefing to get our gear ready, which I used to choke down a bagel, chug a cup of coffee and get my outdoor clothes ready.

Upon return to the group it was stated I looked stream lined, not nearly as bulky as everyone else. I said that was because I weigh forty five pounds when wet, knowing I had excellent light weight thermal and rain protection. (For the record, I weigh nearly 150 pounds when wet.) The morning briefing includes a weather report which loosely translated went like this…..chilly and a likely afternoon shower. It turns out my Adirondack hiking/camping experience paid dividends today. It RAINED HARD and was quite windy…..but quite manageable.

We went to our first “real” site today dividing into three groups of four, with Steve and Carly floating between each. Steve is the expert on site and Carly is a research assistant that carries a gun. They claim it is for polar bear protection, but it could be to make sure we work as hard and long as possible. My group consisted of Kurt, Doug, Chandler and Erin. Each group had separate tasks. One dug holes along each transect to sample soil and depth to permafrost, the next sampled vegetation strictly along each transect, literally……vegetation that touched on the “line”. We did something called Point Center Quadrants sampling. Although there were other species present, the only ones we dealt with at this site- Bog Birch, Larch, Willow, and White Spruce –are the dominant species and good indicators. Other sites will involve other species.

PCQ concentrates at three spots along each transect. One location marked by a two foot tall pin on each end and one in the middle. At each pin a large square is made and divided into four sections (A,B,C and D). Each section is ten meters by ten meters.

We then recorded each specie mentioned above that was closest to the pin. For example, there could be fifteen White Spruce in the section, but only the closest was counted and its characteristics recorded. We did this for the three size ranges I mentioned yesterday (small, medium, big). Looking for seedlings(small ones) found us crawling on hands and knees through goose and probably (definitely)other species poop. Crawling around though also gives you an up close appreciation for the diversity of this area as you are nose to nose with cranberry, blueberry, crowberry, bearberry, and a variety of crazy looking lichens and mosses.

DO me a favor students! Don’t ask me how I am doing (I am having a great time), ask me WHAT I am doing! I appreciate the “shout outs….but ….Ask me what you don’t understand or about what you would like to know.

Brittany…..check out the words Ionosphere and photons in your northern lights research. Spencer…..you are right….the sampling is so expansive…..researchers have come up with methods such as the PCQ, coupled with the method the other group did (I will explain that one later) to determine forest characteristics.


YOU GUYS ARE GREAT

Day 2 Running a transect

Churchill is located where the Boreal Forest meets the Arctic Tundra. Fifty meter transects have been set up at several test plots in this area with a long term goal of seeing which direction the forest is “moving”. The assumption is….if the climate is stable, the forest shouldn’t “move”. If there is an abundance of young forest species in the Tundra region and no older individuals, this suggests the adjacent area is providing the seeds. To do this, researchers measure which species are present, how old they are and the health of the plant. They also need to measure other environmental conditions.

1. Which environmental conditions would you monitor and why?

Our team learned today how to identify several different species and the sampling techniques we will use. The plants are divided into three groups; trees (big >1 m), shrubs (medium 100cm – 15 cm) and saplings (small <15cm>

This is a young White Spruce

How many years do you think it will take this little guy to get as large as these ones?

What will effect its growth?

We are only including some species to count.

2. Can you think of a reason to only include some species in a sampling event?