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