Leaving the Ice

Well thanks everyone for playing along and reading all of my posts for the past three months. I was going to leave today, but due to weather the plane was delayed. They will try again tomorrow, but the forecast doesnt look good. Since I was to board the plane today, all of my stuff is packed up. I have about three more things to write about, but have none of my computer stuff and consequently no pictures. Please check back soon, as I will put a few more Antarctic posts. On the way home I am stopping in Sydney, Australia and Honolulu, HI for a few vacation days before classes start. I should be able to put some pictures up from those stops. Looking forward to getting back to Montana for skiing, hockey, and classes! Geomicrobiology and Soil and Environmental Microbiology, I cant wait!! Check back soon!

Happy New Year

This past New Year's Eve was the most unique celebration I have ever experienced. For 22 years now, this has been a celebration that occurs in the night and darkness, usually with a large group of people watching Dick Clark and the Times Square ball drop. This year there was no TV for the official time. The 10 of us that were at Lake Hoare all had different times on our watches and so the nomination of official time was arbitrary, but still important so we knew when to pop the cork. Other reasons that made this celebration strangely intriguing was the fact that we relaxed on the sand beach of Lake Hoare in the bright sun. The air temperature was a comfortable 33 F and the bright sun made it feel like low 40's. I have to include one picture that is for Burkle. I would send it to him, but, once again, Coe email doesnt accept pictures. Here you go Burkle, I wish I could be there to see you win another national title. Since I cant be there, I send my support from Antarctica. Happy New Year everyone.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

It is a bit past, but I thought I would fill everyone in on what Christmas is like in Antarctica. Throughout the week there are several events each night. The different departments around station host a party or event during the week. It is fun to go to these because they are held in the buildings which house the different departments, so just going to the events is an interesting experience. The first one we went to was the acoustic concert in the Waste barn. It sounds gross, but they cleaned it up and one would never know it is where all the trash from station is sorted. The concert was great because it was very relaxed and interactive with the audience. Some people weren't as good as others, but they made it quite funny by joking with the audience. There were three acts that really stood out. The best was a guy who played the banjo and sang Feliz Navidad. It was awesome! Christmas eve was the main Christmas party at the Vehicle Maintenance Facility, basically a huge shop building with lots of space for mingling, relaxing, or music and dance. Much of the station showed up for this party. Christmas day was nice because we took the day off and I hiked to the top of Observation Hill. The wind was really blowing and the cloud cover obscured the view of station, but still nice to have a break and go for a short hike. I couldn't go without watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, so we had a viewing of that during the afternoon. Christmas dinner was amazing with lobster tail and prime rib. After Christmas dinner was the MAAG (McMurdo Alternative Arts Gallery). This is a open event for people to display work that they have produced while on station. Actually some really interesting pieces of art displayed. Later in the evening I went with some other people to the live band karaoke in the Berg Field Center. In the end, it wasn't Christmas at home, but keeping busy with work and different activities made enjoyable.

Merry Christmas,

Alex

Sampling for my project!

Greetings,

I have neglected to write for the past few days, as I have been in McMurdo, and no one wants to hear me drone on about packing for the field, processing Thymidine samples, or doing other routine lab work. I went back into the field on the 27th to Lake Hoare Camp. I used a day trip on the 27th to do the first sampling for my project. I have not mentioned the details of my project yet, so here is what I am doing!

The reason the dry valleys are so interesting to work in is the lack of higher organisms. Food chains down here are extremely simple. The different trophic levels are still present, but when nematodes and rotifers at the top of the food chain, and the only primary producers are cyanobacteria, phytoplankton, and mosses, it becomes obvious why it is a wonderful system to work in. I am interesting in the cyanobacterial mats that inhabitat the stream and lake environments. They also inhabit the areas of meltwater that are sporadically wet, which showcases their ability to survive extreme dessication, as the rarely get wet even in the summer. I am looking at two different genera of cyanobacteria, Phormidium and Nostoc. These occur commonly throughout the Taylor Valley.

(The orange color is a Phormidium mat in Priscu stream, which leads into East Lobe of Lake Bonney)

More specifically, I am interested in the bacterial communities found within the network of filamentous cyanobacteria that dominate the mats. The bacteria living with in the mat are most likely there for a symbiotic reason or just transient in nature. The two major hypotheses being tested are will the communities present be significantly different when mats from different aquatic habitats are compared and will the communities present in the mats dominated by cyanobacteria from different families. Essentially, these hypotheses test the effect of stream and lake water chemistry and cyanobacteria physiology on bacterial communities. I have collected about 50% of my samples so far, and analysis will be carried out back in Montana.(This is a picture of Lake Chad. It is one of my sample sites. I put this up here for Garber, as I promised I would send it to him, but since Coe email doesnt accept pictures, this is best I can do.)

My departure date is now set at January 5th. I need to get back for classes which start on the 12th of January. There will be posts after I leave the ice, as I will be traveling to Sydney for 2 days and Hawaii for two days. Hopefully some cool pictures to come!

Take Care,

Alex

Fryxell Hike

The best thing to do when there is free time in the Dry Valleys is go for a hike. When we were at Lake Fryxell last time, there was an open afternoon and I used the opportunity to climb a peak behind camp. It was not a long hike, but straight up mostly. I dont have too much to say about the hike other than the views were incredible at the top and on the way up. I wish I knew more about geology and could describe in detail the amazing rock intrusions and formations that I saw along the way. My attempts would be adequate, but I know there are some geologists out there to correct me. Sorry Mr. Foreman, I remember a lot from 9th grade Honors Earth Science, but the geology details have escaped me. Enjoy the pictures and view!

(Lake Fryxell on the right, Commonwealth Glacier in the middle, and Mt. Erebus in the background)
(This is an aerial view of the Canada Stream which is an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA). There is a very high abundance and diversity of microbial mats, mosses, and other fragile living things in the area. As the name suggest, it drains the melt water off of the Canada Glacier into Lake Fryxell.)

Take Care,

Alex

Busy Weeks

Hello once again,

Well it has been some time since my last post, so I will need to get everyone up to speed. for the past two weeks we have been working on the second round of sampling of the Taylor Valley lakes. This round of sampling has been very busy, as we do not have to drill and melt the holes again. This causes 4am sampling mornings to come about every three days. I apologize for the lack of posts, but it has been busy. Now that we are back in McMurdo I am planning on posting about our sampling experiences and hikes that I went on.

I promised a map a long time ago, so here is a map of Taylor Valley, which is one of the valleys of the area know as the Dry Valleys. (Click on the map to make it larger) The Dry Valleys are in a region of Antarctica known as Victoria Land. This area is to the west of Ross Island, which is just north of the Ross Ice Shelf. If one were to look at a common map of Antarctica the Ross Ice Shelf is very easily spotted. Usually Victoria Land is labelled as well. On to the map.... In the middle of the map you can see the large Taylor Glacier. This glacier is the western limit of the Taylor Valley area that we study. Directly to its east is Lake Bonney. The lobes of Bonney can be seen as well. The narrows separates the two lobes of the lake. Interestingly, the narrows between the lobes of West and East Bonney is the site of one of the first data points collected in the Valleys. While Scott was exploring this area, he measured the width of the narrows. It was something very small, on the order of a few meters. Now it is about 30-40 m wide. Obviously, the lakes are on the rise since his observation in the early 1900's. When we sample the Taylor Valley lakes, we start in the east at Lake Fryxell and move our way west towards Bonney. So that summarizes our movements during the two limno runs. More to come soon!

Take Care,

Alex

The Ice Edge!

Hello!

Yesterday we went to the ice edge to drop our CTD instrument. There have been problems with the pressure sensor which determines depth. Dropping it into at least 50 m of sea water will give us a comparison to see if the pressure sensor is off due to the changing salinities in the Dry Valley lake. Some of them (East and West Lobe of Lake Bonney) go from freshwater under the ice to five times sea water. The helo landed and immediately three Emperor Penguins jumped out of the water onto the ice. There were two safety people that came with us that checked the ice and helped us rope off before going to the actual edge of the ice. Once secured with ice anchors, we could safely walk up to the edge and drop the instrument. It was incredible to watch the currents push the floating chunks of ice into each other. The amount of power that was being generated by the currents was stunning. Before we could really do any work, several Emperor Penguins came up to us out of curiosity to check out who we were and what we were doing. Also coming to visit were a few Adelie Penguins. Emperors are the largest penguins. They have a very noble and serious appearance. Something about the expression and the way they carry themselves gives me that feeling. The Adelies are like little kids that like to have fun. They look so funny when they waddle fast and slide along their ventral surface. I really had a blast watching the Adelies play. Enjoy the pictures. I had a blast taking them and if it looks like they are close, they are. We just sat and they came up to us. This was another interesting feeling to have a wild animal come up to you out of curiosity, with out fear.

We leave for Lake Fryxell tomorrow as long as the weather holds out. Look forward to some more pictures from the beautiful Dry Valleys, this time with streams flowing and the melt season in full swing. Cant wait to get back in the field!

Lastly, I am attempting to get together a website that is an internet based image hosting site. That way I can put up lots of pictures for you to look through.

Take Care,

Alex