I thought I was going to die!!! The hike today brought us from the heath zone into the moirlands zone. The vegetation continues to change as we gain altitude. From the Shira Plateau we slowly worked out way up the ridge and onto one of the lava flow areas that have since been glaciated and cleared. When we began this morning the peak of the mountain looked untouchable, but by the end of our hike it is amazing to see how far we have come and how much closer our goal is. We still have a long way to go and more elevation to encounter!
During our one stop to collect water samples and take cloud readings, two of the scientists pulled out several pieces of obsidian they had picked up along the way. Both of the researchers are working in the field of Botany, so I had a good opportunity to...
After a pretty good night sleep we were up at 6:30 to get packed, have breakfast, and hit the trail. The morning air was cool but you could tell it would probably warm up before noon. It did warm up which made some of the steep ridges down right hot! By the time we had finished lunch however, the clouds had moved in from over the mountain and we spent the next hour or two walking in the rain and hail.
We moved from the rain forest biome into the heath zone. The line that divides these zones was very clear. In a matter of ten steps the large trees and vines of the forest were gone and replaced by lower growing plants and a much dryer look to the area. Before the rain came we had a chance to take some measurements from one of the streams that we crossed. The scientists and students...
It is our first day on Kili and what a wonderful beginning to an expedition! We left the hotel this morning with great anticipation and a bunch of energy. When we arrived at the gate it was much more busy than I had imagined. Everyone needs to check into the park by signing the book. Of course Mike knew about all of this and took care of it all while the other groups were standing in line. We were in and out and on our way up the road to the starting point.
One of the ways you know you have a good outfit company for the expedition, is by seeing how far their vehicles will take you up the road. That determines when you begin walking. We passed several porters carrying gear as we drove another couple of miles up the road. That was great!
We all gathered at the starting point and...
I want to thank everyone for their first postings and let you all know that I am having a little trouble with getting on line to answer all of the questions. I have started replying but it will be some time. You can hold your questions until I post from the mountain, which should be by Tuesday or Wednesday. My connection should be good then. In the meantime please look at my pre-thoughts about the expedition and the one photo I have up. There is so much to talk about, and I will get to it when I can get a good connection. Be patient and watch for more info!
This expedition represents a wonderful opportunity for myself as a teacher, as well as the students who get involved from their classrooms and homes. I expect to gain a great deal of knowledge that will help me prepare lessons...
After leaving California in the afternoon, and then an 11 hour flight to Holland, we are delayed and waiting for a plane to show up. I have met many of the members of the expedition now and it looks like a great group of folks.
More to follow! I see a plane!
My last day in the field was great. The team went out early in the morning and everyone was very busy all day. While Elizabeth and Kirsten were getting close to the last frame point plots to be done, and while Verity was taking data and Catherine was measuring the thaw depths, I took some time to make my final observations along with some photos as well as finally getting to dissect a Cotton Grass tussock.
We sent a Birthday wish to Dr. Natali, who was in Russia at the time looking at tundra in Siberia.
The warming experiments have been going on now for four years and even though it will take much more measurements over a longer period of time to be able to make more concrete conclusions, I feel that the tundra at the study site is changing in response to the warming treatments and...
The weather today has been much more cooperative. When we left the cabin this morning we were greeted by a squirrel on the porch. He was happy just to sit there and stare at us while he finished his pinecone. Then we drove out to the site and walked out to a cool, but calm day that was good for point framing.
Elizabeth, Catherine, and myself got right to work. In fact the weather was so good to begin with that we tried to work two plots at a time, which had never been done before. So I took the field notebook and the two women set up the frames and began observing and calling out numbers and species of plants that were touching the wire.
This morning a squirrel was having breakfast on the porch. He didn't seem to mind us being there.
We have 49 points to observe for each frame...
Some people up here think that the state flower should be Epilobium angustifolium, commonly known as Fireweed. The Fireweed is a perennial flower that belongs to the willowherb family. They are native throughout temporal North America, as well as Northern Canada and Britian.
The Fireweed is a beautiful flower the blooms from the bottom up. The flowers bloom all summer and indicate when the season well end.
The Fireweed gets its name because it is found, among other places, growing very well in areas after a fire has cleared away the vegetation. This is what we call a pioneer species because it is very quick to colonize clear areas where competition is low. It will continue to grow and spread until the plants around it grow too tall and crowd them out of space and sunlight. The...
The weather has not been cooperating with us this week. It hasn’t been bad under normal conditions but when it comes to point framing, it has been horrible!
Point framing is a procedure used by scientists to determine the biomass, or the amount of living material, that is in one place. From my understanding there are two ways to get the biomass. One way is to dig up all of the plant material in your study site, dry them and weigh all of the material. This gives you a very accurate measurement of the biomass, however it kills all your plants and leaves the study site ruined! The second way to determine the biomass in an area is to use point framing.
To battle the wind, Elizabeth continued to point frame after we had put up a tent fly over the plot. You can see the wire in front of...
The weather has not been very cooperative today. The wind and the rain have kept everything wet and made conditions impossible for the point framing that needs to be done. We went out and rotated the chambers on the warming plots and then we measured the depth of the water in the wells. We have done about all we can do until the wind begins to cooperate!
I thought that I would take this opportunity to show some more photos from the Climate Change class in Denali and talk a bit about the park and the history.
Standing at over 20,000 feet Mt. McKiinley is the tallest peak in North America. Due to weather, most visitors who come here never see the mountain.
Denali National Park and Preserve was established in 1917 through the efforts of Charles Sheldon. While visiting this area, he...
While we were in the park learning some great things from Terry, Sarah, and Margi, we did happen to experience some of the wonderful sights the park has to offer. In Denali people talk about “the big five” animals in the area, which are the five large mammals that can be found in this climate. This group is made up of moose, caribou, bears, Dall Sheep, and wolves. I have been fortunate enough to see many moose and caribou during my time in Alaska. I have even seen a few Grizzly Bears this season. The two I have not seen yet in the wild are the Dall Sheep and the wolves.
This is one of the Dall Sheep we saw. This one had crossed the road in front of the van and quickly made its way i up the ridge.
The Dall Sheep are generally found on the mountain sides overlooking the road in the...
Over the past four days I have been out of communication range and attending an Alaskan Geographic course on Climate Change. The course was fantastic! Not only was the whole experience organized and run by Sarah Crowley and our guide Margi, who both did a splendid job of making sure everyone was engaged, fed, and safe, we also were introduced to one of the most respected and beloved ecologists and climate change scientists in Alaska, Terry Chapin! The conversations were inspiring, the lessons were current and relatable, and we experienced everything that Denali National Park had to offer.
Terry Chapin was a wonderful resource and mentor in learning about Alaskan ecosystems and climate change.
During the course we received some first hand experience with the changing landscape through...
While we were running, this moose came out to greet us.
It was a great day for a long slow run!
It was a crisp and clear morning when Elizabeth, Catherine, and I began our run. Both of the girls are training for marathons later this year, so they invited me to come along. Catherine needed to run 15 miles and Elizabeth 20 miles. We even came across a moose on the road that came toward us for a few moments, which made us stop and back up. There were no problems as he turned off and was happy to walk back in to the forest.
After we returned from the run the crew had gone out to the field site to begin point framing on the plots. I will explain how that works next week, as soon as I can get some experience with the process. As it turned out the wind was too strong to get the work...
This morning was cool with a bit less cloud cover and a bit more of a breeze. After having breakfast and getting things organized, Kirsten and I headed out to the field. She was going out to check on the systems and practice the point-framing protocol. I was heading out for my first look at the area since early spring in April. You may remember that CiPEHR stands for Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Research. The road that we had been driving snowmobiles on back in April was now gravel and lined with willows and other vegetation. Everything was green!
As we approached the study site I could see the tundra and how much it had changed over the past couple of months. Instead of nice even, easy to walk on snow, there was now high spots and low spots with different shrubs and...
Early this morning I was picked up at the cabin by Sarah from PolarTREC. We were heading out for a day of hiking and planning in Denali National Park. It was mostly cloudy this morning, but it didn’t look serious and the winds were calm which made it a pretty nice day overall. Sarah wanted to check out some of the places that we will take the class to next week and show me what the areas look like.
We jumped on the park shuttle bus and headed out with only a few empty seats. It wasn’t long before a bear was spotted off the side of the road and people were calling for the bus driver to stop. Out in the distance we saw a mother grizzly bear and two cubs. They were walking along a ridge and feeding on the plants. We saw a total of three bears during the day, but none of them were...
It is amazing to return to Healy and see the changes in the land! Where there was white, now there is green. Where there was snow, now there are leaves and flowers. Where there was stillness and silence, now there is the sound of countless insects and critters buzzing and moving every which way.
Alaska is now in moving in to summer mode. When I left at the end of April we were shoveling snow from the study site and spring was just beginning to show itself. The snow was becoming patchy and the days were beginning to seem longer.
This is what the cabin looked like when I returned in early summer.
The cabin has a whole new look to it also. In the first place, we can now actually drive a car all the way up the road right to the front door. The dog’s yard has been transformed in to a...
Having retuned safely home I am now back into the swing of things with my family and with my students. It was a very successful expedition that was full of new experiences and things to learn. I continue to be amazed at the great work that is being done, in science and in education, to help understand the world and its complex systems as well as communicating that knowledge in a way that can be understood and used by our students and the public at large. There are many lessons that I have learned from these experiences and many more that I hope the students will remember.
Tommy T-Bird learned a lot and had a great time!
Alaska is a wonderful place to study science and see a part of the world that many people will never visit or understand. At the same time, there are about 4...
It was a very exciting day today. The people I have met and the sessions that I have attended over the last few days are really giving me some good connections, activities, and content for my classroom and I hope my school district and beyond. As a local activity, the conference directors offered to the teachers the opportunity to visit the Biodome for free. The building that houses the Biodome is part of the 1976 Olympic facility. This building was the site for the cycling events as the Velodrome. The building was turned in to the Biodome and opened to the public in 1992.
The Biodome is a wonderful place to see a huge variety of species from many different environments.
The Biodome houses several exhibits that focus on biomes that are found in the Americas. The first section we...
The IPY Conference is being hosted by the city of Montreal, Canada. Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec and the second largest city in all of Canada. It has a population of over 3.8 million people throughout the metropolitan area and is located on an island next to the St. Lawrence River. It happens to be the second largest French-speaking city in the world! The original name for the city was Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, but was later named after the Mount Royal hill located in the middle of the city.
These are some of the stairs I ran with the wonderful views of the city.
This is the 103 ft. cross on top on Mount Royal.
The St. Lawrence Iroquois natives originally settled the area more than 3,000 years ago. In 1535 the French explorers arrived in the area and...
Today we walked from the conference center to the river and the dock area. We took a tour on the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen. The Amundsen is a 1200 medium class Arctic icebreaker that was built in 1979 to help clear the ice from the St. Lawrence River. It was originally named the Sir John Franklin after the Arctic explorer. The ship was decommissioned in 1996 and put in to dry dock until 2003 when it was refitted for laboratory work. Seventeen labs were put in to the ship and a “moon pool” was installed in the hull. The moon pool is a hole in the bottom that enables the scientists to take ocean samples without having to leave the vessel. The ship is 322 ft long and 64 feet wide. It can hold a crew of 38 and conduct a single expedition for 192 days without resupply.
The...
The big conference opened today with over 3,000 teachers, scientists, policy makers, and indigenous people gathered in one room and focused on polar knowledge! It’s a pretty cool site to be with so many people that you have something in common with. There are 47 countries represented here from the polar regions all the way to equator. Everyone has a huge interest in reviewing the latest research on climate change because everyone here understands that this issue will affect us all over the next several decades, and they all want to be part of the solution.
The Palais is a nice place to have a conference.
The conference is being held in the Palais de congres de Montreal. It is a very nice building that looks very colorful from the outside and has a convention center and an entire...
The Montreal PolarEDUCATOR workshop was fantastic! There were 170 teachers and other educators sitting in the lecture hall on Saturday morning, all ready to talk and learn about polar science. We started with a short walk to the metro station, which took us to the Botanical Gardens and the workshop. It was a cloudy and almost rainy day, but it didn’t matter because we were very excited about getting started.
The PolarEDUCATORS Workshop was held in the Botanical Gardens.
We began in a large lecture hall where everyone came in after having a pastry and something to drink. I met many new teachers from some very far away places, along with several folks that I had met at the last conference two years ago. We listened to the opening speeches mostly given by scientists and the director...
I finally made it to Montreal! After ten hours on an airplane and several more hours in airports, and one weather delay, I have arrived in Canada and begun to meet some of the other teachers and folks involved with the PolarEducator Workshop. It’s a great group of people fro all over the United States and many different countries. Some of the teachers I have met before at the last IPY Conference that took place two years ago. It is good to see that they are still working with students and teaching polar science.
The hotel that we are staying in is very nice.
We registered for the workshop and began meeting all of the PolarEducators!
We checked in to the hotel and then registered for the workshop and the conference, and then we had a reception for everyone to meet and talk and give...
We had another great day of shoveling snow and clearing out the warming side of the fences. We have not completed all of Site A and all of Site B, and we are halfway through Site C. So there is enough left for tomorrow to still keep everyone busy. Jamie and Brian have left and we are settling in for the evening. I will spend tonight organizing my things and getting ready for the trip to Montreal and the International Polar Year Conference. I am very sad to be leaving Healy and the study site, for maybe the last time with the snow, but I am looking very forward to being in Montreal and meeting all of the teachers and scientists from around the world.
I want to thank Dr. Natali for all that she has taught me about science.
Even though this is my last journal from Healy, I will miss...
Today was our first full day of digging with everybody here. We left the cabin at 7:00 this morning and returned around 5:00 in the afternoon. This week is for digging out the warming sides of the snow fences. We had eight people out there today doing not much than digging! And after all of that work we have now cleared three out of the six fence areas. So about half done for full day and part of another.
We were all here to help dig up the snow!
We needed to take the snow down to the same level as the tundra around the study site.
We are digging the snow on the warming side just down to where the natural snow depth is on the control side. Now that we have had the fence do its job during the winter by causing the snow to pile up on the warming side, it is time to remove the extra...
