19 April 2013 Week in Review

Journal

This week at CiPEHR preparations for spring continued though the weather certainly wasn’t aware of it. Temperatures remained below freezing. The highest temperature in the morning at the field cabin was +10F. During the day there was potential for above freezing temperatures at the research site however a 3-4 knot breeze kept that from happening. I haven’t seen any wet snow yet.

At CiPEHR we cleared snow from around the fences separating the warming part of the plot from the control side and removed the fences.

Shoveling the Fences — Here I am shoveling snow away from the base of the warming fences at plot C on CiPEHR to prepare to unbolt them.

Storing the Fences — John Krapek carrying away a pair of fences for storage till next fall.

We shoveled out the wooden walkways over the plots. These walkways are used in the summer to keep the vegetation within the plots from damage due to foot travel while experiments are being monitored.

http://youtu.be/MzwnqRauXf8

John is kidding me for staying at the field cabin for a couple of hours to catch-up on schoolwork.

Snow Removal from Walkways — The walkway snow removal crew from left to right, Catherine Johnston, Kirsten K. Coe, John Krapek, myself and Chris Sandville pose in some of the trenches dug to expose the wooden walkways over the warming plots.

The chambers for measuring vegetation respiration rate (CO2 emissions) during the summer months were shoveled out and moved from storage to an area on the plot.

Clearing the Chambers — Chris Sandville, Catherine Johnston and Kristen K. Coe remove snow from the stored chambers in preparation for the summer season.

The main control boxes for the plots were shoveled out and data cards were replaced in loggers. These loggers have been monitoring soil moisture and temperature and collecting data from the force diffusion sensors throughout the winter season.

Switching Data Cards at Loggers — Here I am switching a data card at an instrument that has been logging soil moisture and temperature information on the warming plots through the winter season.

Switching Data Cards at Eddy — Elizabeth Webb and John Krapek replacing a full data card for a new one at the Eddy Tower on the Gradient Site. This is done every two weeks. They're wearing helmets because they didn't bother to take them off after riding the snowmachine over.

In addition the pneumatic tubing and computers that control the chambers automatic opening and closing were transported to the CiPEHR site and connected to the computer “brains” that operate them.

Attaching Pneumatic Hoses — Here I am at a warming plot attaching the pneumatic hoses that control the opening and closing of plexiglass chambers during the summer months to the computer that runs them.

On Friday Jamie Hollingsworth and Brian Charlton from Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Project at UAF brought out a four-wheeler with tracks and snowblower attached to test the potential for using this machine rather than hand shoveling the plots in the future.