Byron at Wolverine thermokarst
This quote from John Muir helps to capture why everyone needs to care just a little bit more about the changes happening in the polar regions of the Earth. What happens in the Arctic... There's…
Lauren and Ethan sea kayaking
The Journey Home When I last updated I was waiting for my husband Ethan to make his way to Fairbanks for some Alaskan adventures! Here's some of the fun we had... Denali Star We took the Alaska…
Dining hall sendoff
The Migration South Begins We made the drive down the Dalton yesterday back to Fairbanks. Byron left Sarah behind at Toolik to collect the remaining samples for the season. When all is said and done…
I love the Arctic
Wrapping up my time in the Arctic I love the Arctic! Today is my last full day at Toolik. Byron, Hannah and Sarah completed day 2 of the bacterial lakes survey, bringing our sampling total up to…
Toolik Lake
What does it all mean? I've tried to introduce you to Byron's microbial research over the course of my stay at Toolik. I want to take this journal to try and relay what some of his findings have…
Lauren in the valley
Meet the Team Introducing Sarah Nalven of Team Microbe. Sarah has been so busy these days that she is frankly hard to find with a spare minute, but nevertheless, here's Sarah! Species Journal…
Clouds parting
Journey to Deadhorse Early on in the drive to Deadhorse the clouds began to part and let the sun shine though, drying everything out and making a beautiful, warm day. We left camp this morning (…
weatherports
A Tour of Toolik Toolik Field Station is quite the spot! You are in an area of the world that is decently far from normal towns and cities, and yet you have many of the modern conveniences available…
Sterivex tubes
Processing the Data Once we return with samples from the field, remember we have those filters full of microbes that we collected from the water, we have to process the samples and isolate the DNA.…
Measuring stream depth and velocity
The I-Series Alice of Team Lake filtering some of her lake water on a beautiful first day of sampling the I-Series Lakes in the Toolik Lake watershed. The I-Series is a two day sampling effort…
walking across the tundra
I accidentally posted this journal under a different expedition. Time to fix that! What is Permafrost? If you've been reading my journals you've noticed that I have mentioned permafrost. If you've…
DNA extraction
Introducing Team Microbe! Lauren Watel working hard at a microbial DNA extraction. Today was a busy day with both some field work collecting and filtering samples and lab work extracting DNA from…