The Burn ... and the moose chase

The largest recorded fire in Alaska occurred during the summer of 2007, when 256,000 acres of tundra ignited. There are several groups on camp that have started researching the regeneration of the land in the past couple of years and its effects on the land and water ecosystems. This past Sunday I went out with Cody to help with sampling and bathymetry of several lakes out at the burn site. Cody is studying the effects of the fire on lake productivity, so he was collecting water and zooplankton samples as well as several lake sediment cores to analyze sediment productivity. It took us about a half hour to arrive at the first lake we were sampling called North Lake. It was really cool to see the patterned ground from the air! Freeze-thaw action of the permafrost causes the land surface to break into polygons known as patterned ground. It makes the landscape look almost scaley (pic right). While we were flying over Horn Lake, we watched a moose wade across the water (I unfortunately didn't have my camera on the flight out, so I didn't get a picture of it, but I eventually met the moose later in the day, at a distance a little too close for my comfort level ...).

After the flight, we finally touched down at our first lake for the day. The tundra at the burn site is noticeably charred and the shorelines of the lake are definitely blackened from the fire. However, over the past couple of years, promising new growth has started, and now covers a significant portion of the charred ground.


We continued from North Lake to Horn lake where I would be responsible for mapping bathymetry of the lake. Cody fixed a little pinger on the bottom of the boat, which was connected to a GPS unit and tells depth at each point. Basically my job was to paddle back and forth accross the whole lake to map out changes in depth. It was a decently windy day and quite a large lake, which made the bathy mapping a really good work out! When I made it about half way across the lake, I spotted a moose on the far shore. He (or she?) wasn't full grown, but was definitely large. I thought, "well he's just on shore; I am okay with that." I continued mapping for another half an hour and the moose sat down in the tundra to watch me. However as I got closer to him, he suddenly stood up and then started getting in the water. My first thought was, "uh oh ..." and then he started wading accross the lake coming toward me. Now, the lake was really shallow--about a half meter deep in the middle of the lake--so although he couldn't charge, he could still probably trample me effectively. I immediately thought about the conversation we had in the helicopter on the way out about how more people have been killed from moose charging than grizzly bear attacks and I really wasn't about to test that statistic. As the moose continued toward me, I spun the boat and booked it back to shore. Although I was paddling against the wind, I paddled as hard as I could, and definitely gave it all I had left after doing all of the bathymetry mapping! Needless to say, he eventually lost interest in me and continued to the other side of the lake. However, I decided not to test him and pushed on back toward our launch point on shore.

Inlet Sampling the Sequel

The last two days we sampled the inlet series of lakes for a second time. These lakes (referred to as the I-series) are sampled 3 times throughout the summer, which means that we have 1 more I-series to survive! The lakes are split into 2 days; the first day we sample I-lakes one through Six-HW and day two we sample the lakes six through eight and I-swamp. As I mentioned when I wrote about the first I-series we did this summer, although it is not an impossible distance to hike, we carry so much gear and collect such large samples of water we get to take the helicopter out to the site and then are choppered back from our last sampling location. My pack was so heavy by the end of each day, that I could barley lift it to get it into the helicopter. I had been so concerned about being airsick in the helicopter, but I actually really enjoyed our short rides through the air. It is awesome to see all of the lakes we sample from the air. It was also fun to see Toolik as we flew away!
Sampling went fairly smoothly both days we were out. The first day there was absolutely no wind at all, which is good and bad. The lack of wind definitely helps while we paddled out and attempted to locate the deepest point in the lake where we would sample. However, the lack of wind left nothing to discourage mosquitoes from swarming us and made the hot day feel even hotter. By late afternoon, when our packs were getting heavy and the hike between lakes is much longer, we were completely overheating. The field fashion for sampling includes tall rubber boots and long pants, both of which do not help when the sun is beating down on you! Dan and I decided that swimming was entirely necessary. So at Lake I-5, Dan and I jumped in the cool lake. It felt amazing after hiking all day in the hot sun. I didn't want to get out, especially since there was a cloud of mosquitoes waiting for us to get out of the water, but we only had time for a brief swim and then it was back to work!

The second sampling day was slightly more windy, especially at the first lake we sampled! Dan and I got out to the deepest point in the lake and the winds started kicking up. When we tried to drop our anchor, the rope got tangled and for the life of me, I couldn't get it un-knotted! I handed it over to Dan to work on and I started paddling into the wind to try to keep us from drifting. The wind had kicked up since we left shore and the waves were large enough to have white caps. It was quite an ordeal!

Sampling Toolik Inlet Series!

Sorry for the delay of this post. This week has been so hectic, I haven't really had any time to catch up on my blog! This week we went out to sample the series of lakes that drain into lake Toolik. We used the helicopter to the furthest lake (since we have so much gear and an inflatable raft with us) and began sampling lake by lake, moving downstream. The helicopter was really fun to ride in and the views from that high up were just amazing! It was fun to see the little Toolik camp shrink as we rose up into the sky.


Me flying out in the helicopter!

Toolik camp (and Lake Toolik) as we flew out to our sampling sites ...

We had beautiful weather the first sampling day and there was not a single cloud in the sky. However, the mosquitoes really enjoy the weather as well and were out in swarms. I was really happy to have my bug shirt, which is basically a shirt made out of netting to keep the mosquitoes from biting. The parts of the shirt (like the back and front and sleeves) that lie directly on your skin are made out of this super tight knit material that the bugs cannot get their probiscus through. There is a hood that zips all the way over your head to protect your face from them as well. I have never seen mosquitoes in such swarms! Imagine standing in a bee hive, but all of the bees were mosquitoes... I learned how to towe for zooplankton and use the hydrolab (which is a really cool piece of equiptment that will tell you depth, temperature, chlorophyll counts, light penetration, etc at any given depth). We also used the Vann Dorn sampler to get water at various depths at each site.

This is a picture of some of the lakes we sampled of the Toolik inlet series.

The second day of sampling, I learned that the myth that the mosquitoes go away when it is raining is actually false. I took an early heli ride out to the lakes we would sample with another team since my whole group doesn't fit into one helicopter. It was pouring rain that morning so I sat with my headnet and my rain jacket on in the downpour, surrounded by mosquitoes. I am not going to lie, I was feeling a little sorry for myself. However, once my team finally arrived, the sun poked through the clouds and we ended up with another beautiful day of sampling!
Beautiful clouds after the rain subsided. All of the little black smudges in this picture are mosquitoes!

When we got back to camp each evening, I still had to attend to all of my lab duties, which made for a few really long days for all of us. However, the time in the field was definitely worth the work.

As a side note, last night I saw a fox right next to my tent! I was unzipping the rain fly on my tent when I spotted a dog-sized creature out of the corner of my eye. My snap reaction was to write it off as a dog, but then I stopped and did a double take and realized that it was actually a fox, standing just a few feet away! I was amazed that my presence didn't bother it more