Jade and YOY!

Allison and I tore through the filtering a lot faster than than we predicted.  We collected and filtered a total of 14 carboys of water (~280 L of water) and extracted organic matter from 5 of those carboys (100 L water).  The past couple of days we worked on packing up and shipping the remaining 9 carboys (55 to 60 lbs each) back to Ohio State University!

We had a few extractions remaining to do and we still needed to collect some soils from around Toolik for Allison, who is examining plant uptake and soil sorption of several hormones.  She will be using the organic-rich tundra soil as a comparison to some of the agricultural soils she has been using for her experiments.  We decided to tackle the soil collection first, combining the trip with a hike up Jade mountain, located on the opposite shore of Toolik Lake from the field station.  We took a canoe across the lake and collected soils just off shore, to prevent any contamination from the field station from influencing the samples.  After a bit of digging, we realized that it is surprisingly difficult to cut through the tough root system of the moss and grass that dominate the tundra!  However, after a bit of work (and a lot of jumping on the shovels) we successfully collected enough soil.  We tucked the shovels and soil samples underneath our overturned canoe on shore, and headed up Jade.  It was a gorgeous day, yet clouds loomed over the horizon threatening rain, so we didn't dawdle in the hike -- which means that I sadly didn't take too many pictures.

A friendly Sik Sik (arctic ground squirrel)!

Toolik and the Dalton Highway from the top of Jade Mountain!

We made it down Jade as the winds started to pick up.  The trip back across the lake was directly into the strong gusting winds and we made only slow, halting progress across the lake as we headed back toward Toolik.

There were quite strong winds, which resulted in some interesting clouds.  From what I have read, the choppy/grated - looking clouds are an indicator of turbulent winds.

During our venture back, we spotted a family of loons!  The two parents were diving into the water to collect food to bring back to the babies.  Loons primarily eat fish, but will eat other small fauna if necessary.

The whole Loon family!

One of the loon parents, just before it dove to catch its prey.

Loons are about the size of a duck or a small geese, yet their markings and call is extremely distinct.  They are difficult to take pictures of in the water since their bellies are submerged as they swim.  The wind and waves also didn't help in photo documenting the loons, yet I managed to get a couple of pics that you can really see their gorgeous markings!!

The loon showing off his gorgeous markings!

The loon parent and chick as they swam away

Since we only have a little work left, we seized the opportunity on Friday to go out with Elissa and her assistant Andrew to go catch young graylings known as YOY, which stands for Young of the Year.  Elissa works for the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and one of her many projects is to track the yearly growth and development of the graylings.  They have 5 sites on the Oksrukuyik Creek, where they have been collecting for multiple years.  We hunted the YOY with small fish nets (like those you use in an aquarium).  The YOY are quick and blend easily into rocks, which makes catching them actually quite a challenge! We learned how to corral the YOY into a corner to catch or move a mass of YOY toward other people standing waiting with the nets.  By the end of the day, we were a YOY catching machine!

Elissa putting our YOY in fresh water for their trip back to the lab

The YOY are still tiny, but I am told that they are significantly larger right now than at the beginning of the season.  Apparently when they were first collecting the YOY, they were just tiny little eyeballs with fins!

Some of our successfully caught YOY

YOY closeup.  They are quite pretty fish, with tiny little spots all over them.

While out YOY hunting, we actually spotted a Caribou prancing through the tundra!

Caribou!!

 In the afternoon, we took the truck back out to Imnavait since we had caught wind of a fox family living out near the river.  We spotted them immediately upon driving up the access road to the creek.  There are supposedly 3 or 4 baby foxes, but some of them are a tad skittish.  However, 1 of the fox babies was quite brave and seemed unafraid as we watched him sleep.

Yawn!

"what are you looking at?"

Nap time!

Vista Valverde ... our last few days in Costa Rica in Pictures

As I mentioned, our last few days in Costa Rica were spent at Tom and Susan's bed and breakfast in San Ramone, Vista Valverde (www.vistavalverde.com). We had a great visit full of good conversation, Tom and Susan's delicious cooking, and beautiful views (pic left is taken from right out of the main building of the bed and breakfast, the Taller which in Spanish means workshop). Although the beach was fun and we learned many new sports, Jaco is a very tourist-centered town. San Ramone, however, is how both my mom and I decided we would like to remember Costa Rica.

Vista Valverde is located at the top of a very large hill and my mom and I explored the mountainous area on foot via walking and running. Our run was quite a challenge! We ran down, down, down, down and then realized once we turned around we had to go up, up, up, and up! Here are some of the amazing views from where we were staying:




We also enjoyed several beautiful sunsets up in the clouds.



We saw so many beautiful and fun plants in San Ramone. Susan and Tom have spent a great deal of energy on planting beautiful plants that line the road leading up to and surround their bed and breakfast.

This was the most interesting seed I have ever seen on a plant!

This plant reminds me of a giant dandelion!

It's a Sago Palm! I have one of these back in Oklahoma.
It was fun to see them lining the road up to Vista Valverde.

I love the baby pineapple plants. There are many of these
baby pineapple plants leading up to Vista Valverde

Hike to the Itkillik River

Sunday was my last day off here at Toolik. There was a pretty large party Friday night celebrating Julia and Colin's last night at camp. Everyone was up pretty late, so not many people were up for hiking first thing Sunday morning. However, Jason and Jeremy were up for a full day! Elissa, Garret, and Jeff went with us for the first portion of the hike and then left us at about noon to head home and we continued on. The plan was to complete a totally carbon emission free hike -- minus our own breathing! -- (I know, we are all dorks). We took a canoe across the lake to the base of Jade mountain. The group headed up jade and paused at the top for lunch. Then Jeremy, Jason, and I all headed on toward the Itkillik River. It was a bit of a tundra slog. We were hoping to follow up a tributary to its confluence with the river. We were planning on finding a good place to rock hop across and then climb up a few small mountains beyond the tributary before heading back toward our canoe.

We had a good day. None of us were in a rush, we just wanted to enjoy the good weather and each others company! We definitely had some time for silliness. We detoured to check out any caribou horns we could find. Jason actually spotted a pair of horns! The pic to the left is of him and Jeremy pretending to be a caribou...

Later in the day, we wandered into a particularly dense blueberry patch and decided to pause to pick blueberries! They are so tastey and there are sooo many right now
My other favorite berry is the cloudberry. They are very unusual, but actually pretty tastey...sort of like sweet tarts. However, they have a rather odd texture which is a little hard to get used to at first; they are kind of slimey but have seeds inside. They are all finally starting to ripen! I love picking berries while we are out in the field.

We spent some time exploring the area, seeing what we could find. We also picked up a lot of random trash including a pair of old ski goggles, a front wheel of a small plane (?), and an apparently abandoned wooden marker stake. At one point, we stumbled upon a pond with crazy green algae. It was such a seemingly unnatural color!

The river crossings were pretty tough. The water is just above freezing and we couldn't find any place narrow enough or rocky enough to cross via rock jumping. We really didn't want to just walk across since we still had quite a hike after the first river crossing, so we decided to ditch the boots and socks and cross barefoot....pain. lots of pain. Within a few seconds of putting our feet in, it felt like pins and needles were poking them all over and the rocks on the bottom of the river were like daggers! The second our feet came out of the water, we went through the painful process of our feet warming back up again. Who would have thought it would have been that bad. Unfortunately we crossed were the tributary was split into three branches so we had 3 painful barefoot crossings to totally get across the river. The final crossing was the longest, so Jeremy decided we needed to sing while crossing to take our mind off of the pain. We sang "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah" at the top of our lungs. I think we were pretty much shouting the words, but we made it across. We scrambled up the steep banks barefoot and just collapsed in the sun for a short while to warm up our toes before putting the socks back on. During our return trip over the river after our summit, we decided to aquaboot it across (aka. hike across in our hiking boots and get wet). Although cold, the hiking boots significantly reduced the painfulness of the crossing experience!

We saw a bunch of caribou with rather large racks at the top of the small mountain -- or large hill -- that we climbed. Initially we thought they were sheep, but realized quickly that they were caribou. After we climbed over the peak, we ended up just a few yards away from some of them. I don't think I have been quite that close before! It was pretty awesome. I have to see if I can get pics from Jason to post. I ran out of space in my camera memory by this point in the day!

We arrived back to camp a little after 11 pm and boated back across the lake. We were tired, but quite pleased with our adventures.

Sampling at NE 9B

This morning we went out to the lake NE 9B, northeast of Toolik to sample. Although I wasn't really needed in the boat, I went along for the hike. It was nice and cool this morning and about a half hour walk out to the site. I went and took pictures while they were sampling. Here are a few more flowers to add to my previous post:

This flower is known as the Frigid Shooting Star (Dodecatheon frigidum). This one is another member of my purple flower collection. I really like this one and hadn't seen this type of flower anywhere until today.

This is the Dryas flower, which is where the name for the Younger Dryas originated. Cores recording this glacial period contain abundant pollen of these flowers.

Dan and Shannon sampling out on the lake

Dan and Shannon had a little trouble with the dissolved oxygen probe while out on the water, so sampling took slightly longer than normal. I got bored and decided to do some tundra yoga!

Purple Flowers!

Upon request, I have been collecting pictures of arctic flowers. Although it was completely not on purpose, I realized that all of the pictures I have collected are of purple (or purple-ish -- maroon, violet, etc.) flowers! It was on accident I promise!








These two are pictures of Monkshood (Aconitum delphinifolium). This is one of my favorite flowers. They kind of remind me of an iris. This was an entire field of Monkshood flowers that we found by the Kuparuk while we were YOY fishing.







These two pictures are of the insidious fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium). Although not the state flower, it is by far the most common flower we have encountered here. It has a bright red stalk, yielding its name of "Fireweed." It is also commonly the first plant to inhabit an area after a forest fire!

The picture to the left is of Jacob's Ladder (Ploemonium pulcherrimum). This picture was also taken near the Kuparuk river near all of the Monkshood. I was told that Jacob's ladder is named due to its ladder-like leaf growth. However, I also read online that it was named after the growth pattern of the stalks, since each new growth is stacked upon the last one like a ladder... so who knows.


I am not sure what flower is in these last two pictures. I was told that it is coltsfoot, but when I looked it up online it appeared quite different from what other people are naming coltsfoot. It is pretty all the same. I will have to do a bit more digging to figure out what it is though!

I know this isn't a flower, but I couldn't resist adding this picture of red moss in. I just really like the vibrantly red color. This picture was taken during my hike last weekend to the Spoomerang glacier. The red moss completely covered some of the stream beds!