PolarisProject

We’re all currently sitting in an cafe in Moscow, reflecting on the past 3+ weeks of the Polaris Project and getting excited about the fact that we’re heading home tomorrow. Several of us were talking yesterday evening about how difficult it will be to summarize the experience to our families and friends when we get home. It has been such a magnificent and varied experience that we couldn’t even imagine where we’d start. It will take time, but I think we’re all looking forward to conveying as much about the experience to as many people as we possibly can.

Thanks to all who have been following our trip as presented here. If you are a parent of one of the Polaris Project students, you should be very proud. They were all wonderful – intelligent, hard working, and fun.
Cheers from Russia,
Max Holmes
Project Leader, Woods Hole Research Center

July 22, 2008

Upon return from a truly spectacular trip up North to the tundra, we’re back in Cherksiy and have spent the last few days in the labs analyzing and sifting through the countless water samples, tree rings, soil layers, organic matter, and gases collected since our expedition here began. It has been quite the learning experience and the PI’s have been very helpful in teaching us how to use the different lab instruments, how they function and what results to expect.

Both the lake and the streams research groups use instruments called the SUVA and the YSI.  The YSI is used when samples are taken and records temperature, pH, dissolved organic carbon, percent oxygen saturation, and pressure to identify the basic qualities of the sample site.  This information is important when anaylzing the physical characterisitics of different watersheds and why these values differ between them.  The SUVA is a thermospectronic UV scanner that injects different wavelengths of light into water samples (ranging from 190-1100 nanometers of light).  The amount of light absorbed by the water samples at different wavelengths (visible and UV) indicates the concentration of dissolved organic carbon in the water and the overall structural characteristics of the water itself.  The stream group (Katie Abbott and Kate Villis) has been analyzing 2 samples from their various locations, one is unfiltered and the other filtered, to indicate the spectral qualities of the water. Having sampled various tributaries of different sizes both upstream and downstream of Cherskiy along the Kolyma River, they hope to make inferences about the inputs from different watersheds and how they affect the carbon content of the river.

The lake group (Anya Suslova and Matt) has also been using the SUVA to examine the spectral qualities of different lakes around Cherskiy. Similar to the stream group, the also use the YSI probe. Right now, these two young researchers have been filtering lake water and are performing an experiment in a man-made lake within the station.  They placed 2 bottles of lake water injected with Pleistocene yedoma into this lake and every 2 hours, they record temperature and light intensity to examine how DIC (dissolved inorganic carbon) and CO2 change over time based on microbial activity. So far, there are results but they are largely non-conclusive. Hopefully by tomorrow they will have reached some sort of inference.

The tree group (Tyler and I) has been using a hand lens to record the age of the different tree cores from the various sample sites.  Tyler has aged all of the tree cores and I plan on going through them some time before we leave to compare my measurements with his.  It is quite the tedious process but must be done. Adding in Tyler’s soil data, we hope to reach a conclusion on alas composition and structure both above and below the surface and will add in a spatial component to reach conclusions on the role of the alas in watersheds and the Arctic region as a whole.

Another young researcher, Anya Falina, has been sifting through ancient yedoma soil looking for solid organic material and analyzing the composition of the soil.  She has also been reading literature about permafrost in the region with hopes of reaching a conclusion on the contents of this ancient soil.

During the last few minutes of being in Duvannyi Yar, Sergei Zimov and Katey Walter allowed me to take part in a new project that aims at examining the amount and quality of POC (particulate organic carbon) transported by the Kolyma River. I took 3 different samples from 3 different days and have been using a LiCor to analyze the amount of CO2 contained within my different samples at different times. If CO2 levels are increasing, decomposition is occurring and this organic material is actively releasing CO2 into the river. This has significant implications both on an ecosystem level and the role of rivers in transporting organic material.

-Boyd Zapatka, Student, Clark University

7/21/2008

Yesterday afternoon, the students and PIs were given the options to either embark on an adventure up north by boat for a few days, or to work on data in Cherskiy.  The majority of us chose to travel north with hopes of seeing arctic tundra, reindeer herding camps, and possibly the Arctic Ocean!  So, last night after enduring a bouncy, wet voyage on a classic Russian-style boat, we anchored on the shore of the tundra.

This morning, a few of us (Anya Suslova, Katie Abbott, Karen, Max, Kate Bulygina and I) woke up bright and early to sample a stream nearby.  It looked completely different form than any of the streams we had seen in Cherskiy.  It had almost a beaded form; there were a series of little ‘lakes’ connected by a small stream that led to the Kolyma river.  After sampling, we also saw a reindeer herding camp along the shore of the Kolyma.  There was a group of small shacks filled with fishing nets, animal hides, beds, and small kitchens (one with ketchup still on the table!).  It looked as though the group had just up and left.  Sergei later informed us that they had followed the herd north for the summer and would probably return in the fall for a couple of weeks.

After breakfast we traveled a bit further north to our hiking and sampling destination.  Once we stepped off the boat everyone was in awe.   We were standing in front of a massive wall of shale, which Sergei stated was from the Mesozoic Period.  We could pick pieces off of the wall or the ground and we were holding millions of years old rock in our hands!  The group hiked further along the shore and up a hill.  The view was surreal.  We could see the Arctic Ocean in the distance in front of us, the Kolyma River to our left, mountains to our right, and in between was a huge expanse of tundra with a river running through.  The tundra was much more green than I had expected.  There were tons of grasses and woody shrubs, and it was windy, cold and beautiful!  We spent the afternoon hiking across the tundra and up along the stream.  The streams group took samples for a longitudinal study of the stream while the rest of the group explored and fished.  It will be interesting to analyze the differences in dissolved oxygen, light absorbance, nutrient levels, etc. along different parts of the stream.

In the mid-afternoon we hiked back to the boat for our journey home.  By midnight we had arrived back to what has come to feel like our comfortable ‘home sweet home’:  The Barge.

Kate Willis, Student Clark University

July 18, 2008

Today we went on an excursion to Pleistocene Park, Sergei Zimov’s largest experiment.  The park consists of roughly 40,000 acres of forest, shrubland, lakes, streams, and if Sergei has his way, grasslands.  At the park there is a cabin that houses two people that work at the park, various outbuildings to store equipment, and a personnel carrier that plays an integral role in Sergei’s ultimate vision.

Sergei Zimov started Pleistocene Park in 1989 with the hopes of restoring the more productive grassland ecosystem, which he calls mammoth tundra-steppe, that was present more than 10,000 years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch.  The grasslands present during the Pleistocene were perpetuated by the grazing of large herbivores, including but not limited to, mammoths, horses, moose, reindeer, bison, and musk oxen.  The grazing and trampling associated with these megafauna both increases nutrient cycling as well as decreases survivability of mosses, large shrubs, and trees, resulting in grasses having a competitive advantage.  However, when many of these megafauna became extinct early in the Holocene, these vast grasslands became less productive forests.

In an attempt to restore the park, which naturally lacks the necessary megafauna, to a Pleistocene grassland, Sergei Zimov has carried out controlled burns to enhance nutrient cycling and clear trees.  Due to the current shortage of mammoths, Sergei also periodically takes matters into his own hands.  He drives his Solviet personel carrier, which he describes as the equivalent to two male mammoths, through the forest.  His only complaint about this substitution is that it does not produce any excrement, an essential component.  So far he has released Yakutian horses and moose into the park to increase decomposition and trample moss, and is currently in the market for musk oxen and bison.  After herbivore populations reach high enough levels, he plans to reintroduce various predators, including wolves and Siberian tigers.  Sergei is anxiously awaiting the day that he becomes a tiger farmer. 

We previously thought that the forest was natural, consisting of trees and birds, and that we should preserve it.  However, after hearing Sergei Zimov’s vision, we realized that it was only a result of humans.  Thus, it makes sense to nudge nature back to its natural state where, with the help of herbivores, it will become stable once again.  As we saw horses run through the park, we could envision the numerous, even larger, megafauna that will call Pleistocene Park home in the future.  While much of the park is currently unappealing due to ash from fires and toppled trees from ”mammoths”, some parts are beautiful, made up of various grasses and short willow shrubs that provide quality forage for herbivores.  Humans usually convert natural systems to artificial ones.  However, at Pleistocene Park, Sergei Zimov is helping nature restore itself from unnatural forests (in which he claims the trees are growing illegally) to the productive, awe-inspiring mammoth tundra-steppe it once was.

 To read more about Pleistocene Park in Science Magazine, click here.

Anya Suslova, Student, Yakutsk State University

Tyler Llewellyn, Student, Western Washington University

July 17, 2008
Author: Sudeep Chandra

As you may have gathered from the other blogs, we have just returned from a multiday trip up the Kolyma, a river that flows into the Arctic Ocean. We hired a ship to move the barge on which we are living, teaching, and collecting samples.  The barge would periodically park and when we would use tender boats to move us from the barge to sample various lakes and streams.  A nice combination of boating, hiking, and slogging through very wet ground.

The group has been incredible as a whole.  Working with students when you too feel young is an incredible experience. A lot of great energy is created by youthful interaction where both student and teacher are engaging in question and answer sessions.  The students have many good ideas and show a lot of promise as young scientists.  Sometimes I wonder which group (mentor v students) is learning more from this experience.   I am very impressed with the skill set of academic mentors on this trip.   Each person has been trained in different specialties (landscape ecology, biogeochemistry, limnology, dendrochronology, etc.) and looks at issues from their own, unique filters. I did not know many of the folks before this trip but feel very fortunate to spend a significant amount of time discovering this landscape with them. I think one thing is certain, with the expertise thus far, we have more questions than answers.  The good news is that Drs. Davidov and Zimov and their families, the primary founders and residence of the station, have pondered many of the same questions have provided answers or at least set up new hypotheses for us to test!  I imagine many of these answers have come from living and observing changes since their arrival in 1980.

This last trip we sampled many lakes, streams, and rivers placed within a landscape of ancient carbon, known as Yedoma.  This Yedoma from the Pleistocene era is quickly thawing due to a variety of global warming feedbacks.  As this ancient combination of ice and organic soil melt, the bones of ancient residents such as mammoths and lions are left for all to see. It is exciting to see the signs of the past at our feet. I kind of feel like a modern day Indiana Jones!  Upon closer reflection however, I now realize what the experts that have visited this station, such as Dr. Katey Walter from the University of Alaska, have been studying the last few years.  What happens if these old great carbon, deposits are released to the planet for all to experience?  Could the release of this ancient carbon that has been sequestered in the cold conditions of the ground tens of thousands of years feed back and further alter our planet’s climate?

Not sure if I know the answer however I do know that I am ready to develop my scientific skill sets to work in the Arctic and on climate change issues.

This “wild” location seems like one that is more tenable and tractable to investigate thanks to the Zimov and Davidov families that founded the station.  Moreover, it is critical to study these locations if we are going to create applied solutions to the issue of global climate change. I am sure I will be back to answer some scientific questions which I hope are both applied and basic in nature.

Sudeep Chandra
Assistant Professor of Limnology and Conservation Ecology

7/16/08

Today began by splitting into our study groups. The filled-in lake (which are called alas) group went back to Duvannyi Yar and found a large alas to take some measurements in. The permafrost group analyzed their data collected from Duvannyi Yar. The lake group picked invertebrates from samples collected the day before and worked on data.

The streams group (my group) took a boat further downstream to Kolymskoe, a Siberian town with a population of ~1000. While we traveled at 24mi/hr, we had an incredible view of the landscape adjacent to the river. It was very clear visually which side of the river was being eroded and which side was depositional. The vegetation changed remarkably quickly from grasses to scattered larches to forest. On the erosional side of the river we could see a clear transect of the soil layers beneath ground surface with vegetation on top of that. The land here was eroding from permafrost thaw leaving the soil even more susceptible to erosion from the river water flow. Along the river edge we could also see alas’ and filled in streams. The presence of permafrost makes soil even more susceptible to erosion, which is why some areas looked so cut into.  It was amazing to see these processes so clearly!

When we arrived at Kolymskoe we saw fishing boats scattered along shore and a large pile of coal sitting on the beach. We walked into town amongst wooden houses that looked like they were built in the 50’s or 60’s, Siberian dogs, and few other people. We went into a store for some supplies and it felt as if we had entered Soviet times. There were lines of identical school supplies, boots, clothing, irons, combs, zippers, …all the essential needs. The prices were calculated with an old-fashioned scale and abacus. It was interesting to think about how this town had been established back during Soviet rule, and how this has carried over into modern times. Our goal at Kolymskoe was to meet up with the man who runs the station that measures river discharge on the Kolyma. Max, Sergei Zimov, and Kate B. talked to him about methods of discharge data collection. We learned that discharge is measured by river height and velocity (discharge has units of km³/yr or m³/sec).  This is measured twice a day, and once compiled is sent to the Yakutian government, which is why the data have been unavailable online. After exchanging thank yous (thank you=”Spa-cee-bah”) with him, we headed back to the Kolyma to take samples. We collected about 5 water samples today in different areas. Our goal is to determine the differences in carbon and nutrient content between water in tributaries coming from varying landscape types. We are looking at two scales: small stream variability as well as an overall survey of the Kolyma watershed. We are measuring variables such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen percent and content, latitude and longitude, turbidity, and conductivity.The evening consisted of data entry and enjoying an amazing multimedia presentation of a picture slideshow and Polaris Project “themesong” put together by the group. It was good to reflect on the trip thusfar and think about further work to be done in the coming days while the barge travelled to our temporary home in Cherskiy.

July 14 2008
Author: Sudeep Chandra

We arrived at the Cherskiy Research station a few days ago.  Check out our location by typing in “Cherskiy Russia” on Google maps. The ride in an old Russian turbo prop plane went much better than I had imagined.  I think the energy of the students, great company, and incredible views from 17,500 feet of an arctic landscape (filled mountain forests and many lowland lakes and rivers) helped me NOT think about the rustic, steel like nature of the plane.  Accommodations at the station have been wonderful.  The barge on which we are living has two toilets (that flush!), a kitchen, a Russian style sauna, showers, and small bunk style rooms that smell of fresh milled larch.

From what I can tell, Cherskiy represents a Shangri-la for a natural historian.  Whether plants, animals, insects or microbes there is so much to observe.  For a place that is bitter cold in the winter (-40C), the summer seasons comes alive with remarkable biological diversity.  One of the primary scientists at the station, Dr. Davidov, provided a short introduction to the area.  There are over 100 bird species, many rodents, wolverines, bears, wolves, and deer in the area.  Yesterday, as we walked into town, a Pika perched up on a rock off the road.  The forest structure near the station is dominated by 2 species of larch trees but there is a strong, riparian transition zone from the large forest to the river. Here, as expected you find willows (dwarf and otherwise), alder, etc..  A remarkable place to study terrestrial plant-animal interactions.

It interesting how similar the arctic environment is to our semi arid ecosystems of the Great Basin in the United States.  Moisture clearly is a major driver of ecosystem process and productivity in both ecosystems. The mechanisms of moisture delivery to the landscape however are vastly different.  In the arctic, the active thaw melt of the permafrost which is 10,000 years or older, controls vegetation composition and production during the summer growing season (with obvious feedbacks of the vegetation to the thaw process).  In our temperate semi arid climate, moisture is derived from snow melt and summer thunderstorms.  There are meadow ecosystems created by spring/ groundwater discharge and surface water impoundments, which produce amazing centers of biological diversity.   The more I walk around the more I realize this landscape is an incredible place to test some of the dominant ecological concepts governing river and lake dynamics.

In temperate climates, much effort is going in to understanding the linkages between terrestrial aquatic environments in recent years.  We are trying to do this at Castle Lake Research station however most of this research occurs in the stream and river ecozones and their adjacent habitats in temperature environments.  The patch work of lakes in this region of the arctic with different hydrological connections would make excellent study sites for the same questions.  Moreover the systems here seem to have a broad range of nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus, dissolved organic carbon) conditions allowing for broad scale comparisons across watersheds.

Enough science and a little reflection. Much of my “free” time in the last few days have been spent thinking about my mentors in ecology.  Many of whose papers I have read and presentations I have listened to at meetings. Some are dead (Edmondson, Nakano, Polis, Wetzel), retired/ retiring (Richards, Goldman, Kitchell, Moyle, Jassby, Reuter), and others that continue to be the best thinkers in their subdiscipline (Carpenter, Melack, Schladow, Brett, Vander Zanden, Mueller-Solger).  The conversations we have had and/ or the papers you have written have greatly influenced my thoughts and intellectual development.  Moreover many of you have provided opportunities and encouragement to explore new systems and live an adventurous life.   Thank you for your support.  I am living a blessed and incredible life.  All I needed to do is come to the arctic to develop this thought! If all bodes well, hopefully we can make broad scale comparisons between our temperate and arctic ecosystems well into the future. After all, getting here is more than half of the struggle.  Hope everyone back home is well.

Sudeep Chandra
Assistant Professor of Limnology and Conservation Ecology
University of Nevada- Reno

July 14th 2008

July 14, 2008

Day three on the barge, and we are currently in the middle of the Kolyma river. The barge is being pulled along south so we can experience the range of environments along the river, and eventually bear witness to dynamic changes in permafrost when we reach Duvannyi Yar. So we have some time on our hands as we wait for the barge to stop, and I find myself thinking about lunch in Yakutsk (this is no reflection on our culinary experience on the barge, which has been great). Just around the corner from our hotel-like structure in Yakutsk we found a little cafeteria-style restaurant where I tried my first piroshky. In case you have never had one, a piroshky is a pastry filled with potatoes or vegetables or meat, whatever you prefer. The version of choice this day was deep-fried and filled with meat and was aptly described by Andy Bunn as a ‘meat donut’.

Upon further reflection, it occurred to me that the meat donut is a metaphor for one of our objectives on the Polaris Project.

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We don’t normally associate donuts and meat as belonging together in the same mouthful, nor would most of us naturally assume that the juxtaposition of these two would result in something better than the sum of the parts, that there would be a synergy between them that would result in a tasty mix of flavors, and yet it works. Spectacularly.

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In our work on the Polaris Project, we are attempting to achieve a similar synergy. We are starting from the premise that focusing the energies of an interdisciplinary group of scientists on a common objective, specifically understanding factors influencing the transport of C and N from forests to ocean will generate a more complete and effective result. The mix of students and faculty we currently have includes a wide diversity of skills and theoretical and conceptual backgrounds. We hope that mixing us all together here in Cherskiy and immersing ourselves completely in our Polaris world, we can achieve a level of understanding greater than any of us (or our disciplines) could achieve on our own. So far, this seems to be working. We are maintaining our sanity, getting some work done, and some interesting ideas are emerging from uncountable conversations in the field and on the ‘barge of science’.

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We can, I believe, live up to the standards of collaborative success represented by the meat donut.

7/13/2008

When we woke up this morning we were slowly moving south along the Kolyma River.  Our destination is a two-day trip to Duvanniy Yar, a place were there are large permafrost exposures.  This morning we were confined to the barge as we moved upstream.  After going in circles for a while, we found a good place to dock for the day.  A group of us including Katey W, John S, Kate B, Sudeep C, Laura M, and Boyd Z went out in a smaller boat to collect samples at a stream and a lake.  We pulled up to dock the boat and I saw something I was not expecting.  There was a house built on a small strip of land in between the river and the lake.  It was surprising to see someone living out there so far away from any town.  The yard was littered with various pieces of scrap metal and old, broken down machinery.  The man who lives there, Lenid, is a fisherman and he had lots of fish hanging outside in chicken wire boxes to dry.  It was an amazing site to see.  He invited us into his house and gave us fish to eat.  He had prepared the fish in so many different ways and each was more delicious than the one before.  It was an amazing cultural experience.

The walk to the stream was not difficult; it was walking along the stream bank that proved to be difficult.  There were trees all along the bank that proved very challenging to walk through.  It seemed like no one had ever been there before.  We found some good points along the stream and lake to take samples.  Laura and Boyd worked on collecting methane bubbles.  They had two traps that they placed in the water and then poked at the streambed to make the bubbles come out.  They then put the collected gas into vacuum-sealed glass bottles for storage.  John, Kate, and I took water samples from the stream.  We filtered the water into three bottles and used a probe to measure the water pH, temperature, and conductivity.  The water samples will be analyzed back at the field station in Cherskiy and if possible, will be transported back to the United States for further analysis.  We are mainly looking at the amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) but we will also measure the amounts of various nutrients and ions.

Lenid came back to the barge with us for dinner.  I was really glad that he came because even though he did not speak any English, it was still possible to learn from him what his life is like.  He sang us Old Russian songs while playing the guitar and you could sense the emotion in the song as he played.  I could feel the power of the song even without understanding the words.

Katie Abbott, student, St. Olaf College

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