PolarisProject

Unfortunately not all of the PIs were able to travel to Cherskiy for the Polaris Project 2010, myself included. I greatly missed being at the Northeast Science Station and being in the field with such a fantastic group of scientists and students. As you may have read from others already, the Polaris Project experience has been a life-changing, profound experience for professors and students alike – both personally and professionally – and I am no exception. However, in addition to conducting research on the impacts of climate warming on terrestrial and freshwater biogeochemistry (as we do with the Polaris Project), I also have active research projects investigating the impacts of climate warming on Arctic sea ice. For the past six weeks, I have been onboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy (a 420 foot icebreaker) in the Chukchi Sea, northwest of Alaska. In fact, I’ve really only been ~600 miles away from the Polaris Project folks this whole time (about the distance between Seattle and San Francisco). Here you can get a glimpse of what the Healy sees on her many Arctic voyages, every hour on the hour. Below you can see how sea ice was situated in early July 2010 in relation to all our sampling locations during both of our field seasons.

As part of NASA’s ICESCAPE mission on the Healy, I and two of my Ph.D. students from Clark University (Christie Wood and Luke Trusel) were coring sea ice, collecting samples from the under-ice water column, and measuring light penetration at different wavelengths through the sea ice and through the ocean waters below. All of these parameters will give us insight into how expected future sea ice declines will impact the biology and biogeochemistry of one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world. Conducting research onboard an icebreaker is a unique experience – for one, most of our group’s research was carried out by simply walking off the ship (in the middle of the ocean, mind you), straight onto the sea ice below.

June and July is an incredibly dynamic time of year in the Chukchi Sea, when sea ice begins to degrade, melt ponds form on sea ice surfaces, and hot algae blooms run rampant throughout the region. At our sampling stations, we were able to investigate both melt ponds (which function as “skylights”) and bare white ice surfaces (which shade light much more effectively), each impacting the biology and biogeochemistry of waters below to different extents.

The Chukchi Sea is also home to some of the most charismatic mammals on the planet (which are at the top of a food chain that the presence and seasonality of sea ice afford), to include polar bears (now deemed “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act) and walruses (which were just just petitioned under the Endangered Species Act in 2008). These “ice-obligate” species have been given particular attention owing to recently observed declines in Arctic sea ice. We were lucky enough to see a collection of these critters, to include a mother polar bear and her three cubs (likely two seasons’ worth).

So while I am missing my Polaris Project compatriots this summer, each of us was able to discover a small puzzle piece towards understanding an Arctic region so dramatically impacted by climate change. Here’s to furthering Arctic research – wherever you happen to be!

After a 30+ hour daze of airplanes and airports, then having to turn on the radio to block out the eery silence of sleeping in the desert without 19 other people and the rustling of the Barge, I’m sitting here in my parents house in Reno, Nevada. With my puppy at my side, my parents off to the store (with a request for cucumbers! Thanks Russia, because of you I’ve fallen in love with them) and all the windows open to admire the view of the desert, so completely different from the landscape of my home the last month, I’ve never experienced such a strong sense of bitter sweet emotions.

I’m glad to be home, I’ve missed my friends and family, but I honestly don’t know how to put into words how much the experience in Cherskiy has impacted me, how much it meant to me, and how much I’ll miss it.

Cherskiy itself is absolutely beautiful, undeniably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, but it’s the people I’ve shared this experience with and the science and research we conducted together that will keep that place so close to my heart. When John said in his last blog that this could be a fundamentally changing experience for some of the students, I count myself in that group. I think we all will.

The science was amazing. It was easier then I thought to talk about the work that I’ve been doing Siberia. I had imagined that talking about seasonal bacterial community variation and spring flush versus summer base flow conditions effecting DOC decomposition would be hard to explain to people without science backgrounds, but it was easy enough with the multiple people I’ve already shared my experience with. Whether in a mix of broken Russian and English, or at the back of the plane while stretching our legs, sharing my experience and data, the Polaris Project, and of course stories of Sergei Zimov and the work he does, has completely dominated every conversation. And that was just conversations in passing. I can’t wait to really sit down with people and explain all that I’ve been doing and all that Polaris and the Zimov’s have done.

Now the people of Polaris; the teachers, post docs, fellow students, and of course the Zimov’s and all the others of the North East Science Station, that is one aspect of the trip that would take quite a while to do any justice to. Lets just say that I love them all, have made a group of friends as close as family, and get a little teary eyed thinking about all the different good byes as our group slowly diminished. From the station where we had to say good bye to the returning students, to the airport in Cherskiy saying good bye to Nikita, to Yakutsk, to Moskow, and finally Washington where the last of the new students and all the PIs had to go off to our separate gates, each good bye was painful but full of hopes that we’ll see each other again.

So thank you Polaris, I can say with complete truth that this has been the best, most life changing experience of my life. It’s concreted the direction of my career and fueled the flame of my determination for field research. It’s given me a group of friends I’ll never forget and a set of memories that will never fade. The field aspect of Polaris might be done (for now) but the work is really just beginning. Now it’s time to process data and samples and, most importantly, share what we’ve done.

Back home safe and sound, and sitting on my patio. The garden has grown huge in my absence, the weeds aren’t totally awful, and my French press, coffee grinder and good coffee beans have been waiting patiently for my arrival. Life is pretty good. Now, after a good night sleep I am sitting on my back patio marveling at the number of tomatoes my neighbors and I will share, and thinking about our experience last month.

So, a few random thoughts about Polaris III, summer 2010.

This was our best summer yet scientifically. The scope and number of projects was quite impressive given our short time (~3 weeks) to complete them. We have improved our understanding of the role of light and nutrients in the processing of dissolved organic matter, applied a new method to the study of nutrient cycling in streams which has produced interesting, if somewhat confusing, results and expanded our knowledge of aquatic ecosystems in the Kolyma basin to include nutrient concentrations, pCO2 and particulate organic carbon.

The level of collaboration between the US and Russian members of our team has grown stronger with Valentin Spektor, Nikita Zimov, Sergei Zimov, Sergei Davidov and Anya Davidova making strong contributions by sharing ideas and information and mentoring student projects. I think it is obvious that stronger partnerships within our group have greatly improved the quality of the work we are doing.

We have had our first experience with integrating postdocs into our group, and Paul Mann and Jorien Vonk were fantastic additions to our group, both personally and professionally. I hope to see them both back next summer.

Beyond our scientific success, we have also forged some strong personal connections that will last a lifetime. For me, every summer, my family grows bigger and our connections grow stronger. Our students become like my children (well, maybe younger siblings) and my colleagues my brothers and sisters. Each summer is different, but every year, by the end of the trip we linger in each airport saying good-bye to some members of the team, and one hug is never enough. In Cherskiy, it’s the Zimovs and Davidovs. In Yakutsk, it’s Valentin. In Moscow this year, it was Ivan and Jorien. And in Washington, everyone else. It is a bittersweet moment. We all have family, friends and a life to return to that we love (not to mention good restaurants, i.e. Cecil’s in St. Paul), but we have also shared what sometimes seems like a moment in time, an experience that changes all of us, sometimes in fundamental ways. For us older folks, these changes can be pretty subtle, a shift towards a new research direction, a propensity to sing Russian folk songs. For the younger folks, these changes can be quite fundamental and important, maybe even a new life path if they stay true to their final reflections.

What I think is really amazing about all three years of the Polaris Project is the consistently powerful impact it has had on the students and even some of the PI’s (I refer to myself). We are changing lives and setting ourselves on a path that I believe is leading to a significant impact on Arctic ecology and public perceptions of climate change and the role of science. To our students, I say it is up to you to realize the vision and continue to build on what we have started. To all of my colleagues, I say thank you for what has been the best professional experience of my life.

I am sincerely and profoundly grateful to all of you.

We had a very productive morning yesterday listening to student presentations regarding their research projects and their learning experiences from this trip. It has only been 30 days since the group has been together but a lot of individual and self transformation has occurred during this period. We are all proud of the students and the contributions they have made to this point. I hope they will continue to educate others about climate issues and continue to be good citizens on our planet.

We are in the Moscow airport now and about to head home. To all the parents and friends of the students out there, your loved ones will be home soon to share their experiences with you. Hope you are well and signing off from Russia.

Sudeep
Assistant Prof of Limnology and Conservation Ecology
University of Nevada- Reno
Polaris Project Co Investigator

Yesterday I turned twenty while we were staying here in Moscow. I never imagined that I would spend one of my birthdays in Moscow with such a great group of people. We all had presentations yesterday morning but after that it was time for relaxation and celebration. I was happy to spend some of the day shopping in the marketplace. Then later we had an absolute feast for dinner followed by two delicious cakes. I have been so fortunate to be able to celebrate my birthday in such an interesting place. I also had happy birthday sung to me six times yesterday which has to be a record! Now we are just sitting in the airport waiting for our flights home. I can’t wait for our arrival but I will really miss the group and adventures. Anyway, greetings from Moscow and I will see everyone soon!

Most of the students and PIs are in Moscow, preparing to board their flight home today. Blaize, Erin, Travis and I are in Cherskiy, continuing our research and finishing up our projects.

During my remaining time here, I’m continuing my soil BOD experiments and conducting nutrient limitation experiments. In lakes, rivers and streams, rates of carbon processing are limited by nutrients in the relative minimum. In more relatable terms, it’s possible to think of the nutrients as milk and cookies. As a human, we can only eat so many cookies before we need a glass of milk to wash it down. When you run out of milk, you need to stop eating cookies. Microorganisms operate on a similar principle. As an Arctic microorganism, you can only process so much carbon before you need some nitrogen or phosphorous. When you run out of one of them, you stop processing carbon.

You can conduct experiments to test what macronutrient is in the relative minimum by collecting water in containers and adding some nutrients. Different buckets get different nutrient treatments (only phosphorous, only nitrogen, and both nitrogen and phosphorous), and some buckets get no treatment. Then, you measure aerobic activity to see which buckets process more or less carbon. If more carbon is processed, then the nutrient that was added to the bucket is limiting.

Here in Cherskiy I’m on round three of these experiments. To add an element of excitement, the containers I’m using are 75 L trash cans from town, and there’s incubating on the roof of the lab so they’re exposed to natural weather conditions. We’ll keep you posted on how this and our other experiments go!

The vivacious vestige of the Polaris Project (Blaize, Erin, JoAnn, and Travis), through which the remainder of the group must live vicariously, woke up to a vicious odor of smoke and an eerie unplaceable source of sickly yellow light yesterday morning.

This summer in Cherskii, as the returning students and PIs can attest, has been anomalously hot. The high temperatures here have had a drastic affect–extremely low precipitation and frequent fires. As the temperature increases, peat bogs dry out or desiccate, setting the stage for rampant fires.

In addition to fires, the heat has had cascading affects on the region. Some of these affects are readily apparent. This year, the Polaris Project witnessed significantly more wildlife than the past two years, most likely because animals are forced to congregate near larger bodies of water as their upland sources dried up. We have seen caribou, moose, bears, countless birds, and owls, often drinking at the banks of the larger rivers. The dryness has also meant almost no mosquitos. With fewer wet areas, mosquitos have nowhere to lay their eggs, and their populations tank. Furthermore, much to the stream team’s dismay, many of the small streams that ran throughout July in 2009 are completely dry this year.

These trends are alarming in and of themselves, but they also foreshadow things to come. As a result of global warming, arctic temperatures continue to rise faster than anywhere on the globe. These unprecedented temperatures are likely to bring about more heat waves, more fires, more animal migrations, and generally dryer watersheds. With the red sun bearing down overhead, and the stuffy thick smoke-laden air, Cherskii looks and feels like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. We returning students are looking forward to some wind to blow away this ominous smog.

Today was a long, sad day. We spent the morning packing, cleaning and swimming in the Panteleikha one last time. Right after lunch we loaded up the bus and said good-bye to the Station. It was hard leaving behind the four returning students and all the people at the Northeast Science Station that made our stay so fantastic. Last night we had a great dinner full of toasts and gifts. One of the toasts was in song form. Both Erin’s and my families commemorate events by changing the words to other songs. Here are the lyrics from our toast last night.

To the tune of Proud Mary by Creedance Clearwater Revival.

We left our homes for the summer
Heading to the land of no night just day
Loading up on bug shirts, boots and peanut butter
Heading to the north for a month long stay

Mahalia keep on crooning
Oh that jelly keep on spooning
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on a river

We settled into life in Cherskiy
Playing Settlers by night, doing research all day
And we never got one minute of sleeping
Cause John’s damn snoring kept ups up all night

Drinking Zatecky Gus
Eating biscuits, canned cow and moose
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on a river

Heading north to the tundra
Expecting just to stay for one long day
Stranded in the fish shack
Crowded, sweaty, smelly
Congealed into our speggy-wedge that fateful ay

“And What” said dearest Vanya
Drinking beer sitting in the banya
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on a river

Heading back to the US
We never imagined we’d reach this day
Ready to eat veggies
And wear some clean clothes
But memories of this month with never fade

Big thanks to the station and PIs
For a month that surely opened our eyes
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on a river

As I am writing this, it is dark outside. For the first time in a month it is actually night time. We have completed one flight, just three more flights and 16 more time zones to go through. Although it was a sad day, travel went smoothly. We arrived safely tonight in Yakutsk (it is a lot easier with ten fewer people and bags). We hope that the rest of our trip; to Moscow tomorrow and the US on Monday go as smoothly.

The one upshot of having many long flights is that it gives us students the opportunity to work on our presentations. On Sunday, we will each present the preliminary findings from our research projects this summer. Although we all had a general understanding of what each other was studying, I am excited to hear in depth about all the work that was accomplished this month.

Hi everyone! As of late, those of us working with soil have been busy with making soil extracts. Sam’s earlier post gives an indication as to our all-hours filtering schedule, so I’ll write more on what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

Soil contains lots of “stuff”- plant material, leaf litter, roots, minerals, and organisms among other things –that can contribute nutrients to the environment. In particular, I’m looking at the nutrients soil can contribute to water. In order to take the nutrients out of the soil and into water to measure them, we need to create soil extracts.

The process is, in a phrase, time consuming. First, we clean one and a half liter bottles (in my case, $80 worth of water bottles) with a weak HCl solution to get rid of anything which can contaminate our samples. Then, we add a mixture of 10 mL water to 1 g soil to our bottles and give them a good, half hour long shake to “free up” and release the nutrients. After letting them settle overnight, we undertake the surprisingly long (up to 5 hours a sample) process of filtering out the soil particles, leaving us with nutrient-enriched water we can test and use for
experiments.

I’m testing my soil extracts for their biological “reactivity” in local aquatic ecosystems. The method I’m using for this is a BOD, or biological dissolved oxygen, test. In a BOD test, I mix my soil extract with water from the Kolyma River and place it in a tightly sealed bottle. The amount of dissolved oxygen is measured at different time intervals. From the changes in dissolved oxygen concentration, it’s possible to calculate how much carbon the microorganisms are “eating” and the levels of bioavailable nutrients in the soil extracts. This morning I prepped 98 of these bottles, and they’re currently incubating while I await results.

In addition to the BODs, I’m getting levels of nutrients measured using through water quality tests. Our PIs John and Kate do a fantastic job of keeping up with the influx of soil extract samples they’ve been receiving from us today, and it’s been great to have almost real-time nutrient data.

It’s been a busy last few days here at the station. We’ll keep you posted!

PS- To my friends and family, sometimes the internet here doesn’t send e-mails. But I’m alive and well and enjoying my time here.

Well, maybe not, but it was remarkable nevertheless to see many of the Polaris Project students swimming in the Arctic Ocean a few days ago.

For most of the year this part of the ocean is covered in sea ice. The image below, courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, shows the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice extent as of July 15, 2010.  Note the small region of open water near the mouth of the Kolyma River – that is where the Polaris students were swimming.

But as has been happening Arctic-wide for the past few decades, sea ice has been retreating from this part of the Siberian coast.  The figure below shows the minimum annual sea ice extent each year since 1979 (determined using satellite imagery), which typically occurs in the middle of September.

2010 is on track to be another year with anomalously low sea ice extent, with the current sea ice extent almost as low as it was on this date during the record breaking 2007 season.  Will 2010 set a new record?

What does this all mean?  In addition to the impacts of sea ice loss for arctic organisms (including humans), how might sea ice loss impact people living outside of the Arctic?