All 4 of us here at Clark are getting very excited to get to Cherskiy! We recently made a trip down to visit Max Holmes and Kate Bulygina in Woods Hole, Massachusetts where we got a tour of the research center and got to ask questions about the upcoming trip! We were also given some gear to bring there – cartons of water bottles for lake and stream samples, batteries for flashlights, etc. and field notebooks.

Blaize was extremely excited for the trip, but after her visit to Woods Hole and going over the trip in more detail she wishes she could leave that day! Since the visit to Woods Hole she has been preparing for the trip by reading some interesting articles about research already being done in the arctic and getting necessary gear for the trip.

Claire is both very, very excited for the trip to Russia and just a little bit nervous. She’s never been out of the country before, so this is quite a big trip to be her first foray abroad. In prep for the research we’ll be doing in Siberia, she’s been looking at some satellite imagery of the Cherskiy Region and Kolyma River basin. She can’t wait to see what’s happening on the ground, not just from the remote sensing!

Boyd, like the other Clarkies, is excited to finally get there. He’s excited to reconnect with the PIs and the Zimov’s and continue his research of alas basins in the Kolyma region. He’s been working on a different approach to assess lake drainage rates and is anxious to be back in the field to utilize this new approach. He’s also excited to meet the other students!!

We wish all the other students/professors well in their preparation for the trip and safe travels next week. See you in Chicago on the 2nd!

The Clarkies