If you have been a regular reader of the blog, you last heard from the bug team as we were setting out our not-so-high-tech bug trap made out of birch branches and twine in an attempt to catch amphipods. Unfortunately, that venture did not prove to be as successful as we hoped and netted only a handful of our targets. It was however, enough to start a pilot project to make sure that we could a) keep the amphipods alive for three days in our jars and b) measure a change in particulate carbon in the jars. We succeeded in the former and think/hope we can succeed in the latter.

However, after several more trips to check our trap we concluded that what we were doing was not sufficient to provide the number of amphipods we needed. So, we called in the professional amphipod catcher, Nikita Zimov to show us how to do it. We left with two much larger and sturdier traps that were much easier to stick in the lake and the next day yielded over 50 amphipods. We finally got our experiment up and running yesterday and are now hoping that the amphipods are chomping away 24/7 at little bits of sediment so we can take them out and measure in two days. In the meantime we have been sampling lakes from a raft in an effort to catalog the diversity of invertebrates and how floodplain and non-floodplain lakes differ. It involves a lot of staring into Frisbees sorting through debris looking for fairly miniscule worms and a handful of larger leeches and nymphs.

On a personal note, I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets of my life last night (actually it was early this morning and it wasn’t a true sunset), complete with a reddish rainbow that was more like a beam shooting into the sky. Another highlight was watching Sergey Zimov fly fish off the barge two nights ago and clear the entire deck in a matter of 30 seconds as people fled for their eyes and ears from the lassos that whistled just past our heads. As he said with a slight hint of amusement, he is used to fishing alone. Tomorrow we head north to the tundra and hopefully the Arctic Ocean. I look forward to the new scenery and any new bugs it may bring…

Elliot