This is Elliot and Emily checking in. We are part of the “bug team” studying the diversity of benthic invertebrates (bugs that live of the bottom of lakes and streams) and their role in carbon and nutrient processing. Our project has two main parts. One is an attempt to collect invertebrates from a variety of bodies of water representing floodplain and non-floodplain lakes and the streams that drain them. We will then identify them and look for any differences in composition. This is interesting because other than the group last year, very little is known about invertebrates in this region. The second part of our project is to separate the invertebrates into different bottles along with permafrost as an experiment. We will measure the rate at which they process carbon and nutrients.

Yesterday was our first day in the field after a couple days of preparation. Our two goals were to collect the permafrost for our carbon processing experiment and to set up a system to catch bugs to put in the bottles. In order to capture the bugs we built a high-tech collecting device. It actually is a broom made from  plant branches stuck into the mud in Shuci Lake, which will hopefully act as a home for the invertebrates. Once the bugs start to attach to this structure we will be able to pull it out of the water and collect them. However, putting our gadget in place didn’t go exactly as planned. Plan D involved us taking a large dead tree and trying to jam it into the mud to get it to stay in place on the bottom of the lake. Finally plan E or F ended up being successful and hopefully our brilliant improvisation and labor will pay off. We will find out today or tomorrow when we go back to collect it.

In Siberia, you work with what you got.