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