Field day

The Collins Glacier here on King George Island has been shrinking. The edge of the glacier has receded back further than it was even just a few years ago. That has exposed soil that is now undergoing succession, which is the focus of our research this year.

One of the ways we are studying succession is by looking at the plants and soil that have been exposed for different lengths of time. Yesterday, we collected samples from the early succession zone that has recently been uncovered by the glacier. This area is still fairly close to the glacier, like you can see in this photo:

This soil has been exposed for only a few years. There are moss and lichens growing on it, but only certain species that are good at being "pioneers". They tend to like wet areas, because the melting glacier provides a lot of it. But they have to be able to gather nutrients in creative ways, because there is not a lot in the soil yet. Those are species like moss in the genus Sanionia, and cyanobacteria who are able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere.

This moss is in the genus Sanionia. It likes living in wet places, like this channel where melt water flows down from the glacier.

We will also take samples further from the glacier, all the way out into the areas that have been exposed for a long time. These sites have had enough time to reach a "climax community", which is the mature, fully-developed plant community.  That would be a place like I showed you a couple days ago from our scouting trip:

A climax community on King George Island has many species of moss, not just the hardy pioneer species, as well as the grass. The Antarctic hairgrass requires a lot of nitrogen to grow, but can't fix it from the atmosphere like a cyanobacteria. They can only arrive later in succession when the cyanobacteria have done the work for them!

So we are taking samples from across these successional zones: some from early succession, some from a transitional "mid-succession" zone with a few more moss species and grass starting to move in, and then from the "climax community". We use the samples we take to learn about the soil conditions and the community of microorganisms that live at those successional zones. We know that the plants change like I showed you in the photos, but how do the soil invertebrates change as the ecosystem ages? How does that relate to the chemistry of the soil? These are the questions we will be able to answer with our samples.

Tour of Escudero

When we woke up today, we found that the weather is very rainy and foggy. There will be no field work today! It is not safe to leave the base when visibility is low. This was our view out the window during breakfast. There's an ocean out there just beyond the blue building, but you can't see it!

Since we can't go anywhere, I'll show you around the research station a little bit. Most of our time is spent in the main building. (That's the building with the flags in front from yesterday's post.) When we come in from outside, we have to take off our big coats and boots so that we don't track dirt and snow all over the building. We put our boots on the shelf and put on our indoor shoes (kind of like Mr. Rogers). The door to the left in the photo goes to the lounge area with couches and a TV. The kitchen is at the back of that room where we eat our meals.

We spend most of our day in the lab, getting ready for our field work and preparing for our samples. It is a long room that is shared by many scientists working on different projects.

There is a dormitory where we sleep. We have bunk-beds and a couple pieces of furniture to put away our clothes. Here is the room that Dr. Hannah and I share. It is small, but we don't spend much time there, because we are busy working!

There are two bathrooms in the dormitory, for about 20 people to share. There can be a line to use the bathroom! (Often I'll just walk over to the lab to use the bathroom there.) We have to be very careful about conserving water in Antarctica, because we have to clean the water at the station and not allow any to be released on land. The shower has a button you push to release the water, but it only runs for about 15-20 seconds per push. That keeps us from letting the water run too long. You only push the button when you need to rinse.

So now you've seen a bit about where we live and work at the station. Tomorrow we will hopefully have better weather so that we can start our experiments!

We have been settling into our new home at Escudero. We are now official visitors of Escudero, because our U.S. flag is on the pole in front of the station!

Escudero flies the Chilean flag at the top, but also the flags of the other scientists working at their station. There are four Columbian scientists here, which is the flag on the left. And there is Dr. Hannah and me from the U.S., so our flag is up, too! The flags on the right are for Magallanes, the region of Chile where Punta Arenas is, and one for INACH.

We have spent our first couple of days on the station scouting for the field sites we will use for our experiments. Yesterday we hiked along the southwest side of the glacier, and today we were on the east side. Here are some photos of the places we were exploring. Hopefully they give you a feel for the area where we are working.

We will be taking samples along a successional gradient from the edge of the glacier you see at the back of this photo. It is called the Collins glacier.

The Collins Glacier drops down off of King George Island into the ocean. Here, on the "back side" of the glacier, we are on a bay of the Drake Passage (on the west side of the island).

We are looking for areas with ample plant growth where we can collect samples. Here you see a LOT of moss, with some algae and lichen, growing on an outcrop. The glacier is behind us.

Welcome to Escudero

We finally made it to Antarctica!

The weather on Saturday allowed us to fly. We gathered together in the hotel for the first time. This is everybody traveling to Escudero to join the crew that is already there:

We boarded the plane and flew to King George Island.

Our airplane is painted to look like a penguin. Do you see it?

It was an easy flight, which is good because the wind on the surface below is on the Drake Passage was blowing at 50 km per hour (about 30 mph)! I'm glad we were not on a ship sailing across it.

We landed at the air strip on King George Island. You are probably used to paved runways at airports. Ours is made of dirt. 

Antarctic air traffic control

We then walked from the air strip to Escudero Base, about a half a mile away.

We have been getting oriented to our new home and getting settled into the lab so that we can begin our research. We're now a few days behind schedule, since we were stuck in Punta Arenas. So, we will 'hit the ground running', as they say! Sunday we will hike out to begin exploring potential field sites for our experiments.

Hurry up and Wait

Our flight this morning was a no-go. This is how it goes with Antarctic research. It is a windy continent, and with no help nearby, you don't want to take risks. We often get rushed from one place to another just to sit around and wait. We woke up at 5:30 am and went to the airport, but we had to turn around and come back to the hotel because the flight to Antarctica was canceled. They are predicting it will be Saturday when we can try next. At least we got a brief moment out of the hotel room and finally met some of the other scientists heading to Escudero with us!

So, now we are back in quarantine! It's been 9 days now. We do our best to stay busy. It helps if we get up and move a bit, even though there's not a lot of space in the hotel rooms. Dr. Hannah and I are using  Richard Simmons workout videos on the internet to stay moving. We like the fashion from the 1980s episodes. (Don't know who Richard Simmons is? Ask your parents!)

Dr. Angélica prefers this one:

We also like to spy on the boats on the Strait of Magellan outside our window. There are fishing boats, cruise ships, cargo ships, tug boats, and all sorts of boats to watch. Do you want to see the boats we're watching? You can spy on them, too! MarineTraffic 

Ready... set...

We have spent another full day in quarantine, because the weather would not allow us to fly to Antarctica. But, there was a ray of hope at the end of the day!

A rainbow over the Strait of Magellan

We learned during dinner that we will attempt a flight tomorrow morning! We have to gather together at 6 am for our flight. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we are able to finally head to Escudero!

Nature disagrees

Well... we were all geared up to leave for Antarctica today, but nature did not cooperate. 

Dr. Hannah ready to brave the weather in her INACH gear!

As you can see in this image from the Chilean Navy, there is some bad weather over the Drake Passage between us and Antarctica! The light blue colors are light cloud cover or rain, and red is thick clouds and heavy rain.

Cloud top infrared imagery from the Chilean Navy Weather Service.

That is because there is an atmospheric river overhead. An "atmospheric river" is a stream of concentrated water vapor in the atmosphere. They can be thousands of miles long (but only a couple hundred miles wide), which is why they look like rivers in the sky. Plus, they can carry more water than rivers on land! But, the water is there as a gas (vapor), not liquid water. But when that water vapor cools (like after making landfall) and turns into a liquid, the moisture becomes rain. So there is wind and rain that have messed up our flight plans!

You can see the tail of the atmospheric river passing over Punta Arenas and down towards the Antarctic Peninsula in this satellite image from last night:

University of Wisconsin's Space Science & Engineering Center

Since we can't fly, we have an extra day of quarantine. We haven't left our rooms for a week, now. We have been able to get some work done. We have meetings to discuss our project over the phone. (We are living within arms' reach of each other, but we are in separate rooms so can't see each other in person!)

Dr. Becky, Dr. Angelica, and Dr. Hannah discussing very important science!

So, we have one more night in our quarantine hotel. Or maybe more! We get an update tonight.