Why is Bonney so Bonny?

The past couple of days, Mike and I have been doing field work out at Lake Bonney. The weather has been very sunny for the past couple of days, which has made our work much easier! Most of the work that we do, such as the elevation transects and nutrient additions, are done at more than one lake. This is because the different lakes in the dry valleys are each slightly different. They have different amounts of nutrients, different elevations, and other important soil properties, so they support different amounts of life. To understand the entire valley, we have to do our experiments at more than one lake. So, everything that we did last week at Lake Fryxell has to also be done here. Mike and I have walked two elevation transects. We also measured the respiration from soils under the nutrient addition experiments. Since I've already told you about those projects, I will show you some other neat things around the Bonney Basin.

First, we went out onto the lake ice so that some other people working there could show us what they're doing. They wanted to look at the bottom of the lake. This is pretty hard to do, since the lake is covered with ice year-round, and is 120 feet deep. They drilled a hole in the ice so that they can see into the water. They dropped a camera down through the hole on a very long cord so that they can see the bottom of the lake! The lake water is very clear and the sun shines all day during this time of year, so there are actually things living on the bottom of the lake! Algae, which are very small primitive plants, live in mats on the bottom. This is similar to the green slimy stuff you see around lakes in the U.S. I don't have any pictures to show of the lake bottom (because they just didn't turn out very well). But, here is a picture I took while standing on the middle of the lake in the late evening sun!
Another interesting area of the Bonney Basin is called Blood Falls. This is an area on the Taylor Glacier where a reddish liquid seeps out of the glacier, making it look like the glacier is bleeding. Many people have been working at Blood Falls to find out why this is happening! Scientists think that it is from sea water that was trapped in the glacier a long time ago. The sea water contains ancient red salts that are being released as the glacier is melting.
As I said before, the internet connection here is very slow. I have been able to upload some pictures, at least, but they may not be the greatest quality. I added pictures to my previous entry about soils, so that you can see what I meant by loose and rocky!

Mike and I will continue working out here for the next several days. Today, the weather became cloudy, and it is a bit colder. The work we wanted to do needs warmth. When it's warm, the soil biota are active and respire more. We want to measure respiration in different areas, but we can't do that if it's not warm! Hopefully the weather will turn warmer again tomorrow!

How to Find Antarctic Soil

Most people think of Antarctica as being cold, snowy, and ice-covered. While that is true for some parts of Antarctica (like, the South Pole, for example), that is not true everywhere in Antarctica. Some areas (like the Dry Valleys) are not covered in ice. Antarctica is a continent, which means it's made out of land, not just ice. The areas that are covered in ice still have soil underneath all of that ice. In most places the ice is incredibly thick, and you'd have to drill down for miles to find the soil. But, there's still soil under there! The areas that do not have ice allow you to see the soil directly, without drilling through any ice. That's why our group works in the Dry Valleys. We're interested in soil, and the Dry Valleys allow us to look at that soil without any ice cover.The Dry Valleys don't have ice because they are in a desert that is very dry. There is not enough snow fall each year to cover the ground completely. No glaciers remain to cover the ground.

The soils of Antarctica are not like those that you're used to seeing. Antarctic soils are very rocky and loose. There's no tree or plant roots to hold the soil together, so it is soft and loose to walk on. It's like walking on the beach, where the sand smooshes around your foot. Except here, there's a lot of rocks, pebbles, and boulders, not just sand. The rocks come from all sorts of different origins. Some of them are from volcanoes. Some of them are from the bedrock.

Mike and I came back to the field today. We are now at Lake Bonney, which is a different lake basin in Taylor Valley. While we're here, we'll hike some more elevation transects for soil samples, plus measure carbon dioxide respiration from several different plots. Unfortunately, the internet at this camp is not very good, and I am not able to upload many pictures. I will upload more when I can!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, from the bottom of the planet!

Here's the first photo of 2008:


This is the ice-covered Ross Sea and the Royal Society Range mountains across from McMurdo Station.

Today, we've been packing ourselves up to go back out into the Dry Valleys. This time we'll be at Lake Bonney, further inland from the ocean than where we were last week. But, it's been snowing here for the past 3 days, so hopefully the weather is good enough tomorrow for us to travel!

Animals Under Our Feet

All sorts of organisms live in the soil all over the world. When you walk on the ground, you're walking on thousands and thousands of critters that you can't even see, with every step! Most of the organisms in soils are bacteria and fungi. The fungi living in the soil aren't mushrooms, like you're used to seeing. They're microscopic fungi. Bacteria and fungi live in soils all over the world in every biome, and Antarctica is no exception! There are also things living in the soil that eat the bacteria and fungi. In many places, like deciduous forests in the U.S., there are tons of different types of organisms living in the soil that eat microscopic bacteria and fungi. On Antarctica, there aren't so many different types, because it's a much harder environment to live in. However, there are some here, but they're all microscopic! There's organisms like protozoa, tardigrades, collembola, and nematodes.

Nematodes are round worms. They are microscopic, and live in all types of habitats. Here, there are only 3 main species that we can find on Antarctica. They can dry themselves out so that they can survive during the cold, dry, dark times on Antarctica, and come back to life when conditions are better (except they were never actually dead, just preserving themselves). The 3 species here eat different things. One eats microbes. Another eats other animals (microscopic animals, of course), making him a predator! That is the top of the Dry Valley food chain: a microscopic nematode!

photo credit: Byron Adams

Tardigrades are a group of animals called "water bears" because they sort of look like 6-legged bears that live in the small amounts of water in soils. Aren't they cute? Water Bears eat microbes, algae, and are also sometimes predators.

Photo credit: Uffe Nielsen

Collembola are also called  "springtails" because they have tail-like appendages that are used for jumping. They mostly eat fungi, but not much is known about what they do in Antarctic soil.

So, as you can see, there are a variety of different types of animals living in the soil here. There's more than just penguins and seals that everyone knows about when they think of Antarctica! And these microscopic soil animals are very important, because they help process those nutrients that we've been studying! We focus mainly on nematodes, because they are the coolest animals down here!

Today, we spent some time preparing samples of soil to look at the nematodes that live in them. We have to be very careful not to hurt the nematodes, so that we can look at them under a microscope while they're still alive. Breana and Ed weigh out the samples of soil and label them:
Then, they give the soil to Diana, who puts them in a sieve and runs water over them. This rinses away most of the soil, so that you have only nematodes floating in water.
Then, Byron gets the sample. He tries to separate the nematodes from the water so that it is easier to see the nematodes under a microscope. Byron, however, lost his luggage when flying down to Antarctica. So, he's wearing clothes from the lost-and-found that we decorated to look like a bee. Here, it's not called lost-and-found, though. It's called the Skua Bin, because skuas are scavenger sea birds. The nematodes will sit in the refrigerator until later, when we look at them under the microscope to identify and count them. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the nematodes to show you!

We've been working hard in the lab. We're processing our samples that we collected in the field from the elevation transects. The samples have to be sieved to remove the rocks, so that we have just the soil left over. On the soil, we measure pH, conductivity (the amount of ions in the soil that move a current), and the amount of nutrients. These things that we measure help tell us how good of a habitat for organisms the soil is at each of the spots we sampled.

Ross wears his fancy tie-dyed lab coat with his best friend Einstein in his pocket:
Mike says, "Safety first!"
The other team we work with from Colorado State arrived yesterday! Now, we are joined in the lab by Diana, Breana, Ed, and Byron.

We flew back to McMurdo today. We had finished the work we needed to do during our first week in the field. Now, we're back at "home" here at McMurdo station. Here's a nice view from the helicopter.

Look at what came in the mail while we were in the field! Elizabeth and I received Christmas cards from our friend Bob! He made the cards, and drew the artwork himself. They're totally awesome! Now Elizabeth and I have the prettiest desk space in the lab, because we can decorate it with Christmas lizards.


Now that we're finally back from our first week of field work, it's time to shower, eat non-dehydrated food, and rest!

Today Mike and I hiked up another elevation transect to measure changes in soil chemistry with increasing elevation. So we are very tired again! We crossed some snow drifts that had very pretty patterns in the surface:

Another project we are doing in this area is testing whether adding nutrients to the soil affects the microbes and animals living there. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus are very important nutrients for most living things. These nutrients move through the soil very slowly here, because it is so cold and dry. We want to know what will happen if there are more of these nutrients in the soil to be used by organisms. So, last year we added carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to different plots of soil. Now, a year later, Mike and I measured how much carbon dioxide is being produced by the living things in those plots. Just like with people, when the microscopic organisms in the soil breathe, carbon dioxide is produced. If there is more carbon dioxide produced when nutrients have been added, we know they are breathing more. They would breathe more if they're more active. The same happens with people. If you eat a good, nutritious meal, you'll be more active. You might run or play more. Getting that extra exercise makes you breathe harder and let out more carbon dioxide. That's exactly what we're doing for the soil organisms by giving them extra nutrients! We can find out which nutrients they need most by adding them to soil separately and measuring which nutrient makes them breathe the most. Today we measured carbon dioxide from each of the plots with different nutrients. Later in the field season, we will also look at the soil and what's living in it. We have to wait until the group for Colorado State University arrives before we can do that, since they work with us on the project.

There are two new arrivals to report! Natalie (left) was born December 21 in the Netherlands, and Eden (right) was born December 22 in Georgia. My friends are certainly keeping the obstetricians busy!