I wrote this post last Sunday (June 17th), so its a little belated… woops.

On Thursday, I enjoyed the lovely drive up to Toolik. With me in the red truck were Dr. Byron Crump and his technician, Michelle. Dr. Crump is doing some fascinating research about the genetic variability of the microbial community in the lakes and streams around Toolik.

We started off on the highway after checking that the radio worked and hat the gas meter showed a full tank. The drive up took us 9 hours, but it passed by so quickly. I was so engrossed in looking out the window I got a stiff neck. For the first half of the trip, the landscape was dominated by extremely tall, scraggly spruce trees and light birch trees. The trees stretched on and over hills and mountains. The highway alternated between paved and dirt portions, but both were very well maintained. The only other vehicles we encountered on the road were huge trucks hurtling along waaaay faster than trucks that size should be allowed to go. I just kept on being surprised by how huge and empty everything was. There was just so much room and no people. The landscape was pretty homogeneous, the noticeable exception being crossing the Yukon River and the Brooks Range. Once we left the Brooks Range, the trees disappeared.

Interesting fact: the height of the trees in the Arctic is controlled by the depth of the permafrost. In the Arctic, the ground contains a thick layer of permafrost, which is soil that is permanently frozen all year round. The higher the latitude, the colder it is, and the closer to the surface the permafrost is, which makes the layer of soil in which the trees can take root thinner. Shorter roots mean shorter trees, and by the time we reach the tundra, the permafrost is so thick that those tall birch trees we saw earlier down the road were reduced to tiny birch bushes. The trees have no room to grow. And that’s why there are no trees in the tundra.

Once we reached the tundra it was only an hour or so before we were at Toolik field Station. The station has one central building which serves as dining hall and offices for the staff who run the station. Off to one side are living quarters, some boxy campervan style rooms, other tarpaulin domed weatherports. I’m living in the latter, on the Southern corner of camp. I’m alone for now, but I may get a roommate in the future. On the other side of camp are the labs, green rectangles lined up on the edge of the lake. My lab-group is separated between Lab 4, Wet Lab, and Dry Lab. I’m in Lab 4 and Wet Lab with Sara and the rest of the group (Byron, Michelle, Dustin, Jason, and Collin) are in Dry Lab. People mill about quite freely though. The lab space is shared with other groups so it can get quite crowded. Luckily Lab 4 is pretty free for now, but as the summer goes on, more people will arrive and it will get more cosy.

By the time we got to Toolik on Thursday, there was barely enough time for a quick orientation, settling in, and going to sleep. After breakfast on Friday, Sara, Dustin, and headed to Amnavait, a site about 10 minutes away by truck where we were scheduled to gather water and gas samples. It was a gorgeous day, blue sky and hot enough to wear tshirts. As this is a site that is sampled quite frequently, Toolik built a boardwalk from the road to the stream, which is very nice because walking on the tundra is no easy task. In most places, the ground is covered in a thick layer of moss or very springy earth, and whenever you take a step you sink down about 10 cm. Its a bit like walking on sand. So the boardwalk definitely speeded up the walk quite a lot.

The most basic things that I need to learn how to do is to take water and gas samples, and to filter the water samples in the field. The principle of filtering the samples is to fill a syringe with water and push the sample through a filter that is attached to the end of the syringe, and fill different bottles that are intended for different analyses. The filters are also collected and analyzed for particulate matter. It sounds easy in theory, but its a little difficult in practice. Firstly, its pretty time consuming with all the rinsing in between samples, and also there’s a lot of bottles to fill. But most importantly, its a little difficult to juggle everything with two hands while keeping everything as clean as possible. Its actually quite physical work, the easiest way to filter is to brace the syringe on your shoulder and hold the bottle between your knees. Sara showed me her bruises from filtering, it looks pretty brutal. Sadly, I can feel some coming on already. Taking gas samples is a little bit trickier, as it involves transferring air from one syringe to another. There’s a lot of balance involved. I find that difficult. Mostly I’m concentrating on not spilling the water all over the place.

Can’t wait to see what next week has in store!!