Road Trip: Rhode Island to Texas

Earlier this summer, I drove with Carrie to move her in to her new home in Austin, Texas. We drove from the smallest state to one of the biggest.

The stats: 2498 miles. 2 Saturn V rockets. 1 Great Dane. 3 cups Billy’s Special Sauce. 5000 Pez dispensers. 2 terrible books on tape. Five days over 100 degrees.

: All packed up, ready to head south to Texas.

: First stop: Pez Museum. Unfortunately the candy line wasn’t running, but we scoped out some AWESOME PEZ dispensers. No, they didn’t have Rosie the Riveters.

: Next stop: The cabin. Carrie’s grandma Jane hosted us for a lovely evening in western Pennsylvania. Here she is showing off her kick-ass garden.

: Day 3: Lexington, Kentucky. My buddy Billy from Cape Cod just started an entomology grad program at UK, researching ways to control the invasive Emerald Ash Borer. Keep up the good work Billy, and I’ll be coming back for some more bar-b-que and bourbon.

: Highlight of the trip – On day 4, we stopped at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Here we are in front of the Space Shuttle Pathfinder. Wow!

: Ready for take-off in a Mercury capsule. Alan Shepard once sat here. I’m definitely too tall for old school astronauting and strongly encourage NASA to increase the legroom in future spacecraft.

: We also jaunted down to Port Aransas to check out the UT Marine Science Institute and pick up some gear. We also had to kill some cockroaches, check out the beach, and do some boogy boarding. The water was 85 F, making swimming in 55 F Toolik Lake the following week a bit startling.

: We made it to Austin on Day 5. It’s a lovely town, with both a turtle pond (shown here) and a endemic salamdar pool. Carrie is pretty happy about that.

Arctic Alaska, 2013

I just returned from Alaskahhhhh. What a place. It makes me a little sentimental now to think about how great it is. This was my fourth time going to Toolik Lake, in AK’s north slope, but there were many firsts. Continue reading →

Random Arctic Photos

Hi and Happy February! The semester is ramping back up and I am here in my new office at MBL working on data data data. I am still trying to catch up on posting/distributing pictures from the past summer(s), so enjoy these photos of Field Work in the Arctic. If you happen to be in the picture and want a copy, let me know!

Will

: The Tundra Whale – a true Arctic species, often observed meandering across heath areas among the Toolik inlet series.

: Another view of the Tundra Whale.

: How much sampling gear can fit between two research assistants in a tiny Sevylor raft? A lot.

: Some days, just filling up a jug of water can be a major accomplishment. Good job, Amy.

: Some people have boat duty on the I-series, others are along as pack mules and filter machines (yes, sometimes we let PIs filter water).

: Carrie with mud in a Tube!!

: Stream monitoring of benthic algae, invertebrates, and fish including YOY (young of year) can be a lot of work and a lot of fun. This shot is from the Kuparuk River, which empties into the Arctic Ocean.

: Lauren cooling off? Or perhaps collecting stream biota?

: Sometimes you have to “sample” the Toolik candy wall to see what would go well with lunch. You will burn some serious calories walking across tussock tundra with field gear – 100 Grand bars are key.

: Some days, nature wins. In this case, nature and the nature of permafrost kept us from retrieving a peat core from the Imnaviat Creek watershed. Researchers Jon Nichols and John Karavias returned the following year and were successful (http://climatescience.tv/2013/01/bogged-down-in-alaska.)

: Cool beans!

: Will Longo sampling the makeshift weir on Gates of Kiev Mountain. This little weir/dam clenched our thirst and was a critical waypoint/guide on our way down through the fog.

The North Slope, Thermokarsts, and “The Burn”

The North Slope of Alaska is a beautiful and rugged place. My current graduate field sites lie in the foothills of the Brooks Range, north of treeline, at the boundary between mountains and tundra. The views of caribou, expansive cottongrass tundra, Pingos, and the like, make a trip to Arctic Alaska well worth it, but I advise travelers to prepare themselves for anything because it is a long way to the nearest popsicle stand. Continue reading →

US Climate: 2012 warmest in 118 years

Difference from average annual temperature in 2012 compared to the 1981–2010 average. Map by NOAA climate.gov team.

NCDC Announces Warmest Year on Record for Contiguous U.S – Now that 2013 has arrived, climate scientists with NOAA’s National Climate Data Center have reported that last year was the warmest yet recorded for the continental United States. Not only was it the warmest in the 118-year long record, but it was so by a full 3.2 degrees F over the 20th century average. 2012 also ranked 2nd in terms of extreme climate events (including drought). You can read more details about 2012 climate and climate-related events at the NCDC website linked here.

Likewise, I urge you to take a look at the latest version of the National Climate Assessment, released last Friday for public review. This is a more comprehensive view of the state of the climate along with how agriculture, human health, fisheries, ecosystems, transportation, etc. will be effected by climate change. Personally, I think the 2-4 foot projected rise in sea level by the end of the century is among the scariest of climate-change impacts. Maybe I’ll move back to Minnesota. Since rising sea-level and other climate change impacts will likely be detrimental to the public, three chapters of the NCA document are dedicated to mitigation and adaptation strategies. As focus continues to move further away from the question ‘is climate change real?’, academic and social resources will by necessity be directed to determining specific risks and specific ways to prepare for and manage those risks. If the paper seems long, at least look at the bullet points at the start of each chapter, and remember – this is a preliminary version not a final draft.

Ok, sorry for a lack of pictures here, but these are new and important reports that people should be aware of. Next blog will have lots of good Alaska pictures, I promise.

For Love of Limnology

William C. Daniels, Scientist