We were scheduled to use the helicopter (for less than one hour!) to bring our field equipment into our study sites. Hudson Resources said NO (repeatedly) while the helicopter sat unused in the airport hangar for days at a time. Nobody is quite sure why Hudson was willing to pay to keep the helicopter grounded rather than letting scientists pick up part of the tab. The helicopter grounding has once again proven that flexibility is key to a successful field season in Greenland. Check out this video to see how we managed to get all our science and camp gear out to our sites.

Thanks to Jonathan Nichols for the footage from our 2006 coring trip of the helicopter taking off from an ice-covered lake.

We’ve been doing modern limnological sampling to better understand why the haptophyte algae (the producers of biological thermometers) fare so well in our Greenlandic study lakes… it’s still a mystery.

We sit on a rubber boat (a Zodiac) making measurements and taking different kinds of samples. Have a look at this video to see us recover sediment samples from last season, and get introduced to some of the equipment we use to sample water, algae and sediment.

Already feeling good, I happened upon a Peregrine Falcon scrape. Two falcons, not too thrilled that I was passing by their cliff-side nest, began circling and screaming to chase me off. These amazing birds of prey were once endangered due to the use of pesticides like DDT. After the ban on DDT, and with the aid of protection and reintroduction efforts by people, Peregrine numbers have rebounded. This is a nice example of how people can change simple practices to protect other members of the Earth System.

In this video, listen for the sound of Wheatears (songbirds) chirping and yipping in the foreground.

You learn the most about a region by exploring new places, and our trip to the “back lakes” was extremely enlightening. Watch us begin our walkabout by boating across a lake called LimnaeaSo.

One natural thermometer comes in the form of alkenones: trans-fats produced by certain algae. The alkenone thermometer is already used to reconstruct sea surface temperatures from ocean sediments. My research aims to extend their use to lakes, so we can reconstruct continental temperatures as well.

Watch this video to see how this biological thermometer works.

Early career researchers involved with different types of research in the Arctic and Antarctic were able to discuss research ideas with one another and form partnerships for future scientific collaboration.

We are the polar scientists of tomorrow (and today) and we all have ideas we’d like to put into action.

To get a feel for some of the questions motivating young polar scientists, have a look at this video. I simply asked each workshop participant to tell me (in one sentence!) what they hope to understand through their research.

The IPY 2007-2008 logo.

This is the fourth IPY. The first was in 1882-83, the second 1932-33, and the last– 50 years ago in the height of the Cold War– was called the IGY, or International Geophysical Year. Because of the momentum and scope of the International Polar Year (think Olympics of Earth Science, but with all the countries on the same team,) IPY research tends to be big, bold, creative and transformative. That is, IPY research tends to fundamentally change the way we understand our planet.

Sgt. Winfield Jewell reading meteorological observations at Fort Conger, Greenland, during the first IPY. Taken August, 1882.

Maybe you’ve heard of the ‘Keeling Curve’? It’s the graph that shows continuous measurements of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Earth’s atmosphere since 1957. This is a graph that everyone should see, because it represents actual measurements which clearly show the rapid increase in CO₂ concentrations in our atmosphere over the past 50 years.

The Keeling Curve.

In 1957, during the last International Polar Year, a young postdoctoral researcher named Charles David Keeling proposed to measure the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Fifty years later, the Keeling Curve is a major piece of the scientific puzzle which shows us that burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric CO₂ concentrations.

Dr. Keeling reading his graphs at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The CO₂ measurements, in Keeling’s words, also showed “for the first time nature’s withdrawing CO₂ from the air for plant growth during summer and returning it each succeeding winter.” He was talking about the annual ups and downs seen in the graph (the little zig-zags on the red line, and the “s” shape of the inset graph.) Atmospheric CO₂ dips as trees put on leaves (Earth breathes in) and rises again after they fall off (Earth breathes out.)

Those of us who want to better understand the Earth have tremendous respect for Dr. Keeling’s legacy and for the scientific foresight that can fundamentally change the way we understand our planet.

In May 2008, I attended the Next Generation of Polar Researchers Symposium – an IPY workshop for young polar scientists. Early career researchers (just like Charles David Keeling during the last IPY) involved with different types of research in the Arctic and Antarctic were able to discuss research ideas with one another and form partnerships for future scientific collaboration. We are the polar scientists of tomorrow (and today) and we all have ideas we’d like to put into action just as Keeling did 50 years ago.

A 1958 U.S. Postage stamp commemorating the International Geophysical Year.

To get a feel for some of the questions motivating young polar scientists, I asked each workshop participant to tell me (in one sentence!) what they hope to understand through their research. Look for that video clip in my next dispatch.