Solstice and kids

Sorry everyone, there aren't any pictures (yet) associated with this post but I thought I'd share a pretty awesome day with you. The summer solstice is again upon us. This means that the sun is as far north as it will be all year and we are having our longest days (i.e. most hours of daylight). This is cause for celebration up here and is usually accompanied by a bonfire outside of the CNSC. Unfortunately, this year's solstice instead brought us some wet weather forcing a postponement of the bonfire. However, the sky was still a lovely shade of pink this evening and it is sure nice to have 8pm feel like 4pm.

But back to the great day. Today myself, Emily, Liz and Jinjing (fellow Guelph researchers) had the opportunity to visit a grade 3 class at the Duke of Marlborough school in town. We spent the morning gathering some plants, willow catkins, caterpillars, aquatic insects and of course zooplankton to show the students. The grade 3's just finished units about soils and plant growth and were eager to see all of the critters we brought in.

Liz explained how many aquatic insects make protective cases out of materials they find in the water and was able to show cases made of grasses, other plants, twigs and rocks. Emily showed how larvae use plants and specifically willow catkins to make their homes and explained how she is currently rearing several different species of caterpillars. I showed my groups several different types of zooplankton, explained how they overwinter, what they eat and taught the students how to focus on the small organisms under a microscope. The kids were all very eager to participate, from the student who told me all about krill to a student who insisted on showing all the other kids how she learned to focus the microscope.

The end of the session was spent playing a game simulating competition between animals for different habitats and resources. Overall a very fun afternoon and a great opportunity for us to share some of our science! Thanks to LeeAnn for setting up this chance for us, to Liz for the organization as well as to the students and their teacher for welcoming us into their classroom!

The experiments have begun.

I've always liked the idea of experiments. I'll admit I'm not always the most patient person out there but the idea of designing experiments to study phenomena has always appealed to me as a way of doing science. Also interesting is how salt has followed me around my scientific "career". Take my sixth grade science grade project. I entitled my project "The Great Saltwater Countdown" and while I tried to dig out an old picture of my poster board, I was unsuccessful, so my written description will have to do. Basically I chose 5 aquatic plants from the local pet store (3 of each for replication), put them in a large aquarium, added salt and recorded which ones perished and at which salt concentration. My thought was that global warming would cause large bodies of water to shrink, increasing their salt content and stressing the plants. I can't remember what my results were though...

...but 11 years later I am still adding salt to things. So in the spirit of scientific discussion, let me share one of the experiments I am setting up here in Churchill. From last year's field season I have an understanding of the resilience that zooplankton communities in a metacommunity system show towards manipulated salinity, most likely because of dispersal from nearby, non-manipulated areas. What I don't know much about is how the role of sediments, or more specifically resting structures within the sediments (the things zooplankton produce to overwinter or when conditions aren't favourable) influence this resilience. To test how easy it is for Daphnia ephippia to emerge under various salt conditons, I have set-up my own "mini bluff" just outside of the centre.

Like Da Bluff, this site is also frequented by Da Bunny (although I doubt it is the same one we spotted frequently last year).


Basically, I have extracted ephippia (see my previous post) from various habitats, cold shocked them and then rapidly dried and rehydrated them to induce emergence (simulating the passage of a winter season). Now I have put them into small microcosms under various salinity conditions and will monitor emergence. In addition to control microcosms there are three other aspects that I am testing.

1. I'm interested in knowing whether ephippia gathered from different environmental conditions (i.e. freshwater, brackish and salty habitats) will emerge at more or less the same time/ with the same success when placed under the same conditions (in this case freshwater). This is of interest because I have qualitatively observed differential timing of ephippia production between different environments.

2. Other studies (many based on Australian wetlands) have shown that periods of high salinity followed by low salinity (followed by high again) do not hinder ephippia emergence and in fact, disturbance sometimes causes increased emergence (the mechanism is still unknown). If I also find this pattern with my microcosms, this may explain why communities were able to still thrive under up and down regimes of salt addition last year.

3. While lab studies have tested the tolerance of adult stages of zooplankton to salinity levels, few have done any work on juvenile or resting stages. Therefore it is important to establish what the tolerance of these resting stages are.

Working with resting stages is pretty tricky. Even in lab conditions it can be difficult to induce hatching of ephippia and that doesn't factor in attempting to do this under almost natural conditions.

Anyways, this is the first of a series of experiments so we will see what happens (and whether my methods work!). I welcome comments and questions. On a final note, I'd again like to mention the wonderful Common Butterwort. Because they digest crawling insects, they don't need much of a root structure and therefore can grow in unusual places. These ones are growing almost upside down at the side of a pool.

Getting here...1 planktoneer arrived...2 to go

Well this edition of the blog is a spotlight on travel. There are many choices a researcher makes when planning a field season, some related to a project itself and others to logistics. One of the logistical choices I thought a lot about when planning this summer revolved around travel. Lately, I have been mulling over the implications of my research and have come to the conclusion that I want to be aware of both the academic impacts of my research (i.e. results and how I disseminate this information) but also the effect of how I do research. Doing research in Churchill when you are based at a southern Ontario university (actually when you are based at almost any university) means travelling substantially more than a short jaunt to get to your field sites. Churchill can be reached by air, train and sea travel (and technically by canoe as well...). Now as cool as I think arriving to Churchill via paddle or ship would be, neither seemed feasible this year so that left me with flying or the train. I opted for the train, and not just from Winnipeg to Churchill but from Toronto to Winnipeg as well.

(Map from VIA's website).

I felt this would be a good way to transition into fieldwork and get a chance to really appreciate the vastness that makes up the landscape between Guelph and Hudson Bay.

Here I attempt to share one an early morning scene on the tracks, just outside of Capreol, Ontario.
Guelph is about 1957 km from Churchill...but of course that distance is if you could travel in a straight line. The actual distance travelled by train takes in a few more turns.While some of these km may seem desolate, the history of the train line is far from sparse. At rest stops along the way I was able to learn a little more about the railway. For instance, I learned that starting in the early 1900s, most railway stations had elaborate railway gardens, set up as showpieces that would be the first thing passengers would see as they entered a new community. The point of this was to encourage passengers in rural parts of Canada. I enjoyed the train and really do feel that it is a method of transportation worth supporting.

Since arriving in Churchill, I have delved into another research season as a planktoneer...

(Photo: taken by Krista Hanis)

and have been slowly been regaining my bluff legs. As a recap, my project focuses on freshwater zooplankton communities along the coast of Hudson Bay and how they respond to changes in environment, most notably, the saltiness or salinity of the water. This year I am really interested in how the resting stages of zooplankton ( for example, this Daphnia ephippia below- I also like describe them as dumplings) may impact zooplankton's ability to recover from disturbance and stress.

The pouch like things pictured above are essentially dormant eggs released by mature Daphnia. And this is how our spotlight on travel fits in...Last year I spent a lot of time thinking about how zooplankton might "commute" around the rock bluffs without thinking much about the idea that sometimes it is easier to stay put and just wait out unfavourable environmental conditions- more on this later.

Well my arrival back at the CNSC has been filled with science, catching up with friends from last year and enjoying some very hot spring weather. I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer and many more planktoneer adventures in this place where there is always more to learn.

Below are some pictures of some coastal exploration with some of the other researchers from Guelph: Liz, Emily and Jinjing.

This is a specially crafted snowball...it has pieces of ice for extra protection...

Public service announcement

The blog is coming! The blog is coming! Everyone get ready to read!

The Three Planktoneers (some old, some new) will be returning to Churchill this summer...stay tuned!

The time has come the Walrus said...

...to talk of many things. Well we are into our 8th week here in Churchill and unfortunately I will be leaving tomorrow morning, a few days earlier than planned. Erinn will be staying on til Wednesday to finish up a few things so expect at least one more blog. Slowly researchers have been finishing up their work and leaving so the lab has been a lot quieter these days. There is a lot to think about and reflect upon as this field season wraps up. First I'd like to extend a huge thank you to all of the staff and fellow researchers at the CNSC- it was great getting to know all of you and to learn about everyone's different projects. Thank you to the staff who answered my many questions, cooked delicious meals, fueled our truck every morning, helped us sample, bear monitored and generally kept us on track and out of trouble (mostly). The unique community up here is what really made this field season a success and is what causes me to think about next summer already- I look forward to scheming more olymp-a-thons, scavenger hunts and bay dip costumes, while exploring the tundra and falling into as many bodies of water as possible.

One of my last days of sampling on our bluff was definitely one of my favourites. Strong winds and a high tide created large waves, turning our bluff into a slip and slide with rainbows visible everytime a wave crashed into the rocks. It has been such a unique experience to see the transition from frozen bay to wild ocean.
Here pool 30 is swallowed by the ocean..no we didn't sample it that day, we thought it a wee bit dangerous, oh yeah and a polar bear was enjoying the surf far too close to it. I bid a fond farewell to our bluff today, the next time I visit it I plan on completing the one project that eluded us this year at da bluff- removing a rusty old barrel from a pool near the road. I tried today but to no avail, I will have to come better equipped next year.

In addition to our work, other exciting science has continued this week. Below our researcher friend Kuz teaches more about the International Tundra Experiment that she is working on up here and puts us to work measuring soil temperatures.
Well as Ingrid, Erinn and I have mentioned frequently during our time here, Churchill is full of wonders. One wonder I was fortunate to view last night was the northern lights, visible with a great green hue between the hours of 2am and 4am. Another one of my favourite things about Churchill is the abundance of Common Butterworts.I became fascinated with this plant when I was first here in 07. It is carnivourous and uses sticky mucilage on its basal rosette to trap insects that crawl across it. The leaves then slowly curl and digest them. It is a great strategy for nitrogen poor soils and a plant with a shallow root structure. And with that science factoid of the day I will end my final blog of the season. Stay tuned for Churchill 2010!

A correction

Just a note to say my information was a little off in my last post. The Olymp-a-thon was NOT the first ever Olympics held at the CNSC...they have happened before and reportedly included a bowling event. Let's hope that next year brings the CNSC's third ever Olympic event!

Let the games begin...

Today we woke up to more fog (surprise, surprise), however this didn't stop us from getting some work done at some bluffs close to the CNSC. This afternoon we had a successful string of hours of work at our site and were even fortunate enough to actually soak up some rays as the sun made an appearance! But to take a break from the description of sampling I'd like to tell you about another exciting event. As Erinn eluded to in her post yesterday, we held an event here at the CNSC on Thursday night: the first every CNSC Olymp-a-thon! As far as I know this is the first event of such science depth and athleticism to be held at such a site and the Planktoneers really have to thank our co-conspirator Kat as well as our planning committee for making it such a great way for all the researchers to mingle and show of their field work skills.

The event had several main events...

1) Wader Relay- this involved a team relay where researchers had to bike and run in hip or chest waders. In between each leg of the relay, teammates had to quickly transfer the waders from one teammate to another. This made for some crazy biking and interesting strategy.

Erinn completes a quick turn.

Brandon loses his waders during the biking leg.

Kuz is helped out of her waders.
Jess sprints towards the finish line, into the arms of the opposite team...

Me running in waders slightly too big for me.

Tom's gumby? legs.

2) The Great Daphnia Hunt- with only a bucket and 2 minutes, teams competed to find the most daphnia from a specified pool.

This turned out to be quite the serious event...

3) The Fieldbook Mosquito Clap of Thunder. Ummm need I say more?


4) Ptarmigan Round-Up! Not too many were ugh "successful" at this one (videos coming soon):




(thanks for Riley for this superb graphics job).

5) Down and Dirty- aka the great gummie worm search.



So overall it was a great time had by all, but I feel the need to recognize the teams here.

FIRST PLACE: Erinn, Avril, Tom and Brandon



SECOND PLACE: Jess, Carla, me and Kat



THIRD PLACE: Nick, Christy, Kuz and Shawn


And I'm sorry to our 4th place team and our distinguished judges Kristin and Jay as blogger won't let me add more photos!

Well until another day!