C.M. Frantz, V.A. Petryshyn, F.A. Corsetti (2015) “Grain trapping by filamentous cyanobacterial and algal mats: implications for stromatolite microfabrics through time.” Geobiology, V.13:409-423, doi:10.1111/gbi.12145
Author Archive
We’re back! We had a busy two weeks at home in Seattle spent catching up on the rest of life and processing as much as we could from our May expedition in order to stay ahead of the game and, critically, to try to identify problems early so that we can correct them in June and July. Shelly has been busy with the several dozen cell counts she came home with (Spoiler: there are lots of cells in the ice!) and ordering stuff that we either ran out of, forgot to bring, or didn’t realize that we needed. I’ve been…
For me, back to the lab meant back to the walk-in freezer. Things went well all morning, but when we started back up after our cafeteria lunch (which included more of the fudge-like chocolate cake to which several of the team had become hopelessly addicted and which Bonnie described as “regrettably good”), things started to go south.As one particularly-beautiful-looking thin section was nearing completion, a spider crack suddenly formed halfway through a scrape and the whole thing fell apart. I sawed off a new piece and tried again, but again once the sample was close to completion, it cracked and…
On one of our last days, the lab staff invited us to a muktuk feast, which they had prepared from whale meat that Scotty, the lab mechanic, had from being part of a whaling crew. After a prayer of thanks, they told us what was what: first, traditional frozen, raw muktuk from the previous season: about an inch-thick piece of whale skin and blubber; second, a cooked version of the same from fresh meat from the whale just caught; third, steaks of whale tongue. We were given seasoning mix to flavor it, a traditional rounded ulu knife to cut it,…
It’s been a year of planning and preparation, ordering and organizing, testing and troubleshooting, but today we’re finally off to the Arctic!We’re all feeling pretty excited to be headed North to the ice. Shelly just got back from fieldwork in Greenland little over a month ago, but she’s buzzing and anxious about this busy trip (“Gaaaah just board the flight already!! How can people be sitting? Let’s GO!”). This is Karen’s first trip to Barrow since 2001 and she’s beaming like a kid. Bonnie is toting a shiny new spectrometer that arrived Friday after quite a bit of “is it…
We spent all day today unpacking our three pallets of coolers and boxes and cases, setting up the lab, and getting everything prepared for our first day out on the ice and the experiments after that. Carie was relieved that the fancy and expensive microscope seemed none the worse for the wear after its long trip up here and that the little sensor spots she had last-minute shipped from Germany made it in on time. Monica and Karen spent the day gluing said sensor spots into little glass vials while Shelly and Julianne tag-teamed getting the whole mess sorted into…
As we begin Day 7 of our trip up here to Barrow, Carie has officially declared that “Super Fantastic Science Has Happened!”While Carie is busy in the cold room chopping up ice cores, microtoming them into thin sections and inspecting them under the microscope, keeping meticulous notes, setting up cell incubations, consulting with the PIs, videotaping the team for science outreach, singing songs to stay warm, etc. she has had barely any time to keep up with the blog. Well, almost no time. As you’ll see shortly, her thoughts are interspersed throughout this post as well. Until Carie can fully take…
Field days are what we all look forward to most, but most of our time in Barrow (and in general) is necessarily spent in the lab. Cores and other samples acquired the day before on the Chukchi Sea, it was time to buckle down and process everything. We had been in the lab until almost 2 am the night before, but there was still much to be done, and we scattered into the lab and various walk-in freezers and coldrooms.It all starts in the walk-in freezer, which I had set to -15°C, nice and frozen, with the fans blowing cold…
The response of Arctic sea ice to a warming climate includes decreases in extent, lower ice concentration, and reduced ice thickness. Summer melt seasons are lengthening with earlier melt onsets and later autumn freezeups. We believe this will likely lead to an increase in so-called “rotten ice” in the Arctic at the end of summer. This ice has experienced a long summer of melt, is fragile, difficult to work with, and has received little attention. Comprehensive information on its physical and microbiological properties does not exist. Our team is embarking on an ambitious field campaign in order to study this poorly-understood type of sea ice in the context of its microstructural properties and potential for habitability.