Posts tagged #Fieldwork

Fieldwork in Yellowstone part 2

Adventure Tuesday

My life choices and interests

    Often times I stop to think about my life choices, where I started, what paths I took and how I ended up over here, here in the US. There is no doubt that I am living a life that I love, I get to do all those things that are of big interest to me. Sure, I get the boring parts too, but even the boring parts can be enjoyable, which in some sense proves that I actually do love what I am doing. This summer I got to do fieldwork in two different areas, not my own fieldwork for once. I went to Puerto Rico with my job, and helped out with some fieldwork there. A few weeks later I flew into Jackson Wyoming, W picked me up and we drove into the Grand Teton National Park. The following week we spent most of our time in both the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. The fieldwork itself was in Yellowstone during this trip.

A tale of several fires

    Both W and I study fires for our PhDs, I study how wildfires affect the stream water chemistry and the connection between the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems up in Alaska. Our work is based on climate change and its effect on wildfires, we are trying to understand how a shift in climate might affect the future ecosystems in Alaska, and in the rocky mountains. W studies how changing wildfire regimes and climate affects tree seedling establishment after fires in sub alpine and boreal forest. Alaska with its boreal forests and the Rockies with coniferous and sub alpine flora are two very different ecosystems, but with many similarities. One really important similarity is that changing fire regimes likely mean profoundly different ecosystems in the future. 

Getting dirty

    We share the passion, the passion for our nature. I usually get tangled up in the small details while W tries to understand the bigger picture. We spent most of the fieldwork on all fours, counting seedlings, stumps, trees, charred vegetation, cones, ghost logs and logs. Temperatures were in the 90s and we were basically in a black forest. Mosquitos were not necessarily a big issue, but they were there. By the end of each day we were all black, tired and hungry. We camped at a campground outside the park and swam in the river most evenings. I had the time of my life.

    Did you go on any adventures this summer?

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Yellowstone, The great wide open and tagged Science National Park Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone 2017 Summer Adventures 2 Fieldwork Rocky Mountains National Parks.

Jinxing it?

Wednesday Thoughts

Bears

    As you probably have read earlier I am obsessed with bear and moose safety. With all the wild animals that walk around the watershed I've taken many classes on bear safety and how to act in order to prevent a bear encounter. A few weeks ago there were two bear attacks on two separate days at two different locations in Alaska, both with a deadly outcome. Both including a black bear. It made me think about the fact that I have no clue what to do if worse comes to worse and you are attacked (read the bear is actually eating on you and it is a predatory bear). We do have the bear spray, but if for some reason I would not be able to deploy the bear spray and the bear actually got to me? Or you ran in to one of those predatory bears that is in it for a meal, what do you do? I know they say fight for your life, but how can you fight for your life if you have nothing to fight with but your bare hands, arms and legs? I have heard other stories about people being attacked in their tent, well I know this is extremely rare, but I started storing a knife in the tent for a while, and then I forgot about it. A knife that would allow you to cut the tent open if you needed to. I used to wear a knife in the field to, but then I forgot about that too, it was usually in my backpack if I did bring it. 

Fieldwork

    W has been in the field too, countless times, many times alone. I think W has seen a bear from afar in the past while doing fieldwork, and I saw the back of a black bear once running away from me when I was on the ATV in the field once. Another time something was luring behind a tree as a friend and I came walking quietly after a long day in the field, we spooked it, it was huffing behind a large tree before it took a large leap to the side and ran up the hill. Still no clue if this was a bear or a moose. Lesson learned, be loud, and then be even louder. It's easy to forget about this after a long day working hard in the field, or when you are working with your head down in the stream it's easy to not make enough noise, plus you will most likely draw a curious bears attention to you, because many of them are just curious. With W's field season coming up and what had happened in Alaska I wanted him to buy a knife, a knife to have as a last resort, if for some reason there was no other way but to fight for your life. We talked about bear safety too, repeating what we already knew, again. I know W thought I was being ridiculous, but with what had just happened I felt first off very saddened for the two peoples families, but also very scared and wanted to be sure there was a way to fight for your life. I've had people laugh and make fun of me for my intense worry about bears in the field in the past too, but at least I want to be up to date with the bear safety for my own safety.

Jinxing it?

    W bought a knife, a large hunting knife, I mean not too large, but enough to be able to potentially make an impact. At least something to have in the tent if you would need to get out fast, or to have on your belt in the field. After a few hours of the first day in the field for W he texted me and said he had to pull his bear spray. Which is insane because that has never happened before, he has never had an encounter like that before. This time he wasn't even alone. But the bear was a curious black bear, those are the worst. A young curious black bear who would not move away even though they made sound and made themselves larger. Eventually he moved away enough for them to feel safe and retract too. Did I jinx his field season? A couple of days later they were going to cross a stream to another field site and W decided that they should walk downstream a bit, and then try to cross. Well luckily they did because they manage to spot two grizzlies across the stream about 50m away from them, something they would have popped up right in front of had they crossed earlier. Yeah I really jinxed it didn't I?

Last time I camped in Yellowstone National Park

    Fingers crossed that those were the only bears for this field season, as I am sitting on a plane on Friday to Jackson WY to spend 10 days in the field in Yellowstone, and some of those camping!

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Nature, Yellowstone and tagged Alaska Bears Bear safety Bear spray Grizzly tracks signs CPCRW Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone 2017 Adventure Adventuring Summer Adventures 2 Fieldwork blackbear.

Who Dealt these Cards?

 

Flashback Friday

Abisko

    Way back when, well not that long time ago but still 10 years ago, I had the privilege to take a field class in northern Sweden, about how climate change affect the arctic and the subarctic environment. I guess that was the beginning of the journey I am currently on (I guess I can argue that it started way before then too, but I'll go with this for now). It does make me wonder, who dealt these cards? Did it just randomly happen that I took that class or was it because I was intrigued by it and wanted to learn more, or was it because I had never been to Abisko, or what? Did I choose my own path back then or did I accidentally stumble upon it. Either way I think that class is what brought me to where I am now. 

 
 

Under the midnight sun

    During that class two other students and I ventured out on a night hike to get to the next destination for our class, of course we talked with the professors before and they all agreed that we could to that if we wanted to. So we did. We ventured out under the midnight sun right after dinner that evening. Up and over the mountains to get to the research station. Across fields of snow and gorgeous midnight sun that casted its rays upon the beautiful country of northern Sweden. Right then and there I must have decided that I love this place. The mountains and that midnight sun. We were also lucky enough to spot a Wolverine from afar, which is the first but not the last one that I have seen. It was to far away to get a photo of it though.

 
 

My path?

    Very often I do wonder where I would have been had I not started my PhD in Alaska. Would I have done a PhD in Sweden? Actually I did apply for a PhD in Sweden, but didn't even get a reply from that application, which (in my opinion) is ridiculous. So I broaden my search and stumbled upon a PhD position in Alaska. I don't think I quite realized what I was getting myself into. I mean I realized the PhD part, but I don't think I realized what a gem Alaska really is. I don't think I had dreamt about Alaska or anything like that. Although my mom claims she used to make up bedtime stories about me exploring parts of the world, including Alaska. Since then I have wandered the mountains of Alaska, well a few, very very few of them...but still.

 
 

Alaska

    I've worked remotely in parts of Alaska as part of my research, but also helping other people with their research and fieldwork. But I love it. And I miss it. But there are more mountains to be discovered and I have the privilege to do that, which I am very grateful of. As you all probably know, not everyone are able to do that. One thing though, all of this doesn't come for free. And I have given up and sacrificed large parts of my life too, to be able to do what I am doing. We are given our deck of cards at the beginning of our life, and how we play them is up to us, and as with any card game you play, sometimes you loose and sometimes you win. Nothing in life comes for free, remember that. 

 
 

    Who dealt your cards? Or did you just stumble upon your present life?

 
 
 
 
 
Posted on February 24, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Alaska, Sweden, Science and tagged Alaska Sweden Arctic Subarctic Wilderness remote areas Abisko Mountains Research Science Midnight Sun Sun Midnight Sunset Elsewhere 2017 Summer Adventures field Fieldwork Family National Park National Parks Abisko National Park.