Post Trip

I thought that maybe I should also just mention something about the station that sheltered us, fed us, and provided a base of operations

I don’t think I have ever stayed at a nicer field site station. The station its self is well equipped and clean. The facilities are excellent for a field site. Also most importantly the good was spectacular.

 

Staff at the centre were more helpful than I could have imagined and many of the activities and achievements made in this field trip would have not been possible without the help of Gunhild Rosqvist (Ninis) and Torbjörn Karlin. So we all thank you and hope that we can return to the field site and carry on the research in the Tarfala valley and surrounding area.

Also I would like to thank you for the bottom of my heart for the amazing sauna you have installed at the station. I am adamant that the reason I never woke up sore or had any blisters is due in large part to that heavenly construction. For any person visiting this is a must do in the evenings, so too is the sauna to the yok (quite possibly spelt wrong) experience.  Just watch out for stones as my poor foot found out.

The End of an Adventure

End of an adventure is never easy and also full of mixed emotions but I can say this I will miss Tarfala

Our time at Tarfala has now come to an end. We have seen heat, 24/7 sun, snow, lots of algae and had some amazing experiences. We have had some beautiful condition and been soaked to the bone. But most importantly we collected more samples than we ever hoped.

While we are sad to leave a great station and a great team we are excited to get home and start working on some of the samples we have collected. Lets wait and see what we find and hopefully we can get back to you soon with some interesting information on what we have found.

P.S. unfortunately the camera was staring up at the sky after a few days of gale force winds and torrential rain.

Ben

The Microscopic World of Tarfala

Unfortunately field work comes with its disadvantages. The primary one being that you are at the mercy of the weather.

Today we found ourselves stuck in the station. Torrential rain and high winds make it to dangerous to attempt to work on the glacier today. Also it’s just not pleasant being in that weather. But ever the scientist we had planet of work to do namely sample processing. Each sample collected needed processing and each type of analysis requires a specific type of processing. So we had pigments analysis, DNA analysis, electron microscope work, mineral composition, and organic analysis to name but a few.

To say this filtering process takes a while is possible an understatement, especially when you’re using a hand pump. We also managed to break two hand pumps, one we had brought from Leeds and the second we borrowed from the station after ours broke. But thanks to the spare parts left from our broken pump and the ingenuity of the staff at the station we were able to salvage a pump from the broken remains of the other two.

One of my main tasks for today was the putting together the stations new microscope and taking pictures of all the samples we had collected thus far. The construction of the microscope took very little time that is until the end when i could not work out how to adjust the focal distance of the sample stage and the lens. After what seemed like an hour I found a small concealed nob that when turned allowed the setting and moment of the sample stage. No mention of this was ever found in the manual so I don’t feel to bad about how long it took.

Here at but a few of our microscope pictures that where taken on the stations microscope. Thankfully lots of interesting samples to look at and analyses more in-depth back in Leeds.

Crash Site

The wreckage has been found two days after the accident

Crash site in Tarfala located high in this mountain peak area

I just finished my second and third helicopter (Hilo) trips to a site around the back of the mountain. We decided last minute to tag along with a team heading that way after being invited. The hilo ride was amazing. We flew over several glaciers and lakes with ice floating in them. Then we landed on the glacier jumped out of the Hilo and ducked as it took off and left us there in the middle of this amazing beautiful environment.

The reason we chose to sample this glacier is rather a sad one. About a year ago an army plane crashed into the mountain near the peak and fuel and wreckage was thrown and washed down onto the slopes and glacier bellow. While this accident is very sad we needed to make the most of the opportunity to study what happens to sites like this after contamination with kerosene.

Worth a 1000 words

They say a picture is worth and thousand words

It’s my second day on the glacier now so about three days into the trip. Today we hiked all the way back to the snow line, about 1400 m. We wanted to try and get some clean snow samples with no algae. Unfortunately when we arrived the area was covered in red snow, so this task was close to impossible. Also not being roped up at this point we wanted to avoid going into the snow area too deep. We decided to take a few samples of the red snow along the snow ice boundary.

They say a picture is worth and thousand words so we also set up a time-lapse camera looking at the snow line close to a weather station on Storglaciären.

Eventually the weather started clearing and the sun began to peak through the clouds, so we decided to break and enjoy our lunch at the glacier weather station. Having any opportunity to just sit and stare at this impressive site is welcome; also a chance to have a hot cup of coffee is great.  We secured the time laps camera and tripod as much as possible and hoped it would be in the same place when we go back to pick up the camera before we leave.

My First Time

This trip is full of first times for me and I am so happy that I can check a few things off my bucket list.

As I said I have had a few new experiences on this journey. My first was crossing into the Arctic, although I think I may have been asleep for most of this.

The next was being flown to the field site in a helicopter. Defiantly one of my highlights, I love to fly. The pilot even took us over the glacier so we could do some scouting ahead of sampling.

My next is being and working on a glacier. They are extremely impressive in their size, power and beauty. They give you an odd feeling, especially when high up and the cloud cover starts to roll in around and bellow you. You just realize where you are and what you’re doing. It’s very special and also a little scary. They are dangerous and beautiful places to be. So extreme and harsh yet full of life.

Arctic Arrival

I guess I should start by saying this is my first blogging experience. Most of my updates will be short and concise but seeing as this is the first time we are meeting I think I should give you a more in-depth explanation as to why we are here, how we got here, and what’s been happening. 

For my first blog I am very lucky to have such an amazing adventure to talk about. Presently I am sat at an Arctic research station in Northern Sweden, waiting for a helicopter to come pick us up so we can explore a glacier on the other side of the mountain. But that’s not where this adventure begins…

Luckily I am involved in a field expedition with Prof Liane G Benning and Stefanie Lutz, we all come from the University of Leeds Cohen geochemistry group, England. We are here as part of a proposal funded by INTERACT to spend 10 days at the Tarfala research station. Most of the people that visit this station are geographers and geologists. But not us, we are here as a team of three; consisting a biologist/zoologist, a microbiologists, and a geochemists.

What could bring such a wide variety of people together in northern Sweden?

Well it’s “dirty Glaciers” (see pictures bellow) that fascinate us. A glacier is not just white and blue; it’s a whole array of colors and conditions. It’s these colors that have us interested. Possibly to some it may surprise you that life is able to grow on and around glaciers. As a result the ice and snow change color to reds, greens, and browns. Specifically though we are at the moment looking for snow algae.

Travel to the station started on a Sunday and finished on Monday. In order for us to get to the field site we had to take 4 taxis, a train, 2 planes, and a helicopter. But considering where we are and all of the above it really was a relatively easy journey. Tarfala its self is very impressive, the station is well developed and for a field site luxurious. It has most of the modern conveniences, hence why I am able to post this blog. We even have toilets; well they have bags in them so I’m sure you can work the rest out.

Arriving around two o’clock on Monday afternoon we discovered that the weather for the next day, our first full field day, was supposed to be torrential rain. Being very keen to have some samples to process the next day in the lab we went straight up onto the glacier.

Luckily we had flown over the glacier when we arrived. The joy and excitement as we flew over the glacier must have been very strange to our pilot. There were lots of “owe look over there” and “yes’s”. Glaciers our lead investigator has sampled in the past are very sparse and you have to work hard to find any red and green snow patches. But here in Tarfala there are red and green covering many of the glaciers and snow patches around the entire valley.