Fashionable Dishwashing Gloves - Great for Field Work

Very fashionable red and yellow rubber gloves.

 This past week we had a chance to do winter sampling in Iceland. We were using methods that we used in the summer to once again measure nitrogen fixation in streams in the Hengill watershed in Iceland, but this time we were in some different weather conditions. While we were out in the field we experienced rain, snow, sleet, and plenty of darkness that we had to learn how to work with. The sampling methods we use are very labor intensive and can be challenging in any weather, and even more so in harsh conditions. Yet, by the end of the week, we were pros at dealing with variability in weather. We also learned that trash bags, rubber gloves that go up to your elbows, ski goggles, face masks, and dish washing gloves can be very fashionable.

Snow sculptures - a good activity while waiting for our
sample incubations.

    Many of the streams were completely or partly covered with thick sheets of snow.  Once we dug down to where the stream was, the snow was sometimes over our heads. It seems odd that photosynthetic organisms, which rely on the sun, are still surviving, even thriving, under six feet of snow, but this added to our curiosity and fueled us to find out what they are doing under all of the snow.
    Snow seems to bring out the kid in all ages.  While spending everyday outside surrounded by snow, we seemed to find ourselves engaging in some "snow fun" during periods of down time while our samples were incubating.  We constructed our favorite snow animals, built a snow castle, and engaged in some snowball throwing and shovel sledding.  It really is hard to not love snow. 

Yes there is a stream down there -
and yes we found nitrogen fixers!

    Currently we are running samples back at the lab and working towards finding out if the nitrogen fixers we encountered under the snow are fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere under the most extreme winter conditions and hopefully will have part of the story soon. Our trip this January is a short one and is going by very fast, so we are working very hard to make sure we get everything done before we leave that needs to be completed.