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| Jill (left) showing Annette (middle) and Me (right) primary producers! |
Time is passing quickly here in
Iceland and each day seems to run into the next or skip it entirely! This may
partly be attributed to the midnight sun, but also to how busy and productive
our days in the lab and the Hengill stream sites have been so far. Each day we
are faced with new questions to answer, problems that need solving, and moments
of chaos that somehow turn into cooperative learning experiences. Annette and I
have been put on the task of building a mechanism to maintain constant
circulation of water in chambers that will be used for measuring metabolism
rates of algae and other organisms. We have overcome many engineering problems
along the way and with creativity we have successfully built a mechanism that
completes this task. We have attached magnets to computer fans that will sit on
top of the test chambers. When the fans are turned on, the magnets on the fan
will spin and in turn, spin a magnetic stir rod inside of the chambers to
maintain constant circulation. The tests will begin shortly and we are
confident that things will run smoothly!
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| A day off exploring Viðey island |
I almost forgot
to introduce myself… My name is Liesa Erickson. I am a senior, biology major at
St. Catherine University, and
I am more than excited to be in Iceland this summer as part of the 2016
Fixation on Ice research team! After the first couple of days here, I was
beginning to miss Minnesota’s delicious tap water. Because geothermal activity
heats the water in Iceland and often gives off a sulfuric scent, I was
convinced that I would smell like a rotten egg for the next three months.
I decided that taking a shower would not be too much of a problem as the sulfur
smell can be easily masked by a sweet smelling shampoo, but the smell of my
breath was awful. And it just continued to get worse after brushing my teeth!
If only you knew my relief once I discovered running the cold water for a
little while allows for the purest, egg free smelling, glacier water to pour
right out of the faucet!! No more stink for me. I’m sure the team appreciates it.
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| Jill and I collecting algal samples |
Iceland has been very good to us!
This summer has had some of the best weather that the team has had in the past
years of being here. We can’t complain! One thing we noticed upon arrival was
the lack of trees compared to the large forests back home in Minnesota. As
Annette and I were arriving to Reykjavik for the first time, we realized the
trees were missing and a few miles of driving had passed before we had our
first tree sighting. Even so, the landscape here is beautiful and millions of
purple lupines have begun to blossom across the country. Spending time in
Iceland and the Hengill Valley has reminded me of how important our work is in
preserving and understanding the nature around us. With that said, Jill and I
have been working together to collect and identify algae in the streams. She
has been teaching me the different primary producer and algal species and how
to differentiate them from each other. It amazes me how diverse each stream is
from one another, and I am eager to see how they change throughout
our time here.
