Not too much has happened in the last couple of days, but it feels like I'm slowly starting to settle into the routine of the station (even if the routine means getting out of bed earlier than I'm accustomed to...) For the science team, the day starts at 8:30 in the office (yellow building next to the little blue MET building). We're somewhat convinced that we're low priority in the biological sciences, given that our building is the second furthest from the SMQ (kitchen, medical and sleeping quarters) and wedged directly between the MET building, which is full of hydrogen and likely to explode without notice, and the dangerous goods store, which is also full of exciting substances that are likely to explode without notice. Loved much?
Right, so at 8:30 we turn up at the office in a variety of modes that range from early-morning-zombie, to bright eyed and bushy tailed, and then again to struggling caffeine addict. Once a week we have a lab meeting where we report on our progress with our projects- most people are able to give a decent run down on areas that they've moved forwards in, while so far I've tended to um... look up articles. And read articles. And wait for the sea-ice to break out. I've been lucky enough to help out with a couple of the other projects going on- on the 3rd a group of us took a Hagg out and tried to collect some amphipods. The traps had been laid the day before and baited with delicious looking sausages from the kitchen. We hauled up the 4 traps that had been set through holes in the ice and got.... a big fat nothing. This was a surprise, as the drilling the previous day had pulled huge numbers of the critters up onto the ice, which was why traps had been popped in that location in the first place. We then tried the plankton umbrella net, which was deployed 4 times, and brought up a total of.... 3 amphipods. Right. What could be wrong?
We thought, and then we considered, and then we ruminated and then the light bulb may have come on. During the winter, these guys probably live pretty close to the ice-water interface. That'd explain why they came up during drilling, but weren't really trapped in the water column.
Ok.... and what are they doing at the interface?
Feeding!
But what are they eating?
Um.... algae?
So- not meat?
No, probably not.
So... sausages possibly not that appealing?
Perhaps....
Needless to say, the traps have now been redeployed with a selection of goodies selected to appeal to the vegetarian invertebrates amongst them, hopefully with better results.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
It's a bit nippy down here
Today is the first day since we arrived that we've not had clear blue skies and sunshine. Despite the fact that the temperature is usually around -5C, today it feels it, simply because it's overcast, there's a *breeze*, and it's snowing lightly- it's miserable outside! This makes me glad that our survival training is over, and that unlike 6 of the winterers, we got to sleep in warm beds last night, and hang out in a nice warm laboratory during the day.
Yesterday (1/12/2010) a plane landed on the sea-ice runway out the front of Davis, bearing German scientists that are flying across Antarctica using a laser attached to the plane to measure ice extent and thickness- similar to what some of the scientists were doing on the Aurora using helicopters, to look at the sea ice. Apparently the group have been flying for 9 days straight, so the deterioration of the weather is a somewhat welcome reprieve. The plane is the Polar 5, an AWI Basler, which apparently is a turbo charged version of the decommissioned Douglas DC-3s. It was pretty spectacular seeing it coming in over the ice, and landing on its skis- and also impressive how quickly it slowed down and stopped after dropping the angle of its body so its tail was lowered.
Cameras pointed at the sea ice aren't the only interesting things to be found on Kazak. There's an Adelie penguin breeding colony, and we spotted some Cape petrels and Storm petrels hanging around, as well as the ubiquitous Skuas, hoping for an easy feed. Based on the number of empty eggshells and mummified carcasses around the place, the Skuas don't have too much of a hard time maintaining their diet of penguin chicks and eggs. 
The Sørsdal Glacier is 28km long and heavily crevassed- and is named after a Norwegian dentist! On the way over we passed the blue Hagg heading back from a jolly, and 4 other quad riders who had gone over for a look-see. Driving up to the wall of ice was absolutely awe inspiring, as it towered above us. We parked the quads again and took a couple of photos, while Neo and I shared a cup of tea from his thermos.
Yesterday (1/12/2010) a plane landed on the sea-ice runway out the front of Davis, bearing German scientists that are flying across Antarctica using a laser attached to the plane to measure ice extent and thickness- similar to what some of the scientists were doing on the Aurora using helicopters, to look at the sea ice. Apparently the group have been flying for 9 days straight, so the deterioration of the weather is a somewhat welcome reprieve. The plane is the Polar 5, an AWI Basler, which apparently is a turbo charged version of the decommissioned Douglas DC-3s. It was pretty spectacular seeing it coming in over the ice, and landing on its skis- and also impressive how quickly it slowed down and stopped after dropping the angle of its body so its tail was lowered. 
On the 30/11/2010 I was lucky enough to tail along with some electrical engineers to go and visit Kazak Island in the evening. We jumped on quads and ducked down so that they could check on the cameras that are set up on one of the peaks of the island- the cameras are checked every 3 months, and the images taken downloaded, which takes about an hour. They're used for monitoring the ice in that area- the extent and duration, and also the tidal movements. The boys told me that if you flicked through the photos you could sea the ice moving up and down significantly with the tides.
Cameras pointed at the sea ice aren't the only interesting things to be found on Kazak. There's an Adelie penguin breeding colony, and we spotted some Cape petrels and Storm petrels hanging around, as well as the ubiquitous Skuas, hoping for an easy feed. Based on the number of empty eggshells and mummified carcasses around the place, the Skuas don't have too much of a hard time maintaining their diet of penguin chicks and eggs. 
To the bottom of the map (thanks Jeff!), a great wall of ice can be seen, which is the Sørsdal Glacier. Once we'd downloaded all the data (which took about an hour), we jumped back on the quads and took off towards the glacier.
The Sørsdal Glacier is 28km long and heavily crevassed- and is named after a Norwegian dentist! On the way over we passed the blue Hagg heading back from a jolly, and 4 other quad riders who had gone over for a look-see. Driving up to the wall of ice was absolutely awe inspiring, as it towered above us. We parked the quads again and took a couple of photos, while Neo and I shared a cup of tea from his thermos.
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