Daily Life at Palmer Station

I decided to do a more general blog about life at Palmer. I uploaded a few more pictures but they are all organized messily and out of order- just a warning. It's been interesting being at Palmer when the weather is bad. It's been raining or wildly windy (35+ knots) nearly everyday. The days are also shorter and boating hours are even shorter.




Since Palmer is on an island, scientists use Zodiac rubber boats to get around (see the pic). The big orange boat is the Gould which brings us down here, the little rubber boats are what we use for sampling. Since it's fall/winter the boating hours are only during the few hours of light we get- now that is from 10:45 am to 1:45 pm. Very short amount of time to do science and collect samples. In one of the pictures you can see the fish people catching fish they are studying from tanks.

We also had trivia night in the bar one night. It was fun! The whole station joined in. I didn't know a single answer but boy was it a good time.

We also have a ping pong table which is often used for recreation. See the above pics. Today was a windy day outside, so very loud. Inside it's nice and cozy by the wood stove which has been stoked all day by various people. I did a water color painting of a fairy with some watercolor paints and paper that I found on the station. They have a place called SKUA which has a ton of recreational and art/craft equipment. Anybody on station is allowed to use it and replace it when they are done. Glad I found those paints! I am going to leave the painting here for the winter over crew.

Palmer Update

So I admit it's really hard to update this blog on a normal basis, but it's even harder when I have had so many health issues! When I got to Palmer I had an annoying cough that refused to go away. Then a week in, I got a cold before my cough had healed. It's gotten in the way of me sampling, of 5 or 6 samplings I have only been out 3 times.

Also when I got to Palmer I was on antibiotics for a lymph node infection in my neck. Yeah, in my NECK. Well that went away but I got another infection under my arm. Not sure how, but it happened. So when I got here I asked the doc what I could do. He prescribed another round of a different antibiotic but even after 10 days of those, twice a day, the infection was bigger not smaller. He took one look at it and said we need to cut it out. So I had surgery in Antarctica!

Good thing the physician here is actually a capable surgeon unlike the physician in the summer who was a general practitioner. I am so glad he was here but it was painful. He had to keep the wound open so the infection could drain completely and it could heal from the inside out. Everyday for 3 days he had to clean the wound out with H2O2 and stuff (yes, stuff) dressing into the opening. It's been painful, bloody, and kinda gory. But it's healing :) It's amazing how quickly the human body heals.

I have a picture of the wound but it's pretty gory so I won't post it.

Although I have not been able to use my arm much for a few days (and therefore couldn't go sampling) I've still done my experiments in the lab. Right now we have a bit of a break since the third person from our team is gone on the boat for 3 days into the fjords and I am still unable to sample, which I feel guilty about. But what can I do except heal and not rip the healing flesh? I am sure in a couple of days I will be good to go.

The science has been going relatively well despite all this. We have sampled one of our sites 5 times and then other one 4 times. If we can get both one more time that would be great. I also want to do a brash ice experiment but who knows when that will happen...

In other news, I have also helped cook some Indian food at Palmer. Every Tuesday is Indian food night because people love Indian food! Curry is one of the most demanded things here. I love being in the kitchen, it's therapeutic and rewarding.

Let's get the science on

After 7 miserable unstable days lying mostly supine on the boat, we finally reached Palmer station today. Technically this boat ride should only be 4 days, but there was a massive storm in the already treacherous Drake passage, and we ended up waiting for two full days at the tip of South America for the storm to subside. Having the top bunk while the ship was rocking was a bit of an adventure, but we made it.

Time to get the science on! We got well underway setting up the lab and will be emptying 10 more boxes tomorrow. The weather here is great, people are great, food is brilliant, and even better than I can eat it again :D It's going to be a productive month!

Anxious rambling the day of

The morning of our departure is upon us. Palmer is going to be totally new and exciting in fall, can't wait to see what it will be like. Sure the winds are higher and may inhibit some of our sampling trips, but I think in all we have 5 weeks down there and should be able to do some good science.

I always get anxious before big trips and can't sleep once I wake. Got this nagging feeling that I might forget to pack something! Judging from my one large not-so-full suitcase and a smaller carryon- I feel like I have packed light for this trip... Oh well, it's not like I ever remember what I forgot until it's too late.

Luckily Raytheon is always very civilized and doesn't schedule our flights for 6 am, in which case we would have to be at the airport at 4, and wake at 1-2am to make it. Our flight out of Philly will be 4:30pm. Very civilized. Hopefully our transition through Atlanta won't be stormy!

We also have a 6 hr layover once we get to Santiago. Normally that would annoy me, twiddling my thumbs in an airport instead of reaching my destination, but Raytheon has a link with the Chilean government to facilitate all the needs of their USAP (United States Antarctic Program) participants. This link is a company called Agunsa. They have a very nice office in the Santiago airport and after we clear customs, there are a couple of couches to crash on. Which after 24 hrs of no sleep will be welcome!

There is yet a more important reason why we have a 6hr layover- there is only one flight a day from Santiago to Punta Arenas. After all, who would be crazy enough to go to Punta Arenas in winter?! Oh... I am going to take a good look at the scientists crashed around me in the Agunsa office...

There and back again, a grad student's tale!

It is time to go back to Palmer Station!

In January 2011 I had my very first trip to Palmer Station, Antarctica. We collected samples for summer season during that month. We have only been home for 2.5 months and now it's time for our second trip. This time it will be fall/winter! Last time it was continuous sunlight (twilight after 11:30pm). This time it will be dark most hours of the day and twilight during the day. However, Palmer is not as far south as the South Pole by any means. As the title of this blog states, it's the lowest latitude station, meaning it's farther noth, than any of the other US Antarctic bases. Thus, making it not quite as cold or dark in winter. I guess we'll see when I get there!

We are leaving in 2 weeks... theoretically. Raytheon still hasn't gotten us our plane tickets, though I am certain they have everything under control. They do this all the time after all!

I will be a lot busier this time (I still have to complete all the work for my ongoing Microbial Physiology class, which I am loving btw) as well as continue writing a paper. However, this time a friend of mine, Jill, currently an assistant professor at Dartmouth College, is coming with us. It'll be a blast! I will try to keep it all up to date...

A bigger picture perspective- explained

I learned several things from my experience at Palmer Station.

The first is regarding "big picture perspective".

Let me explain what this means. Before my trip, I had studied for my comprehensive exam quite comprehensively. I had proposed to do research in the west Antarctic Peninsula region and I understood that the climate was changing rapidly in that area. I knew ice cover every winter was less on the ocean's surface due to warming of air temperature, I knew that glaciers were receding, I knew that the Adelie penguin numbers were declining (they need sea ice to raise young), and that Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins were taking over.

I knew all of this, from 2-dimensional images in a textbook.

At Palmer I saw the receding glacier first hand. The start of the glacier is now well behind (500 meters) where it used to be in 1990. That is a huge melt down! Not to mention some of the older researchers who have been coming to Palmer every year for more than a decade, showed us pictures of the islands around Palmer in the late 90's. The islands are completely covered in snow and ice and when I visited, were only rock! To see that kind of decline in a decade is crazy.

There was also another group studying penguins, all 3 types found in the region. They would go out everyday at 6am, bag and weigh and tag the penguins, sometimes returning at midnight to end their day. Over the course of several years, their research has shown how much the Adelie population has decreased.

I was also very close with the Buggers, a group of wonderful people from Ohio who were studying Antarctica's largest year-round land animal. The Belgica antarctica, a wingless fly, at a whopping 5mm long, it lives, breeds, eats and died on land. The changes in seasons, longer warmer summers and slightly warmer winters have changed the lifecycle (larvae, adult, hibernation) stages of this fly.

The virus group, some of the first scientists to ever study viruses in cold marine ecosystems. They hadn't been there decades, but I can't wait to see what the next decade of their research is going to tell us!

Not only was all this great research going on, but I learned how intimately the entire ecosystem is tied together through these various organisms. To study the penguin activities, the REMUS and glider (autonomous underwater vehicles) scientists followed the penguins and gathered environmental data. They could see where the krill populations were and how the penguins were swimming in those areas (penguins eat krill).

The REMUS could see high levels of chlorophyll or particulate matter and tie that into the marine ecology. Where there are high levels of chlorophyll, there is usually higher heterotrophic bacterial activity (the bacteria we study)! High chlorophyll could also lead to higher zooplankton and higher krill, and thus more food for penguins.

This "big picture perspective" was awesome. We were able to discuss all our ideas in a much larger context than normal. We were also able to set up some future collaborations so that we could all benefit from a larger picture. All in all it's been a great trip and I have come home much more intellectually revived than after studying textbooks for my exam! It's nice to have a first-hand refreshed context of my work :)

Late Update

I accidentally posted this update to the wrong blog. I wrote it before leaving Palmer and now I'm already home. Nonetheless here it is:

I haven't been very good at updating this blog! But I am not too sorry about that. It's been a great time here at Palmer and it's already time to leave. I'm pretty sad because I've loved being down here. The people are great, the experiences wonderful, the opportunities once-in-a-lifetime. We have sampled 7 times and gotten tons of work done. We've also had time to hang out with the people and I think (I hope) that I have made friends for life in the short time I have been here. Here are some parting pics.