Meyer-Kaiser lab

I recently saw a meme online that said "Ages 18-25 are like playing a video game where you've skipped the tutorial and you're just sort of running around with no idea how anything works." I sympathize with the author's sentiment, but I also suspect they're not a scientist. Because in science, the feeling of running around and figuring out how things work does not end at age 25. Allow me to explain. I'm currently working with an intern to identify the specimens I collected last summer from the Arctic. There are sponges and soft corals from  stones in the deep sea  and a couple unknown species that settled on moorings . We're using any and all scientific literature we can get our hands on, but there's no magic bullet - or even comprehensive guide - for identifying species. You have to do the hard work yourself. And when you've got a wide range of diverse phyla, each with its own unique anatomy and terminology, it definitely feels like you'r

Petra's meer cat My adopted German grandmother, Petra , loves giving things away. If she likes it, she likes giving it to someone else even more. Recently, she gave me a postcard with a picture of a meer cat and the caption (in German) "I'm breathing. It's not going to get any more productive than that today." Friends, I have been like that meer cat this weekend, because after leading a team in the Arctic for two weeks, I am tired . Over the past several years, I've had to learn the value of rest. Of taking time off  to be human. I'm pretty good about connecting with the communities around me and celebrating friends' accomplishments ; these things help me connect to my humanity. I create art . I entertain visitors . I use natural lulls in my work to breathe and reconnect to the world around me. But in the past year, since I started my tenure-track position at WHOI , I've realized those strategies aren't going to cut it anymore. If

"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement, the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living." - Sir David Attenborough One day earlier this week, I stood barefoot in the shower at the marine lab, washing down the plankton net with warm water. We had just returned from Teisten , and I wanted to make sure I rinsed the salt off before the net dried. As I lifted the fabric and manuevered the hose, I couldn't help but think about the last time I had washed a plankton net in a field station shower. It was in Palau . And the time before that was in Antarctica . And the time before that was in Oregon. All at once, my brain was circling the world, embracing all the places on this blue planet that I love the most. I am incredibly grateful for this crazy, intense, geographically-scattered life that I lead. You know, I'm at a pretty u

Right now, I am sitting in my team's lab on the bottom floor of the Kings Bay Marine Lab in Ny- Ålesund. I'm the only one in the building. The rushing water from the the aquarium room provides accompaniment for my thoughts, but I'm not thinking very much tonight. For the first time since we got here, I don't have to make any plans for tomorrow. I don't have to check the weather or prepare gear or stress about whether we'll have enough sample jars. We are done.  Altogether, we sampled 8 stations. At each one, we conducted a CTD cast to measure the temperature and salinity of the water column, collected 3 plankton tows and 4 sediment grabs . We sorted the plankton into larvae and holoplankton, and we sub-sampled meiofauna (very small animals), macrofauna (medium-small animals), and environmental factors from the sediment. We collected scavengers from traps in the harbor 4 different times. All that effort means we're going home with 10 casts worth of CTD

Recovering the sediment grab. Photo by Marine Ilg. "So they're currently in alien terrain, surrounded by millions of the most vicious creatures on the planet: Humans." - Fantastic beasts and where to find them by J.K. Rowling Recovering the plankton net. Photo by Marine Ilg. The wind has been calming down over the last few days, so my team and I used the opporunity to go back out on Teisten . We were hoping to sample some stations a little farther away from shore, near the middle of the fjord, so that we could access greater water depths, up to 200 m. The forecast showed calm wind, and the harbor was relatively free of sea ice, so we saw our chance and took it! We had a very productive day on Teisten . The sampling team with Teisten and the marine lab in the background. Left to right: me, Marine, Erlend, Xiaoshou, and Hongju. Not pictured: Sam Laney. By the end of the day, we had conducted CTD casts, plankton net tows, and sediment grabs at 3 different

"Uh, Kirstin," Erlend peaked his head around the corner, "Do you still have friends on Helmer Hanssen ?" I paused and then smiled. "Yes, I think so." In all likelihood, I knew several people on board the large research ship in the fjord, but it had been at least a year since I last saw them . "Well, they are coming to the dock at 9," Erlend informed me. I was excited! For the last several years, the Helmer Hanssen has been used to study marine ecosystems in the polar night. The project is headed by J ørgen Berge, a professor at the University of Troms ø who is a powerhouse of Arctic research . In fact, the Marine Night project is what brought me to Ny- Ålesund for the first time as a student in 2015. I decided to take a break from my work and see if I could catch up with the  Helmer Hanssen  scientists when they came to the dock.  Helmer Hanssen at the dock in Ny-Ålesund After getting permission to board the ship, I headed straight

"Night has always pushed up day You must know life to see decay But I won't rot, I won't rot" - "After the storm" by Mumford and Sons Back when the wind started (was it really only a few days ago?), it occurred to me that the storm could actually work in our favor. Remember, we're up here to investigate the effects of upwelling Atlantic water on biological communities in an Arctic fjord in mid-winter. We planned our trip at the beginning of January so that we'd be here when warm, salty water from the North Atlantic started coming into the fjord. The idea was to collect samples before and after the upwelling event.  When we first arrived in Ny- Ålesund, it was obvious that the fjord was in its 'normal' winter state, filled with Arctic water - temperature and salinity in the water column were low,  sea ice surrounded the harbor , and most of the animals we caught were Arctic species . Well, with gale-force winds blowing down the fjord,

Arctic research requires patience, flexibility, and improvisation. You have to be prepared for all eventualities: bad weather, things getting broken, things getting lost, or experiments not working.  It's not just Plan B; it's Plans F and G and H.  Collecting data and answering meaningful questions in Arctic systems requires you to think on your toes and work with what you've got. If you sit around and wait for perfect conditions, trust me, perfection will never come. So here are the cards I've been dealt:  - The wind is too strong to use Teisten . This boat is extremely capable in some ways, but it sits up high out of the water and in strong wind essentially becomes a giant sail. We would drift down the fjord in no time flat. Not gonna work. - We have a zodiac that actually works pretty well in the wind. It doesn't stand up so tall over the water, and you can hold it in place with a small anchor.  - Our gear is light enough and small enough that we can actuall

The camera system While we're waiting for the wind to calm down, my team turned into scavengers ourselves! We decided to collect any samples we could from the harbor. With Erlend's help, we were able to use the Polarsirkel boat do deploy the plankton net in the harbor and to conduct the first field test of a camera system I've been working on. Cameras are powerful tools for seafloor research. Sometimes just seeing what's there tells you a lot. Most underwater cameras are expensive and heavy and difficult to transport internationally (because you have to fiddle with insurance and customs and blah blah blah). Because most of my research takes place in remote environments, I wanted to develop a cheap, simple, lightweight camera system that I could take with me anywhere. I bought a small, simple camera and found an underwater housing for it that could withstand high pressures, up to 20 atmospheres. That means I could theoretically deploy the camera up to 200 m dept

Our catch of amphipods in a dish in the lab Well, we've been prevented from working on Teisten for the past couple of days by excessive wind, so we re-calibrateded our expectations, had a brainstorm, and figured out what else we could do. We deployed some scavenger traps in the harbor just outside Ny- Ålesund and were able to catch animals that way. The ribbon worm S cavenger traps are simple: just mesh cylinders with funnels on each end and a piece of raw fish inside. We recovered the traps this morning to see if anything was there, and we actually had some pretty cool specimens! Most of them were amphipods (I think the scientific name is Eurythenes ). Amphipods are small, shrimp-like creatures that live in the water column or just above the seafloor and can smell a dead animal from a long way away. They're not picky eaters - they eat fish, algae, anything else that's recently died. They're very common in seafloor environments around the world.  The snai

"She shall have a temper as sweet as an angel... She shall have a wonderful grace in all she does or says... She shall sing like a nightingale... She shall dance like a flower in the wind" - fairies describing Aurora in Sleeping Beauty When I told friends and family that I was coming to the Arctic in winter, the #1 question I got was "How will you handle the darkness?" Yes, it is dark here 24 hours a day, but I actually love that! I want to describe the natural conditions so you know what it's really like. Yes, it's a little weird when you step outside at 11 am or 3 pm and don't see the sun, but after the first day or two, you stop expecting it. I actually really like the darkness because it drapes over the whole valley like a blanket. It is calming in a way. I feel like I'm wrapped in it, swaddled. The cold on my face has the same effect as a cold pillow, so it's incredibly relaxing. Kongsfjorden in the polar night. Photo by Marco Ca

"No race has ever been won in the first corner; many have been lost there." - Garth Stein in The art of racing in the rain I guess my first clue should have been when I sat up in bed and could feel the building subtly shaking around me. The wind today is horrible . Forty knots. Twenty-one meters per second. Forty-six miles per hour. That's how fast you drive a car! It was obvious that we couldn't go out on Teisten , but I've never been one to give up easily. I mean, we flew all the way to 79 N. I want to spend my time here collecting samples, not sitting indoors. I just had to try. Could we use the small Polarsirkel boat and just stay in the harbor? Could we try deploying our gear by hand from the dock? Could we collect alternate samples to at least have something ? Erlend agreed to try the Polarsirkel boat in the harbor, so the team and I suited up for the test. We donned our survival suits (they're ultra-warm and keep you afloat if you fall in) and

Working in the Arctic is challenging because transportation is limited and supplies are not readily delivered. Sometimes, you have to solve problems with what you have on hand. I'll give you an example. In order to package our zooplankton samples for transportation back to Woods Hole, I needed to reduce the volume. The jars I brought for the zooplankton samples are 250 mL each, but the samples we collect from the net are ~500 mL each. The easiest way to reduce the volume would be to sieve the samples, but I didn't have a sieve on hand. What to do? First I checked if the marine lab had one I could borrow. No. I can't just go out and buy a sieve because there's not a scientific supply store in town. (There is a general store in town, but it sells postcards and T-shirts.) I have to make one from the materials I have on hand. One of the metal bands Thankfully, I had brought extra mesh with me in case the plankton net needed to be repaired. We scavenged some of the

"Who's that swimming in the sea? It's plankton and they're swimming free Shells and legs and paddlin' tails Where's your sample? Here I am! Zoop zoop riot (riot!) Pull up the plankton net Zoop zoop riot (riot!) A-pull a net through the coal-black sea Flow Daddy!" - my parody of "Zoot suit riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies Deploying the plankton net on Teisten Have you ever looked at a sample of pond water under the microscope? If not, I highly recommend you try it. Just take a turkey baster full of water from your local pond, and if you don't have a microscope, you can try using a magnifying glass. A shocking number of animals live in the water. The same is true for the Arctic Ocean. Tiny animals that live in the water column are called zooplankton (zoops for short), and I find them fascinating. This week, we've been sampling zooplankton with a plankton net from Teisten . We suspend the net vertically from the boat'

The Van Veen grab with a full load of sediment "I got a jar of dirt, I got a jar of dirt, and guess what's inside it?" - the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Sam stepped over the threshold into the heated cabin of the boat. In one hand, he held a trash bag heavy-laden with seafloor sediment. "Alright, let's put this trash bag of mud in the bathroom!" I couldn't help but giggle. How many times in a person's life do they get to speak that sentence? Not many, I'm sure. Xiaoshou and Hongju emptying the grab into a trash bag Xiaoshou and Hongju sieving the sediment samples One of our main objectives for this research trip is to sample the benthic community - all the animals that live on the seafloor in the fjord just outside Ny- Ålesund. To do that, we're using a Van Veen grab, which is a common tool for marine biology. The grab consists of two curved blades that close automatically to collect sedim

"I want to break free... I've got to break free God knows, God knows I want to break free" - "I want to break free" by Queen We met at the marine lab for breakfast and then walked down to the dock to check the ice conditions. It was a little better than the previous day but still kind of borderline. We might be able to get the boat out, but it would require some work. I asked the skipper, Erlend, what he thought, and we settled on a strategy: use manpower to break up some of the ice near the dock so we could free the zodiac boat, Polarsirkel.  Then we could use the zodiac an icebreaker, driving it around the harbor to break apart the ice and free Teisten . The zodiac is specifically designed for polar work and is essentially unsinkable - just what we need right now. For ice-smashing tools, we scavenged some metal table legs from the marine lab. They were about a meter long and hollow, square in cross section, with a rectangular foot at the bottom. Rows of

"They sat on the stony ground And he took a cigarette out And everyone else came down to listen He said 'In winter 1963, It felt like the world would freeze.'" - "Life in a northern town" by The Dream Academy Ny- Ålesund is the northernmost continuously-inhabited place on Earth. Some temporary ice camps are at higher latitude, but for year-round living, Ny- Ålesund wins. It has the world's northernmost post office. It is also an extremely unique place to be. Unlike most polar research stations, which are owned and manned by a single country, Ny- Ålesund is international. The Norwegian Polar Institute has its Sverdrup Station in Ny- Ålesund, and there is a joint German-French station called AWIPEV. The Chinese have a building called Yellow River Station behind the cafeteria, and the Italian station Dirigibile Italia is near the dorms. In total, there are 16 stations representing 10 nationalities in Ny- Ålesund. Each research station has its own

My last time in Ny-Ålesund was  January 2015 , and what I remember most is the sound of the wind. The air vibrates as it passes between the buildings and snarls in loud, dissonant tones, like every member of an orchestra rebelling against the conductor at once. The Ny-Ålesund wind is fierce.  In our first 24 hours on station, the wind has actually been been pretty calm. I was pleasantly surprised and hoping this meant we could go out on the boat. But friends, this is the Arctic, and when one thing goes right, there are about 50 million other things that can go wrong . I knew better than to get my hopes up. This ain't my first rodeo .  Sea ice near the dock in Ny-Ålesund My team met for breakfast and discussed the weather conditions with the skipper, Erlend. He said there was some sea ice on the surface of the fjord that would make it difficult to operate the boat. We should wait a few hours and see if anything changes. My team agreed to his plan and used the extra time to