cryopisces

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Track us doing fieldwork!

We’ve got a cool gadget - you can send us messages and track our fieldwork progress here - https://eur-share.inreach.garmin.com/PISCES

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A Masters student let loose in Patagonia - PISCES fieldwork update

This is a guest blog from University of Bristol Masters by Research student Anna Covey, who is a field assistant on the 2018 summer field campaign to Comau fjord in northern Chilean Patagonia - the deglaciated field site for PISCES. For her MRes (Masters in Research) she is looking into the effects of glacial rock crushing on release of nutrients into glacial meltwaters.

After two flights, a three hour drive down the Caraterra Austral and three boat journeys, we’ve finally arrived at Huinay field station, or “estacion cientifica” if you want to get down with the locals. Luckily our 200 kg of luggage arrived safely with us!

Huinay Research Station on the edge of Comau fjord

I’ve been looking forwards to fieldwork since I first found out I was coming to Bristol to do my research masters, and I’m still grinning every time I wake up and look out of the window. It’s hard work: over the past couple of days we’ve been on the go from 7:30am until 11pm, carrying heavy bags up to 20 km in a day. The mozzies (and their friends the tabanos horse flies) are a little more than annoying; but the stunningly beautiful scenery and glorious weather more than makes up for it (JH: I’ve never know such glorious weather in Patagonia - Anna’s clearly been our good luck charm so far!).

One of the dreaded Tabano horse flies

Another glorious day in the field

We travelled from Puerto Montt to Huinay Research Station (our base for the next two weeks). I was worried about getting travel sick, but the journey flew by. Seeing penguins swimming and dolphins surfing alongside our boat have been two of the highlights of the trip so far.

Penguins on the boat journey to Huinay Research Station

Hopefully we have enough science kit!

Huinay is an amazing place. I feel incredibly lucky to be helping with the PISCES fieldwork here. There’s a Norwegian word “mehlon” (probably spelt wrong), describing the feeling of being surrounded by huge, powerful mountains which make you feel tiny and in awe of their majestic-ness. It feels like it was invented to describe the valley we walk up every day to our sample site.

I’ve no idea why Jon and Jemma decided to bring a masters student here with no funding to contribute. Thankfully I feel accepted, looked after (JH: It’s actually super easy - food and walking) and treated as an equal, and absolutely making the most of a fantastic opportunity! I was originally worried about not knowing enough to be a contributing member of the team, but Jon’s a great teacher, and I’ve already learned loads. I now know what all the different sensors measure (and why they’re important), how they work, and how best to collect water samples cleanly (JH: I’m renown for being totally anal with water sampling so hopefully Anna isn’t too scarred by the experience). Bringing the data back from the field every day and adding it to the spreadsheet to see how the river is changing is genuinely really exciting!

Universidad de Aysen’s Dr Alejandro Dussaillant getting creative while installing our gauging station. This sensor will sit in the Huinay river for a year logging water level (so we know how much of the wet stuff is transferred to the fjord annually) and electrical conductivity (how much stuff is dissolved in the water) of the water.

Dr Jon Hawkings installing some sensors on the river.

Jon taking some sensor measurements on the Rio Vodudahue, the largest river in the region.

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PISCES featured in French TV documentary

Jon and Sarah (with local settler Don Rene) were featured in an hour long France 5 TV documentary on Chile - Terres Extrêmes.

If you’re in France and want to catch it, you can find it on demand (as of January 2018) here:

https://www.france.tv/documentaires/science-sante/346189-science-grand-format-terres-extremes-chili.html

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Check out the project PISCES fieldwork diary featured on the University Cabot Cast podcast.

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The trials and tribulations of fieldwork: Honest answers to a few questions that I have been asked upon return…

This is a guest blog from University of Bristol PhD Student Sarah Tingey, who was part of the 2017 PISCES winter fieldwork team. For more about Sarah, visit her website here.

This was my first long(ish) glaciology field campaign and apparently “one of the toughest” (Jon Hawkings, 2017). Now I am back, I have a real sense of achievement. I held a talk at the University of Aysen about my diving passions to a packed room with a translator, when only a few days before we were digging a trench to divert flood waters away from Jon’s already waterlogged tent. 

It was a jam packed month!

Most conversations prior to heading off to Steffen Glacier, Patagonia, Chile went like this: 

“Wow! You’re off to Patagonia on fieldwork – isn’t that basically just a months long holiday?”

“Well, errrr… no. We will be working, but I am still pretty excited.”

“It sounds like a holiday to me – a bit like backpacking! I look forward to hearing all about your sneaky month long break when you return… ”

Fieldwork is awesome. The opportunity to undertake scientific research in a remote area of Patagonia has been a fantastic experience that I am very grateful for. However, fieldwork is about as close to being on holiday as mud is to chocolate. When quickly glanced at from far away they could pass as the same, but upon closer inspection they are very, very different. 

One is sweet and tastes amazing, the other is wet, dirty and gritty, maybe a bit smelly but can potentially help grow amazing things once a seed is planted. 

Luckily, I like both chocolate (who doesn’t?!) and mud (for growing the plants in for my research). 

The PISCES winter field campaign was full of challenges; many of which could have posed a risk to the entire project. However, through Jon’s leadership skills and solid teamwork from Anne Kellerman (Our organic matter wizz collaborator from Florida State University), Nico (CIEP) and I, our time in camp proved a success. 

Team members (from left to right), Jon Hawkings, Anne Kellerman, Nico Araneda, testing out some new wet weather gear courtesy of Sarah Tingey

Fieldwork is often portrayed as glamorous. Images of “scientists” marching around the wilderness like Bear Grylls, who then get to stay in a 5* hotel at night has become the norm. Unfortunately for us, there was no 5* hotel. Instead we had our trusty tipi, woodburner and a never ending supply of tinned food. Since returning I have been asked the same questions again and again – so I thought I would put my “honest responses” up so I stop feeling like such a parrot talking about the challenges we faced. Here we go… 

The mighty camp tipi after a nights worth of snow fell.

1. DID YOU HAVE A NICE HOLIDAY?

As I left, friends and family were convinced I was off on an adventurous holiday. Conversations escalated so much that I even slightly started to believe this myself. However, the planning and packing is only the beginning – after the mission journey was complete and I had arrived it was time to set up camp. When camping in the middle of nowhere the work doesn’t end either. There is always something to do! Whether that is cooking, cleaning or digging a latrine – not “looking busy” is basically code for “needs a job”. 

The closest we got to a swimming pool were the epic floods that appeared after many days of rain – “Playa de Steffen”. We joked that the flood defense trenches we dug were the Steffen equivalent of the lazy log flume rapids. 

All the daily maintenance work has to happen alongside the science. We rarely washed, compared smelly socks, ate a lot of porridge and all worked really hard as a team. The phrase ‘fieldwork has ‘work’ on the end of it for a reason’ is pretty spot on! I had an awesome time, but it was certainly not a holiday.

Setting up water quality sensors next to the meltwater river draining Steffen Glacier

2. HOW WAS THE WEATHER? DID IT RAIN?

We spent 18 days at Camp Steffen. The first 3 days we had a blizzard dumping over a foot of snow onto camp and night time temperatures down to -15 degC. Following that the temperatures remained around freezing and the rain did not stop. Patagonian rain is unlike any rain I have ever seen in my entire life! It was cold, wet and could potentially be miserable. Somehow I managed to draw pure joy from the horror of the relentless downpours.

The unpredictable weather made planning for long days outdoors difficult. Our tipi was graced by the presence of the life saving ‘Magnus Svensson’ – our wood burning stove. Thankyou Tentipi – we’d have been shivering drowned mice by the third day (at best) if it wasn’t for you. 

The wet weather is also a nightmare for anything electrical. It made sensor maintenance slightly more tricky. Opening datalogger boxes to download data became a little more precarious in the downpours, forcing Jon to sit underneath a (very smelly) poncho for protection. Many inventive Patagonia weatherproofing solutions were constructed from my two favourite things, duct tape and cable ties.

The other disadvantage to the constant rain meant that we really only took photos or film footage during the few rare moments when we were reminded what the sun actually is. I fear the sunny snaps will now fuel the “holiday not fieldwork” thinking. Fortunately they show just how beautiful Camp Steffen was - a great reminder of the stunning place that we were lucky enough to have as our office for a few weeks. 

Don Rene’s trusty Patagonian horses helped bring our equipment into camp, despite the bad weather

3. DID ANYTHING BREAK AND CAUSE A DISASTER? 

Annoyingly, anything can break and when in the field will inevitably happen at the most unhelpful moment. The most disastrous incident was one morning, we awoke to a foot of snow overnight which had caused our lab tent primary support pole to snap in half – the whole tent had collapsed! Burying our equipment and belongings underneath! However, Renee Junior, a local settler chopped a tree down and made the most perfect ‘rustic’ new central support.

The new rustic lab tent pole, equipped with coat hooks. Definitely an improvement! 

I have been wondering recently how many research projects and the that have involved fieldwork would have failed without duct tape or cable ties. These two things can fix most problems – from constructing lighting solutions and drying racks to Patagonian weatherproofing. Thankyou to Vesta Stoudt (duct tape) and Maurus C. Logan (cable ties) for your great inventions. 

Jon Hawkings and Anne Kellerman go about fixing the Tipi with nothing but a long pole, some duct tape and cable ties. Essential fieldwork science kit!

4. DID YOU JUST END UP COOKING ALL THE TIME AS THE ONLY PHD STUDENT THERE?  

The combination of short days, difficult weather conditions, camping, a small team and lots to do meant that sometimes it felt like there weren’t enough hours in the day to fit in everything we needed to do (ed - there weren’t!). Good science only happens when the work ‘behind the scenes’ at camp runs smoothly. Our leader, Capitan Jon made some tough decisions splitting up the group and rotating us around between leaving camp to sample, conduct river transects or traces and staying in camp to get maintenance and filtering work done. Although it’s not as glamorous it’s still very important. After a day out in the almost freezing rain we could risk getting quite ill without hot meals and a warm stove upon return. Camp responsibilities were shared out and and Jon made sure nobody got cabin (or should I say tipi?) fever. Plus, we successfully managed to get all the samples we planned to achieve.  

The daily routine of downloading data from our sensors

5. DID YOUR STUFF SMELL? 

There is something quite special about the journey home. There is something even more special about opening your bag of clothes and realizing that you really, really smelt. I have had to wash my clothes multiple times. Plus some beer we brought back in my one of my suitcases exploded so my clothes were… “ripe”. 

The Rio Huemules about 10 km downstream of camp.

6. WAS IT HARD WITHOUT FACEBOOK?

Being without internet or a phone for the time we were in the field was glorious – it’s nice to check in upon return but it can also be a bit of a killer to go back to reality where everyone is available at the end of fingertips. I categorically did not miss my phone / facebook / twitter / all the other stuff that I happily went without. 

Rene extracting some of our science equipment on his Zodiak at the end of the field campaign

7. HOW DID YOU POOP?

We dug a big hole far away from water. Everyone knows, you just hope its quick in the pouring rain / freezing cold. Anne also kept us fully loaded on regular doses of prunes. Thanks Anne!

Anne Kellerman sampling the meltwater river

8. WAS IT TRICKY NOT BEING ABLE TO SPEAK SPANISH?

Yes, but it was more frustrating. Nico from CIEP who came into the field with us spoke no English, I speak no Spanish (although I now have a few words…). Anne had some words but Jon had gone away and learnt Spanish for the project. In just 6 months of classes and practice his Spanish was good enough to get us all by. Solid effort. 

One of the local settlers son’s enjoyed playing with our high-tec weather gear

9. WOULD YOU GO BACK AGAIN?

100%. Wouldn’t you go back for three weeks to one of the most beautiful places on the planet whilst being paid despite the above challenges? 

Or maybe I’m just a bit bonkers… 

That’s it folks – huge thank you to my fantastic fieldwork team. I learnt a lot and came back smiling. Now to just start on the analysis of all those samples...

Team PISCES take shelter under the lap tent porch during one of many downpours

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From Gandalf to Gollum: the terrestrial field season at Steffen Glacier - part 1

After two weeks of decompression time (normal life adjustment!) after returning from Patagonia, I thought it time to update the PISCES blog. I first apologise for the title. Not only do I lack creativity, but I’ve included an insider camp joke (LOTR reference part reflecting our mental and physical state of mind). I’ll try to include many photos as possible, rather than boring text.

The plan was to update this blog on a more regular basis, but it turns out a field season in Steffen is a much more isolated and exhausting affair than I first thought. We struggled with rain (much, much rain..), wind, isolation and power (mainly due to the clouds that came with the former rain!). Working days were long and hard, and this made writing a blog post difficult (we tried to start one many times…).  

I’m starting first with an update on the terrestrial fieldwork – Work Package 1 to those who are interested in official talk. First, I’d like to acknowledge the heroic efforts of all those involved. In the photo below you can see the main bulk of this terrestrial team (excluding Rory – sorry Rory! Photo to come later). From left to right Jon Hawkings (“Juanito”), Alex Beaton (“bad boy Beats”), Matthew Marshall (“Mike Mike”), Helena Pryer (“Hotel Papa”), Anne Kellerman (“Kellers”/ “Alpha Kilo”), Jemma Wadham (“el jefe”), Laura Robinson (“Laura”), and Ale Urra-Gallardo (“Alpha Unicorn”). This hardy bunch managed to survive inclement weather, too much tinned mackerel and tent living from 3 days (Jemma and Laura) up to 48 days (Matthew and Ale). Also featured in this image is another vital member of our crew, the basecamp tipi, where we spent most of our time while in camp. It was the cooking and socialising hub, and (mostly) did us proud when Patagonia threw its worst tantrums. 

Not all of us arrived at Camp Steffen together. Initially the teams were split into two. Team 1, “glaciers team”, comprising Alex, Matthew, Jon and Ale, left the UK on the 3rd January, with over 350 kg of excess baggage (some of which can be seen here - https://twitter.com/CryoPISCES/status/814885757429104640). Team 2, “rivers team”, comprising Jemma, Laura and Helena, left a day later, with similar levels of baggage. Team 2 were to be joined by Anne, flying from the USA, a few days after. Team 1 were tasked with the camp insertion and set up, while Team 2 embarked on an intensive river sampling transect down one of the world’s most amazing roads, the Carretera Austral. As I was only involved in Team 1 fieldwork, I’ll try to cover our perspective. Team 2’s exploits will be revealed in a later, likely better written, blog (stay tuned!). 

I won’t bore you with details of the epic journey from the UK to Patagonia. If you’re interested you can read one of our previous blogs here - http://cryopisces.tumblr.com/post/149864498059/to-the-npi-and-back-in-10-days-with-only-a-couple. I’ll only mention our stop in Coyhaique to buy supplies (food, additional equipment), and collect/prepare chemicals for fieldwork from our fantastic collaborators at the Centro de Investigación en Ecosistemas de la Patagonia, who gave us some essential logistical support (CIEP - http://www.ciep.cl/). We had 36 hours to buy enough food for at least a month of fieldwork (which turns out is rather a lot of food), and all our additional camping and science supplies. We managed to fill a large minibus with everything (not including us!), which met us after a 9 hour drive down the Carretera Austral to the small, fjord-side settlement of Tortel.

Camp set up is always quite stressful. It involves moving a large amount of equipment and food from A (where A is Bristol in the United Kingdom in this case), to B (which is the middle of wild Patagonia, hours from the nearest human settlement). This was not made any easier for us by the Patagonian weather. Tortel, the nearest settlement to our field camp, receives around 2 metres of rainfall in an average year (by comparison London receives <100 cm). The summer of 2017 was much wetter than the average. The poor weather conditions when we arrived in Tortel meant the port was closed and we were stuck for an additional night. This was actually an unforeseen benefit, as we could sort through and organise our equipment and food. We had over 500 kg of “stuff”, and a large problem was that we couldn’t fit it all on one boat, so prioritising was essential. We had to leave quite a bit of food and some non-essential equipment in Tortel for Team 2 to bring with them when they entered camp, around 10 days later. Despite this setback and additional work sorting through our supplies, we were still in good spirits.

We left Tortel for Steffen Glacier on the 9th January in a small tourist boat packed to the gills with our equipment. There was an hour window in which the port was open, and we managed to sail just in time. When we have finished our (fairly rough) 2-hour journey to Steffen valley the weather had turned again. Rain was now lashing down, and we organised our equipment in order of priority for the local settler Don Rene (supplies essential to survival first). Don Rene was key in this whole plan, as he owned and guided the horses (amazingly hardy Patagonian horses which could seemingly carry anything) that would carry all our supplies to where we were camping, near the proglacial lake of Steffen Glacier. The four of us left with personal bags on the 2-hour hike, hoping (and praying) that we would find Don Rene in camp with our tents, cooking equipment and (essentially) food. After a rather unpleasant wait (in the rain), where some emergency food was consumed, Don Rene finally arrived out of the mist with three fully laden horses. A sight for sore, wet eyes. We finally felt at home when the trusty camp Tipi was erected and we had personal tents ready for sleeping. After a meal consisting of tinned goods, we were ready for some rest. Camp Steffen would be our home for the next 48 days. 

Posted by Jon

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Lots of travel time!

Many, many hours on the road, at this point we’re finally approaching Steffan Glacier where we camped for three nights and set up some experiments. We were welcomed by friendly settlers who used their horses to transport all our field equipment into camp ~15 km upstream of where we landed. These guys are hardcore - 365 days a year in the middle of Patagonia with limited electricity, constant rain and only themselves for company.

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To the NPI and back in 10 days (with only a couple of issues and some good luck)

It’s day 10 of our recce to the field sites we’re studying in Chile. We’ve travelled over 12,000 km by plane, over 1,000 km in our trusty 4x4, roughly 50 km in a boat and around 60 km walking (aided by some hardy Patagonian horses and settlers). We’ve spend nights in Santiago (the Chilean capital), Coyhaique (the capital of the Aysen region), Tortel (a small coastal village build on the edge of a fjord), our remote field site at Steffan Glacier (camping in the cold) and most recently Puetro Montt (a port in northern Patagonia). In just 10 days! Amazingly, so far (*fingers crossed*) we’ve only had a few minor problems. Bad weather meant one of our flights was cancelled (but it was an impressive snowstorm), there was some confusion over our car rental (I won’t even start on this one), it turns out good tents are a rare commodity in Patagonia, and we had IT issues in the remote field (not the best time for a laptop to finally give up). The latter was resolved thanks to the heroic work by some of the local settlers and some contacts in Tortel (the nearest settlement) who arrange for a new laptop to be brought out to us in super quick time via boat and horse. I also learnt a valuable lesson – always have a backup for a backup no matter how unlikely you think failures will be! Being a Brit, I have to comment on the weather… Luckily for Patagonia at this time of the year it has been very kind to us. Our three days at Steffan Glacier were probably among the best for that part of the world this winter, which allowed us to work, eat and drink in relative comfort for most of sunlight hours. Our long 4x4 journey from Coyhaique to Tortel (10 hours driving over 450 km) was also blessed with relatively good weather (some rain and snow but passable roads), allowing us to take in some breathtaking scenery. Despite all this, I’ve learnt that Patagonia at this time of the year is very wet! This a problem with remote fieldwork, as it’s difficult to get equipment and yourself dry. I’ve had to change my Greenland clothing change habits from one pair of socks per four/five days (which will probably make you wince) to a change per day to avoid trench foot and to keep warm. Coastal Patagonia is also very humid. This is a problem when trying to sleep as 5ºC feels a lot colder, even when tucked up in my trusty down sleeping bag. Currently, we’re on a boat bound for Huinay, a scientific research station, and our northern Patagonian field site. The views are stunning, and the water is like a mirror - you wouldn’t be able to tell there was a storm here just 24 hours ago. Compared to our remote southern field site, I’m expected the research station here to be relatively luxurious!

Posted by Jon

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The first two photos here are satellite images of one of our study areas - the Patagonian Ice Fields and the Baker Channel. 

The glacier in the photo is Steffen Glacier. We’re going to be camping in front of it for three months to collect data on how much water is flowing from the glacier into the fjord. We’ll also look at the chemistry and biology of the water. That’ll tell us what impact its addition to the fjord will have. 

The last photo is of Tortel - the nearest settlement. All the buildings there are connected by walkways.

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PISCES kick off

Hello! Welcome to the blog for our new project - PISCES. PISCES is a clever (we think anyway) acronym for Patagonian Ice field Shrinkage impacts on Coastal and fjord Ecosystems. With our project we aim to investigate whether melting of the Patagonian ice fields (group of lots of glaciers connected together) is having an impact on the bugs and fish that live in the fjord next door to them. 

To do this we need to go to Patagonia in southern Chile (the country not the stuff you eat) and collect data and samples. There’s a big group of us involved - researchers from over the UK and Chile. Each of us is an expert on a particular part of our project. By the end of PISCES we hoped to have combined all the knowledge and data to get a good idea of what’s going on (it’s a bit like a puzzle). You can read about everyone involved on “The team” page of our website.

There’s a nice satellite picture of one of our study sites below. I’ve marked the sites we will be looking at in more detail. Just to give you an idea of scale, the patch of white at the bottom (the Southern Patagonian Ice Field) is about 350 km long. That’s like driving from London to Edinburgh (which takes 6-7 hours!).