Bog burps for climate change

Chronicles of science

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Politics & science

I didn't think that I would be writing a political commentary on my blog.  But I've been getting a little frustrated lately. And I can't talk with some colleagues who are furloughed, much worse than my complaints, to resolve some questions.

In the political landscape today, personal experience trumps both expert opinion and data. Anyone heard of the scientific process?

Example A. Tea-partiers in the US House who disagree with expert opinion on whether hitting the debt ceiling would be a bad thing. (Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ted-yoho-on-the-debt-ceiling-2013-10#ixzz2hVcg3ORL )

Personal experience trumps expert opinion.

Example B. Climate change. "This winter was very cold with lots of snow. Climate change can't be happening."

Unfortunately, weather (short-term trends) isn't the same as climate (long-term trends). Expert opinion and data (oh wait, I can't open the NCDC website because the federal government is shut down) show some different trends. 

National Center for Atmospheric Research : https://www2.ucar.edu/climate/faq/how-much-has-global-temperature-risen-last-100-years

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators/weather-climate/temperature.html

And a new study, as reported by CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/us/climate-change-study/

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Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?

Hint: The answer has more to do with “The Big Bang Theory” than with longstanding theories about men’s so-called natural aptitude.

This article talks a lot about undergraduate institutions. It makes me really glad to have gone to a women's college without these gender dynamics.

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Big day today!

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As effects of sequester take effect, scientists worry about future of research | Inside Higher Ed

This article really only talks about NIH, but it sounds like the cuts are affecting NSF and other funding sources as well as federal labs and agencies between freezing hires, furlough days, and reduced grant funding. As someone who wants to work in a Federal Agency, the folks that I talk to about getting in say that things aren't looking good. I've got my fingers crossed that things will turn around. 

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A Republican Case for Climate Action

The United States must move now on substantive steps to curb climate change, at home and internationally.

Little late on this post, but better than never!

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This is depressing.

Full study here.

http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-a0033769.pdf

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One of my favorite uses for my iPhone is to take pictures of things that I need to know but don't have tools to write down at that very minute. Like what the autoclave was set for that I used to sterilize some soils in my experiment. I'm writing it up and need to know it!

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Disclaimer: This post is in no way intended as a slam on my current department or institution. The problems I describe are not specific to any place, but are endemic of academia writ large, or at l...

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Filter party!

I spent today longing for the good old days of field work at Toolik when we all would cozy up after dinner with our beers and have a filter party.

Today I filtered samples without the party and without the beer. Not so much fun.

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Modeling is so...

Spent today learning about changes in southern ocean circulation induced by changes in wind speed, which is affected by temperature. Take home message: the Southern ocean, our biggest CO2 sink, may take up less CO2 in the future because of stratification. But as long as the CO2 in the atmosphere is higher there will still be sone equilibration. But really, Because Nikki Lovenduski says so. Then, learned about theories to explain the glacial/interglacial CO2 cycles within the ocean. Then, played with model output to look at CO2 fertilization effects ad temperature effects on photosynthesis. Not really sure what is happening there yet... Then, enjoyed a nice Indian dinner in Boulder, came home to wrap up a dissertation chapter, and had my (5 year old) laptop die on me. Not ideal. How can I write a dissertation without a laptop? It might have been a little easier if I were doing this 30years ago when everything was done on paper, but there are about 50 million reasons why I am really glad that this isn't 30 years ago.

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This is the best example of a scientist shirt I have ever seen. It has everything. The monotone earth colors. The button down, polyester blend, untucked look with khaki cargo pants. The dinosaurs. Amazing.

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This workshop has been so intense and I have been learning so much that I don't have time to keep up on the news, my usual diversion. www.asp.ucar.edu/colloquium/2013/ ASP Summer Colloquium 2013 ... July 29 to August 16, 2013, NCAR - Boulder, Colorado, USA.

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Spending Sunday submitting an abstract for the AGU Fall meeting in December in San Francisco. I'm an invited presenter for the "Vulnerability of Permafrost Carbon to Climate Change" section!

I'm going to talk about what happens when permafrost soils warm and thaw. Sometimes they collapse and form these little wetland features called thermokarst (thermal + karst is a word for surface ground collapse), because the soils have a lot of ice in them. When the soils warm and form thermokarst, they flood and that changes the rate that things decompose. And they also start making more methane, which has a higher global warming potential than CO2, the usual end product.

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View from the Mesa Lab, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO

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Freedom!

On Friday, I celebrated one week of freedom. Not only was I free, I was not an icicle. You see, I had entered the Peat Core processing facility (aka an 8' x 10' or 2.75 m x 3.25 m freezer located in the parking lot behind my building) to retrieve some samples from my permafrost cores.

Why do permafrost cores need to be in a freezer? And why would a peat core processing facility need to be in a freezer? It's for several reasons. First, permafrost soils are thought to have this extremely easily decomposable carbon in it that might just disappear before I could measure it if it were thawed. Same goes for processing cores. And melted peat can get rather muddy, so sectioning cores for any sort of analysis is way easier when the cores or samples are frozen. Back to the freezer. When I got into the freezer, I found these very strange stalagmite-like formations. 

These are not good. It meant that something is wrong with the freezer. So I went upstairs to get my handy dandy phone with camera so I could do something about these formations. And I also grabbed a lamp so I could see what I was doing because the light was out. And I entered the freezer. I pulled out a few of the samples that I was looking for, but I was starting to get chilly. I pushed on the freezer door. Nothing. I could see light around the seal of the freezer, so I wasn't too concerned. I pushed on the glow in the dark freezer door handle. It didn't budge. I tried hitting it harder. Nothing. Hip checked the door. Nothing. Called and texted my friend to come let me out of the freezer. Start to freak out. My feet were starting to get really cold. Hip check the door again. Call another friend. Wait. Envision calling 911 and asking them to send someone over to let a poor grad student out of the freezer. And how many laughs that would get. Would that even be a priority? Finally one of my friends. Which freezer? Oh, the one with pounding coming from it. And with an easy open of the handle, I was out! What a relief! My friend Julie babysat me while I pulled out the rest of those samples. It was probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me in weeks. There's been a bit of fall out from my freezer incident. The grad school and the OSHA people were very concerned and are looking into the freezer warranty. Although the next steps fall to the facilities people, who apparently never have a sense of urgency. Hoping that it all is fixed soon. For now, it's back to much less exciting things. Fortunately. Plant measurements, gas exchange measurements, watering, soil temperatures. Coming soon: I'm going to a modeling workshop in boulder. Picture svelte scientists walking the runway in the latest and most fashionable scientist shirts and field pants.

Or... sitting at their computers tinkering with equations related to the global carbon cycle. Should be fun and interesting!

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So... I thought that I'd start blogging about what I do every day at work. 

Science.

Climate change.

And climate change effects on tundra and boreal ecosystems.

Measuring things.

Fixing things.

Trying to do my part so the awesome students that I'm working with can do their part.

I've got a slightly overwhelming experiment going on. 

Today I filtered a whole bunch of water samples, caught up on organizational stuff (making sure all the data was getting entered so I can go over it while I'm in Boulder), submitted some other water samples (from the overwhelming experiment) for analysis and went home. And was very chatty because I was relieved to get one of my dissertation chapters submitted to my advisors.

And... I've got a awesome high school kid doing an internship with me. And he's 14, so he doesn't drive and rides his bike everywhere. Between him and the cold weather, I was inspired to finally ride my bike into school today, through the sometimes scary traffic on Woodbury Ave. It was great!