Responding to your questions...

1. (Austin) What is a frost probe and what is its purpose?
A frost probe is basically an instrument that is shaped like a “T” and is placed into the ground through the top organic layers down to the layer of ground that is frozen. The probe is about 5 feet tall.

2, (Isamar) Have any of your results shown that humans are effecting climate change? What have you found in relation to the climate change?
Yes, there are some human effects. Scientists would call human effects “Anthropogenic Effects.” Just to name a few… fossil fuel usage, over population, & land change usage.

3. (Jackie) Is there a difference between mature tree bore techniques and young tree bore techniques?
No, A tree boring technique involves using an instrument that looks like a “T” that is screwed into the trunk of the tree. At the end entering the tree first there is a corkscrew like bit that is attached to a long cylinder. The cylinder allows you to extract the “pith” of the tree to analyze the rings for aging.

4. (Mike) What are whirl count techniques and destructive sampling techniques?
Destructive sampling is when you actually pull the vegetation out of the ground and harvest it to bring back to the lab for analysis.
Whirl count techniques are when you count the branches going up the piece of vegetation from where it first pokes through the ground (aka DRC Diameter Root Crown) up to the top of the plant. You would use this technique to help you determine age of the plant based on branches.

5. (Steph) What are some of the instruments that you are using?
Clinometer (as pictured below) to determine tree height.



















6. (Kelsey) What is the polar bear skin you showed us used for?
The polar bear skin that I displayed over the skype call was a polar bear that was shot a few years back. This particular bear was a problem bear that needed to be put down because of destructive and dangerous behavior towards humans here at the research site. Several techniques were used to attempt to get the bear to move from the area but nothing worked.

7. (Jack) Who is your roommate and how is it going?
My roommate is a woman from EArthwatch who is here to participate in the research to experience the research program offered here at the site. There are 11 teachers in total and 2 scientists that work with us every day. However we are not the only people at the research center. There are other researchers here who are renting rooms and laboratory space to conduct their research her in the arctic.

8. (Mrs. Gibson) How are you feeling? And do you miss your class????
I am feeling good. I am able to comprehend the science and feel like I can contribute at an appropriate level. I understand the research objectives so that seems to help a lot. In many ways I wish that my research class could be here because they would learn so much about the research process. The complexity of the research comes from establishing the objectives, determining the methods that are to be used to gather data to attempt to prove the objectives, and then properly selecting the analytical techniques to make sense of the data. The actual data gathering process is not too hard. However, it is extremely time consuming.