Blaize is a 2010 and 2009 participant of the Polaris Project. Blaize attends Clark University and studies Environmental Science. She’s from South Windsor Connecticut. Blaize is working on a project studying the factors influencing river chemistry in the Kolyma basin. She hopes to establish baseline data on carbon and other nutrients as water moves from the forest to the tundra.
Although we are all working very hard to wrap up our summer field projects, we have also managed to make time to appreciate the place and people we have become so close with this summer. Orbita has become nothing short of a home for the four of us, encompassing where we do lab work and [...]
Already half way into our trip and we have sampled last summer’s locations (in yellow) and 6 new locations (in red)! The new samples include 3 flood plain streams and 3 samples up north. The stream team has been spending long hours conducting nutrient additions on the flood plain streams. The northern samples include the [...]
After days of contemplating the meaning and the best aspect of our project we have come to name our team BOATS (Binding ocean atmosphere terrestrial systems). We are focusing on surveying the larger bodies of water to understand the carbon flux in the Kolyma watershed, which carries terrestrial carbon from land to marine stores, altering [...]
As I count down the days until we leave for the trip (as of today twelve), I am occupied with packing, reading and preparing. Last week I had the chance to meet with Principle Investigators Bill Sobczak and Karen Frey to discuss general plans for sampling this summer. From last summer’s experience I learned that [...]
Hi everyone! It is Cassandra and Blaize, we are writing to you from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Cassandra and I got together to start to plan, prepare and talk about the trip. We thought we would share a little about ourselves: I’m Cassandra, this is my first post for the Polaris Project, but I’m [...]
Yesterday the Clarkie students traveled in to Boston from Worcester to attend fellow Polaris Member Chris Linder’s art exhibition. The exhibit, Exploring the Arctic Seafloor, displayed photos from an expedition to map what lies under the sea ice. Chris went with a team from WHOI to document the science and the landscape aboard the Swedish [...]
A lot has happened since last time I blogged. As a group we have started to narrow down our research topics and have formed small ‘teams’ of specific topics. Since my research topic is looking at the variation in water chemistry of the whole Kolyma watershed (from the source water all the way to the [...]
After a long few days of flying, sleeping, eating and getting to know the interesting people that encompass the Polaris group, I have found a few moments to reflect on my trip so far. My travels started in Boston, in which we experienced a delay in our flight due to a thunder storm. We were [...]