Friday, January 02, 2009

Freeze-thaw-freeze


Carla and I have been sampling several times now. Each time, my fingers are becoming more solid as the air temperatures drop. To prevent the loss of sensation in my fingers, I put on layer after layer of clothing, which makes me fumble with the bottles more. Fortunately, Carla is much more dexterous than me.

We have also analyzed many of the samples we collected as well as some from storm events that the USDA collected for us. Most of all, I'm happy that we were able to get the pvc soil collars into the ground last week before the ground became to solid to pound them into the ground. Now, we are ready to use the Licor to measure the breath of the earth, or the carbon dioxide emitted from the different land use types. I marked our locations with flags... it seems that we are overdue for a big Ohio snowfall. However, I suspect we may have a good snow free day in January to make our first measurements.