Dear journal,
Well, I'm finally here. Yesterday I stepped off the RV-Polar Duke to arrive
at Palmer Station in Antarctica. I'm very excited about my new line of work; being
a member of the Long- Term Ecological Research team, or LTER for short. I will be
working in the area of studying krill, their effects on other animals, and their populations.
For the first few weeks of my stay, I be like an intern, learning the
and watching other scientists during their days observing krill. One of the easiest things that I have learned in the first few hours of my stay is to keep warm. I was required to watch a video on the effects on frost bite and how to prevent it. I also sat in on a lesson on how to dress for a day of observation on a boat.
After I got all my things in my room, I was given a list of my tasks for tomorrow during observation of the krill. First, I am to watch how to prepare and set up each instrument. After that, I need to find the person leading the research and watch how to do different experiments with our samples of krill and on what things are important to take notes. One of the main things we will be doing is to see how the krill adapt to water that is warmer than what they are used to and how they react to different chemicals in their environment, such as oil. We are doing this because krill is a keystone species in the Antarctic, and if anythings happens to their population, all the animals in the area could suffer.
Hopfully, I will have some free time to explore the rest of Palmer Station in the next couple of days. I hear that there is a hot tub outside that is very refreshing. I also learned that skiing is permitted on the glacier next to the station. When I meet some new friends this will be a nice outing.
That fairly sums up my game plan for first couple of weeks. Since I only have two months to stay, I need to accomplish as much as possible. I've scheduled one more trip which will begin at the end of June and continue till the end of this year. I really hope that my presence in Antarctica will have a positive impact on our understanding of this unique enviroment.
Sincerely, Robbie Hunt