Last week was an eventful week at Hubbard Brook on the hydropedology project. We began with Steve Arcone from the Army Corp CRREL helping us with ground-penetrating radar surveys of WS3. We ran lines all along the “weasel” road in WS3. This was our second go at GPR and we think it was a big success. We’re looking forward to seeing the processed data from Steve. Our last GPR work during the winter of 2012 suggested that glacial till is quite thick throughout the catchment. The line along the road will help us verify some of the results from last time because there are several bedrock outcrops exposed on the road. We also decided to try running a line on the main Hubbard Brook road, which is about 6.5 miles long!
Last week also was the LTER mid-term review by that National Science Foundation. The entire Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study hosted a review panel and an NSF program officer for two days of seminars and field tours. Rebecca and JP were a featured stop on the field tour and represented the hydroped team very well. The panel seemed quite impressed with our study.
The week ended with rain. This of course was what JP had been hoping for since he arrived back at Hubbard Brook for the summer. We received about 3 cm of rain on fairly wet soils so he is happy.
Lastly, we met with our two REU students, Russell and Tim, who are working together on seepage influences in the Hubbard Brook Valley. They gave us a field demonstration of their methods while we explored seeps, saprolite, and manganese. We are fortunate to have such engaged and excited REUs! We’re all looking forward to seeing what they develop for the summer. Russell is from Floyd VA – he is practically our neighbor! Russell is a student at Montana State where is studying Geospatial and Environmental Analysis and Environmental Science with a Soil and Water Science option.
