Things are getting strangely green around here!!

Well, its been about a month since our first post of the mysterious new patches of green algae in the experimental warming reach. Now, in early July, the thick green growth continues to take over stream 7 (compare this shot to the one a few posts back).  We're all really excited about this - it now appears to be a clear effect of the temperature manipulation because the algal growth stops directly above the warm water inflow.  Science!!!!

The mad N-fixing scientist has arrived!

At long last, Dr. Jill Welter has arrived from St. Catherine University to conduct some nitrogen fixation work.  She wasted no time in getting to know the N-fixing beasts in streams at Hengill.  This photo of Jill holding a large clump of Nostoc pretty much says it all.  Should be fun!  Welcome Jill!   You can link to the Welter Lab's Iceland blog here:  http://www.fixationonice.blogspot.com/

We're also very excited to have four new undergraduate researchers with us this summer - Amanda (University of Alabama), Ryan (Montana State University), Delor and Bayley (St Catherine U).  Stay tuned for more posts that introduce these folks!

Higher "prim. prod." in our warmed stream?

One of the predictions from metabolic theory is that net primary production should increase with higher temperatures. We've been warming Stream 7 since October last year, so this is the first spring since we started the manipulation. A thick growth of an as-yet unidentified green alga is now appearing in thick patches in several areas along the warmed reach. We've never seen this before, so it could well be a response to warming. Check out Dan Nelson's photo taken last week. Click on the photo for a better look.

Breaking news!  Brooke Weigel (one of our wonderful REU students) from St. Olaf College just completed a successful poster presentation at the annual Society of Freshwater Science meeting. This research - "Influence of temperature on benthic metabolism and nutrient uptake across a gradient of geothermally heated streams" was part of a collaboration with Adam Toomey (another wonderful REU student from Washington-Jefferson College) and other team members (Hood, Cross, Benstead, and Huryn, Junker, Nelson).  Way to go!

Brooke was also highlighted on the front page of the St. Olaf College's website!  See below.

http://www.stolaf.edu/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsShorts#5317

Warming experiment update

The heat exchanger continues to do a great job. Below is a plot of the latest data, showing mean daily temperatures in the upstream reference reach and experimentally warmed reach. The arrow indicates the start of the manipulation on 22 October 2011. A couple of things to note. One can see the effect of the heat exchanger freezing up for ten days in December 2011 when temperatures returned to baseline levels. Second, temperatures were very variable in both reaches during the first winter, presumably because of rainfall and snowmelt. During this last winter, a thick snowpack buffered temperatures upstream of the warm water diffuser, resulting in much less variability. Our mean warming is 2.25 C as of the end of April 2012. That should be creeping up slowly now that snowmelt is over and discharge in the stream decreases.

1000th surber milestone!

The populace of Iceland recently celebrated "Sumardagurinn fyrsti" or the first day of summer, in April, a week after snow showers in Reykjavik. Seemed a bit premature to me, but who am I to question the ways of the old Norse, they were vikings. As we in Iceland revel in the beautiful weather of the first weeks of 'summer', we have an occasion worth noting-one that will likely define Dan and my lives for a significant portion of the future. On April 20th we collected the 1000th surber sample of the project! That should be enough to keep Dan and I busy for a while.

Cheers,
Litli Jim

Welcome Lili

We have recently welcomed a new member to the team.

Lili arrived from the University of Vigo in Spain, where she recently completed her Ph. D. in stream ecology with Dr. Isabel Pardo. A university outreach grant, which provides funding to support students to work abroad for up to 3 months, has brought her to Iceland to do some stream ecology alongside us and explore this beautiful country.

Lili brings with her a broad range of international work experience in both academic and governmental arenas. Her doctoral research focused on detrital energy pathways in stream ecosystems, and the effects of temperature and food quality on detritivore life history. Jointly, she worked in a broad range of aquatic habitats with the European Water Framework Directive a program to develop and integrate water policy and management across the European Union.

We are glad to have Lili aboard and looking forward to working with her over the next months.

Bless.