I can’t believe that we leave for Pavilion in two days! Our McMaster team (Allyson, Lisa, Jen and myself) is going up early to sample several lakes on the Cariboo plateau before the commencement of the main field season. There is so much going on this year at the lake that we felt we had to go early or we would not be able to get everything done at our other research sites, to say nothing of the potential of missing the giant pancakes available at the roadside diner in Clinton, BC.

Speaking of getting everything done, it is amazing how much work everyone has put in getting ready for this year. Our planning and preparations have really built on last year and we are much better prepared to achieve our science goals. Everyone who has been involved in the planning deserved a ton of credit for all their work getting everything ready.

The tree that the microbialites are growing on provides a timeline for growth via radiocarbon dating.

The exciting field work will be starting this weekend. I am really looking forward to seeing us build on our success last year and be able to really fill out our mapping and investigation of the distribution and morphologies of the structures. We are also going to spend several of our days scuba diving to sample the datable structures we found last year. This is one of the main interests for us from McMaster as we hope to be able to use radiocarbon dating methods to determine how much variability in microbialite growth rate occurs in the different environments in the lake. Without the video from the submersible operations last year we would never have been able to locate the ten sampling targets we have for this year.

Now its time for last minute packing and checking to make sure everything is ready… and then we all meet at the airport at 6 am for our early flight and the real start of the excitement.

-Greg

Email Us | Email to a Friend

Rate this Article

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...