F6 - Lake Fryxell

Today, we went to the F6 camp at the south side of Lake Fryxell in Taylor Valley for some field work!

We were sampling some plots known as the Biotic Effects Experiment (BEE). The experiment was set up at F6 during the 1999-2000 field season. The same experiment is ongoing at two other locations in the valley. This particular one has 24 plots. You can see some cones on some of the plots-- those cones are called ITEX chambers. They have an open top and are designed to warm the soil by protecting them from the wind (acting like a greenhouse almost). They only heat the soil about 4 degrees Celsius but it is enough to make a difference. A side effect of the cones is that they also trap a ton of sediment that blows through the valley.

Kitchen at F6 camp

Lab space at F6 camp

F6 camp from a distance

In Taylor Valley

Me watering one of the chambers. F6 camp in the background seen with mountain tents

The BEE plots with Lake Fryxell and an ATV parked on the lake ice

Another view of the BEE plots, Lake Fryxell, and the Commonwealth Glacier

Von Guerard Streambed

Von Guerard Stream outlet to Lake Fryxell with a stream gauge set up by the LTER Stream Team

So some of the plots have no treatment applied (the control), others have water added once each season, others just the ITEX cones (so increased temperature), and the final group has ITEX cones and water added.

Once we arrived, we sampled each of the 24 plots first. Some of the water plots still had frozen water right near the surface from last year! We had to chisel out some dirt from those locations. Then we added some new water to each of the plots that needed it. The last thing was some routine maintenance on the plots to be sure they can withstand another harsh Antarctic winter (the extremely strong winds in the Dry Valleys can reach greater than 100 mph and really do a number on our experiments if they're not secured properly).

You might be wondering why there's a camp set up in the middle of nowhere. There are actually camps spread throughout the Dry Valleys, most of them owned by the US. These camps serve as staging, camping, and emergency survival locations for science researchers doing field work. Some of the scientists end up spending weeks in the Dry Valleys. In particular, the LTER Stream Team stays in the valley for weeks hiking around to different stream gauges measuring flow rates. F6 camp is next to Von Guerard Stream at Lake Fryxell. One of the field camps, Lake Hoare, has a dedicate camp manager who stays the whole summer there. The ATV you see is parked on lake ice that never thaws out completely. The lake will form a moat as the summer progresses with melted lakewater ringing it. ATV's can only be driven on ice because they are too disruptive to be driven on the soils.