Limnologists aren’t always out in boats on calm, sunny days. (But sometimes we are!) While fieldwork is an essential part of collecting data, it’s often not the only step needed to turn that information into something we can use to start answering research questions.
Luke Loken is a Center for Limnology grad student in Emily Stanley’s lab. Lately, he’s been nowhere near his research site. Sometimes, doing science means getting out your tweezers and rolling up hundreds of tiny foil burritos. The slideshow below explains.
(click on white triangle/arrow to advance slides)
Luke Loken gets ready to prepare another sample for the “elemental analyzer,” a machine that will tell him the amount of carbon and nitrogen in his water filters.
Freshwater estuaries are rare ecosystems and the St. Louis River Esturary is one that has dealt with a legacy of pollution and poor ecological health. Loken’s research will help scientists better understand how the system works and how to better preserve it.
This white disk is the paper filter that collected material suspended in the samples of estuary water Luke took. The suspended material is a combination of algae, zooplankton, and suspended sediments.
It takes patience, steady hands, and two sets of tweezers to start rolling the disk into a cylinder.
Safely tucked into its aluminum film, the water filter (suspended solids and all) is ready for the elemental analyzer.
This little package will soon be atomized as the “elemental analyzer” heats it to combustion, turning solid nitrogen and carbon to gaseous form, and allowing researchers to measure the amounts of the elements in the sample.
Just a few more to go. Luke and his undergraduate assistant, Ryan Hassemer ended up rolling more than 250 of these.
Luke looks ready to roll.
The Saint Louis River Estuary is created where the Saint Louis River meets Lake Superior as it flows between the cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. Luke is looking at the seasonal changes of where the estuary gets its water. Spring rains send water full of sediments and whatever else is upstream into the estuary. By late summer, river levels are down and Lake Superior is supplying much of the ecosystem’s H2O.
Freshwater estuaries are rare and this one’s not in the greatest of health. By understanding these parameters better, Luke hopes to be able to more accurately model the dynamics of the estuary and help resource managers better understand the ecosystem they’re working to preserve. Luke Loken (left) and Ryan Hassemer in a happier time – field season, where they’re collecting water samples from the St. Louis River estuary. Photo: L. Loken
