13 January, 1997

Life continues to be exciting here at Lake Hoare field camp. This morning I walked along a gravel peninsula along the lake looking for a mat sample to collect for some microscope work. I found a layer of mat about 30 cm from the edge. It was reddish brown in color and about 3 or 4 mm thick. I took a small piece and placed it in a petri dish held under the surface of the water, then slid the cover ovr the dish. There is a moat of melt water 30 - 40 cm wide along the edge of the peninsula most likely caused by the solar radiation heating up the gravel and causing melting of the ice where the water is shallow.

In the lab I am working on an epi-fluorescent microscope of top quality powered by a generator. I made a slide and found hundreds of organisms swiming around. There were tartigrades and rotifers, nostoc algae, many species of algae were holding the mat togethe. There are also small sand parcticles in the mat. I think there are many questions that we can ask about these organisms and how they ssurvive during the winter.

In the afternoon, I hopped on the helicopter with the limnology team and flew to Bonney Lake for the limnology testing. The flight was excellent. I spent the rest of the day settling into the new camp site and cooking dsinner for ur group while they arranged the collection equipment. More tomorrow.