I’ve been a bit quiet on the Ecologist’s Diary front for the past few months. I found myself having a light summer field season, which consisted only of a pleasant day trip to collect the 1 year samples for TeaComposition H₂O. While I enjoy fieldwork, as an early career researcher, I am noticing that my research is less field-based and is having more and more of a structured feel: field – lab – desk – repeat.

Continue reading “Ecologist’s Diary with Stacey Trevathan-Tackett: Goggles and Gloves”

It’s late July, the alpine meadows of the Swiss Alps are in full bloom, and the heat of the summer sun drives a deep sweet smell from the litter of the spruce forest floor as we start our walk up. My friend and colleague Mark leads the way as we move up the tour de Mont Blanc from la Fouly in the Valais, heading for our research site at ~2500m. There, the sun has given rise to abundant flowers, rich meadows, the buzzing of insect and bird life, but still works hard at melting the last of last of the snow. As we reach the site, we are greeted with the familiar, but always astounding, mixture of snowbeds, ridges, meadows, flush wetland, pools and screes of this dynamic and fantastic environment (see picture). Continue reading “Ecologist’s Diary with Rob Mills: Making the most of summer snow”