Sampling at Jornada LTER, New Mexico

Hello Blog!

My name is Kenneth Domingue and I am a graduate student researcher studying aerospace engineering. From May 1st to May 4th our research team was at the Jornada Experimental Range located north of Las Cruces, NM. The Chihuahuan desert terrain was absolutely beautiful, with mountains in the distance and jackrabbits bounding everywhere you looked. On May 2nd, our team prepared our sampler boxes and set up the sampling sites. Preparing the boxes consists of putting sterile petri dishes into each of the sampler boxes, wiping the box down using ethanol, and using UV lights to decontaminate both the box and the sampler dishes. We do this for 14 boxes per site, so it ends up taking nearly 9 hours to prepare for a sampling day. We sampled on May 3, starting early in the morning to try to beat the heat of the day and the Chinook winds that arrive in the afternoon at this time of year. It was unique sampling in a desert ecosystem, and we had to be more concerned than usual about mesquite, yucca and other pokey desert plants plants popping our precious sampling balloon. We also had to watch out for rattlesnakes while sampling, which certainly isn't something we have to deal with in Michigan. We decided to sample for 6 hours, but that means that a typical day in the field is about 10 hours long, including set up and clean up. Additionally, the petri dishes are removed from the samplers on the same day as sampling so that they can be stored in the refrigerator and are ready for DNA extraction the following day. That adds another 3-4 hours on after the sampling day is complete. Our research team consists of some of the hardest working people I know and putting in the long hours has been a little tough on us all, but we are good about looking out for each other. Through hard work and dedication, we completed our first round sampling at Jornada. Now we get to prepare ourselves for our next stop in Albuquerque.