Expedition Notes

Hi All, 

Here are the expedition notes from our Falklands trip in December. Hope you enjoy them and the pictures we sent out earlier!

Background:

The main goal of our expeditionwas to collect sediment records from the Falkland Islands. We collected thepeat and sediment records because they contain information about the plants,seabirds, fire history and climate of the Falkland Islands potentially datingback to the last 20,000 years. Seabirds are excellent indicators of what'sgoing on in the ocean environment. Seabirds and marine mammals transportmarine-derived nutrients onto the landscape through their poop. The transportof nutrients is a essential for the vegetation on the Falkland Islands becauseit is a low-productivity environment. What does this mean? It means thatbecause the landscape lacks native trees and native herbivores (eating andpooping), essential plant nutrients are not being recycled very quickly. Guano fromseabirds and marine mammals is an important source of nutrient input sustainingterrestrial vegetation and vital seabird breeding habitats such as tussac grass(Poa flabellata). If you wouldlike to understand in more detail or need a refresher about our objectives,please send us any questions or comments!

The Expedition:

After traveling for two days, wearrived in Stanley, East Falkland on the weekly Saturday flight on December 6,2014. We met with our collaborators at the South Atlantic EnvironmentalResearch Institute and loaded up our research vehicle the next day to ferryover the Falkland Sound to West Falkland. We set out to West Falkland to carryout team member and aspiring archaeologist, Kit Hamley's research into theextinct Falkland Islands Wolf, also known as the warrah. We travelled acrossWest Falkland to a farm owned by the Evans family where warrah fossil bones hadpreviously been found in a shallow, seasonal pong. While there we walked thepond in search of warrah bones and to our great delight found the back of awarrah skull! Along with the piece of skull we found, through the graciousnessof both the Evans family and The Falkland Islands Museum, we were givenpermission to borrow several warrah bones, which we will send in forradiocarbon dating. The dates we get back will give us a minimum date for thearrival time of the warrah to the Falkland Islands. We also were able tocollect a short sediment core from the pond as well as from an eroding peatbank nearby. While this was going on, Dulcinea was constantly collecting pollenfrom as many flowering plants as possible in order to construct a pollenreference collection that she will create to identify fossil pollen in thesediment records. While traveling across West Falkland, Kit in the driver’sseat (on the right side), Jacquelyn in the passenger seat, Dulcinea would oftenholler out “STOP!” so she could jump out and make more plant collections. Thisbecame a very regular occurrence! Located in what is known as the Fearsome Fifties(51°S latitude), the wind in the Falklands is persistent and strong and must betaken into consideration with every movement one makes. For example, opening adoor could result in a squished, smashed or broken leg if the wind were tocatch the door (just ask Kit’s knee!).

 

 

Figure 1. Global position of theFalkland Islands (top map) and primary collection locations in the FalklandIslands during the expedition (bottom map)

 

Figure 2. Kit Hamley at Spring Point, West Falkland holding one of many sheepskulls

 

Figure 3. Magellanic penguin in tussac grass near Stanley

We returned to East Falkland viathe ferry and traveled up to the National Nature Reserve at Cape Dolphin, asmall peninsula in the north. The Cape is home to many types of birds includingthe magellanic penguins, which use marram grass, tussac grass, and diddle-deeto construct their burrows. We also found two harems of southern sea lions, severalcolonies of imperial rock shags lining the coastal cliffs, a colony of gentoopenguins, turkey vultures, and many grazing sheep. We camped at Cape Dolphinfor a couple of days to take a look at recovering tussac grass stands withmagellanic penguin burrows, and to collect a peat core through a tussac bog.What is a tussac bog? It is a large hump of slowly decaying tussac leaf androot matter with new tussac plants growing out of the top of the bog. Thetussac stands at this location were very small and in one location a largeamount of erosion occurred in rather old looking bogs. Collecting the 1.5 metercore was challenging because the peat was very dense and dry. We alsoreconnoitered around the cape and came upon Swan Lake, which may turn out to bean ideal collector and record keeper of the nutrient contribution from themarine environment to the land. Swan Lake is relatively close to the ocean anddown slope from abandoned and current penguin rookeries which would capturerunoff containing guano over time. We believe this lake has the potential to bean excellent coring site for our next expedition. Dulcinea also collectedtussac grass leaf and root material and fresh penguin guano for nutrient andstable isotope analyses, as well as plant material to burn for a charcoalreference collection. The purpose of the reference collection will help in theidentification of charcoal pieces in the sediment record, which is a similaridea to the pollen reference collection.

We planned to take a boat out toanother National Nature Reserve, called Kidney Island, however our plans wereshut down by bad weather in the first week and again during the second week dueto boat maintenance problems. We are hopeful to core through pristine tussacgrass stands on Kidney Island during our next expedition, when the breedingseabirds are absent.

 

Figure 4. An eroding tussac bog made of dry dense peat on Cape Dolphin

 

Figure 5. Swan Lake on CapeDolphin with Kit Hamley.

Our next destination on EastFalkland was Volunteer Point. We excavated and collected a column of sedimentusing a shovel, meter stick, and muscle from Volunteer Point, East Falkland.The excavation took place over 6 hours along a beachfront with three differenttypes of penguins, gentoos, magellanics, and kings constantly on the movebetween the ocean behind us, and their colonies not far away. The penguins wereswimming in the waters, laying along the beaches, and making a ruckus withtheir calls. It was a truly spectacular field site! The dominant vegetationgrowing on the eroding peat bank between the ocean and seabird burrows is aplant called sea cabbage (Senecio candicans). Although tussac grass is not growing inthis location presently, we believe that this peat formed from slowly decayingtussac grass. Throughout the excavated sediment column we found very nicelypreserved grass leaf blades! The column is over 2 meters in length and safelymade it through to the U.S.

 

Figure 6. Dulcinea Groff standing in the excavated pit at Volunteer Point, EastFalkland

 

Figure 7. Panorama of the excavation site with king, magellanic, and gentoopenguins entering and exiting the ocean

We were fortunate to travel to another island called BleakerIsland, south of East Falkland via the Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS).The island has tussac grass stands, sea lions, elephant seals, and an abundanceof magellanic, southern rockhopper, and gentoo penguins. Dulcinea collectedplants for the pollen reference collection, sea lion feces, and more penguin guano.As part of a pilot study, Dulcinea and Kit made surface soil collections (10cm) along a 20-meter transect within the tussac grass stands to analyzenutrient input from the magellanic penguins burrowing in the tussac. Thisparticular stand is over 100 years old and was planted by Falkland Islander andnaturalist, Arthur F. Cobb. While working in the tussac stand we began to feelitchy and later found fleas and ticks from the penguins that had been feastingon us. We were able to collect them, so in the end there was some good fromgetting fleas and ticks! We collected them because it may be possible to findthese insects preserved in the sediment records and we may need them foridentification in case they are vectors of human disease. The island is grazedby both sheep and cattle. Cattle graze in parts of the tussac stands onlyduring the winter when other fodder is hard to find and burrowing seabirds areabsent. The damage caused by cattle grazing in the tussac stands may beinfluencing burrowing seabirds like the magellanic penguin.

 

Figure 8. Southern Rockhopper penguin with chick at Bleaker Island

 

Figure 9. Tussac grass stand damaged by grazing cattle with Kit Hamley onBleaker Island

Now that the cores and column are back at the Climate ChangeInstitute, the next step is to date the column and begin analyzing thepreserved charcoal, cholesterols, and heavy metals that are particular to seabirds inthe sediment and peat. We are very grateful to all of you who made this researcha possibility. Thank you all for your dedication to furthering science and forsupporting this project and the start of our careers!