Second visit to the Migneint Bog

Weather: Gale of 45 kmph,  cloudy.

It's my second visit to Migneint bog, Wales. Like other field trips, I was with my class mates and teachers. This time we were there to learn new techniques of experiments and collect various samples. This included setting up of field experiments, water sample collection and gaseous fluxes measurement.

Demonstration to fix gas chambers

Our day started with two hour drive from the University with a team of 10 people. After reaching to the Migneint, we had an opportunity to visit University experiment site, which is running in the Migneint bog with the collaboration of Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and Natural Environment Research Council.  The purpose of the experiment is to monitor effects of air pollution on the stability of carbon and nitrogen stored in the soil. The study is targeted to protect sensitive upland soil and freshwater ecosystems against the effect of climate change.

The study site was divided into three types of plots – plot with red boundaries indicates vegetation with acidic soil, plot with blue boundaries indicates vegetation with alkaline soil and plot with white boundaries indicates vegetation with neutral soil.

Gas chambers

After reaching to the study site, Dr. Tim demonstrated us a procedure of water sample collection. Later he taught us a gas extraction method with the help of dark and transparent chambers by using syringe. Simultaneously, we also got a chance to collect gaseous content from the study site. I feel, it was a good opportunity for us to visit the project site again and understand various techniques from experts. After learning session, we assisted Dr. Tim to sprinkle acidic, alkaline and neutral solutions on the site.  The idea was to sprinkle solution into various plots by taking consideration of color boundaries. Reason behind whole procedure was to check the influence of chemicals on bog and utilize same knowledge for the prediction of acidic rain effect on bogs. We also collected two buckets of peat to analyse it in the laboratory.

Ditch drainage

 After having lunch we headed towards another site of same bog and sprinkled solutions there by following same procedures.Then after, some of us decided to go further with Dr. Tim to collect samples and data from another site.  That site was far from the second site but we managed to reach there within 20 minutes. Dr. Tim quickly collected water samples and data from the installed machine to collect DOC value of stream water.  It is really important to have data of DOC from this bog as this is a source of stream water to Wales. Though whole trip went well, we were challenged by an extreme weather throughout the day. First time I experienced and realized how much efforts a wetland scientist has to provide from fields to laboratory for the conservation of wetlands.