Saturday, Allison and I participated in a competition/fundraiser at our Atlanta CrossFit gym, Fitness Battalion. During the competition, heats of three competitors raced for number of reps in a workout called ‘Fight Gone Bad’, which is a reference to a tiring three rounds of a boxing fight. The workout includes five exercises, each done for one minute , with one minute of rest between three rounds of the five exercises: wall balls, sumo-deadlift-high-pulls, box jumps, push presses, and rowing. Allison trained hard the past few weeks and it paid off; she won an $85 certificate for a local catering service and the women’s competition with 329 reps. All Heart, All Day.
Many of the litter samples I brought to Holden Arboretum were not sufficiently ground for Elemental Analysis, so I used a coffee grinder to break up tough litter material (like cattail andThalia), and then sub-sampled that material to grind in small red-capped vials with metal beads in them. Here are a few photographs of the process.
Large vials filled with partially ground litter
Smaller vials with more finely ground litter
Grinding beadsPartially ground cattail litter in the coffee grinderAfter photograph of ground cattail litterA subsample is taken to place in the small red-capped vialsThe coffee grinder... sophisticated science equipment.A finished sample.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been grinding litter samples and wrapping them into small tins for elemental analysis. The analyzer here incinerates a 4 mg sample of dried, ground litter and measures the amount of several gases that are formed during the incineration (which is at about 1000 degrees C, by the way!). The gases measured included carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas (I’m not 100% sure about the nitrogen…), and, once we know the amount of those two gases released from a sample, the percent carbon and nitrogen of the sample can be determined. Then, of course, the C:N ratio is calculated, which is what I was after – an index of commonly used in decomposition studies because of it’s relation to decomposition rate and litter quality (in terms of food for microbial decomposers and larger, usually insect, decomposers).
So this was my view for several days.
Overview
Ground litter samples and a 96-well plate to organize tinsWeigh and tare the tinPreparing to fill a tin with ground sample
Ground litter and grinding beads
Filled tinTins are folded into tiny cubes
Weighing the filled tin
The Elemental Analyzer. On top is a loading robot that can hold about 100 samples, minus standards and standards checks.
Software on a connected laptop displays data real-time. The peaks on the screen are results of detection of particular gases (like carbon dioxide) as they are detected leaving the column in the analyzer. The area under the curve is the amount gas detected.
At Wallace Lake this past weekend, I went with Jenn, Matt, Sheri, and Betty (Jenn’s mother and grandmother) to the Dog Splash sponsored by Berea Animal Rescue Fund. Brewster and Honey, Jenn and Matt’s dogs, were adopted from this organization, and were not totally enthusiastic about enter the water. Nor was Sheri’s dog, Abbey. They did actively sniff and wag their tails with a few other dogs and were thoroughly tired upon returning home. Brewster also attempted to claim several trees and structures in the park…
I certainly didn’t photograph enough while in Austin, Texas, at the Ecological Society of America’s annual meeting last week. Here’s a few though.
I saw lots of folks taking photographs as they cruised down the escalator... so I did as well.Pat presents his poster...The city of AustinI love Texas.
Dermot nearly tirelessly enjoys fetching his frisbee. There does come a point, however, where he begins to overheat, pant rapidly, and run to the door to rest in the air conditioned house.
