我是林明慧‭.‬西雅圖華盛頓大學Jody Deming教授帶領來北極研究隊伍的兩名研究生之一‭.‬Marcela是我的隊友‭,‬也是我的室友和同學‭. ‬我是台灣花蓮長大的‭,‬而Marcela來自於生產咖啡盛名的哥倫比亞‭.‬

十六號晚上從冰上取樣本回來後, Marcela‭ ‬忽然驚叫‭,‬我們這兩個第一次到北極的人‭,‬自從一月八號飛離西雅圖後就不停的有對彼此驚叫的習慣‭. ‬這次她看到的是霜花‭. ‬這些花是從結冰時往上爆發出來的鹽水結晶交錯形成的‭.‬我們興奮的告訴了帶頭科學家‭ ‬Jody‭. ‬在北極冰上‭,‬不管是誰要下船走上冰層都要有一名背著槍的守護員跟著‭. ‬以防我們被肚子餓或是心情不好的熊攻擊‭.‬雖然目前為止還沒有北極熊來探望過我們‭,‬但是這個規定連船長都要遵守‭.‬所以就算看到了霜花‭,‬也不可以自己跑下船去觀察或是取樣本‭.‬

船上有許多不同的科學團隊需要上冰工作‭.‬在滿滿的行程中Jody很神奇的幫我們排好了第二天一早八點上冰採花‭.‬船長也加入我們‭.‬取樣本的過程很刺激‭,‬因為霜花在很不穩定‭,‬只有結冰三天的新冰上‭,‬我們必須趴在90公分相對厚的冰層伸出手臂取冰花‭.‬為了安全‭,‬船長展現她多年的水手的訓練為我們打了一個不知名的繩結‭.‬之後再將繩套環繞在採樣本的科學家腰上‭,‬讓我們趴在冰上時多一個安全的確保‭,‬但是我已經一個月多沒攀岩了‭,‬很想念那攀爬時專注的感覺‭.‬腰上綁了繩子忽然讓我誤以為在熟悉的岩石上‭,‬反而放大膽的上半身騰空取霜花‭.‬

當天早上取霜花時‭,‬是早上八點‭,‬天是一片黑暗‭,‬唯一的光源來自於我們冰上的家‭-‬加拿大海衛防備隊的破冰船Amundsen‭.‬在微微的光源下‭,‬我覺得一朵一朵的霜花比溫市培育出來的花朵還要美麗‭.‬這是我第一次被花感動‭,‬是沒有顏色沒有枝梗的花‭.‬但是裡面有對我們微生物學家更有吸引力的東西‭,‬那就是微生物‭.‬當海水結冰時‭,‬不是水分子的鹽分‭,‬微生物‭,‬以及其他較大的物質會無法被結在冰裡‭,‬於是這些物質與生物大部分會被累積在冰之間的空隙‭,‬產生高鹽度液體‭,‬我們想要知道的是在這很新的霜花裡‭,‬是否有累積許多微生物‭,‬而她們能否在這高鹽度環境下生存‭?‬以及她們使用什麼樣的方法來維生‭?‬雖然這是我第一次來到北極‭,‬但是在這北極圈裡聽到許多人討論幾年來氣候的變化‭,‬讓我不禁思考‭,‬我們是否還有時間了解北極冰圈裡的生物呢‭?‬我希望一百年後‭,‬北極圈仍然有冰層的存在‭,‬不只因為她帶給我從未有過的感動‭,‬也因為我們還沒有足夠的時間來了解這裡的一切‭.‬我們還需要時間去了解生命如何在這寒冰生存‭,‬也需要時間去透徹了解極地的冰冠對全球的氣候影響有多大‭.‬

I am a graduate student in Professor Jody Deming's team from the University of Washington, Seattle. My name is Minhui and I am from Hualien, Taiwan, originally. My labmate, bunkmate, and teammate, Marcela, is from coffee-famous Colombia. On our way back from hours of sampling on the cold Arctic ice, Marcela let out a cheerful yelling. We are both in the Arctic for the first time. Ever since we left rainy Seattle on January 8th, we have been exhibiting the behavior of uncontrollably cheerful yelling whenever one of us discovers something new about the ice world up North. The trigger this time was the frost flowers Marcela had just spotted right next to the ship. We were both very excited to have seen these beautiful "flowers" formed by salty water exploded from the ice forming on the sea surface. We called up Jody right away. Jody is not only our mentor for this project but also the chief scientist of this leg. On the Arctic ice, whenever you wish to step off the ship and onto the ice, there must be a bear-watcher who carries a rifle to go with you. This is to prevent us scientists and crew members from being attacked by a hungry or/and grumpy polar bear. Although there has not been any polar bear sighting lately, even the Captain, Lise Marchand, has to follow this rule. So we could not have run off the ship to observe or take samples right away.

There are multiple teams working around the clock on the ship. Jody was able to find a spot in the schedule for our sampling the next day. The Captain joined us, too. It was a very exciting sampling procedure. The frost flowers formed on very young ice that was about 2-3 days old. The days-old thin ice (2 cm) was unsafe for us to stand on. So we had to sample with our arms stretched out from the much thicker (90 cm) ice adjacent to the frost flowers. The whole sampling procedure was done lying on our stomach to maximize our reach and also to spread out our weight on the ice. Having extensive seamanship experience, Lise tied a very solid knot whose name is unknown to me. We took turns sampling with the loop around our waists, while someone else held the rope on a relatively stable surface 15 meters away. To keep the samples clean, we wore sterile latex gloves. I have been missing out on rock climbing since I came up here. The rope on my waist gave me the illusion that I was climbing familiar rocky surfaces. I could definitely feel my adrenalin rush a bit when my whole upper body was suspended in midair with my right arm stretched out as far as I could to collect frost flowers.

Marcela sampling frost flowers. The air temperature was below -25 degree C.


It was 8 o'clock in the morning when we set out to sample frost flowers. The sky was covered with pure darkness. The only light sources were emitted from our home on the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaking ship Amundsen. Under the soft light of the ship, I found the crystalline white frost flowers much more beautiful than colorful flowers grown in a green house. It was the first time I felt moved by "flowers," definitely an alternative kind of flowers. In this beautiful "creature," there are things much more attractive to me as a microbiologist, the microbes. Microbes are very tiny living things. When seawater freezes, any molecules that are not water are excluded from the ice as more water molecules stick together under freezing temperatures. Microbes and salts are thus expected to be concentrated in the remaining liquid inside pockets between ice crystals. If the surface of the ice is not covered with snow, then some of that liquid extrudes out of the ice and freezes in the colder air, forming the frost flowers. We want to know if there are lots of microbes in the frost flowers that formed just after we broke open the ice here three days ago. And if there are lots of living things in the frost flowers, who are they? What do they do? How do they survive in a highly salty and frozen environment? Or are they simply unfortunate prisoners that are not adapted to live under these conditions? This is the first time we are in the Arctic. Recently, there has been rapid and drastic change in the Arctic climate. Ice cover above the Arctic circle continues to drop significantly every year. I wonder if we will have enough time to understand the life and environments here before it's too late. I hope in 100 years there will still be ice up here, not only because it has touched me personally so deeply, but also because we need more time to understand how life survives here and how the polar climate impacts the rest of the planet.

All photos above were taken by CCGS Amundsen Captain Lise Marchand on January 17, 2008.