Bouldering in skåne

This weekend me and 7 others went to southern part of sweden (skåne) for climbing. there is a boulder area, not very big, but with a lot of boulders. It was really good and we had a great time. We were filming and Martin will soon edit the film, I will shove you then!

Hehe, we arrived on friday evening, I couldn't wait, so I climbed up the stairs... =)

I Will go back there to try out more lines. Really fun!

Well, today I had my presentation about cushion plants in the arctic tundra. It wasn't a very good oral presentation, I'm more happy with the abstract. It's good though to have it over done with! =)

Changed the flat tire and climbed

Took the tram to avenyn to meet up Lars and borrow a new tube and some tools from him. 

Fixed my wheel, it's a bit tricky cause hub is fixed, but it worked out fine. 

This is the tricky part; to get the wheel in the right position and the chain to be taight.  

Well, I went to the climbing gym. On this picture a friends daughter is climbing. So cute and really good! 


I had a really good time at the gym and I did good progress =)

When I held ya

Nice song!

Plant shoot

Some weeks ago my mother came to visit me. She brought a big red pepper. I took the seeds and planted them... And look now! =)

very happy!

well, back to the books (and the coffee!)...

=)

For you who like bikes!

If you're a person who like bikes and you visit stockholm, you should defenitley visit the bianchi cafe!

It's a really nice italian café where they also have lots of bikes, expensive bikes though! We just had a cup of coffee but the sandwiches looked really good (so if you are rich try one of those!).

 Not that cozy but a really cool place.

They also have an adjacent gadget shop 

 wow, nice bike! =)

This day was really tough! First I had a modelling excercise, just sit infront of a computer whole day. When I tried to go home I went to my bike and realised that I had a flat tire on the back wheel. Scheiße!
So, I started to walk with the bike. When I came into town (after maybe 3-4 km) I left my bike and took the tram home. So stupid of me not to bring an extra tire and some tools! well, finally at home, I'll go get my bike tomorrow, if it is still there! =/

picking mushrooms

After a very nice breakfast I started to write on a project work about cushion plants. I did almost finish but I want to write a bit more and correct some parts before I hand it in.

After lunch we went out for picking mushrooms! Very nice to be out in the forest where you don't have to think about anything. Very relaxing! We found some mushrooms aswell! 

Hiking boots and a small backpack with coffee and sandwiches! 

We found a nice rock, perfect for climbing! 

One more rock, perfect for climbing.. 

 Don't worrie! we didn't pick this one.. (Cortinarius rubellus) 

(spetstoppig giftspindelskivling in swedish) 

Except for the toxic C. rubellus we found Cantharellus tubaeformis (trattkantarell in swedish)  

Cantharellus tubaeformis  

we saw a lot of small frogs 

This is some kind of slime molds (don't know if that is the proper english name for it?), in latin Myxomycota and swedish slemsvampar, on a blueberry plant (Vaccinium myrtillus)

Calluna vulgaris 

Is this Leucobryum glaucum? 

 Me sitting in heather (Calluna vulgaris) 

A very big ant-heap! 

finaly we found some realy nice and big chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius)...

So, for lunch tomorrow: butter fried mushrooms on bread! =)

...nothing really!

Came home from the fieldtrip two days ago. We were working with the data yesterday, had a model and tried to get out some understandable results from all the data. We came to the conclusion that one hectar of trees will take upp 3,38 kg carbon dioxide per day (in a cloudy day), which is corresponding to a petrol consumtion of 1,43 liters. (in a sunny day the same amount of trees would take up 258 kg carbon dioxide per day which is equal to 109,3 liters of petrol). Even though the model is very simple these results are very interesting, just to know the difference in CO2 uptake in a cloudy and sunny day. But the best part is that we measured everything on our own! 


Well, that was the boring part of those days. I've been biking and climbing a lot, very fun and I'm making progress! Next weekend some friends and I will go to a place called Kjugekull. It's a very big bouldering area, for climbing on boulders. Before then I have to climb a lot to get fit for fight!


Well, that's all for now. 

Excursion day 2

Today we did a lot of measurments... 

To see how much light that is absorbed by a certain amount of leaves we measure the incoming light and the light below the canopy. The difference between these values is the amount of light absorbed by the canopy. 

 Measuring incomming radiation on a field

measure the radiation below a forest canopy 

 This sensor register the radiation

We also wanted to know how effecient the photosynthesis are in a leaf, and how much it respire. We had a pretty advanced instrument, measuring the difference in CO2 concentration for a certain time and the difference in water vapor concentration in the same time. Then we calculate the respiration and the Photosynthesis.. very easy! =)

This instrument measure the CO2 uptake in a leaf and the H2O output from a leaf

 Johan Uddling, one of the teachers at one measure station

 We are measuring the uptake of CO2 by the leaf

Much better weather today than yesterday, we're happy for that. In the afternoon we had free studies, reading articles and prepair for a seminar tomorrow.

Excursion

We left Gothenburg early this morning driving to Skogaryd, a station were we measure green house gas fluxes. It was pretty exciting to see the area but the weather was horrible! 

 Bridges to reach the methane mesurments in the lake

Methane measure

Brownification in a nearby stream 

Gas measurements in the soil at different depths 

A tower for measuring the respiration at different heights and Green house gas fluxes and air turbulens

 An overflooded road

 John had high boots which Julia didn't =)

this day was embossed by heavy rain and wet feets, but the temper were good and we hope that the storm and the rain stops until tomorrow!

presentation

Perfect start today: run out of coffee filters! Used paper towels instead.. But it worked pretty good so no distress for me!

Had my presentation at one, before that I went climbing at the gym for about one and a half hour, very nice. The presentation went good but it was a bit meaningless to tell a very small class (8 student or someting) about what I have done and what I'll do... anyway, it feels good to get it over with!


Ended class at four an went to town to do some things. Bought a pair of tights, a tank top and a very nice cardigan. Nice to change some of my very old and boring clothes to brand new ones. =)


I also have packed my bag for a fieldtrip that starts tomorrow, for three days, with the "global change biology" course. I think it will be very nice, except for the weather... The weather forecast predicts rain and storm! huu, not very good, hope they have wrong! Well, tell you about that soon!

Flat tire, but still a very nice day!

I got a flat tire twice today.. but no worries.. I fixed it and was out there again, doing what I do best, RIDE MY BIKE!

Biking in the forest with my fixie.. very nice feeling to bike with the new shoes. love it!

We were biking around and I practiced on skid technique, making progress..

Except for biking I've been studying whole day.. Read about the carbon balance in plants and how the photosynthesis is limited by different factors in different environments. very interesting and usefull.


Tomorrow i'll have a short presentation about my bachelor thesis... I I'm not really prepared but i think i'll do fine by improvising... or at least i hope so cause that's basicly what i'll do!


I'll let you know tomorrow how it went! 

Something totally different!

I bought a pair of clipless shoes yesterday (for my clipless pedals) to my racing bike. Before yesterday i thought that it was just geeky to bike with special shoes and to have a lot of equipment. But now when I've tried I relized that it was amazing! It's a totally different feeling then biking with clips. It's really crazy, and I love it. All I want to do is go out biking, unfortunatly I'm not up for biking today, we're going out climbing instead.. Which is also very nice! I'll go biking tomorrow instead.. I just wanted to tell you that if you haven't tried clipless shoes, DO IT!

Coffee on floor three

Nice day today. Woke up and had a nice breakfast with Lars. Biked to school. Meet up with one of the PhDs (we worked together this summer in the biodiversity project) to leave my plants that I untill now had in my own freezer at home, mission completed they are now in a freezer at the university. He offered a coffee on floor three (where the scientist have there offices), it was a very nice chat but the coffee wasn't very good (a not so interesting machine made coffee). We gossiped about "the big guys" at uni and how they act in front of each other and how geeky they are, very amusing (nasty, but in a playful way). We found shortly afterwards that both of us will be exactly like them sooner or later. And we look forward to it! =)


On monday I will have a short presentation about my thesis. Just some background , the goal, the purpose etc. It's fun to write but it would have been better if I didn't have so much to read in the "global change biology" course. Well well it could have been worse. I actually took the time to climb (at the climbing gym) today. Very nice!

Boom! To be thrown into a semester in the speed of light

This monday I started a new cours, "global change biology". A very nice course that adressing plant physiology and how plants adapt to different environments. We´re talking about climate change, carbon dioxid exchange between plants and the atmosphere, nitrogen- and phosphorus requirements, different types och photosynthesis and a lot more. It's an advanced cours for master students (which is good since I have all the undergraduate credits that I need) who had a bachelor degree in biology or environmental science with biology approach. Every thing is great except for a small detail: I do not meet the entry requerments for the cours because I have not read any biology. This means that all the teachers believe that everybody are following all the time... BUT NO! hehe.. well... What i'm doing now is that I'm reading alot all the time and i'm trying to keep up with the rest of the group. Since I don't know any plant physiology, it's sometimes realy hard to understand.. but anyway, the course is really good and so far I'm following!


So, in two days my life changed very much, from having a three months long holliday to this I-have-to-study-all-the-time-life. 


And do you know what? I like it! =)


This week I'll start writing a short text about how plants adapt to the arctic/high alpine areas. Very interesting and fun!





Even though I'm studying alot there is still time for having fun! I bike and I climb as much as I can. =)