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Casey M Kirchhoff, University of New South Wales
Fieldwork has been one of the most enjoyable, and at times challenging, parts of my PhD research. Despite occasional logistical difficulties, every time I arrive at my field sites I fall in love with my study system all over again. Working year-round in the alpine environment of Kosciuszko National Park has required extensive planning, networking, skill acquisition and, importantly, time. For the past two years, I have conducted a field experiment in which I have manipulated snow cover to see how alpine plants respond to lower snow depths during winter and earlier snowmelt during spring. During the snow-free season, plants are repeatedly measured, meaning a lot of time spent up the mountain.
Prior to setting up my field experiment and just a month into my PhD candidature, I got the supervisory green light to head to the mountains to scope out potential sites. After a quick crash course in using a SpotTrakker, GPS and EPIRB, I was on my way to Kosciuszko National Park. Even though I have spent a lot of time hiking in the Kosciuszko alpine region, the excitement and anticipation of walking through the alpine herbfields searching for tiny target species felt like learning a whole new way of seeing. I was hooked.
One thing that became clear soon after is that navigating the university OH&S system, and being on the good side of OH&S officers, was equally important as navigating the mountains. More than once I received queries on my risk assessment documentation listing ‘avalanche’ as a potential hazard. I’d like to say this is an over exaggeration, but just this year an avalanche occurred on the Etheridge Range, just across the valley from one of my sites. Alpine hazards are not something to take lightly. A rolling fog can engulf the mountains in mere seconds, reducing visibility to just a few meters, UV exposure is substantially higher than in the lowlands, and angry thunderstorms seemingly appear out of nowhere. Hazards aside, it seems I was never short of eager volunteers willing to spend a few days counting beautiful alpine wildflowers and tiny alpine leaves. After all, this fieldwork had perks; commuting up the mountain was via a ride on the Kosciuszko Express chairlift from Thredbo Village.
Field work during the winter with some of my trusty equipment (skis, skins, shovel) and a snow removed plot. Credit: Casey M. Kirchhoff.
As much as I love seeing the alpine flora in bloom, as a skier, winter and early spring fieldwork has undoubtedly been my favourite. When the first snow starts to fall, I hop into my trusty old snowshoes, trudging across the ridgelines to clear snow from my plots. As the snow accumulates, there is a tradeoff between the time taken to reach my field sites and the time required to dig out the plots. There is a fine art to neatly shovelling snow off 1 m2 plots, which I’d like to say I got pretty good at by the end of the experiment. For the most part, I would conduct winter fieldwork solo, with the exception of running into Australia’s premier alpine ecologist and my wonderful co-supervisor, Susanna Venn, in the Kosciuszko backcountry.
At times, winter alpine conditions made fieldwork impossible. Strong winds that fill a freshly dug plot with snow in a matter of minutes is deflating, as is driving all the way down to Kosciuszko only to find the snowpack covered with thick sheet ice, making the ski out to the plots impassable. Adverse conditions aside, winter fieldwork in the alpine really is something else, especially on a bluebird day when it’s just you, fresh snow and the beauty of the snow-covered mountains.
To read more about this fantastically unique alpine environment, check out the ‘Kosciuszko Alpine Flora’, or my Instagram: alpine_flora_of_australia.