Another day in paradise, and a bunch more science. Our group has a number of on-going projects at Skalanes: aerial surveying (near infrared and visible light imagery) for archaeology and ecology, soil parameter analysis and DNA extraction in different types of habitats for ecology, and DNA extraction and tephra analysis for archaeology. Today the diggers went to the test pit and continued digging, measuring, and preparing to take horizontal soil cores in the pit tomorrow. The flyers continued to survey two large areas (~1 square km each) in both light modes. These flights generate hundreds of images each which are harvested to our laptops and then run through Open Drone Map to create composite images of the entire area. Lastly, Faith Jackobs (EC ’18 and IFS ’18) arrived from Texas to help Em and I with our 16S rRNA and ancient DNA analysis workflows. She and I are working through our ancient DNA analysis of the samples we took at Stod last year to confirm that the analysis was done correctly. This includes measuring the amount and nature of the damage to the fragments as part of establishing their age. Stay tuned for the results.

Insert obligatory picture of the amazing natural world at Skalanes here…