Researcher Spotlight
Meet Adrian Green
Research Assistant, The Ecosystems Center, Starr 327
Come summer, while most New Englanders stock up on suntan lotion and brace for Cape traffic, Adrian Green pulls out her long underwear, wool hat, and gloves and heads for the hills—the northern foothills of Alaska’s Brooks Range, that is.
Adrian is a Research Assistant in the MBL’s Ecosystems Center. She spends much of June, July, and August at the Arctic Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site at Toolik Lake, located in a remote part of northern Alaska where scientists from around the world gather annually to study one of the most pristine ecosystems on Earth.
The Toolik Field Station is maintained by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and was established in the 1970s when construction of the oil pipeline and the road alongside made access to such a remote site possible.
Adrian just completed her fifth summer at Toolik where she studies nutrient cycling in streams and rivers. She coordinates the logistics (timing, staffing, and equipment) for a variety of experiments and is in charge of maintaining a nutrient fertilization experiment on the Kuparuk River. For more than 20 years, researchers, including her supervisor MBL senior scientist Bruce Peterson, have mimicked increased nutrient input to the river by adding phosphorus to the water. Scientists believe that as global air temperatures increase, permafrost will melt and release more nutrients into the rivers and lakes, potentially impacting stream biota such as algae, insects, and fish.
Adrian is one of only a handful of MBL researchers who spend the entire summer field season at Toolik. Getting there isn’t easy. After a 12-hour flight to Fairbanks, she hops into an old truck and travels 10 bumpy hours north on the unpaved Dalton Highway, driving through outposts like Joy, Wiseman, and Coldfoot and even crossing the Arctic Circle. “Getting to Toolik Lake is an adventure in and of itself,” Adrian explains.
Once there, housing options range from “Tent City”—a series of tents along the shores of Toolik Lake, to canvas huts called “Weatherports.” It’s perpetually light during Alaskan summers, making for long days and tough sleeping conditions. “It’s hard to sleep when it’s light all of the time,” Adrian explains. “The brightness energizes you; it can be midnight but look like 12:00 noon. You want to go out and play soccer.”
Adrian’s adventures have taken her far above the Alaskan wilderness, where she has conducted stream surveys in helicopters, to the remote tundra where field work is sometimes within shouting distance of grizzly bears. While uprooting her life in Woods Hole to move to another part of the world for two months of the year is challenging, “It’s kind of like camp,” she explains. Adrian admits that it’s an amazing environment to work in. “It’s exciting and invigorating,” she says. “I like it because I’m out there really doing something.” |
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Employee Spotlight
Meet Steven Peters
Administrative Assistant, Communications Office, Candle House 200
If you’ve ever visited the second floor of the Candle House looking for an extra copy of an MBL publication, hoping to schedule a tour for family or friends, or wanting to post your free kittens to the classifieds list, chances are you were helped by Steven Peters.
Steve’s willingness to help carries over to his life outside of work, where he volunteers his time for a variety of causes.
Steve’s volunteerism started early. He remembers delivering Meals on Wheels with his grandmother at the age of 7. “She introduced me to the importance of helping others in need,” he says. At the age of 15, when most kids are chomping at the bit to get their driver’s license, Steve volunteered at the Chip House in Centerville, a residential home for adults with head injuries. “A lot of residents were there because of car accidents,” Steve explains. “Volunteering there before I got my driver’s license taught me important lessons about driving safely.”
Last summer, Steve helped to raise more than $30,000 for the Mashpee Wampanoag housing program as part of a team of 27 runners who ran the Falmouth Road Race for the cause. This program is organized by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, of which Steve is a member, and provides affordable housing to low to moderate-income families. The program gives priority to those individuals who have children in the Mashpee school system. “The money we raise helps with down payments to significantly reduce monthly payments,” Steve says. “This program makes a huge impact on these families’ lives and gives them a chance to stay in the community when they would otherwise have to move out of Mashpee or off of the Cape.”
Steve had helped to fundraise for the program from the sidelines in 2004 and 2005, but says, “When I saw my little sister and the rest of the family run, I knew I had to get out there, too.” So this summer he made his first Road Race run a memorable one, finishing in just under 50 minutes and placing 512 out of a field of 10,000 runners. More importantly, through Steve’s efforts, and those of his fellow volunteers, he helped to raise more than $100,000 over the last three years.
Steve was also recently appointed by the Mashpee Selectmen to be a member of the Mashpee Affirmative Action Committee, where he hopes to reintroduce the “No Place for Hate” program to the community. It had been disbanded over the past couple of years. “It’s important to have programs in the community such as the Woods Hole Diversity Day that actively promote diversity and acceptance,” Steve says. “As an Affirmative Action Committee member, I hope to organize more events that will help to build this program back up in the Mashpee community.” |
