COMMUNITY ECOLOGY COURSE IN KONGSVOLL

Field trip for community ecology course, BI 2034 for this year was planned at Kongsvoll, south of Trondheim. It lies between Oslo and Trondheim and located in the Drivdalen valley in the municipality of Oppdal in Sør-Trøndelag county.

It was four days trip where students from Bachelor’s degree get information on how to conduct research and also collect some field level data themselves that can be used for writing a report. This is part of the course. Bente was already in Kongsvoll whereas Singrid and I drove in the morning from department at 8:00 AM on 23^rd of August 2011. It took us nearly 3 hours to reach there. On the way we stopped at shopping centre to buy food and others because we are supposed to buy at least breakfast and other foods ourselves. The university owns some cabins there and the University Museum has a nice botanical garden in Kongsvoll. When we reached there some students were already in the research station. Some of them took train while others reached with their own car.

We were sleeping in a guest house near by the highway whereas students were living in the cabins near by train station.

After lunch, they had lecture. Bente took some lectures on the course and at the evening I have to take lecture on methods on community ecology and some statistical methods but because Bente took longer time for her lecture, we decided to postpone my lecture for morning. The students selected the possible research themes that they will produce report on and we discussed how they are supposed to collect data from the field. This was there first time that they are collecting data for producing reports themselves and they are using some basic analysis tools for their data. On the same day, the person taking care of the botanical garden, took us to the garden and gave information on environmental condition of the area and flora they have in the garden. Asst. Prof. Jenny from Department of Biology and her colleagues who were there for research meeting also joined the trip to botanical garden. Later in the evening, Dagmar from NINA gave lecture on what she is doing in Døvre Mountain.

The next day we went out to collect information and sampling. I spent few hours out in the field and returned back to the research station because I have to read some literatures from the PhD course in Abisko which is scheduled from 2^nd to 8^th September 2011. The same day, Thor Harald joined for his lecture. After students arrived from field, they worked on their samples. They have to clip out this years production from the collected samples because the research projects are based on primary production.

The day Thor Harald and Bente had lectures on some topics and students worked in lab processing their samples. The next day till 11:00, the students worked in lab, processing their samples. After they finished processing, all the samples were kept in the van which we were driving.    

On the third day, Sigrid and I drove to Døvre Mountain to see Musk Ox. It is thought that Musk Ox was able to survive the last ice age by finding ice free areas away from prehistoric people. As I talked to Dagmar that I have not seen those animals before, se suggested me to go to Døvre Mountain to see those animals. The third day she ringed Sigrid and told that she noticed some Musk Ox near by the river on the way to Døvre Mountain from Kongsvoll. Sigrid and I drove to that area. We saw few Musk Ox on the way but I wanted to see them from closer. So, we drove to Døvre Mountain where we saw some individuals. On the way we meet one photographer from Netherlands who took some close-up pictures of Musk Ox. This is the first time I saw those rare animals. We returned back to Trondheim on 26th August at 12:15.

FIELD WORK IN TRONDHEIM

We sampled Impatiens noli-tangere and collected samples for seed bank (samples for Jan in Stockholm) in Trondheim on 18^th and 19^th August 2011. According to the plan, Serina was also here could join the trip and it will be easier for us as we are 4 people. All the populations of Impatiens noli-tangere were near by Hommelvik areas so, we drove to Hommelvik for for collecting Impatiens noli-tangere samples. It took us one day and few hours for next day. After we finished collecting samples of Impatiens noli-tangere, we drove to Lade to collect samples for seed bank experiment. For seedbank experiment, we already marked plots with Stachys sylvatica and Poa nemoralis from where we have to harvest inflorescence of these two species. There populations were from Lade to Byneset. We managed to finish all the populations by 19:00. The last population to be sampled was at Tomset. It was about 19:15 when we finished the final sampling. Serina and Jennifer helped a lot and worked hard to finish sampling by that day. After sampling I decided to have food out. We decided to have food in McDonald for celebrating last day of sampling Impatiens however sampling of Impatiens glandulifera in Trondheim has not done. But, Serina is leaving on 31^st August so, we decided to have food immediately after field work. We drove to McDonald at Sluppen. It was already 21:00 when we (Sharmila and I) arrived home from the University where we put all the samples in drier and cleaned soil probes.

FIELD WORK IN LUND AND LUND TO TRONDHEIM

On 7^th August, 2011, we started our trip for Lund at around 10:00. We bought some foods in Bremen for 1 day as it was Sunday. There we two ways to reach to Lund: one via Copenhagen and other via ferry. The first one was bit longer but we chose that because it was cheaper than the second option. It will cost only around 300 plus SEK for us but via ferry that might cost around 1000 SEK. When we choosed via Copenhagen where we have to cross Øresund Bridge, the longest bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden and have to pass highway under the sea. After crossing the bridge and tunnel highway, we reached Lund. I already booked Zoological Research Station of Lund University as suggested by Prof Jörg from Lund University. I had a map of the research station but without street name then it was difficult to figure out the location with the navigation system we are using in the van. I called to the contact person in the university but he was also not sure about the street name. When I called to the Prof. Jörg, we told us to wait at the same area and he will come there within 5-10 minutes. He told me that he is near by. After Jörg arrived, we greeted and drove to the research station. When we followed Jörg, we knew that we already crossed the research station; there was small road to the research station which we could not mark.

When we reached the research station, we meet Klaus, a post doc from Lund University. He has recently started his position and is living in the research station since some weeks. Klaus was very friendly, helpful and smiling guy. He guided us to the rooms and other practical information. We decided to meet the next day at 8:00 AM and Jörg left us.

We started our sampling from 8:00 AM in the morning on 8^th August. Luckily the days were ok with some days with little rain. Some of the sites were very marshy and I was wondering about Sharmila who had no rubber boots. I borrowed from Research Station for me. Later Jörg told that he could look boots from his son in his home and finally he found one pair for Sharmila. She used those boots during whole sampling period. Jörg helped us to reach each and every site in Lund. He was with us during whole sampling time. Next day, some researchers from Upsala University joined us in the research station. They were there for two days. Later two from Turkey came in the research station. They are there for research on crow. Of those two, one did masters from Lund University and other recently arrived Lund.

On the last day, we went to see Lund University and Jörg’s office. The university is situated at the heart of the city. In Jörg’s office I saw a picture of students who did masters under Erasmus Mondus program. Of those students, one was my high school friend, Mr. Basanta Gautam, who is now in Finland. When I talked to Jörg about this, he said that the students completed studies before he joind Lund University.

Later in the evening we decided to have barbeque with Klaus and two Turkish friends. That was memorable evening with them in Lund. Next day we have to take train to Oslo at 22:55.  According to the plan, we are supposed to leave our van in Europcar’s office in Lund. I and Jennifer went to leave car. It was little bit far from the central train station and it was raining so, we could not walk. Klaus told us that he could help us if we rang him. So, I called to Klaus and he came to pick up us to the train station. It was raining outside so, we could not go out however, me and Sharmila walked around city to things with one umbrella. We bought food for dinner in Subway.We waited in the train station until the train arrives.

The train route was from Lund C - Södertälje – Karlstad – Oslo. We have to change train twice: once at Södertälje and later in Karlstad. The train we were travelling was to Stockholm so, we have to get out in Södertälje at 5:33 AM and catch another train to Karlstad C at 6:33 AM and in Karlstad C, we had only 7 minutes for changing train. I was wondering whether we might miss the train but, luckily the train to Oslo was delayed because of some problem in the train. Later they found other train where we got free food and internet because the train was delayed by about 45 minutes. We arrived Oslo C at around 12:15.

In Oslo C, we booked luggage cabins for your luggage and went to the city for lunch. We had lunch in the restaurant. After food, Serina and Jennifer came to the station whereas; I and Sharmila went to see the Asian shops to buy ghee and many other things. We took train to Trondheim at 4:00 and arrived Trondheim at 23:00.

ONE NEIGHT IN BREMEN, GERMANY

As it is very long trip from Brussels to Lund, we decided to have one day stay in Bremen, Germany from where Serina and Jennifer started the trip. 

We started our trip to Germany at 9:00AM. After nearly 15 minutes of drive, I realized that I forgot to drop key card at the hotel. We have to drive back to the hotel to drop those cards. It was nearly 500 Km from Brussels, Belgium to Bremen, Germany. On the way, we stopped somewhere in Netherlands for lunch. We had a long traffic in the highway near by Lumberg. Later we came to know that there was flood in Bremen 3-4 days. Whole city was flooded and some hotels are not still operating because of the flood. When Jennifer called to the hotel, which we booked earlier, the hotel was closed because of flooding. We have to find new hotel for Sharmila and me because serina and Jennifer both had their room in Bremen. Finally we found one room in a hotel at Langemarckstraße which was also near by Serina’s room.

After we collected key, Jennifer left to meet her boy friend, Serina went to her room and Sharmila and me to the Hotel and Serina promised us to take to the city for city tour for which we decided to meet at 18:00 in front of the hotel.

After Serina came, we went to the Chinese restaurant for food. We found teasty Chinese noodles and spicy (hot) sauces and soup.

We took tram to the city centre and got off near by Langenstraße and walked through the beer bars. All the restaurants /bars were full with people who were busy in drinking beers, famous German beers. I cannot simply walk without testing German beer. We (Serina and I) decided to drink one glass special beer. After a glass of beer, we walked along the street to the centre. It was already 20:00 so, shops were already closed. We walked along Wachtstraße, Am Markt, Sandstraße, Schüttingstraße and walked back to the hotel. In the city, Serina described us about the story of a cat, a donkey, a dog and a rooster, a bronze statue of these animals on the back of each other is found in front of the museum in Bremen. We walked to the hotel later evening.

FIELD WORK IN BELGIUM

We reached the Sleep Well, hostel in Brussels at around 18:15. Although all the sampling sites were near by Ghent, I have to book hotel in Brussels because it is the only one available during our trip and it is very difficult to find cheap ones in Ghent. 

Peter, one of our collaborators, has already identified the populations of all the species and he left information on those populations in his office which we have to collect before we start our trip. The distance between Ghent and Brussles is 50 plus kilometres so, we have drive every day more than 100 km. On the first day, we went to Pieter’s office, Laboratory of Forestry, Ghent University at Gontrode. In the office, we met Wisley, roommate of Pieter whom Pieter had described every thing. We received a package with description of all the sites and the route we can use for sampling.

According to Pieter’s suggestion, we went to sample Impatiens parviflora population 4 which was in between Kere and Eeklo. The population was near by the garden. After we found the population, we had lunch as it was already 12:15. After lunch we finished sampling this population and looked for population 3 of I. parviflora. After sampling those populations, we tried to find other populations but we could not and the GPS coordination Pieter provided is also different than what I am using. It is because we were using different coordination system than Pieter used. So, we had problem in finding rest populations. We were roaming round to find population/s with the small sketch which Pieter provided and suddenly saw some locals. They were with map of the local area but they also could not figure out where the populations could be. When I described about what I am doing, they seem so interested in the plant. One lady was very happy say that she has Impatiens glandulifera in her garden. Later when I told her that the plant is highly invasive in Europe and is really a problematic, then she said, she will remove all the plants from her garden when she is back to her home.

After when we were back at hotel, we figured out the location of populations with the help of google map and for rest days it went smoothly for sampling.

We finished sampling by 5^th of July 2011. We sampled 4 populations of Impatiens parviflora and 6 populations of Impatines noli-tangere whereas Pieter will sample 6 populations of I. glandulifera.

On the 5^th July, we went out for dinner in a restaurant. We decided to meet at Grand Place, Grote Markt at 18:00 and find restaurant for food. Sharmila want to buy some clothes so we went our bit earlier to the city. On the way to Grote Markt, we bought couple of clothes for Sharmila and for me. When we reached Grote Markt, Serina was already there and later Jennifer also joined us. We went to see restaurants and when we followed a small road, we saw many restaurants and many waiters calling for tourists to come to their restaurants. You hear the same statements when you pass one hotel. Finally we decided to sit in one restaurant and had soups, shrimps, chicken and many more.

It was already 20:15 when we finished our dinner. After dinner, we decided to walk to the city to see night life of Brussels. On the way back, I saw one curio shop with the name Everest. I went inn to see the things and see the owner. The owner look mongol face and I thought he also could be the person from Tibet. I did not ask him. Later, I wanted to buy one gift item, I went to the cash counter and asked him, are you from Nepal? Then he said oh dai tapai pani Nepali nai ho? (Oh Brother, are you also from Nepal?) Then we shared our greetings, talked about our homes back in Nepal. He is Lalit Magar who is from Myagdi, which lies in western development region from where I am. He is from the village which I already know because our neighbour back in Pokhara are also from the same village. We were in Brussels since five days and we don’t meet any Nepalese but on very final day we met lalit ji. We tried a lot to see whether there are Nepalese restaurants or not since we were in Brussels because we wanted to taste Nepali food but we could not find. Lalit ji offered us coke and other drinks for free. He seemed so happy after seeing us. Later we knew that there are other Nepalese curio shops along the street and we met them after we followed the street. On the very last day in Brussels, we met many Nepalese.

We left for Bremen, Germany on 6^th July 2011 at 9:00 AM.

SAMPLING IN EUROPE: TRIP TO FRANCE

We left early in the morning at 4:30 AM to catch flight at 6:30 AM to Oslo. We have to fly from Oslo to Charleori (Brussels) at 10:30 AM. We had 3 hours transit at Rygge airport, Oslo. We reached Oslo on time. That was the first time I am using Ryanair, one of the cheapest airlines in Europe. They are very strict for weight of luggage. We saw many people paying a lot extra charges for extra luggage. If you have to pay, extra for one kg luggage, the charge seems more than the travel fare. Also, we noticed many people putting on many clothes and other things in their pockets to avoid extra charges.

According to the schedule, we planned to meet with two Germany internship students (Serina and Jennifer) at Charleori (Brussels) and drive to Amiens, France. They were driving a hired van from Europcar. They were planned to leave Germany at 8:00 AM. After we landed at Charleori, I called to Jennifer and she said they are on the way to airport and it might take one more hours to reach airport. After one hour, I called her and they finally arrived at the airport. We have not met before so, it took some time to find them. Finally we found them. We loaded all luggages in the Van. They seem very excited for the trip and field work.

We left Charleori at around 14:15. The distance between Charleori and Amines, France is 200 plus kilometre. We supposed it might take 3-4 hours to reach Amines. On the way we talked about the research plan, samplings, target plants and places we will be visiting. I had already booked hotel at Amines (Hotel Premiere Classe, Amines). This was for one day. For other days, I booked hotel in Compiégne region because because Olivier suggested me to book hotel in Compiégne region as our sampling sites are near by Compiégne region. I booked same hotel, Hotel Premiere Classe in Compiégne.

When we reached the hotel, the server of the hotel was not working. We were so, tired and have to wait outside for nearly one hour because the boy at the reception do not know about our reservation. We had to wait until the server works. Finally he called me for room keys.

According to our plan, we are supposed to meet at the centre of Amines with Olivier for dinner and he promised us to take for sightseeing.

I knew Olivier before during the FLEUR meeting in Trodheim in February 2011. The sampling I am doing is in collaboration with FLEUR people. FLEUR is a network where people form different regions form Europe (Amines, France; Ghent, Belgium; Bremen, Germany; Lund, Sweden; Stockholm, Sweden; and Trondheim, Norway)  is affiliated and are cooperating with field work for each other.

As per our plan, we met Olivier in front of the Cathédrale d'Amiens at 20:00. We went in one restaurant and ordered food for us. We had nice food (Tourist Menu) at the restaurant. At evening, we went to see the Cathédrale d’ Amiens which is called The Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens. The Cathedral looks so beautiful (appears colourful) during night when they use light projection on it. After that we had walk around Rue de la Dodane. The city looks very colourful during night with gatherings and music.

Next day we decided to visit Compiégne for searching Impatiens noli-tangere. We left hotel at 7:00 AM. The day we first went to the see six populations of Impatiens noli-tangere around Lacroix-Saint-Ouen. Olivier had already found those populations and we were there for collecting samples. The first population was near by Sainte-Penne. So, we went to the nearby office of the forest department. We had lunch and started hunting Impatiens. One staff of the forest office was very helpful who spoke very little English.

The whole day we spent on looking populations and decided to start sampling the next day. After visiting those populations, Olivier returned back to Amiens and we went to the hotel at Compiégne.

The next day (30.07.2011) we sampled all the populations of Impatiens noli-tangere. On 31.07.2011, we decided to visit Paris as this is the first time in France and we don’t want to miss the opportunity to see Eiffel tower and Paris.

As we are finished with sampling, we decided to leave for Brussels after visiting Paris on 01.08.2011. However, the rooms were booked from 02.08.2011 onwards. I made a call to the hostel in Brussels and they said they can change the booking i.e. we will get rooms from 01.08.2011 onwards. At the same time, I have to talk to the hotel at Compiégne because I already paid for 01.08.2011. When I wanted to talk to the lady at the reception, she did not speak English. That was very strange for me that the person working at the reception of a hotel don’t speak English. Later Serina talked to the lady with her little French and she said it should be ok to cancel for one day but we have talk to the hotel owner who use to show up during morning.

We decided to drive our Van for some distance and take train to central Paris because it might be difficult to find parking space for Van and have to pay charge for parking. After parking our Van, we took train to Eiffel tower and walked along the river, Seine River. Around Eiffel tower, we noticed many hookers selling curio items along the street. We noticed some of them are Indias as they speak Hindi when we are near by supposing that we are from India. Most of them seem to be immigrants. This reminded me back to Kathmandu where we find many mobile shops and people use to run when police want not to put them along the streets. We call them Jhole poke (people with big packs on their back pack). We walked along the Seine river to see many historical things. Later we went to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. Serina had already been to Paris for some months so she could speak little French and knew couple of places to visit. So, we followed here. From Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, whole Paris city can be seen. After that, we went to Louvre Museum. It is one of the biggest museum but we did not went in because we were already late and we could not visit all Museum.

We were so, tired so we decided to return back to the hotel. We reached hotel at 19:00. Packed our things and made ready for leaving the next day.

Next day, I talked with the hotel owner and he was ready to return back my money which I already paid.

We left for Brussels at 9:15 AM.