Field Notes

From a distance, it may look like a normal briefcase. But you’d be mistaken to assume it contains your typical work necessities — laptop, wallet, pens, perhaps a business card if you’re feeling nostalgic. The case actually opens to reveal a transparent, plastic cylinder with spigots on each end, attached to a long, coiled rope. It appears to be something you might see in a science fiction movie, like the container of some radioactive element. In reality, all it holds is lake water. This tool, called a Van Dorn, is a vital part of the Lilly Center field research team’s lake sampling process.

Among other supplies, the team’s sampling kit also includes a multi-parameter sonde, which records different attributes of the water; a portable weather meter, which measures wind speed and barometric pressure; and a Secchi disk, which measures the water’s clarity. Each week during the summer, the team samples 16 different lakes and 14 stream sites around Kosciusko County. By the third week into the summer, the steps for a successful sampling have become routine.

Each morning, three interns load up the truck with necessary equipment and drive to the first lake of the day. Volunteer boat captains from around the community generously offer their time and watercraft to take the team out to the deepest point in the lake, where they collect their measurements and samples. This process is then repeated on multiple lakes around the county.

Eventually the team returns to the Lilly Center, tired and hot, while the water samples remain carefully chilled in the cooler. These samples are quickly sent up to the research lab, where they are tested for microcystin toxin and E. coli.

Without further ado, the equipment is cleaned and prepped for the next day, and the process begins again. The job of a field researcher is never truly finished!