It looked like a great idea - setting up passive samplers in some of our lakes early in the season. Passive samplers are devices designed to sample water over a prolonged period of time without pumping or purging. They allow to obtain a representative profile of organic pollution and complement e.g. active sampling (see our previous blog entry).
So, we got everything organized and ready to employ. Then we had a Moskau-Paris weather.... bringing not only snow to Germany, but just down to the Pyrenees. March temperatures plummeted to unusual low levels (it is called climate change, not global warming really) and it kept on snowing in the mountains down to 500 m.
Nevertheless, there are no bad conditions, just bad equipment.... Getting out the snow shoes, gloves, warm clothes, and a four-wheel drive I urged myself up to the mountains. A beautiful site already from afar. The road signs marked that the mountain passes were still closed, not the best sign for some of the P³ sites. Still not discouraged I continued and had the following wonderful sight.
Putting a passive sampler in that lake was just a bit of a challenge. Removing snow and cracking the ice..... Anyway, passive sample has been installed and now will collect all the spring pollutant intake into a few lakes. It will be exciting to see what they will capture.
After 3hrs of hiking with snow shoes and in soft snow, a bit of sweating I had difficulties to restrain myself from not jumping in this lake on my way. Well, but the sign said that is not allowed so I did not.
