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Sign up to participate (links out to google form): You will be prompted here to tell us what parts you will participate in:
- Observations with App
- Observations with App + sample collection
- Download our App (if you have a smartphone) – (Apple and Android): It simply lets you capture a GPS coordinate where you see pink snow and share up to 3 pictures with us per location. If you are also sampling, you can enter your sample tube number with your observation. *note, if you are out of cell reception, the app will store your entry and submit it when it is back online.
- Hunting for Pink Snow: Start hunting for pink snow on your next alpine trip. If you see it, record your observation. If you collect it, make sure you record your sample collection with our App that records GPS coordinates, your name, and the name of your location on the sample tube.
- Sample Collections: we will send you a kit or you can pick one up at our pick-up spots (see list here). If we need to send you a kit because you are not near a pick-up spot, you hopefully provided your address in the sign up form. If not, email us at livingsnowproject@gmail.com.
Tips On Collecting Samples:
- Find clean and undisturbed colored (red/pink/orage/green) snow.
- Scoop colored snow with cap and gloved hand
- Fill tube all the way full and make sure cap is on tight!
- Return the sample to a drop-off location or to us directly. Living Snow Project sample collection is a collaboration between the Kodner Lab at WWU and Allison Murray’s lab at the Desert Research Institute. We will sequence the DNA in your samples. We are building a large genetic database of snow algae over space and time. If you need help with return postage, send us an email at livingsnow@wwu.edu. If you are mailing samples back to us, send to:
Dr. Robin Kodner,
Living Snow Project,
516 High St.
Bellingham, WA
98225