{"id":1125,"date":"2026-01-15T02:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T01:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:09:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T11:09:45","slug":"winter-is-coming-fieldwork-edition-or-something-for-your-not-to-do-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/2026\/01\/15\/winter-is-coming-fieldwork-edition-or-something-for-your-not-to-do-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter is coming \u2013 Fieldwork edition (Or: something for your not-to-do list)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a marine scientist working in the Baltic Sea area, summers are usually reserved for fieldwork: excursions to cliffs and beaches, research cruises with FK Littorina<\/em>, and diving campaigns. Winters, on the other hand, are meant for processing and analysing the huge amounts of data collected during summer and for preparing the next field season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how it usually works, right? Well. As a PhD student researching cliff erosion processes, things can be a bit different. At least they were for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why winter matters (unfortunately)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cliff erosion is mainly driven by forces such as wind, waves, and high water levels. In other words: during summer there is often not much to see, while the big changes happen during the stormy winter season. So if you want to understand erosion processes, winter is not optional. Practically, it means: fieldwork all year round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For someone like me, who genuinely enjoys fieldwork, that sounds like good news. But there is always a but<\/em>. To be honest, winter fieldwork at the Baltic Sea coast can be tricky. And sometimes it just really, really sucks.Here are two winter fieldwork experiences I absolutely do not<\/strong> recommend
(but can luckily laugh about today).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drone incident<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of my main tasks during my PhD was to locate and quantify erosion by comparing 3D models of a specific cliff section. Once a month, I drove to the cliff at Stohl and let \u201cDronita\u201d, the drone of our working group, do her thing. (In my defence: I didn\u2019t give her a name or a gender. But now it is what it is.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following pre-planned flight paths, Dronita flew over the cliff section and took hundreds of photos from different heights and angles. From these images, I created a time series of high-resolution 3D models, allowing me to see exactly where material was eroding from the cliff and where sediment was being deposited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summer, this worked beautifully. With the start of autumn and winter, however, survey conditions became\u2026 challenging: too windy, too rainy, too foggy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Beach cliffs at Stohl, Tanitas study area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The almost perfect forecast<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I still remember how excited I was when the weather forecast finally announced sunny and calm conditions. That temperatures had dropped below zero didn\u2019t bother me at that moment. I packed up Dronita, put on sunglasses, and headed off to Stohl \u2013 completely unsuspecting. The fact that my car struggled to start that morning due to a low battery should have been a warning, though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already in summer, my surveys were limited by the drone\u2019s battery capacity. In winter, when it\u2019s roughly 25 degrees colder, battery performance drops dramatically. Usually, that\u2019s not a problem: the drone warns you early enough to land safely and change batteries. Usually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the hardware tries to save itself<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On that very cold day at the cliff, I clearly overestimated the battery \u2013 and apparently Dronita did too. Midway through the survey, my remote control started beeping and vibrating: low battery warning<\/strong>. No problem, I thought, and initiated my usual manoeuvre to fly the drone back to me. She was only meters away.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then things escalated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The battery level dropped so fast that Dronita suddenly switched into full emergency mode. She ignored my frantic button-mashing on the remote, climbed up to 100 meters altitude, and tried to fly back to her take-off point with the last bit of energy. The problem? That point was at the complete opposite end of the cliff section. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I started panicking too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dronita was rapidly flying out of sight, and I wasn\u2019t sure whether she would make it to her destination \u2013 or simply drop from the sky. So I ran after her. In my head, I already prepared apologies for having destroyed a several-thousand-euro drone. After an 800-meter full-on sprint, I finally reached her landing spot. There she was. Peacefully sitting near the edge of the cliff. She was completely fine. And so was I \u2013 after a few minutes of heavy breathing. But, honestly, I\u2019ve had better days. (Not so) fun fact: because the cliff was partly covered in snow that day, the data were unusable for my research anyway. In Conclusion: an absolutely nerve-wracking and completely useless day. <\/strong>Don\u2019t try this at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Save money for the gym \u2013 dig at frozen cliff instead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Sampling a frozen cliff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Studying the profile of a beach cliff during winter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ok, I got one more \u2013 not quite as useless but still not recommended. It is about digging a cliff profile for geological analyses in winter. At least this time. I wasn\u2019t unaware of the challenge. It was mainly bad timing<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The geological and sedimentological analysis of the Stohl cliff was supposed to be part of a student\u2019s master\u2019s thesis and, therefore, time-sensitive. So she and I did what had to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this was a bad idea<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even during summer, digging a cliff profile at most locations along the Baltic Sea coast is exhausting. The cliffs mainly consist of glacial till: very dense, compacted sediment containing all grain sizes – from tiny clay particles to large boulders. Obviously, the material becomes even harder when it is freezing outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After several hours, many swear words and gasps of exhaustion, we eventually managed to dig a profile of roughly 1.2 by 3 metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The silver lining<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the end, the hard physical work didn\u2019t kill us but made us stronger (quite literally) and actually kept us warm despite the ice-cold wind at the coast. We managed to collect all required data, and the master\u2019s student successfully analysed the samples to finish her thesis.Still, my recommendation to every student remains this: If your thesis requires this type of fieldwork, don\u2019t start it when winter is coming.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Snow-covered beaches along the Baltic Sea coast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tanita<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a marine scientist working in the Baltic Sea area, summers are usually reserved for fieldwork: excursions to cliffs and beaches, research cruises with FK Littorina, and diving campaigns. Winters, on the other hand, are meant for processing and analysing the huge amounts of data collected during summer and for preparing the next field season. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":1121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[96,97,37,98],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-view-of-a-scientist","tag-fieldwork","tag-geosciences","tag-phd-life","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1127,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions\/1127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/oceanvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}