I arrived in Iqaluit on Monday to start my second field season in the Arctic. When I was in Iqaluit last year, I was amazed to see a star on a Nunavut Territorial Parks' map showing the geographical centre of Canada as being close to Baker Lake, Nunavut. That was when it really sank in how far north I was going. I've reposted the map from last year showing my journey north and my field sites at Iqaluit, Baffin Island and Lake Hazen, Ellesmere Island. I have a total of 10 hours of flying pretty much due north from Ottawa to reach my northern field site!
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| My route from Ottawa to my field sites at Iqaluit, Baffin Island and Lake Hazen, Quttinirpaaq National Park, Ellesmere Island. The geographical centre of Canada is close to Baker Lake, Nunavut |
My field work this
summer will again monitor the timing of flowering and fruiting of Arctic plants
but will be a much more quantitative study this year and focused on a subset of
the species we monitored last year. We will be tagging plants of each species
and recording the start, peak and finish of flowering and fruit dispersal dates
by counting the flowers open or fruits dispersing seed on each plant every 3-4
days. We will also be taking photographs to create a kind of time lapse photography
of the phenological progression of each species.
(Saxifraga flagellaris) at Lake Hazen in 2013
I have 3 field
assistants to help me this summer, Emma, an undergraduate in Biology from
Carleton University and Joan, a bachelor of science undergraduate at Athabasca University and living in Iqaluit, will be
monitoring the Iqaluit sites and Teresa, an undergraduate in Biology at UofT
from Iqaluit, will be working with me at Lake Hazen. Look out for posts from
all of us as we conduct our field work this summer.
Hope weather is warmer than this time last year.
ReplyDeleteIs there any snow lying or perhaps more important, is any forecast?
Zoe, good luck with your summer field work. I hope that you will be eating more than just curry and stew. My choice would have been nuts, oatmeal, raisins, peanut butter, and crackers. Then you would not have had to dehydrate anything.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to monitoring plant phenology, you might consider some hot-top warming experiments. Will warming up the plants accelerate phenology? What type of thermometers and temperature gauges do you have? Do you have any capabilities to take infra-red photos?
Richard Primack
Richard, thanks for your comments and suggestions! Your choice of food is good for breakfasts and lunch but after working outside all day a good hearty stew or curry is needed for supper!
ReplyDeleteWe are using simple thermistors to measure the temperature. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) has done many hot-top warming experiments and indeed they do advance the timing of flowering. Greg Henry and some of Joseph Svoboda's other graduate students are or have been involved with the ITEX work.