Nunavut Day in Resolute

Yesterday was Nunavut Day and the community at Resolute held celebrations at Lake Resolute. There was a fishing contest, a boat race, a picnic of Arctic char and caribou, and a big bonfire of wooden pallets, that last years supplies came in on, to keep us warm. It was a cold blustery day but good to be outside doing something while we wait for good weather to fly into Alex.

Nunavut Day in Resolute.

Fishing on Lake Resolute for Nunavut Day celebrations.
The lake is still frozen and thick enough to walk on.

Boat race at Nunavut Day celebrations in Resolute.

At the reconstructed Thule site nearby, I was excited to see a red phalarope flying around. The last and only time I have seen this colourful shorebird before was at Lake Hazen in 2014. The Thule site has quite lush vegetation from the nitrogen and other minerals accumulated from years of human activity there from about 1400 to 1650 A.D. There was purple saxifrage, tufted saxifrage, sulphur buttercups and Draba corymbosa in flower and Arctic poppys in bud.

Cushion of Parrya arctica with purple flowers. Along with purple saxifrage,
this species in flower all around Resolute.

Bright yellow flowers of Draba corymbosa.
Look carefully you will also see the fleshy leaves of sulphur buttercups
and the nodding stems of Saxifrage cernua.

There is a a large low pressure system hanging over Ellesmere Island that doesn't seem to want to move on. With it comes bad weather and with the bad weather it is not possible to fly into our field sites. A group of researchers from Queens University who had been at PCSP Resolute for a week finally got into their field site at Cape Bounty, Melville Island last night but I hear it was a rough ride with the strong winds. Besides our group waiting to get to Alex, there is a group of microbiologists from McGill University waiting to get to Axel Heiberg Island.

A rare albino flowered Parrya arctica near the Thule settlement at Resolute

Fogged in at Resolute

Resolute has a reputation for being foggy. Researchers staging through the PCSP facility at Resolute on their way to and from their field sites have plentiful stories of spending days waiting for a clear patch to fly in or out. We arrived in Resolute on Friday to clear skies, Saturday too was clear with even the odd sunny patch.

Quick stop at Pond Inlet, Baffin Is. on the way to Resolute
with Bylot island in the background

As Murphy's law would have it, Sunday, the day we were scheduled to fly to Alex - the affectionate name for Alexandra Fiord - dawned foggy and wet. We can't even see the runway across the road from the PCSP accommodation.

PCSP buildings shrouded in fog 8th July 2018

On Saturday, we found purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) in full flower at Resolute bringing a splash of colour to a stony barren landscape. Purple saxifrage is one of the first flowers to come out in spring so the growing season is only just underway here at Resolute. For such a barren landscape, when I start to look closely, I am always impressed at how many plant species there are around Resolute. We also saw Parrya arctics and tufted saxifrage (Saxifraga cespitosa) in flower and the mosses below snow melt patches are a vivid dash of green and red.

Purple saxifrage in full bloom in Resolute 7th July 2018

There a treasure trove of equipment around the PCSP building from projects long forgotten. Old cranes, trailers, engines and even an old school bus built in 1964. Shipping out such equipment is too expensive so it just decays whereever it was left.

1964 Orange school bus at PCSP Resolute

Alexandra Fiord - new research, new field site

I am excited to be heading to the Arctic tomorrow to a field site that will be new for me, Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. First Air is treating us to a milk run flight with stops at Iqaluit, Hall Beach, Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay and finally arriving at Resolute. We will stay at the Polar Continental Shelf (PCSP) facility before taking a chartered flight to Alexandra Fiord. Check out my MapShare page to track my progress north. Currently it is about 44C with humidex in Ottawa and a windchill of -2C in Resolute so it is going to be like going from the oven to the freezer, I am looking forward to some cooler weather!

Map of Nunavut showing the communities I will be stopping at
on flights to Alexandra Fiord field site

The Alexandra Fiord site is part of the pan-Arctic International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) and was established more than 25 years ago to study Arctic tundra ecology and the impacts of climate change. Alexandra Fiord is also an old RCMP outpost first established in 1926 and occupied again in the 1950s.

Mountain avens (Dryas integrifolia) flowers and seeds

My research this summer will be looking at the relationship between flowering phenology, plant reproductive success and plant community composition. I will be recording flowering times, collecting seed for germination experiments and measuring plant community composition at warming and control plots at the site.

Iqaluit in March: Experiencing an Arctic Winter

Visiting Iqaluit for the IAFS was like a home coming and a new experience rolled into one. A home coming because I had spent so much time in and around Iqaluit in 2013 and 2014 conducting my PhD field work. I even stayed in the Nunavut Arctic College's Q units during the IAFS as I had in my previous stays in Iqaluit. A new experience because I have never experienced an Arctic winter before. We actually lucked out with the weather with beautiful sunny, windless blue-sky days a little warmer than might be typical but days still no warmer than about -15C and dropping below -20C at night. The Arctic winter I experienced was no colder than a cold, sunny, winter day in Ottawa

Iqaluit in winter from the breakwater (left) and Frobisher Bay from behind the visitors centre (right)
both pictures show extensive rough ice where the tides heave up the sea ice close to shore.

The city of Iqaluit has both stayed the same and changed. All the old buildings and institutions are still there but some new buildings have been added. The new airport building has now opened, replacing the old “yellow submarine”. There are some new small low rise colourful apartment buildings in the centre replacing open spaces. The empty field with inuksuks next to the Nunavut Arctic College is in the process of being transformed into a huge expansion of the college.

Iqaluit's new airport building (top left) that recently replaced the old "yellow submarine" (top right).
Iqaluit's new colourful downtown buildings (middle). The igloo shaped building is Iqaluit's cathedral.
The new Nunavut Arctic College building under construction (bottom left) and the field of Inuksuk's
in 2013 (bottom right) where the building is now being constructed.

There is a beautiful new, bright fitness centre with swimming pool and gym. I was super excited to get the opportunity to swim in the new pool because when I was in Iqaluit last time it was nothing more than pylon supports for the building. The Iqaluit Director of Recreation, Amy Elgersma, was at Lake Hazen for a couple of weeks in 2014 so I had heard many stories and challenges of building a swimming pool in the Arctic.

Iqaluit's new aquatic centre with swimming pool and gym. The pool is upstairs, I suspect to minimise the impact to the permafrost, the colourful windows (left) allow in lots of natural light. There is a six lane 25m pool and a kiddies
pool with water slide (right). The whole building is suspended off the ground on pylons to allow air circulation
underneath and help keep the permafrost cold.

There was not much more snow this time in March 2018 than when I arrived at the end of May 2013 (a very snowy year) but the snow we encountered at the start of March this time was hard packed wind slab that we could walk on without sinking in compared to the soft snow that was hard to travel over that I encountered in May in previous years. As this was my first visit to the Arctic in the winter, it was interesting to compare my summer photos from 2013 and 2014 with my winter photos from 2018.

 

Iqaluit in summer and winter: Apex beach with the boat we use to shelter in out of the wind for lunch while conducting field work near Apex in 2013 and 2014 (top). Hudson Bay Company building at Apex (middle). Sylvia Grinnell River from the pavillion in Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park (bottom).

Participating in an International Arctic Field School

I just returned from an action packed, intensive 7-day International Arctic Field School (IAFS) on The Changing Cryosphere: From Sensors to Decision Making, in Iqaluit, Nunavut run through the Sentinel North Program at Laval University. The field school brought together local experts, students and researchers from multiple disciplines from across North America and Europe interested in many different aspects of the Arctic and the impact of climate change. It was a great networking opportunity; we meet so many different Arctic researchers and Nunavut community members and learnt through their expertise and experience. Each morning started with 5 participants giving a 2-minute elevator pitch on their research, there were a fascinating array of elevator pitches on permafrost, glaciers, whales, plants, Arctic policy and Inuit health and wellness.

IAFS participants and bowhead whale jaw bone arch. I am in the front row on the right.
(photo taken by Pascale Ropars at Apex Cemetary)

The cryosphere is anything that is permanently frozen for 2 years or more including sea ice, permafrost and glaciers and as the climate warms the cryosphere is changing. As we learnt throughout the week, this has impacts on the land and ocean ecology, the Inuit way of life including hunting practises and travel, and community infrastructure including buildings, roads, airports, water supplies and pipes. In the mornings we heard presentations on everything from ecology to health to infrastructure and how they are being impacted by the changing cryosphere. In the afternoons, we headed out on the land to see the cryosphere in action, digging snow pits, building igloos and boring holes through lake and sea ice. We took measurements of the properties of the snow and lake water which we then used in subsequent analysis to further our understanding of cryosphere processes.

A) Taking snow pit measurements at Sylvia Grinnell Park. The snow structure was wind slab on top of depth hoar. We measured snow temperature and snow density at 10cm intervals down the snow pit and looked at snow crystal structure.
B) Igloo building at Sylvia Grinnell Park. The wind slab snow used for igloo building is dense and strong. It was easy to cut blocks with a knife or saw. We just shaved the blocks to fit them into the igloo.
C) Our completed two person igloo. The blocks are built up in a spiral and the entrance is dug out below snow level.
D) Camille, Sarah and Pierrick, inside the big igloo.
E) IAFS participants outside the big igloo we built. I am kneeling to the right of the igloo entrance.

We completed mini projects on snow properties, limnology and infrastructure culminating in short presentations on our findings and interpretations. We worked in small groups composed of graduate students and postdocs from universities and Inuit students from the Environmental Technology Program, Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, drawing on local knowledge from the Inuit students and what we had learnt in the class room and on the land. The field school structure of lectures, field work, group exercises and presentations was a great approach to gain a deep understanding in a very short space of time of many facets of the Arctic that we were not always familiar with. Our final mini project was to design a road across the tundra taking into consideration the permafrost properties in different superficial geologies and applying different construction techniques to minimise the thawing of the permafrost.

A) Traveling by skidoo and komatik on a beautiful sunny, windless day in the Arctic winter to take lake limnology and snow water equivalent measurements near the Road to Nowhere.

B) Augering a hole through the sea ice. The sea ice was about 1.4m thick.
C) Ready to take lake limnology measurements. The lake near the Road to Nowhere stretching behind me is ~8m deep. 
D) Augered hole through lake ice. The lake ice was as thick as I am tall and the water underneath was 1.5-2°C.
E) Thermal siphons outside the RCMP building, Iqaluit. These are passive devices with horizontal liquid gas pipes underneath the building that draw heat away from the building reducing the warming of the permafrost underneath. The liquid gas is pressurised and evaporates on heating rising up the vertical tubes seen here. The heat is wicked away by the thermal diffusers on the vertical pipes and then condenses and runs back as liquid to the horizontal pipes under the building.

You can read more about the field course through the daily blog the participants wrote http://sentinellenord.ulaval.ca/en/changing-cryosphere-field-report. All in all, an excellent and well organised experience for both participants and mentors.

Article published in Arctic Science journal

My first journal article on how climate change is impacting the flowering and fruiting times in the Arctic has just been published in the new on line, open access journal Arctic Science. The article is based on weather station and International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) flowering and fruiting time data that Parks Canada has been recording for the past 20 years at Tanquary Fiord, Quttinripaaq National Park. Tanquary Fiord is just a short 1/2hr flight from my field site at Lake Hazen, Quttinirpaaq National Park.

Head of Tanquary Fiord looking east from the Twin Otter flight out in August 2013. The orange square is Parks Canada's warden station (enlarged on right) and the green circle is the location of the ITEX site where there are 25  purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) and 25 mountain avens (Dryas integrifolia) plants tagged. The number of open flowers and number of mature fruits on these plants have been counted every 3 days every summer for the past 20 years. 

In a nutshell, annual temperatures have been rising over the past 25 years by 1.2C/decade at Tanquary Fiord, the flowering and fruiting times of the early spring flowering purple saxifrage has not significantly changed over the 20 year period but the mid-summer flowering mountain avens is trending towards earlier flowering and fruiting times.

Read a blog post I wrote about my article for Canadian Science Publishing NRC Research Press: http://www.cdnsciencepub.com/blog/studying-plant-responses-to-climate-change-in-the-arctic.aspx

Read the full article at: http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/as-2015-0016#.VlR8QDddFdg

Wrapping Up Field Work

My field work at Lake Hazen is now complete and I write this as we wait at Lake Hazen to fly south. Resolute is fogged in and has been for 2 days now so the charter Twin Otter plane is unable to come to pick us up. 
Over the short Arctic summer at Lake Hazen we monitored 35 plant species and over 1800 individual plants! We visited each site twice per week and recorded the number of flowers open and the number of dispersing fruits on each tagged plant. I can use this data to determine the start peak and finish of flowering and the start and end of seed dispersal of each species.


Counting purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia)      Photographing a tagged beautiful leaved bitter cress

flowers at my highest site on McGill Mountain             (Cardamine bellidifolia) in a mossy gully, McGill Mtn

with Lake Hazen in the background.                                with Snow Goose Valley below.

Photos by Carly Casey my field assistant for the summer. 



Nodding saxifrage (Saxifraga cernua)
one of the last species to flower.

On our last two days in the field, we counted all the undispersed fruits remaining on each of the tagged plants to estimate how near to completion the plants’ reproductive cycle was. All the species we were monitoring had finished flowering except the nodding saxifrage (Saxifraga cernua) and many species had substantially completed the seed dispersal stage. The majority of species here at Lake Hazen are flowering, fruiting and dispersing their seed all within less than 2 months.

 

Prickly saxifrage (Saxifraga tricuspidata) with
undispersed fruit that we counted at the end of the
field season. Some plants had as many as 500 fruits.

At some of my sites I set up a volumetric soil moisture probe to record the soil moisture. My data shows that there was a steady downward trend in soil moisture through the growing season. The moisture level rose a little at the start of the season at sites where snow was still melting (sites 20, 21 and 24) and there was also a slight rise in soil moisture after we had a little rain (<5mm) on a couple of days at the end of July. The slight rise at the end of the season could also be due to the active layer of the permafrost melting. Lake Hazen is a polar desert and receives very little precipitation (<50mm/yr compared to Ottawa that gets 800mm/yr). The main source of water for plants here is from snow melt in the spring and the active layer thawing from mid-July to early-August. The few plants that grow by the rivers and in the river deltas also get some water from glacial melt.


Soil moisture generally reduced through the growing season. Soil moisture initially rose a little at sites 19, 20 and 21 as the final snow patches melted at these sites. There was also a slight rise in soil moisture at the middle and end of July due to small rain events and the active layer of the permafrost thawing.