No Snow!

Zoe Panchen

Well not quite but there is a lot less snow here this year than last year and it feels warmer too. To give you an idea, compare the photo of Sofia near the entrance to the Sylvia Grinnell Park last year on 7th June 2013 with the picture of me this year at exactly the same spot on 31st May 2014, the sign is almost buried in 2013 but half out of the snow in 2014 a week earlier.


Sylvia Grinnell Park 7th June 2013

Sylvia Grinnell Park 31st May 2014

 















We saw the first species in flower on our first day out in the field, a small Cinquefoil (Potentilla hyparctica). It was an unusual species to see in flower first and this particular plant must have been in a perfect little microclimate. Usually the first species to flower is the purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), the flower of Nunavut. Last year the first species we saw in flower was purple saxifrage but it was a week later. It seems to me that everything is at least a week more advanced than last year.

Arctic Cinquefoil (Potentilla hyparctica),
the first species we saw in flower this year

The temperature near the ground can be 10-15C warmer than at weather station height. This is because the ground absorbs the near 24hr sunlight and radiates it back out creating a layer of warm air close to the ground. Arctic plants take full advantage of this, forming little hemi-spherical cushions close to the ground and creating their own little micro-climate.

A perfect microclimate! Tufted Saxifrage (Saxifraga cespitosa)
in Resolute August 2nd 2013

This year we will be monitoring ground level temperature using thermistors and HOBO temperature data loggers. We have already set up these at our sites around Iqaluit. You can see from the photo below that this is a homemade setup! I used plastic Tupperware containers to keep the HOBOs dry, burned holes in the side with a soldering iron for the thermistor cables. Emma neatly glued the openings shut with a glue gun. I made little cloth bags filled with silica to prevent condensation in the containers as the HOBOs are not water proof. The thermistor is held above the ground and shaded from direct sunlight by a large plastic tent peg and held in place by the ubiquitous duct tape and cable tie! Programming the data loggers has been a pain to say the least; the data loggers are ancient and temperamental technology that needs patience and babysitting! We have been reduced to superstitious procedures when programming these HOBOs!

 

Temperature data logger out in the field at Sylvia Grinnell Park

 

New Field Season Starting this Week

Zoe Panchen

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!

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

The last few months have been busy preparing for the field season. Everything from applying for research permits and funding to dehydrating food for 2 people for 8 weeks at Lake Hazen. The dehydrator has been humming every night drying huge pots of curries and stews. Roger Bull from the Canadian Museum of Nature gave me some helpful hints; he has been preparing the food for the museum's botanical trips to the Arctic for many years. Here is what he had to say on food prep for the Arctic when he was interviewed by CBC recently http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/going-to-the-arctic-how-to-make-curry-that-ll-keep-1.2595437

                                         A big pot of Jalfrezi curry ready to be dehydrated!

 

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.

 

                                         Phenological progression of the spider plant
                                         (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.

Ripe Blueberries

Zoe Panchen


The first ripe blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) seen!

I saw my first ripe blue berry here this week! We have had some lovely sunny warm days for the last week or so and the plants are rapidly producing their ripe fruit and dispersing their seeds. The capsules of many of the louseworts especially the hairy lousewort (Pedicularis hirsuta) have burst and are dispersing their seeds. The Mountain Avens (Dryas integrifolia) now has white fluffy old mans beard and the Fleabane (Erigeron eriocephalus) has creamy pompoms. It is gratifying to see the completion of the reproductive cycle of the plants we have been watching for the last ten weeks.



The creamy pompom of Fleabane
(Erigeron eriocephalus)
ready to disperse its seeds

The old mans beard of Mountain Avens (Dryas integrifolia)

The last of the plants we have been studying in Iqaluit have finally come into flower. The Cardamine pratensis with its delicate pale lilac petals is popping up everywhere in waterlogged areas by the side of the Sylvia Grinnell River and there are dashes of bright yellowy-orange in damp low areas where the Yellow Mountain Saxifrage (Saxifraga aizoides) is coming into flower.

Pale lilac flowers of Cardamine pratensis



Yellow Mountain Saxifrage (Saxifraga aizoides)

If it is a Tern it is an Arctic Tern

Zoe Panchen

Long Tailed Jaeger silhouetted against the frozen Lake Hazen

The male Rock Ptarmigan keeps his white plumage all year
but the female changes to brown plumage for the summer

Before leaving for Ellesmere Island, I was flicking through my bird book to get an idea of what birds I might see at Lake Hazen. I was surprised at how few there were. In fact there are only about 20 birds whose range extends to northern Ellesmere Island. It does, however, make it a lot easier to identify the birds seen, especially some of the more challenging groups like gulls, terns and waders. If it is a tern it is an Arctic Tern, if it is a gull it is most likely a Glaucus Gull and the only three waders are easy to distinguish between. The birds here have little fear of humans and will approach quite closely for their photo op!


The Red Throated Loon looks like it flies upside-down!

Common Ringed Plover approaching her nest with 4 huge eggs

All the birds are ground nesters, they have to be as there is no vegetation higher than a few inches! When out walking I kept my eyes peeled for birds flying up from nests and birds eggs lying in shallow depressions in the ground.

This Redknot did her broken wing impression
for about 1km to lead me away from her nest

I found two Red Throated Loon nests on islands in a lagoon and a lake close to Camp Hazen that I regularly walked by on my way to or from my observation sites. The female sat motionless with neck stretched out for weeks and then finally in the last week of July both nest produced 2 little chicks. The snow geese who nested just by camp were not so lucky as a pair of wolves wondered through camp and ate the eggs.



Red Throated Loon with newly hatched chicks

I saw 15 bird species while at Lake Hazen. I even saw a Canada Goose and some Ravens hear at Camp Hazen that are way north of their usual range. The two birds I would have really liked to see but didn’t were the Gyrfalcon and the Snowy Owl.

Muskox and Wolves

Zoe Panchen

Just half a dozen years ago, the Lake Hazen area was apparently teaming with muskox and there were so many Arctic Hares that you would trip over them! When I arrived this year there was not a single animal in sight nor did I see any for a whole week. Parks staff suggested that this may be the low in the animal abundance cycle and that there seemed to be more wolves these days. So every animal I did see was greeted with much excitement.

Mountains and tundra near Camp Hazen
but not an animal to be seen!

I was looking for plants around the Snow Goose River delta one day and looked up to see out of the corner of my eye an Alice in Wonderland vision. It was in fact an Arctic Hare up on its hind legs in its typical pose. It was just missing a pocket watch! Since then I saw one or two hares every few days but certainly not in the numbers of just a few years ago.

The Arctic Hare just needs a pocket watch
for a part in Alice in Wonderland

A few days later a park staff member spotted a small group of Muskox in the distance, they were but tiny black dots even viewed through the telescope. For a few weeks we saw small herds of muskox passing just north of camp and often hanging out for a day on a flat dry spot by Skeleton Creek just above camp and then they were all gone again. One Muskox even ate the flowers of a Pallas’ Wallflower (Erysimum pallasii) I had been painstakingly photographing every three days as a visual record of phenological progression! It was exciting to see the muskox each time they wondered by.

Muskox hanging out on a plateau near camp
with Varsity Mountain in the back ground

Male Muskox shedding his winter coat

One evening we were eating supper in the cook tent when a wolf howled and announced its presence in camp. Rushing outside we were treated to a powerful wolf striding by camp just a 100m away, what an awesome sight!

Artic Wolf striding past camp

I also saw a few little hamster like Lemmings and an Arctic Fox high up on McGill Mountain. The picture would  have been complete if I had seen some Peary Caribou but none were seen anywhere in the park this summer, so I contented myself with having seen their bleached white antlers here and there.

Lemming

 

Searching for a Needle in a Haystack

Zoe Panchen

Plants in the High Arctic are small, really small, some smaller than a dime. I had a list of plants I wanted to find at Lake Hazen and some documentation on areas where they had been found before by botanists participating in Operation Hazen in the 1950s but it was still like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

The tiny Cardamine bellidifolia, barely bigger than a 5cent piece

In order to record the developmental progress of each species, I wanted to find the plants before they started to flower so I was locating many by last years’ seed heads or marsescent leaves (dead leaves that persist on the plant over winter and protect the plant from the harsh winter conditions) and the rest I found when the tiny new leaves emerged. As with many of the more exciting finds, I happened to notice the seed head and then plants of the tiny primula, Androsace septentrionalis, while sitting down for lunch. Other plants like the Louseworts (Pedicularis) with their 6” tall seed heads were much easier to locate. Very quickly I had sites for over 20 species I am interested in but then many days went by when I found no new species…...

A pencil dwarfs the primula species,
Androsace septentrionalis

Then, while climbing McGill Mountain, a 1000m high peak behind Camp Hazen I came across the Tufted Saxifrage (Saxifraga cespitosa) nestled amongst the rock near the summit! I was not sure it was going to be logistically possible to climb for 3hrs twice a week to monitor this species. Fortunately I found many more lower down the mountain but still a 2 hour hike from Camp Hazen.
A few days later when doing a 3 day hike from the Henrietta Nesmith Glacier back to Camp Hazen via Weasel Lake, Nesmith River and the Snow Goose River and again while sitting down for lunch we saw the cup of distinctive bristle lined leaves of the Spider Plant (Saxifraga flagellaris) emerging from a mound of moss. I nicknamed the plant the strawberry plant as it sends out runners just like a strawberry plant. Alas again this plant was a 2 day walk from camp!


Spider Plant (Saxifraga flagellaris)
has runners like strawberries and
distinctive bristles along the leaf margins

On Canada Day we climbed up Omingmak Mtn, and I found Cardamine bellidifolia, sheltering under a rock high up in a talus field, another plant I had been looking for! Once I had the search image of these tiny plants I was able to locate them on the slope of McGill Mountain within daily walking distance so I could study them.
Some plants not only thrive in the harsh Arctic environment but actually prefer to grow in even harsher arctic-alpine conditions and the tufted saxifrage and spider plant are among them. I am doing a lot of hiking up hill to see these beautiful plants twice a week and they are fast turning into my favourite species too! 

Marsh Saxifrage (saxifraga hirculus) proved to be about the toughest plant to find with its tiny linear leaves hidden by the taller sedges and grasses but when it opened its bright orange-yellow flowers it could be seen all over the sedge meadows.

 

Introducing Lake Hazen

Zoe Panchen

I have just got back from Lake Hazen, Ellesmere Island after spending the last 7 weeks studying plant phenology there. At Camp Hazen, where I was based, the only methods of communication were via radio and satellite. There was definitely no internet access in such a remote location so I have accumulated many stories to tell and photos to share. Here is the first of several posts on my work and my wonderful experience at Lake Hazen (sign up to receive an email when there is a new post at the bottom of this page).


Camp Hazen on the shores Lake Hazen with McGill Mountain rising 1000m above camp. I took the photo when I walked out across the frozen lake to Johns Island about 1.5km out on the lake a few days after I arrived in early June.

Lake Hazen is 60km long and located in the centre of Quttinirpaaq National Park at the very north of Ellesmere Island. Half way along the lake on the north shore is the Camp Hazen warden station where I stayed. The camp was originally set up by the Defence Research Board in 1957 for the"Operation Hazen" scientific studies that were part of the International Geophysical Year. Rising 1000m above camp to the north are McGill, Omingmak (Inuktitut for Muskox) and Varsity Mountains. To the north of these mountains is the vast icecap of Northern Ellesmere Island and beyond that......the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole.

I took this photo of Camp Hazen at close to midnight but it could have been midday it was so bright with the midnight sun! The green tent on the right is the original 1957 Operation Hazen Atwell tent, where 4 McGill students spent the winter recording the weather - it hovered around -40C! It is now the cook tent complete with gas stove, gas fridge and tank for water pumped from the lake. The two white sleeper tents were installed a couple of years ago. The vertical box by the aerial is the shower equipped with a shower bag but the sun was never warm enough to heat the water in the black bag and anyway it was too cool for showering al fresco so we contented ourselves with "sink washes". On the left is the emergency shelter with radio. 

Camp Hazen is so far north, just 9 degrees of latitude to the north pole, that the sun is high in the sky 24-7. In fact the lighting for photography was the best at midnight. The sun came streaming through my window at night. Some of the park staff would cover the window to create some semblance of dark but I preferred to keep my window uncovered to experience the uniqueness of the midnight sun.

The Twin Otter plane leaving after dropping myself and park staff at Lake Hazen with Varsity Mountain in the back ground. We flew by Twin Otter from Resolute (which, along with Grise Fiord, are the most northerly communities in Canada) stopping to refuel 3hrs later at the Eureka Weather Station, dropping park staff at Tanquary Fiord warden station 1hr later and finally arriving at Lake Hazen 1/2hr later. Just to give an idea of how far north and how far from civilisation we were, each stop was virtually due north of the last stop. By mid July all the snow in this picture had melted.

The area was truly a remote and vast wilderness, no roads for hundreds of miles, not even a foot trail; no people, just the odd herd of Muskox passing by; total silence or at most the sound of the wind or birds calling. It was an amazingly exhilarating feeling striding out across the tundra and up the mountainsides to my study sights.

Candled ice beached by wind action on the shore near camp Hazen

Lake Hazen was completely covered with ice and safe for skidoo travel until early July. In mid July a ring of water appeared around the lake edges by which time the ice had changed to candled ice. We could hear chandelier like tinkling as the ice slowly disintegrated. Depending on the direction of the wind, the sheets of candled ice would be blown up on to shore to form ice waves. Normally Lake Hazen is an oasis of calm with little wind but on the last couple of days of July a huge wind storm arrived and within 24hrs all of the 80% ice cover of the lake completely disappeared and there were waves lapping at the shore. We suspect that the wind action caused warmer water to be churned up and melt much of the ice. It was quite the transformation.

Looking south from the slopes of McGill Mountain.
Camp Hazen is the tiny dots on the near shore of Lake Hazen with Johns Island behind.
I took this photo the day after the huge windstorm which changed the lake from 80% ice cover to 100% open water.