Arctic/alpine pollination workshop in Kluane National Park, Yukon - Part 2

During the workshop we had various presentations from researchers currently working in the Canadian Pollinator Initiative (CANPOLIN) and members from the Yukon government and local First Nations group.  We also discussed tasks that need to be done as the NSERC funded initiative is coming to an end, and also brainstormed topics/projects that will be of relevance to people living in northern communities and scientists in the future.

Thank you to the AINA for hosting us.

Arctic/alpine pollination workshop in Kluane National Park, Yukon - Part 1

Hello all, my lengthy summer travels concluded on Friday when we drove about 2,000 km from New Orleans to Peterborough, Ontario in 36 hours.  I am slowly sorting through all of my photos from my trips, starting with the workshop titled "Pollination, Climate Change and Invasive Species in Arctic and Alpine Ecosystems" in Kluane Research Station in Yukon.  There will be at least one official document reporting on the outcomes of the workshop, so I will not comment on the specifics. The general conclusion is that researchers (from both Canada and US), the Yukon government, local First Nations groups, and independent scientists all agree about the importance of climate change and pollination and the limited information currently present about Arctic and alpine regions.  Therefore, we will try to incorporate scientific communities and citizens in northern communities to start documenting zoological and botanical changes in various spatiotemporal scales.

Below are photos from the first two days of my Yukon trip (21st to 22nd).

Arriving in Whitehorse on July 21st.  The weather was miserable and rainy.

Ivvavik National Park - last upload

This time last year, I was waiting for my flight to Ivvavik National Park so that I can get my second field season started.  I won't be going back this year, instead I will be here in Ontario trying to finish my degree and move on to another chapter of my life.  This will be the last batch of photos that I took last field season, and I am always reminiscing the time I spent at this beautiful place.

Ivvavik National Park - Views from Above

Some more photos from Ivvavik National Park from a high vantage point.

Flowers of Ivvavik

Celebrated my 27th birthday yesterday with people in my lab and had dinner at Tim Horton's.  Nothing super interesting in my life at the moment - working on my thesis, teaching, and thinking about what I should do with my future.

I have to teach a lab this Friday that requires me to identify tree species on one of the surrounding drumlins here at Trent.  I spent some time last Saturday identifying the trees from a guide, but I still wasn't too comfortable with my skills.  So yesterday, the lab coordinator took us teaching assistants to the drumlin again to identify the trees together.  Hopefully, everything will work out fine on Friday.

Speaking on trees and plants, I have been wanting to share my flower photos from this past field season for some time now.  Here they are.

Dwarf Fireweed (Epilobium latifolium)

Sheep Slot of Ivvavik National Park, 2012

Here are some photos taken at Sheep Slot in Ivvavik National Park (compare to the photos taken last year).  No major caribou migration passed through this part of the park this year, unfortunately.

So gorgeous.

Insects of Ivvavik National Park

Trent University was open this morning until 2 PM when the school decided to cancel all of the classes because of the snowstorm.  So here I am sitting in my room enjoying the most snow I have ever seen in my life while reminiscing the insects that I observed in Ivvavik National Park.  Despite the abundance and diversity being pretty low relative to southern latitudes, it's the Arctic after all, it is still fascinating to see the critters that call Ivvavik home.

Green Comma (Polygonia faunus)

A unknown Flower Fly (Syrphidae) on Grass of Parnassus flower.

Old World Swallowtail (Papilio machaon)

Dorcas Copper (Lycaena dorcas) - definitely one of my favorite butterflies from the summer.




Unknown Sulphur (Colias sp.) - quite drabby-looking considering other brightly colored individuals.


Colias sp.

Northern Blue Butterfly (Lycaeides idas)

Unidentified Bumblebee (Bombus sp.)

Unknown Marble Butterfly (Euchloe sp.)

There is an event tomorrow hosted by the Kawartha Heritage Conservancy that I hoping to go with some people.  Hope it will not be canceled. 

Reminiscing June 28th in Ivvavik

After surveying one of my study sites of Moss campions (Silene acaulis), my field assistant and I hiked past the southernmost part of the park (that I had been to).

During the most productive part of the year, this landscape was covered with purple Northern sweet vetch (Hedysarum alpinum) plants.  Therefore, the land was alive with various pollinators visiting the flowers - sulphurs, whites, bumblebees, etc.  Hard to imagine Arctic full with so much life, for most people.

Reminiscing July 10th in Ivvavik

Once we learned that we will be leaving Ivvavik on July 16th, my field assistant and I decided to take a day off on July 10th and go on a hike north along the Firth River and go to places that we had not yet traveled to and see what kind of plants, animals, and whatever Ivvavik has to offer us on that day (and also see if we can find spots to cross the Firth River, or so my field assistant imagined).

This is a nice fishing/painting spot called "Pole Cache Spot" because there is an Inuvialuit pole cache just close by.

Happy Halloween from the Jumping Spiders of Ivvavik

Personally, I wouldn't consider Jumping Spiders (Family Salticidae) scary at all (they are darn cute, if I'd say so), but there are many people out there who are just misinformed and scared of spiders in general.  So, to these people, hopefully these will scary the bejeezus out of you (and then visit this post to be better informed about spiders).

Flower visitors to soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis) flowers in Ivvavik

The weather had been relatively bad the past few days (but nothing as bad as the one faced by people on the east coast), especially last night with heavy rain and strong winds.  It is currently just rainy and wet out at the moment.

Anyways, here are some more photos from Yukon.  This field season, I was more or less continuing to study the pollination of soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis) with a few tweaks here and there, and pollination of another (gyno)dioecious species - Silene acaulis (moss campion).  But here are some of my photos of insects visiting S. canadensis.

Unknown ant species (Formicidae) visiting female flowers.

Birds of Ivvavik National Park

Here are some of my better bird photos from this summer.

One of the first animals that we saw in the park once we arrived - a male Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) in winter plumage.

Some landcape photos from Ivvavik

Despite this week being a reading break, I am still busy with my research - lots of playing around with R trying to perform the right analyses and creating the correct figures.

While working on my project from Peterborough, I can't but help think of how beautiful the landscape is up in Ivvavik.

Snow-capped mountains at the end of May.
 

Musk-oxen in Ivvavik National Park! Amazing!

Despite only a few glimpses of the caribou migration this year, this year's wildlife viewing was honoured by the presence of Musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus) near our campsite.  Musk-oxen are usually found in high arctic islands and very rarely ventured down south into the treelines.  However, for some unknown reason, this herd of seven adults and one calf came to our campground in the first week of June and stayed around for at least for a week.

Lots of photos below, just a heads-up.

They were first spotted by an elder in our group.  On the first day (June 9th), they were on the other side of the creek and up the hill.

Photos of Ivvavik from the air

Here are some of the landscape photos that I took in Ivvavik National Park.  There are many more after this batch.

May 29, 2012 - second (and successful) attempt to fly into Ivvavik.  The first and follow-up tries didn't go so well.

Mackenzie Delta

Porcupine caribous in Ivvavik National Park - 2012

This is my second and final year at Trent for my Masters program, and hopefully I will complete my thesis before next summer.  The point is that I will probably be very busy and won't have much time to do any "fun" stuff.

Anyways, this field season, the caribou migration did not go through Sheep Creek like last year.  Instead, we only saw a few stragglers, and some lucky people got a chance to see parts of the massive migration during times of day when most people are sleeping.  The migration still occurred (on other parts of the massive migration pattern) but just not in front of our eyes.

We only saw a few at the beginning of June.

Then returning caribous with calves towards the end of June.

Only two decent photos from this entire field season.  Bummer.

 

Dall sheep of Ivvavik National Park - 2012

I didn't take a whole lot of sheep photos this year (last year's sheep post), probably because they were everywhere this year, particularly when they were outside the tents while us humans were inside sleeping.  It was a rude awakening for sure.

All of these photos came one day, just past midnight, while I was heading to bed.  A large group of sheep were passing through behind the garage shed and some were standing on top of the dirt mounds.  The lighting wasn't the greatest at that time since the hill blocked out the sun but nonetheless I got some nice photos to share with you.

Portrait.

Ground squirrels from Ontario...and then Yukon

Yesterday, a chubby Groundhog (Marmota monax) ran across the sidewalk in front of me while I was going up to my office.  It always takes a while for my brain to process what I am seeing, especially for animals rarely encountered.  At first I thought it was a badger, then a large muskrat, and eventually my brain settled on Mormota sp., the most sensible and logical choice.  Plus it looks awfully like the Hoary marmot that I saw in Yukon.

Complete Rainbow(s) in Ivvavik

In the early morning of June 10th, 2012, I was outside my tent and saw a beautiful (almost?) double rainbow across our field site.  I grabbed my P&S camera and took several photos.  I just stitched them today using a free software called Microsoft ICE, and it actually worked better than the program I have been using.

What a gorgeous sight (and site)!  I think Yukon and NWT have produced some of the most spectacular rainbows I have ever seen in my life, or maybe it is just because the landscape the rainbow bridges (for example).  Since this summer was my second field season, I doubt I will ever come back again.  Quite sad to think about, actually.

Grizzly in Ivvavik National Park

This field season, I saw a total of five grizzlies.  The closest encounter was on May 31 when we were setting up experiments for my soapberry project near campground.  During the set up, I looked around and saw a bear crossing the creek to the other side - meaning it was very near us just a few moments ago.  We abandoned what we were doing and cautiously went over to the kitchen shed.  Sensing the bear was not interested in us, we took some photos from our side of the creek.

The grizzly on the other side of the creek.