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Sandra’s research on the RBGE blog

January 30, 2016February 8, 2016 | imyerssmith

Check out Sandra’s awesome post on the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh webpage:

Reading between the rings: detecting competition between tundra shrubs using dendrochronology

Typical of Sandra’s work, it is beautifully written with gorgeous photos accompanying the excellently explained science.

Sandra's photo — Shrubs have been expanding in tundra ecosystems over the last half-century. On this photo, dense, knee-high dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa) has become dominant on previously lichen-covered land in Umiujaq, Northern Québec.

by Isla

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Gusting winds, crashing waves, flashes of light in the sky - those are only some of the unexpected weather that we experienced this summer on Qikiqtaruk-Herschel Island in the Canadian Arctic. Our data collection plans changed almost as quickly as the direction of the winds that were blowing through camp. Each storm honed our abilities to plan ahead, so that when the skies cleared and the wind calmed, we could collect the next data points. In this blog post (link in bio), we take a look at the weather surprises the Arctic always seems to have in store for us. Over just three days, we experienced thunder and lightning, both rare above treeline, gale force winds and thick-as-soup fog. The ever changing weather meant that data collection plans were constantly in flux. But, stormy weather meant time back in camp where we could warm up with cups of tea and ponder the meaning of life. Weather dictates life as a field researcher in the Arctic. Our fates are tied to the winds… Across the island to the north of us a show played out of arcing lightning crisscrossing the sky punctuated by booming claps of thunder… The chimney started thrumming and the windows started rattling – the storm had arrived… Fog blew in from across the cove, blanketing the camp in white. We had lost track of time during the period of storminess and changeable weather. Blowing in the wind https://teamshrub.com/2019/07/28/blowing-in-the-wind/ Video by Gergana Daskalova @insidenatgeo #Qikiqtaruk #TeamShrub #storm #weather #tundra #Arctic #fieldwork #scicomm #UKinArctic #natgeoyourshot #HiddenArctic #GreeningArctic #RSGSgrants @teamshrub @gndaskalova @jtkerby @apecs.polar @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @royalscotgeosoc @nercscience

When we think of explorers of the past - we often think of captains, naturalists, adventurers - we often think of men. Explorers weren’t always men though - some were women. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 – 1717) was one of the first European naturalists to explore the world for science. At the turn of the 16th century she travelled to Surinam on the other side of the world from her German home to study insects. When we think of modern-day explorers, hopefully we are thinking of people from all walks of life. In this photograph, National Geographic explorer Isla looks out across the waters to Pauline Cove or Ilutaq, the home of rangers, Inuvialuit travellers, researchers and visitors to Qikiqtaruk - Herschel Island in the Canadian Arctic. Behind the lens is fellow explorer Gergana Daskalova. Though far from either of the places where we grew up, it has been a real privilege for us to get to conduct our field research here on Qikiqtaruk. We have learned so much from the people who live and work in the Western Arctic. It is exciting to meet the next generation of explorers - the youth who call the Arctic home. In this blog post (link in bio), Isla reflects on what it means to be an explorer in the past and present day: There are different types of exploration. Exploration is not just the discovery of a new place, it is also the discovery of new information and knowledge. Here on the island, we are trying to understand the causes of the Arctic greening patterns observed by satellites and exactly how these landscapes are being influenced by climate change. I guess the ultimate aim of our research is scientific discovery, but we are striving for a different sort of discovery than Arctic explorers of the past. What does it mean to be an explorer? https://teamshrub.com/2019/07/17/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-explorer/ Photo by Gergana Daskalova #NatGeoWomenofImpact @insidenatgeo #Qikiqtaruk #TeamShrub #explorer #tundra #Arctic #fieldwork #scicomm #UKinArctic #natgeoyourshot #HiddenArctic #GreeningArctic #RSGSgrants @teamshrub @gndaskalova @apecs.polar @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @nercscience

Sometimes you can only gain a global understanding by focusing in on life up close. This week my co-authors and I published a paper on the geography of biodiversity change week in @sciencemagazine. We found that changes at local scales do not always reflect the biodiversity losses occurring at the global scale. Each one of the 12 million records in over 50,000 different places in the BioTime database is the work of scientists from around the world. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6463/339 The data for one of the study sites was contributed by Team Shrub from Qikiqtaruk – Herschel Island. We were back to the Arctic this past summer funded by @insidenatgeo to again monitor the long-term plots and this time to reveal the hidden plant diversity not yet captured to date. In July, PhD student Gergana Daskalova wrote a blog post about how looking up close reveals the fast pace of life and surprising diversity of tundra ecosystems: When summer arrives, it is as if the whole tundra, from the plants to the wildlife, is swept into a flurry of life. This is the time when the diversity of plants on Qikiqtaruk is most striking. This high-paced life, all leads up to peak biomass, the time of the year when the tundra will be the greenest and most bountiful. From peak biomass onwards, life slows down, in time for the oncoming winter. In around 10 months, spring will return and the cycle will begin again. https://teamshrub.com/2019/07/12/the-tundra-up-close/ This photo illustrates how zooming in on tundra ecosystems reveals a surprising diversity of life. Shades of pink, blue, yellow and white mix in to create a vibrant tundra landscape. Photo by Gergana Daskalova #Qikiqtaruk #TeamShrub #tundra #biodiversity #BioTIME #ecology #alpine #Arctic #UKinArctic #fieldwork #scicomm #discoveryukon #natgeoyourshot #HiddenArctic #GreeningArctic #RSGSgrants @teamshrub @gndaskalova @apecs.polar @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @nercscience @insidenatgeo

A field expedition is part science, part logistics, part adventures, but it is also all about the gear. When we launched our 2019 #GreeningArctic and #HiddenArctic expeditions, the first step was to test out our kit. In the blog post below, we take a whimsical look at the different equipment we used to capture the greenness and biodiversity of Arctic landscapes. Sometimes a picture tells a 1000 thousand words. Sometimes a picture communicates the experience of Arctic research. Sometimes pictures answer scientific questions about Arctic responses to climate change. From cameras, drones, lenses, filters and sound recorders to Isla’s knee brace, our field equipment filled up the cargo hold in our charter plane. Once on Qikiqtaruk-Herschel Island, what we brought with us was all we had to weave together our scientific story. We wouldn’t be able to collect the data we need without a fair bit equipment… It is always an adventure to try to pack all the right gear, figure out how your equipment works and particularly whether it will work without internet! Here’s to a summer with as few technical challenges as possible – to keep the content rolling in. https://teamshrub.com/2019/07/10/all-about-the-gear/ Silhouetted against the low angled sunlight of an Arctic summer day, Gergana (@gndaskalova) prepares a Phantom RTK drone for take off. Once in the air, this drone will collect hundreds of images which when stitched together will allow us to capture Arctic landscapes in high-resolution 3D. Photo by Isla Myers-Smith #Kluane #TeamShrub #boreal #tundra #biodiversity #ecology #alpine #Arctic #UKinArctic #fieldwork #scicomm #discoveryukon #natgeoyourshot #dji #mavic @djiglobal @parrot_official #Canon #CanonCanada @canoncanada #MeAndMyManfrotto @manfrottoimaginemore #leefilters @leefilters #zoomh4n #LifeWithoutLimitations @ossur #HiddenArctic #GreeningArctic @teamshrub @gndaskalova @jtkerby @lhull87 @wandering.inuit #RSGSgrants @apecs.polar @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @nercscience @insidenatgeo

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