Skip to content

Team Shrub

Tundra global change ecology and beyond

Tundra Ecology Lab
Lab Blog
Team Shrub
- Opportunities
Research
Publications
Data and Code
Media
Outreach
Mentorship
Research Reports
Links

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

Share this:

Twitter
Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Post navigation

< Piping in R – a celebration of Robbie Burns Day

Shrub of the Month – February >

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)

Name (required)

Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Notify me of new comments via email.

Notify me of new posts via email.

Search

Search for:

Twitter Latest

Instagram

A portrait of Slumpy the polar bear inspired by first hand observation and photographs @jtkerby and @gndaskalova. Slumpy visited Pauline Cove on Qikiqtaruk - Herschel Island during a wild period of storms that had us weathered in on the island for almost an entire extra week. After 46 out of what was supposed to be 41 days in the Arctic, we have finished our Greening Arctic expedition and flown off from our Arctic field site. We left the island in snowy white sunshine, a far cry from the verdant green tundra we were capturing this summer with our drones. How is this Arctic landscape changing as the planet warms? Slumpy the bear is experiencing thawing permafrost, earlier sea ice melt and later refreeze first hand. And perhaps he notices the greater vegetation cover and plant growth too. He was a pretty muddy bear, but blended quite well into the mix of late season yellows and browns of the tundra with a white dusting of snow. Just a day ago, we had our last views of this tundra landscape as our plane took off south. Check out Geo’s Open Explorer and teamshrub.com for current and future posts about our adventures as we collect our thoughts after our Arctic field season. https://teamshrub.com/blog https://openexplorer.nationalgeographic.com/expedition/teamshrub Supported by @insidenatgeo and @nercscience. #GreeningArctic #Canada #Yukon #Arctic #Qikiqtaruk #PolarBear @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @dartmoutharctic

What can a #willow #leaf tell us about how climate change is reshaping tundra ecosystems? Here a Salix richardsonii leaf grows to a verdant green in the Team Shrub common garden experiment at the Outpost Research Station near Kluane Lake. This willow likes the warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons of the boreal forest down the mountain from its original alpine home. We are comparing the growth of willow leaves and stems from alpine and Arctic tundra locations. Can Arctic willows from 1000 km to the North grow at the same rates as willows from the tops of mountains in the Southern Yukon? Our garden willows are slowly revealing the answer to us with the lengths of their leaves and new growth each year. Photo by Gergana Daskalova #Kluane #TeamShrub #tundra #flora #plants #biodiversity #ecology #alpine #Arctic #UKinArctic #canadagram #earthoutdoors #earthfocus #scicomm #earthcapture #northerncanada #discoveryukon @gndaskalova @apecs.polar @polar.knowledge @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @nercscience @insidenatgeo

Even in the coldest parts of the planet, temperatures can be surprisingly warm. Kluane Lake is surrounded by Canada’s tallest mountains and the world’s largest non-polar ice field. The lake is fed by glacier waters. In the last week of June 2019, the usually icy-cold waters of Kluane Lake warmed up to unheard of temperatures, warm enough for us to go on half hour-long swims. As we took our first strokes through the water, we could see another sign of the ongoing changes in this region. The smoky air in the distance marked a forest fire. Forest fires are becoming more intense and more frequent with warmer and drier summers in the boreal region. The Kluane region has undergone dramatic change in recent years. So called ‘river piracy’, the redirection of glacier melt water from one river to another, has turned the once rushing Slims River into a dry channel and the once clear air is often laden with dust. Climate change is altering the Kluane Lake in many ways and those changes can be felt from the ground to the water to the sky. Photo by Gergana Daskalova #Kluane #TeamShrub #ecology #canadagram #earthoutdoors #earthcapture #northerncanada #discoveryukon #UKinArctic @gndaskalova @apecs.polar @polar.knowledge @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @nercscience @cbcyukon @yukonnews @yukonnorthofordinary @insidenatgeo

The Arctic is changing in striking ways, but change in the Arctic is not always obvious - in fact, sometimes it is hidden. Amidst shrubs, tucked behind stones and often surviving in the most improbable of places, many tundra plants remain unnoticed by scientists. Discovering this hidden biodiversity can help us understand how life on Earth is being altered at its northernmost extremes… To understand these shifts in tundra ecosystems, we need to look beyond the plots and capture the landscape context of biodiversity change - all the species lurking just outside of the plots…. This so-called “dark biodiversity” can be the hidden source of future biodiversity change in the Arctic that might then go on to influence how the entire ecosystem functions... Follow our journey as we discover stories of hidden biodiversity and unique experiences at the northern edge of the world. For updates from The Arctic’s Hidden Biodiversity expedition, follow https://openexplorer.nationalgeographic.com/expedition/hiddenarctic #HiddenArctic #Qikiqtaruk #YukonParks #TeamShrub #Arctic #tundra #flora #plants #wildlife #nature #biodiversity #ecology #plantsofinstagram #canadagram #earthoutdoors #earthcapture #UKinArctic #arctic_circle #arcticadventures #northerncanada #Aklavik #NWT #discoveryukon #discoverwildlife @apecs.polar @polar.knowledge @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @cbcyukon @yukonnews @yukonnorthofordinary @insidenatgeo @gndaskalova

WordPress.com.

Post to

Cancel

%d bloggers like this: