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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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As the year comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on what shapes life as a scientist - the connections that we form. Sometimes the most memorable connections for me are with wildlife. These photos highlight the connections between scientists and the wildlife around us on Qikiqtaruk in the Canadian Arctic. Fox hunt (by @sandra.angers.b) - This winner of the 2018 @britishecolsoc photography contest captures a hunting fox that became a regular visitor to our camp that summer. By August, the fox was playing soccer with the rangers - bridging the gap between people and wildlife. Bearded seal stretch (by @gndaskalova) - This summer a bearded seal made himself at home on the spit. One day I joined him to sun myself in the low-angled Arctic light with the seal near by unperturbed by my presence. Caribou on the horizon (by @sandra.angers.b) - More than once, the appearance of a caribou on the horizon has brought fright instead of delight. It is surprisingly difficult to grasp the size a moving object on the tundra horizon. Muskox on the run (by @gndaskalova)- On the final day of the field season in 2018, a muskox joined us on the spit. The only problem was the muskox was hanging out on the runway and the plane was due to land - so we had to chase it away to safety. Jumping plovers (by @jtkerby) - Semi-palmated plover chicks - puff balls on legs - follow your every move around camp. At first when you approach they run to their mother in fear, but by the end of the season they face life in the Arctic on their own. Beluga at night (by Isla) - This summer at midnight the winds died down to a flat calm, I caught this image by surprise of a diving beluga as it twisted through the inky waters of the Beaufort sea. When I think back on the Team Shrub accomplishments of the past year and the past decade, I am most proud of the connections and collaborations that we have built. Here’s to future connections and collaborations in 2020! #NewYear #Hogmanay #TeamShrub #tundra #Arctic #fieldwork #scicomm #Qikiqtaruk #yukon #NatGeoExplorers #InsideNatGeo #UKinArctic @edinunigeosciences @EdinburghUniversity @apecs.polar @royalscotgeosoc @insidenatgeo @nercscience

Qikiqtaruk in the Canadian Arctic is an island at the forefront of climate change. Flip through the photos to see the tundra life that will be altered by a rapidly warming Arctic. Permafrost thaw and loss of sea ice will have consequences across tundra ecosystems from the ground up. The 2019 US NOAA Arctic Report Card (@noaaresearch) highlights how Arctic ecosystems and communities are increasingly at risk due to continued warming and declining sea ice. This international report is based on findings from long-term ecological research including from here on Qikiqtaruk. Some of the highlighted findings that we on Team Shrub and our collaborators are seeing first hand include: 1. Warming temperatures are leading to tundra vegetation change. 2. Shrubs and grasses are increasing causing tundra vegetation to become taller. 3. More vegetation change is happening in wetter versus drier environments. 4. Permafrost is thawing and coastlines are eroding influencing tundra ecosystems. 5. Earlier snow melt and warming are altering the timing of the green-up and flowering of plants with repercussions across tundra food webs. But not all of these changes are playing out exactly as we would have predicted and many questions still remain. So building on our recent research, we will be returning to the Arctic in 2020 to chart how climate warming is reshaping tundra ecosystems. This series of photographs are by Sandra Angers-Blondin (@sandra.angers.b) funded by the Environmental Awareness Bursary from the Royal Photographic Society (@royalphotographicsociety) and The Photographic Angle (@thephotographicangle). Images from this project won the 2018 British Ecological Society (@britishecolsoc) and 2018 ArcticNet photo contests. For more information see: https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2019/ https://www.vanishingislandphoto.com/ https://teamshrub.com/ #TeamShrub #NOAA #ArcticReportCard #ClimateChange #SeaIce #permafrost #tundra #Arctic #solstice #fieldwork #scicomm #Qikiqtaruk #yukon #NatGeoExplorers #InsideNatGeo #UKinArctic @teamshrub @edinunigeosciences @EdinburghUniversity @apecs.polar @royalscotgeosoc @insidenatgeo @nercscience

The Arctic is rapidly warming, but for most of us it is hard to imagine just how large the changes in northern ecosystems can be. This series of three photos by Gergana Daskalova (@gndaskalova) documents permafrost thaw, the potential collapse of a sea bird colony and our team who are out there trying to capture this rapid change as it happens. These photographs won or were highly commended in the "People and Nature” and "Ecology in Action" categories of the British Ecological Society's 2019 photo competition. The images were taken on an expedition supported by the National Geographic Society, the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In the first photo, a human silhouette is dwarfed by the size of a retrogressive thaw slump on Qikiqtaruk-Herschel Island in Canada. Thawing permafrost, coastal erosion and rising temperatures are redrawing not just the shapes of Arctic islands like Qikiqtaruk, but also triggering feedbacks that will impact the climate of the planet as a whole. In the second photo, a peregrine falcon perches on the old mission house - a home to the only black guillemot colony in the Western Canadian Arctic. In just two years, a peregrine pair has managed to hunt almost all of the guillemots. Even though some of the seabirds returned to the island in the summer of 2019, the nest boxes remained empty - no new chicks this year. Life in the Arctic can be a precarious balance. In the third photo, the 2019 Team Shrub field crew sets up for a day of flying drones. When the sunshines and the wind dies down, we carry bags full of equipment out across the tundra and spread out our gear amidst the cottongrass tussocks. Drones allow us to capture across landscapes how climate change is altering the northern reaches of our planet. Photos by Gergana Daskalova #BES2019 #HiddenArctic #GreeningArctic #TeamShrub #NatGeoExplorers #InsideNatGeo #tundra #Arctic #fieldwork #scicomm #Qikiqtaruk #yukon #UKinArctic #natgeoyourshot #RSGSgrants @teamshrub @edinunigeosciences @EdinburghUniversity @jtkerby @lhull87 @apecs.polar @royalscotgeosoc @nercscience @insidenatgeo @britishecolsoc

Qikiqtaruk is an island beyond time. The mix of heritage, long human history and the modern day all collide in one place under the midnight sun, moving its inhabitants to a time zone all of their own. The schedule that one adapts to when out here is affectionately known as Herschel Time – when you follow the light and the weather and don’t stick to the 9-to-5 and 24-hour day. In this blog post from last summer (link in bio), we chart the daily schedule of Arctic fieldwork. This video was captured by @gndaskalova in the hours around midnight when the sun is at its lowest point on the horizon. Even after a long and exhausting day in the field, the magic of watching the sun sink below the horizon and then rise again is too hard to resist. An island beyond time https://teamshrub.com/2019/07/30/an-island-beyond-time/ Under the midnight sun, the golden light is now bathing the land and often the seas have stilled to a flat calm. Now the Arctic is achingly beautiful everywhere you look. Sandpipers and plovers run around the ponds, baby eider ducks splash in the waves, and if you are lucky, a fox walks the beach or a pod of belugas swim by… Video by Gergana Daskalova @insidenatgeo #Qikiqtaruk #TeamShrub #NatGeoExplorers #InsideNatGeo #time #midnightsun #tundra #Arctic #fieldwork #scicomm #UKinArctic #natgeoyourshot #HiddenArctic #GreeningArctic #RSGSgrants @teamshrub @gndaskalova @jtkerby @apecs.polar @edinburghuniversity @edinunigeosciences @royalscotgeosoc @nercscience

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