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
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
