Getting up to a bright shinning sun at 6:00 is an eye-opener. During breakfast we saw an Arctic Hare. It is the largest rabbit I've ever seen, looking more like a small dog. Also spotted a male ptarmigan which looks like a cross between a chicken and a duck.It was changing over from its white winter coat to brown coloring - perfect to hide among the vegetation thats growing now. Also met up with some fellow researchers that are tagging ring seals, harbour seals and bearded seals in the area.After lunch we had our briefing on what we will be sampling and how to use the equipment. Our team will be be counting and measuring all seedling and sapling trees in a certain area. Things like specific location, height, number of tips at the top, number of whorls to help determine age , and more. The other task is to take tree core samples from all trees over 6 ft. high in certain areas. After lunch we put our instruction to the test by going out into the field and practicing what we just learned. It was sometimes comedic since none of us have ever used these type of tools before. Hopefully we will be quicker tomorrow.
Since Dr. Kershaw needed supplies we all decided to take advantage of seeing the town for the first time.
It is a small cluster of buildings that are designed to stand very cold winters. Didn't get much of a chance to walk around today but did get a great tour about surroundings during the drive and saw icebergs off in the bay.
After dinner we had an extensive lecture outlining some of the factors that are happening that give evidence if global warming and possible driving forces, things like shrinking sea ice, less snow on land, faster thawing sea ice, and less semi-permanent snow patches. Very interesting stuff!
Tomorrow we will begin sampling in earnest.
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