December 10th: Science (all day, everyday)

Today began with an unnecessarily early start, and a delicious breakfast in the lobby.  We left the hotel well-rested, well-fed, and ready to go for an incredibly full day of sciencey goodness.  

The day at the conference kicked off with the morning's plenary session, where we were welcomed by Dr. Martin Fortier, Executive Director of ArcticNet and chair of the conference's organizing committee.  After hearing about a couple of interesting projects in depth, we split off to go to the first of three of the days topical sessions.  We planned ahead, and scheduled all of the talks we wanted to see in advance so we didn't have to worry once we got there.  Jessie and I went to a session on "Monitoring Arctic Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biodiversity," where we learned all about the many monitoring projects throughout the Canadian north.  Particularly interesting was Gilles Gauthier, whose nearly 25-year comprehensive study of the biodiversity of Bylot Island has encompassed a wide variety of variables and many collaborators.  

The first topical session was followed by a surprisingly tasty lunch filled with lots a great conversation, and some regrouping before the afternoon sessions.  We all saw tons more interesting talks and have a lot of great contacts to catch up with in the coming weeks.  There are a lot of things we'll want to try in coming years, and we look forward to seeing where these projects can go. 

Our day at the conference ended with the second poster session.  We were able to talk in depth about our studies with a wide range of interesting people, and, though we didn't pick up any more hats, we were able to get some pretty neat sporks from the Yukon Research Centre.  

We ended the day with a fun-filled dinner at a local diner and some Millionaire Matchmaker and are all ready to go for our third and final conference day tomorrow!