December 8th

Day 4 of ArcticNet

ArcticNet is truly an incredible conference. Day 4 of ArcticNet for ISAMR was another eventful one.

I had the pleasure of doing a talk today in the "Permafrost" session. This talk revolved around our research in a bog near Ritchie Lake, Churchill, that was partially burned in 1999. We have been collecting Active Layer Thickness (ALT) measurements and vegetation estimation (both at a categorical and species level) in both the unburned and burned terrain since 2008 and 2012, respectively. What we have found was that the ALT in the burned bog is significantly thicker than the one in the unburned one. We have correlated this with the fact that there is around 60% less lichen coverage in the burned bog, which is a vegetation that has insulating properties for the permafrost.

After the Permafrost session, we went to the "Arctic Wildlife 2" session to hear Jackie ("What would Jackie do?") and Jim Roth's talks, both revolving around lemming population dynamics. It was wonderful hearing their talks again, this time in a spacious convention room and not the cramped living room of Nestor 1. 

Beside the talks, we had a wonderful lunch of pierogies, sausages, meatballs, and tangy tomato soup, explored the poster room, collected some cool merch and information booklets, and picked up some valuable knowledge and recommendations from (adult) arctic scientists. 

ArcticNet has no doubt exceeded my expectations. The scope of arctic research currently being done is much larger than I ever would have imagined: permafrost, wildlife, Inuit health, arctic mining... the topics truly seemed limitless. This is such a pivotal time for the health of our world, and experiencing ArcticNet has fuelled me to continously extend my knowledge and actions on protecting our ecosystem. What a beautiful world we live in - let this not be a temporary statement. 

Grace Ma

Kelvin High School, 2017