User:Celphin/sandbox

History
The Alexandra Fiord region was inhabited by people in the Paleoeskimo, Dorset and Thule cultures in succession from ca. 2500 B.C.- 1500 A.D. Today, scientists seasonally visit the site. In 1953 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police established a station at Alexandra Fiord, which was the northern-most police detachment in the world. The RCMP post was to be followed by the establishment of a new community at Alexandra Fiord in 1954, in the same way that the communities of Grise Fiord and Resolute had been established in 1953. Due to ice conditions in 1954, the community was not established, but the RCMP post remained open until 1963. It was then used as a scientific research base and has been continuously used by researchers, mainly in the summer, since 1980.

Scientific research station
Greg Henry professor at the University of British Columbia

The research site at Alexandra Fiord was established in 1980 by Dr. Josef Svoboda (University of Toronto) and Dr. Bill Freedman (Dalhousie University). Greg Henry completed his PhD research at the site (1980-1984) and then established the first sites in the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) in 1992.

In 1992, warming chambers (open-top chambers; OTCs) were set up at four tundra communities across the lowland named after the major species in each site: Cassiope, Willow, Meadow and Dryas. In 1993, two sites were established in polar semi-desert communities on a plateau 500 m above the lowland. The two sites varied in substrate geology: the Granitic site had acidic granite bedrock (soil pH = 5.2), and the Dolomitic site was underlain by dolomite limestone (pH = 8.0). In 1994, factorial snow addition and removal was added to the Cassiope site (the site with the latest snow melt date). In 1995, another factorial experiment combining warming and fertilization was established in a community dominated by Vaccinium uliginosum (blueberry). In addition, a snow manipulation study was established in a late-lying snow bed in 1993, where 3 m x 3 m plots had snow removed, added or were left alone (n=3 per treatment). Finally, in 1998 a separate warming study was established using smaller OTCs focused on individual plants of Saxifraga oppositifolia (purple saxifrage).

Polar Oasis

GIS data
Map of the experimental plots: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O0gia9xt5sBTVbGiXWu3rZtcT32nrnal/view?usp=sharing

''' General site info: ''' Drones (https://arcticdrones.org/)

Site elevation: 0-100m

Latitude (WGS84 decimal degrees): 78.8833° N

Longitude (WGS84 decimal degrees): 75.8000° W

Climate data
Five long term climate stations exist at Alexandra Fiord (the Claude Tower next to the RCMP buildings (measuring precipitation, temperature, solar radiation, snow depth etc.), a station just south of the Meadow site (measuring temperature and snow depth), a station on top of Dome (measuring soil and surface temperatures), a station in the Cassiope site (with four snow depth sensors, plot thermocouples and site temperatures), and finally a station at the WIllow site (with four snow depth senors and plot thermocouples).

Climate data has also been collected on the Fosheim Peninsula, at Princess Marie Bay and at Sverdrup Pass.

Air temperature,

Soil temperature,

Snow depth,

Precipitation,

Cloud cover,

Wind,

global radiation,

Soil moisture,

Soil sampling,

Active depth layer,

Snowmelt dates,

Vegetation data collection
Phenology,

Point framing,

Above ground plant traits

Flower counts,

Fertilizer plots,

Snow addition and removal,

Phenocams (GoPros etc.),

Transplant experiments,

Plot photos,

Succession studies,

Competition experiment

Dendrochronology

Flora found at Alexandra Fiord

Dryas, Salix, Cassiope, Vaccinium, Sedges, Grasses, Rushes, Saxifraga, Equisetum, Poppy, Oxyria, Draba, Mosses/Lichens, Fungi

Wildlife surveys
Muskoxen

Seals

Birds

Fox den

Gynaephora