UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

Volume 2 Article 3

June 1971

Arctic Ecology: A Decade of Experience

John F. Schindler

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/umr-journal

Part of the Geology Commons, Geophysics and Seismology Commons, Mining Engineering Commons, and the Petroleum Engineering Commons

Recommended Citation Schindler, John F. (1971) "Arctic Ecology: A Decade of Experience," UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series: Vol. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/umr-journal/vol2/iss1/3

This Article - Journal is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars' Mine. It has been accepted for inclusion in UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series by an authorized administrator of Scholars' Mine. This work is protected by U. S. Copyright Law. Unauthorized use including reproduction for redistribution requires the permission of the copyright holder. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UM R Journal, No. 2 (June 1971) 5 ARCTIC ECOLOGY-A Decade of Experience

John F. Schindler Assistant Director Naval Arctic Research Laboratory

A quick glance at the title of this presentation earned a citation in the roll call of Arctic his­ and the reader braces himself for another antipol­ tory....But my point of all this review is that even lution or “save-the-sod” type of discourse that with the scores of people moving north both his­ has become so popular these days. I do not wish to torically and very recently we still know very little detract from the importance or the need for such about our north and it still has a good deal of the efforts but I would like to address myself to the romantic image that prompted the original explo­ the broader meaning of the term. rations. Ecology—the word comes from the Greek What is the Arctic? Where does it start and root “oikos” which means house or household. stop? That is one of the first questions asked in What I’d like to do is to tell you about this any study and I’m guessing will be also one of the “house” I’ve been living in for the past 10 years. last to be answered. The man who focuses his in­ terest beneath the surface of the ground tends to think of the Arctic as that area underlain by permafrost. The man who studies the sky or the HISTORY aurora would probably consider it to be the area Western man’s interest in the north dates from north of 66° 30' North. To the Anthropologist it the travels of the Greek Pytheas who left the Medi­ is the area inhabited by Eskimos... To the biologist terranean in 325 B.C. and sailed north to what is it is everything north of the tree-line. That itself now the northern coast of Norway to a point de­ could only be a definition coined by botanists... scribed as “where the daylight of the summer sol­ they can’t decide on what is a tree and what is a stice lasted 23 hours”. Prior to 1000 A.D. the shrub. I confess to being a biologist and a very Norsemen often sailed to Iceland, Greenland, provincial one at that. When I say Arctic I mean northern Scandinavia and even Nova Zemlya. Both that area north of the Brooks Range in Alaska Cabot and Columbus visited Iceland before they generally known as the North Slope or the Alaskan made their well known westward journeys. A rctic. Modern exploration, especially of the Canadi­ an Arctic, owes a great deal to the famous work of CLIMATE Parry, Ross, and Franklin. On the western side of North America’s Arctic, Beechy and Elson plus The climate of the north slope is best char­ Simpson and Dease in the 1820s and 30s made acterized as severe, with long cold winters and epic voyages and enlarged the limits of our knowl­ short cool summers with frequent fog and persis­ edge. Their names are now part of the Arctic geog­ tent winds. Precipitation is scanty and tempera­ raphy. Franklin’s ill fated expedition in 1845, be­ tures are below freezing for most of the year. At cause of its disappearance and ultimately tragic Barrow the Weather Bureau records minimum tem­ end, probably prompted more interest and subse­ peratures below freezing on 320 or more days a quently more exploration than could otherwise year. Minimum temperature of record at Barrow is have been possible. Lady Franklin’s romantic -56°F, maximum +76°F. As you move inland from image as the lost young widow can be credited Barrow to Umiat the temperature regimes become with at lease two expeditions in search of her markedly more continental. Summers are warmer famous husband. (maximum of +91°F at Umiat) and winters are Twentieth century explorations should in­ colder (minimum of -76 F at Umiat). The warmest clude Fridtjof Nansen’s very successful voyage of month everywhere on the slope is July followed the FRAM at the end of the 19th century. This by August and June. Weather bureau precipitation was really the first completely successful explora­ records reflect low values for Arctic Alaska. The tion both scientifically and in accomplishing the mean annual precipitation for Barrow being only 4 mission—and all, without injury or loss of life. 1 /2 inches. But these measurements are too low Oceanographers today still use the Nansen bottle because thqy do not reflect the extreme density of as a basic tool of research. the snow which can be figured at 4 inches of water We could quote many names....from Amund­ in 10 inches of snow rather than the usual one sen and his Gjoa trip in 1903-07 to the historic inch in tei). Since the average annual snowfall is Manhattan voyage presented in this symposium. about 25 inches the average annual precipitation is Indeed some of the people in this gathering have closer to 12 or 14 inches. 6 John F. Schindler This is the classic way to describe the weath­ continuously above the horizon at Barrow from er... but what is it really like? Weather is cold when May 10th until August 2nd. The extended period the moisture from the stoves and vehicles freezes of darkness—84 days— is the greater cause of out of the air to form a hoare frost on every­ Quonset Fever or Quonsetitis and I note it is also thing...Sometimes covering the powerlines with a the time of the year that Directors and Assistant feathery sheath 3 inches in diameter...Weather is Directors seem to attend the most meetings in the cold when the atmosphere is so dry the static elec­ south-48. (See Figure 1) tricity becomes uncomfortable...when you cross a During this period of descending sun, the room to kiss your wife goodbye and a blue spark character of the light is also different. The autumn jumps across the 4-inch gap as you approach her... sun appears more purple, the snow scenes more well you can fool youself and flatter your ego but blue and darker and colder looking as opposed to the room is simply dry. Weather is cold when a 15 the brighter reds and yellows of a spring sun. This knot wind can mean the difference between walk­ difference is so marked that you can tell from the ing outside or dashing between car and house. We colors in a sunset photograph whether the picture always say our worst weather at Barrow is 20 be­ was taken in the fall or the spring. low and 20 knots. That’s a chill index of -68°F It is a small point, but man’s psychology re­ and that’s cold. Vehicles won’t start, tires are fro­ acts to color and I often think it is this dark blue zen slightly square where they rested overnight, of the Arctic world coupled with the prospect of and plastics and other normally pliable materials the long winter ahead that prompts so many men shatter when dropped or flexed. to quit and head south in the fall and not the first Now I’ve painted a pretty cold picture, but white flakes of “termination dust” that is the gen­ surprisingly most people adjust rather well to erally credited cause. I do not know what causes cold....it is the extended period of darkness that is this difference in light quality—it is a good oppor­ difficult to cope with. At Barrow our sun goes tunity for some research—but theorize that the down on the 18th of November and stays down low angle of the sun in the fall passing through until the 23rd of January. Correspondingly it is moisture rich air, (relatively speaking) is the an-

Figure 1. Point Barrow , A laska

UM R Journal, No. 2 (June 1971) Arctic Ecology - A Decade of Experience 7

swer. In the spring the angle of the sun is the same theory of Leffingwell which has been summarized but the atmosphere is so dry due to the cold that by Lachenbruch. During the winter, vertical frac­ there is little moisture and hence a different color tures are known to form in the frozen tundra. quality to the light. They are assumed to be caused by the thermal contraction of the tundra. In the spring the waters THE LA ND of the melting snow fills and freezes in these cracks. There is a horizontal compression caused The ground surface of the north slope is often by a re-expansion of the permafrost during the strikingly patterned by the permafrost underneath following summer which results in an upturning of the surface. Permafrost is generally defined as any the material by plastic deformation. In the follow­ natural material that has a temperature below the ing winter this ice cemented crack is a zone of freezing point of fresh water for two or more weakness and renewed thermal contraction re­ years. At the Barrow Camp the depth of perma­ opens the crack and continues the process. This frost is about 400 feet and at the ocean’s edge it cycle acting over centuries of time is thought to increases in depth as you go inward away from the produce the vertical wedge shaped ice form. The ocean. It is approximately 600 feet in depth im­ surface polygon pattern is thought to be the natu­ mediately behind the Camp; 1250 feet in depth 5 ral consequence of the contraction. miles inland in the area of the gas well and ranges Pingos are another surface evidence of ice for­ to the 2000 or 2100 foot depth in the Prudhoe mation. The theory of pingo formation is that Bay region. water under hydrostatic pressure freezes and the There are 3 cryopedalogical phenomena that resulting large volume has no where to go but up produce features so prominent as to deserve men­ to expand and this bulge, slowly formed, raises the tion in this presentation. These are polygonal surface tundra. Pingos can be quite high, some up ground, pingos, and oriented lakes. to 50 feet or more, and the enclosed ice is a gen­ The polygonal ground patterns so vividly evi­ erally clear, sometimes massive, lens shapped dent to the casual observer as he flies across the body. Arctic tundra are a surface manifestation of the ice The phenomena of oriented lakes, so strik­ wedges underneath. Such wedge shaped vertical ingly evident, is found in what we call the Coastal sheets vary in width from 1/4 inch to 10 feet wide Plain Province. This area is usually considered to at the top and 4 to 30 feet deep when seen in be everything north of the 500 foot elevation line vertical section. (See figure 2) and slopes gently to sea level. It varies from a few The general theory for the origin of the ice miles in width on the eastern edge to about 100 wedges now accepted is the thermal contraction miles in width over most of the province. It is an

Figure 2. Polygonal ground patterns, north slope of Alaska.

UMR Journal, No. 2 (June 1971) 8 John F. Schindler area of poor surface drainage; waters being con­ ture o f Arctophila fulva, Hippuris vulgaris and fined to the surface by the underlying “cement of Rannunculus pallasii - all good submerged water permafrost”. The lakes have their long axis on a plants. As the pond progresses and becomes drier general north-south orientation. Every theory you will see the mosses such as Drapanocladus or imaginable from prehistoric winds to Paul Bunyon sphagnum species mixed with sedges, carex, etc. stories have been proposed to explain this orienta­ Further in the drainage cycle Poa, Potentilla, Saliz, tion. It is now generally thought to be the result of Saxifraga would be considered dominant. And our present day prevailing NE-SW winds working finally the Poa and other grass species mixed with at right angles to the long axes of the lakes. It is a considerable ground cover of’lichens and mosses well known that the mechanical cutting action of would represent the most xerophytic vegetation cold water is great upon the frozen unconsolidated type of the tundra meadows. sediments which most aptly describes the surface Please notice that until now I didn’t use the material of a large percent of the coastal plain word tundra. This was purposeful to point out the province. TOO general use given the term. Tundra is the When the lake ice begins to thaw in the spring name of a biome just as grassland or forest or a water moat is formed in the shallow area around meadow. When most people say tundra they really the perimeter. The winds blowing this central ice mean the organic mat or the predominant vegeta­ back and forth across the lake, cause the waters of tion and do not mean the entire biome with all of the moat to move around the “ends” of the lake its components of flora and fauna. We are all and subsequently erode those areas. The ice of falling into the habit due to the inconvenience of course protects the long edge of the lake from saying organic mat or plant community. We can most water action. Some work has been done to talk of the grass or the grassland but there is no trace the currents in the lakes during thaw and this convenient general plant to characterize the tundra work generally supports this explanation. because of its diversity of micro communities. When modifiers are added to enlarge the use of the THE PLANTS word such as Alpine tundra, we further cloud the definition. The vegetation of the total north slope area is really not as simple or as easily described as is THE ANIMALS often suggested. In fact the dominant characteris­ tic of the vegetation is variability. The plants of Animal populations in the Arctic are not only the respective provinces can be described and the prone to fluctuate but the fluctuations of certain communities within these provinces identified, species tend to be strongly cyclic. The most out­ generally as reflections of the micro-relief of the standing example is the small microtine - the surface. I do not intend to make that an aim of brown lemming. this paper but will summarize with the following The cycles in lemming numbers are short term major points. periodicities, typically 3 to 4 years and the There is a decline in species numbers that cor­ amplitude of a given cycle is large so that responds to increased latitude and it is a very strik­ lemmings exceedingly scarce in an area one sum­ ing feature of vascular plant distribution in the mer become almost unbelievably abundant there Arctic. The flora is richest in species in the south two or three years later. The lemming is an and poorest near the coast, there are about 250 herbivore consuming not only grasses and sedges species that make up the flora of Umiat but only but also mosses and lichens and the above ground about 150 species when you reach the sea coast. parts of almost any available plant. The extent to This reaches a low of about 110 species in the which they exploit the below ground parts of immediate area of Barrow. Correspondingly there plants is not known though it must be considered is a shift of dominance as you move northward to happen occasionally. from the shrubform unit plants to the graminoid Microtines are active the year round and species - the clumps and cluster forms of grasses. whereas the plant growing season may be only 7 to The genera Carex, Salix, Saxifraga, and P otentilla 10 weeks long it must support the animals are most important vascular plants in terms of the throughout an annual cycle. Moreover during the number of species. Plant populations are con­ nongrowing portion of the year (80 to 85% of the spicuously related to drainage gradients and a dif­ time) with the ground frozen and the available ference of only a few inches in elevation can pro­ portion of the plants killed back to the leaf bases duce an entirely different population. This is strik­ surrounding the growing points the relative pro­ ingly demonstrated by following a shallow pond portion of the total plant that is edible is much through a “life” cycle in which it gets pro­ reduced. As a result, the winter cutting of vegeta­ gressively. drier. tion by lemmings can be quite extensive. Some­ The waters of the pond usually support a mix­ times when the snow melts after a winter in which

U M R Journal 2 (June 1971) Arctic Ecology - A Decade of Experience 9 the animals were numerous, the tundra appears to THE PEOPLE have been mowed and the grasses are arranged by the meltwaters into rows so as to appear as win­ The last section to be discussed in this brief now ed hay. summary is the most difficult of all for it con­ cerns—as the Eskimos say— the Inupiat - or the It is an often cited misconception that the people. Generally the north Alaskan Eskimo was lemming periodically marches into the sea to com­ divided into two groups by their way of life. The mit suicide. As best we can tell the animal does coastal Eskimo who hunted the mammals of the migrate at times of high propulation density and in sea and the inland Eskimo, the Nunamuit or the the flat tundra of the Alaskan Arctic he migrates people of the caribou who lived chiefly on the in 360 degrees of direction. He is an excellent migrating herds. The language is surprisingly simi­ swimmer and somewhat shortsighted, so when he lar over most of the north slope although some approaches a body of water he simply jumps in to dialects do occur. The similarity in language is swim across. He cannot tell whether it is a small probably due to their mobility. The Eskimos were, pond or the ocean. The march to the sea idea has and still are, great travelers. It was not unknown its origins in Scandinavia where the fiords by their for a man or more often a couple of Barrow men very topography channel the animals down to the to pack up their families and go to Barter Island sea; the animals following the greener grass of the over 300 miles away for a week’s visit. Today the valley and ultimately end up in the fiord. This of Eskimo still travels a good deal and does not hesi­ course is also the basis for the childhood story tate to charter a small plane for the same type of “The Pied Piper of Hamlin” social call or to attend a nulakatuk - the whale Estimates place the total population of big festival. game animals in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Alaska It is interesting to note the point on the Col­ at about 750,000 which is a density of 1.50 head ville River that is known as Umiat where the east­ per square mile. Only the south 48 states with ward flowing river makes a sharp bend and flows intensive land use have a lower density, and the north. Umiat is the plural of umiak which is the U.S. as a whole is 3.1 head per square mile. The wooden frame boat of the Eskimo covered with most abundant and the most harvested species is walrus hides. This point on the river, Umiat, is as the caribou. These figures cannot be taken as ac­ far as the coastal people would go on their journey curate but should be considered guides as a good up river. They would beach their umiaks to camp estimate of the size of the caribou herds is not here and trade and socialize with the inland available. All evidence indicates that the herd is people. Hence the name Umiat meaning many almost as large as the previous high in the late 19th um iaks. cen tu ry . Historically the Eskimos covered great dis­ tances by dog teams to hunt the caribou. Today In the first half of this century there was an they still hunt the caribou but do so by snow ma­ almost catastrophic decline in the number of cari­ chine, covering great distances pulling sleds behind bou. Conservative estimates figured the population them, often on the trail for 2 to 3 weeks in all was at 170,000 out of a beginning 1 to 2 million kinds of weather. It is often suggested that Eski­ animals. Causes of the decline are problematical mos have some sort of sixth sense because of then- but range destruction by fire, competition with keen sense of direction. This sixth sense is simply a the introduced reindeer, unfavorable weather and depredation by wolves were probably all con­ very well developed power of observation. On the flat featureless (to us) coastal plain, the curves of tributory. The present increase in numbers can the rivers, a succession of slightly higher sand probably be credited mainly to the bounty hunt­ dunes even when buried under a good deal of ing of wolves which has removed a very major snow, provide guide posts for an Eskimo. He also predator. The numbers problem should be will take his bearings in winter from the stars or watched closely as diseased animals are appearing the sun and then set out in the direction he wants more frequently and the weak and the lame are to go, always striking the snow drifts at the same not culled out by wolves but survive long enough angle. He knows the prevailing winds are very con­ to pass on disease. It is not too uncommon to find stant and the angle of the snow drifts provide di­ whole dead carcasses on the tundra. rectional arrows along the route. When biologists It is not possible to go into much detail on first began working in the north they discovered each animal of Arctic Alaska. Suffice it is to say that the best assistants were the Ifskimos. The Es­ that the north slope is not as barren as often kimo language has separate names for over 90% of thought. It is the natural home of the Arctic wolf, the different species of wildlife which inhabit the the wolverine, dall sheep, (at the edge of the north slope. Few animals escaped their attention. slope), moose, barren land grizzly, fox, Arctic The classic story about the Eskimos keen hare, and ground squirrel. sense of observation and excellent memory con­

U M R Journal, No. 2 (June 1971) 10 John F. Schindler

cerns a man named Pete Sovalik who still works at tice that their clothes are loose so not to constrict the Laboratory and is a veritable library of infor­ the circulation of the body. Poor circulation is the mation for many researchers. first step to frostbite. The mukluk or boot fits A few years back, in about 1 963, a scientist at high on the calf, almost to the level of the parka. the Laboratory was studying the geomorphological The old time Eskimo wore caribou socks and processes of change in the Colville River Delta. His stuffed an insulating pad of dried grass in his muk­ first chore was to map the delta which he was luk beneath his foot and changed the pad and the doing and he thought he would try to maintain the socks often. The clothing-and-foot gear- was the Eskimo names for the many islands and called in most important to the hunter and it was the chore Pete to help. Pete was pouring over the map sup­ of his wife each night as they camped on the trail, plying names when he pointed to a blank space to dry out the mukluks over the seal oil lamp and and said there was an island missing. The scientist to sew up any holes or tears in his clothing. sort of chuckled as there are close to 1000 islands It is often said that the Eskimo is a stoic non- in the delta but he pulled out his field notes and emotional person. That is simply not true. He de­ aerial photos to check and sure enough he had velops very deep family relationships and is ex­ missed a small island. He congratulated Pete on his tremely friendly and outwardly cheerful. Eskimos memory and asked him how long since he’d been will often laugh in the face of a minor disaster - over there. Pete thought for awhile and replied - like a broken leg - and usually laugh at themselves. 1922. We can obviously learn much from these This is mainly an effort at making the best of a people about living in the north country. bad situation. Such an adjustment to fate seems The clothing of the Eskimos is another lesson very logical in a people who have learned to live in that can be immediately adapted for our own use. such a harsh environment. When one reads the Their fur clothing is made with the fur-side inside newspapers today it is difficult not to feel that we to provide an air space between the body and the have a lot to learn from these people of the North. outer windproof skin. Parkas are long and tentlike I hope this very hurried, rambling introduc­ with no zippers so that they trap the rising heat. tion to the Arctic has whetted a few appetites and The hood serves not only to keep the head and aroused your curiosity to learn more. The Arctic is face warm but also to close the back of the neck really little known. Koyanuk - Silya Kinngya - again so the trapped heat doesn’t escape. Also no­ Thank you and good day.

John Frederick Schindler

John Schindler was born August 23, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. He received his B.S. Degree from Michigan State College in 1953 and in 1954 received his M.S. in Botany/Geology from Michigan State University specializing in freshwater algae. As part of his graduate work he was a field instructor for the Montana State Biological Station during the summers of 1953 and 1954. Prior to entering the U.S. Army he and Erna Zethner were married in El Paso, Texas in 1956. They have two daughters Lynn, 14 and Laura, 7. During his military tour of duty, he served at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah as a Research-Test Officer for Biological and Chemical Warfare Experiments. Upon completion of his military obligation he became the Superintendent of the Maguarichic Mines in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1958. In 1960 the University of Michigan sent him to Barrow, Alaska to conduct biological studies on the north slope freshwater lakes. At this time he associated with the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory. Following his research project, he was appointed the Assistant Director of the Laboratory; the position he holds today. Mr. Schindler has a wide variety of interests and membership in professional societies and organizations. These include the Scott Polar Research Institute, the Explorers Club, A.I.B.S., A.A.A.S., Arctic Institute of North America and Sigma Xi. He is listed in American Men of Science.

U M R Journal, No. 2 (June 1971)