scholarly journals Trends in high arctic muskox (Ovibos moschatus) harvest, 1990-2015

Rangifer ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Morgan Anderson
Keyword(s):  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Management Unit ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Country Food ◽  
Domestic Use ◽  
Wildlife Harvest ◽  
Harvest Pressure

Harvest reporting has been in place for High Arctic muskoxen in Nunavut, Canada, since 1990-91. The communities of Resolute, Grise Fiord, and Arctic Bay harvest muskoxen in the region. Overall, muskox harvest has declined in Resolute and Grise Fiord since the 1990s. The recovery of Peary caribou populations on the Bathurst Island Complex, which provides an alternate preferred source of country food, may be a factor behind Resolute’s decreased muskox harvest. The proportion of harvest for domestic use has also declined relative to sport hunts, which have remained relatively constant since the 1990s. We compared muskox harvest from tag records and reported harvest, i.e., the voluntary surveys to the Nunavut Wildlife Harvest Study for muskoxen. It is clear that voluntarily reported harvest underestimates actual harvest, but not consistently enough to predict the actual harvest. Muskox populations are at historic high levels on Bathurst Island, southern Ellesmere Island, and Devon Island and could support more harvest than is currently taken. Changes to Total Allowable Harvests and management unit boundaries in 2015, combined with a decline in the availability of Baffin Island caribou as country food, may result in increased harvest pressure on muskoxen in the High Arctic.

Some helminth parasites from the small intestine of free-ranging muskoxen Ovibos moschatus (Zimmermann) of Devon and Ellesmere Islands, Northwest Territories

1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Webster ◽  
J. Rowell
Keyword(s):  
Small Intestine ◽  
Northwest Territories ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Helminth Parasites ◽  
Taenia Hydatigena ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Intestinal Contents ◽  
Marshallagia Marshalli ◽  
Free Ranging

Intestinal contents from two muskoxen, Ovibos moschatus (Zimmermann), collected in March 1978 on Devon Island, N.W.T., both contained Marshallagia marshalli (Ransom 1906) and Nematodirus helvetianus May 1920. Intestinal contents from five muskoxen collected in August 1978 on Ellesmere Island, N.W. T., contained Moniezia expansa (Rudolphi 1810) (one of the five), Ostertagia trifurcata Ransom 1907 (one of five), M. marshalli (one of five) and N. helvetianus (two of five). Cysticerci of Taenia hydatigena Pallas 1766 were found in two of the five animals from Ellesmere Island.

The Lepidoptera of Greenland; Some Geographic Considerations

1966 ◽  
Vol 98 (11) ◽  
pp. 1135-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Downes
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Vascular Plants ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Oceanic Island ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
The North ◽  
Almost All

AbstractFrom the revised list of the Lepidoptera of Greenland and from recent work in Ellesmere Island it is shown that almost all the species found in high arctic Canada occur also in Greenland, predominantly in the north, and that this high arctic element constitutes a large fraction of the fauna of Greenland as a whole. It is suggested that this part of the fauna originated entirely from the nearctic by the little-interrupted land route across the arctic islands. The poverty of southerly Lepidoptera in Greenland stands in sharp contrast. It is illustrated by a comparison with the vascular plants and by other comparisons with the Lepidoptera found in the corresponding life zones in North America, and this section of the paper includes the first published list of the Lepidoptera of Baffin Island. It is suggested that this southerly fauna is of adventitious origin, by casual dispersal from overseas (Labrador, Iceland) or perhaps in a few cases by introduction by man. Thus Greenland, in respect of its fauna of southerly type, is an oceanic island of post-glacial age. Similar evidence suggests that Iceland also has been populated mainly in the same way. The conclusions derived from the Lepidoptera apply to several other groups of insects and also to the mammals, including man.

Studies of glacial history in Arctic Canada. I. Pumice, radiocarbon dates, and differential postglacial uplift in the eastern Queen Elizabeth Islands

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 634-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weston Blake Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Source Area ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Arctic Canada ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Time Line ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
Raised Beaches

Dark brown pumice has been discovered recently on raised beaches of Ellesmere and Devon Islands, and in archeological sites on Baffin Island. It is similar in appearance and chemical composition to pumice associated with raised marine features throughout northern Europe, especially along the coasts of Norway and Spitsbergen. The source area for the pumice is uncertain, but Iceland is a good possibility.Radiocarbon dates on driftwood and whale bones imbedded in beaches at the "pumice level", as well as at higher and lower elevations, indicate that the pumice arrived approximately 5000 years ago.The pumice serves as a time-line and provides a means of correlating widely-separated marine features. Because these features now occur at different elevations, the amount and direction of tilt can be calculated. Also, former ice centers can be delineated, as the areas which have undergone the greatest uplift are those where the ice cover was once thickest. In Arctic Canada the "pumice level" rises westward along Jones Sound—from 16.5 m a.s.l. at the mouth of South Cape Fiord, Ellesmere Island, to 24.0 m at the eastern tip of Colin Archer Peninsula, Devon Island, ca. 130 km away. It also rises northwestward toward the head of South Cape Fiord.The Jones Sound information, plus radiocarbon dates from elsewhere in the Queen Elizabeth Islands indicating the approximate position of the shoreline at the same time, shows that there is a region in the eastern and central part of the archipelago where >25 m of uplift has occurred during the last 5000 years. This region, including considerable areas that are now sea, is believed to have been covered by a major ice sheet during the last glaciation.

A survey of mycorrhizal plants on Truelove Lowland, Devon Island, N.W.T., Canada

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (9) ◽  
pp. 1848-1856 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Bledsoe ◽  
P. Klein ◽  
L. C. Bliss
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Cenococcum Geophilum ◽  
Soil Extracts ◽  
Vaccinium Uliginosum ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Ericoid Mycorrhizae ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Arctic Soils ◽  
Mycorrhizal Associations

Although mycorrhizal associations are commonly found on roots of most plant species, little is known about the presence or absence of mycorrhizae in arctic regions. In the Canadian High Arctic, roots of 55 herbaceous and woody plant species were examined for mycorrhizae during the summers of 1987 and 1988 on Devon Island, N.W.T. Ectomycorrhizal associations were found on roots of Salix arctica, Dryas integrifolia, and Potentilla hyparctica; ericoid mycorrhizae formed on Cassiope tetragona and Vaccinium uliginosum. Ectomycorrhizal roots were often covered with black hyphae resembling the fungus Cenococcum geophilum; sclerotia characteristic of this fungus were found in soil extracts. Plants expected to have endomycorrhizal associations were apparently nonmycorrhizal in the traditional sense, since no arbuscules, vesicles, or pelotons were found on any roots during two field seasons. Although extensive fungal hyphae were often present on and within roots, these hyphae could not be conclusively identified as endomycorrhizal. Some dark, septate hyphae were present; their function, although unknown, may be beneficial to the host. In a series of greenhouse bioassays using arctic soils, no endomycorrhizal associations developed on test plants. Spores of vesicular–arbuscular fungi were not found in soil extracts. Thus in this survey, only ectomycorrhizal associations were observed, suggesting that the cold, dry winter and cold, wet summer climates in this area of the High Arctic severely limit formation of endomycorrhizae. Key words: roots, fungi, ectomycorrhizae, endomycorrhizae, arctic.

Limnology of high arctic ponds (Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island, N. W. T.)

1994 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-434
Author(s):  
Marianne S. V. Douglas ◽  
John P. Smol
Keyword(s):  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Arctic Ponds

An analysis of the stability of thawing slopes, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Harris ◽  
Antoni G Lewkowicz
Keyword(s):  
Shear Strength ◽  
Pore Water ◽  
Active Layer ◽  
Factor Of Safety ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Pore Water Pressures ◽  
Hot Weather ◽  
The Stability

Active-layer detachment slides are locally common on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, where permafrost is continuous, the active layer is 0.5-0.75 m thick, and summer temperatures are unusually high in comparison with much of the Canadian High Arctic. In this paper we report pore-water pressures at the base of the active layer, recorded in situ on two slopes in late July and early August 1995. These data form the basis for slope stability analyses based on effective stress conditions. During fieldwork, the factor of safety within an old detachment slide on a slope at Hot Weather Creek was slightly greater than unity. At "Big Slide Creek," on a slope showing no evidence of earlier detachment failures, the factor of safety was less than unity on a steep basal slope section but greater than unity elsewhere. In the upper slope, pore-water pressures were only just subcritical. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate that the stability of the shallow active layer is strongly influenced by changes in soil shear strength. Possible mechanisms for reduction in shear strength through time include weathering of soils and gradual increases in basal active layer ice content. However, we suggest here that soil shearing during annual gelifluction movements is most likely to progressively reduce shear strengths at the base of the active layer from peak values to close to residual, facilitating the triggering of active-layer detachment failures.Key words: detachment slides, Ellesmere Island, pore-water pressures, gelifluction.

Chrysophycean stomatocysts from the postglacial sediments of a High Arctic lake

1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 1117-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine E. Duff ◽  
John P. Smol
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Light Microscopy ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Arctic Lakes ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
Stratigraphic Analysis ◽  
Morphological Detail ◽  
Electron And Light Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron

Twenty-six chrysophycean stomatocyst morphotypes were described from the postglacial sediments of a small, rock basin lake near Baird Inlet, Ellesmere Island. Scanning electron and light microscopy were used to classify the stomatocysts, following the guidelines of the International Statospore Working Group. None of the stomatocysts could be related with certainty to the chrysophyte species that produced them, but sufficient morphological detail is present in most of the stomatocysts to allow for taxonomic differentiation. A stratigraphic analysis of the dominant stomatocyst morphotypes revealed that chrysophyte species composition changed most markedly during the lake's early development but then remained relatively constant. This study demonstrated that chrysophycean stomatocysts provide useful paleoecological information in High Arctic lakes, but further taxonomic and ecological research is required to fully exploit these microfossils.

Rotifers from five high arctic ponds (Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island, N.W.T.)

Hydrobiologia ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 173 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Nogrady ◽  
John P. Smol
Keyword(s):  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Arctic Ponds

Taxonomic and ecologic observations of zoosporic fungi in soils of a high-arctic ecosystem

1976 ◽  
Vol 54 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 533-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Booth ◽  
Paul Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Species Composition ◽  
Soil Acidity ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Arctic Ecosystem ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Zoosporic Fungi

Phylctochytrium arcticum Barr and Rhizophlyctis harderi Uebelmesser are reported as additional taxa in soils of Truelove Lowland (Devon Island, N.W.T.) and Nowakowskiella spp., Olpidium pendulum Zopf, Pythium irregularae Buisman. Pythium spp., Phlyctochytrium arcticum, and Rhizophydium sphaerotheca Zopf are readily detectable as active organisms in Lowland microhabitats. Species diversity is greatest in mesic and warm soils and species composition of water-logged soils is different than dry soils. Soil acidity effects on distribution are discussed and autecological considerations of Nowakowskiella elegans and R. sphaerotheca with respect to pH, percentage N, C, and P, milliequivalents Ca2+ and Mg2+, moisture, and temperature are presented.

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