By Allison Bailey, 2007-08 U.S. Fulbright Grantee to Norway 

Broadly speaking, I came to Svalbard in order to investigate responses of arctic plant communities to climate change. In my project proposal, I focused on investigating this by working with Associate Professor Elisabeth Cooper on a project looking at how geese and climate change affect the tundra and how to measure recent climate change by looking at the growth forms of a tundra plant. After arriving and talking with her, I began working on two other projects, both of which are investigating the potential responses of arctic plant communities to climate change and both of which are part of her current research aims.

 Throughout the year I have worked on a project with snowfences erected in a nearby valley, which artificially increase the snow depth and are allowing us to look at how deeper snow (one prediction of climate change in the Arctic regions) may affect the reproductive success of tundra plant communities and the ability of tundra soil to be a carbon sink. Throughout the dark winter season, I conducted fieldwork by snowmobile with a Master’s student at UNIS, collecting CO2 samples from the snowpack to be used to create a model of gas diffusion through the snow.

As my main project, I focused on the plant communities of an Arctic desert in the far north, above 80°N, on Nordaustlandet, an island in the Svalbard archipelago. Specifically, I investigated the natural seedbank of diverse habitats found on southwestern part of the island. To do so, I joined a field expedition to Nordaustlandet in August as a part of the Kinnvika IPY project(1), where I took soil cores and conducted vegetation surveys along with Elisabeth Cooper. This region is a nearly unstudied area at the northernmost reaches of terrestrial life, which makes any documentation of life existing there interesting. Additionally, I hoped to see if there are plants seeds and propagules dispersing to Nordaustlandet from southerly regions like Norway and Russia which currently cannot survive the harsh climate of the area. If the climate warms, these species may be able to spread northwards along water and wind currents which move along the coasts of Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet. From October until April, I have germinated the soil samples collected in Nordaustlandet to determine the types and abundances of species which both live in there and are dispersed there by sea ice and winds. I am writing a report for my advisor, Elisabeth Cooper, which will potentially be submited for publishing in the coming year. In addition to these two projects, I took part in a UNIS course in the autumn term on Arctic terrestrial ecology.

Working on these projects has taught me about the international cooperation that is crucial for scientific progress, especially in regions such as the Arctic where its possession, stewardship, enjoyment, and scientific interest are shared by so many nations. UNIS is particularly and consciously multinational, drawing students and staff from over 20 nations, which opened me to living and working in international teams. By coming to a place that was strange to all, everyone could form relationships based on experiencing a new and exciting place for the first time together. We were all guests and thus equals.

In addition to the scientific experience I have gained in the past year, many of the things I have learned in this past year have been outside the scope of my project. As a California-native, my understanding of life in cold climate was limited to the short-lived, temperate snowfalls of the Sierras. In Svalbard, where snowy winter dominates the landscape for 8 months of the year, I had to trade the sandals with which I navigated southern Californian winters for Sorel boots, Gore-tex pants, endless wool layers, and windproof hats and gloves. In exchange for the inevitable moments of cold fingers, frozen eyelashes, and stinging cheeks, life in the frigid climate of Svalbard has shown me the many rewards that are offered in a landscape as barren and alien as it is beautiful. I now know what sea ice looks like when it is forming from delicate “pancakes” and when it is safe to travel on by ski, how to dogsled with a team of huskies, what the aurora borealis looks like as it dances in the polar night, how to travel in a landscape with polar bears, and how the stars light up the ‘midday’ sky in the dark season.

The Arctic is a place whose threatened future is making it a region of interest for people around the world. To visit is to get an impression of its mysterious allure, but to live in it through the changes of a year is to begin to appreciate that you will never be able to fully understand its nature. This year has given me a wonderful introduction into a network of Arctic scientists studying this changing place, a good deal of respect for the Arctic, and a desire to continue being a part of the international cooperation which drives research and life on Svalbard.


(1) see http://www.kinnvika.net/?Deptid=19622