LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Canadian Arctic Islands: North America
built 613 days ago
The people who have lived on the Canadian Arctic Archipelago for centuries have built up an extensive knowledge of the plants and uses for them. Porsild (1937) described edible roots and berries of northern Canada. During the summer of 1938, Anderson (1939) traveled with the U.S. coast guard and visited Eskimo villages of Northern Bering Sea and Arctic Alaska. He reported on the uses of plants by local people while noting that the diet of the Eskimos was almost exclusively of animal origin and the total portion of vegetable intake was very small. The food plants growing in the vicinity of the villages indicated that little had been gathered. Anderson (1939) observed that considering the small amount actually consumed, he found the number of plants used was surprisingly large, although not all species were used by all people in every village he visited.
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Subsequent Arctic exploration was largely motivated by the European need for sea routes to the Orient—the Northeast Passage along N Asia and the Northwest Passage through the Arctic islands of North America. In 1553 the English navigator Sir Hugh Willoughby (fl. 1528–54) initiated the search for the Northeast Passage. His companion, Richard Chancellor (d. 1556), reached the site of modern Arkhangelsk (Eng. Archangel), on the White Sea... opening a new route to commerce.
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A set of 10 x 10 m grids were examined at 10 sites along an Arctic transect from treeline in the south to the coldest part of the Canadian Arctic Islands. Six of the sites are on the Alaska North Slope, one near Inuvik on the Mackenzie River Delta, and three on Canadian Arctic Islands: Banks, Prince Patrick, and Ellef Ringnes. At half the sites additional grids were established to represent common moisture regimes. Vegetation maps are presented for 5 x 5 m portions of all the grids, and ... for 1 x 1 m portions for the most northern grids with smaller-scale patterning. Vegetation patterns, caused by cracking, cryoturbation and frost-heave are evident. All the grids are underlain by permafrost, and have active layers of annually thawed soil.
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Once the connection between Greenland and the Canadian Arctic islands had been made, the link between Europe and North America was completed. The discovery of North America and eventual colonization by a Viking band lead by Erik's son Lief, now a millennium past, would follow quickly.
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There are territorial flowers for each of the Canadian Arctic Territories: for the Yukon, the fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium); for the Northwest Territories, Mountain Avens (Dryas integrifolia) and for Nunavut there are three arctic flowering plants on the coat of arms. The official flower of Nunavut is the purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), which is one of the first plants to bloom in the spring. The summer flower is the arctic poppy (Papavera sp.) and the fall representative is the crowberry (Empetrum nigrum subsp. hermaphroditum). This plant grows as far North as Ausuittuq (Grise Fiord — the northernmost community) and has several traditional uses. There are about 100 other Arctic plants with showy flowers or berries that contribute to the joys of eco-tourism.
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Several meteorological variables have been examined for the period 1950-1989 to determine winter and summer conditions unfavourable to caribou in three climatic regions of the Canadian Arctic Islands. The frequency of unfavourable winters increased in the 1980s in the north-western region, and in the 1970s in the south-central and western regions. Relatively dry summers and wet winters during the 1970s may have caused serious shortages of forage. Freezing rain and snowfall ... show increasing trends. The results could be used with other environmental and biological factors to study the implications for caribou and other wildlife in the Arctic.
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