An Arctic Retreat - Earthwatch Institute

Lamoyne Taylor, 17, senior at Gentry High School, Indianola, MS, stood out among 300 student candidates when he was selected to participate in Earthwatch Institute's Student Challenge Award Program (SCAP). As a global organization, Earthwatch engages people in education and scientific field research to promote understanding and the actions necessary for a sustainable environment.

On June 16^th, Taylor, along with six other SCAP award winners, traveled as far north as Churchill, Manitoba, Canada to conduct research for the project: Water Quality and Ecology of Tundra Wetlands.

"We wanted to know what made the amphibian population so scarce," explained Taylor. "Was the quality of the water poor, were there fish eating tadpoles or were there dramatic changes in the climate? This is what we were going to find out."

Student researchers spent 17 days assisting scientists, LeeAnn Fishback and Ben Cash, at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, located at the edge of the arctic where the trees of the boreal forest meet the open arctic tundra along the Hudson Bay coast.

"The main focus of our project," continued Taylor, "was to determine how the water quality and character of the wetlands was related to the distribution of two frog species -- the wood frog and the boreal chorus frog."

Churchill, Manitoba has been identified notably sensitive in that the effects of global climate change will be experienced here first. These arctic and subarctic ecosystems, the transition zones, show a rapid decline in the amphibian population. As the contributing effect on the environment continues to be an area of speculation, biologists remain concerned these effects may be catastrophic for certain species.

The expedition presented two complex biotic communities to the research team - the arctic tundra and the boreal forest. Known for its pristine environments, breathtaking flora and fauna, Manitoba is also home to the largest predator on earth - the polar bear!