Bright and early this morning, we piled into the "white van" with our trusty driver, Reija. We were headed out for a day of field excursions. First stop, Creamer's Field. We have already driven by Creamer's Field several times this week. We noted the birds and cranes that seemed ever present in the field. Today, we would get the chance to see them "up close", well, we hoped! At the turn of the century, Creamer's Dairy was started when Belle and Charles Hinckley brought three cows and some horses up from Nome during the "Gold Rush". By 1966, it was the largest dairy in Alaska. Mr. Hinckley loved feeding and watching the birds. The fields became a popular stop over point in many migration routes. When the farm went up for sale, the community raised funds to "save the farm" as a wildlife refuge. To read about Creamer's Field, check out the website.
The barns at Creamer's Field.
One of the coolest things about the visit to Creamer's Field was the treck through the Boreal forest. A boreal forest is also called the Tiaga. The Tiaga makes up the world's LARGEST land biome...MORE Land is in the Tiaga or Boreal forest than any other land biome - 27%!! That is shocking to me...I would have expected the temperate areas to occupy more landmass. The Tiaga has a long cold winter with summers lasting less than 4 months. Permafrost is common in the Tiaga. Permafrost is defined as soil at or below freezing for at least 2 years. Melissa Sikes, Friends of Creamer's Field, who led our hike through the boreal forest told us the permafrost in the refuge begins about 2 feet below the surface soil.
This is a photo of the boreal forest with a karst pond in the foreground.
At the refuge, you can see examples of change. Areas of permafrost have melted and whole areas of the boreal forest have collapesed. A thermokarst described lands surfaces that have polygonal areas of permafrost and areas where it has melted and sunken. This melting and change in the surface of the forest floor causes the trees to fall. This is referred to as "Drunken Forest".
This is a photo of the drunken forest - changing levels of permafrost causes the trees to fall over.
Calla lilies were just beginning to sprout through the bog areas of our walk. Interestingly, Melissa pointed out that this plant fills the same niches as "skunk cabbage" would in our area. WE LOVE SKUNK CABBAGE!!! This year we had a GREAT hike into the Kiser Lake State Park Wetland in Ohio in search of the skunk cabbage. We hiked while there was still snow on the ground. Skunk cabbage has an exothermic reaction that allows it to melt the snow around it in order to sprout through the snow. This reaction is called thermogenisis. Below you will see a picture of the skunk cabbage from Kiser Lake State Park Wetlands.
Skunk cabbage exhibiting thermogenisis at Kiser Lake State Park in St Paris Ohio.
Melissa also told us there were only 6 trees native to Alaska!! When I taught Biology, my students made leaf collections..massive leaf collection with a minimum of 35 trees! A leaf collection in Alaska would be MUCH easier. The 6 trees are: Alaska Paper Birch, Quaking Aspen, Balsam Poplar, Larch (Tamarack), Black Spruce and White Spruce.
Chantelle peeking through a
Signing off from Fairbanks, Alaska...more will follow!