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Svalbard part 11 |
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2 Juli 2003: Today was another busy day. In the morning we attended lectures about the different definitions of the arctic. In the afternoon all the students that attended the course had to give presentations. We had a real international group with students from many different countries: Denmark, Norway, Bangladesh, Germany, Romania and Austria. It was fun to hear about the projects of the other students. There were projects about how the tundra is effected by the grazing of reindeer and geese. Another student had a project about the success of vegetation on the bare ground that is created when a glacier retreats. All together a busy day at the UNIS. 3 Juli 2003: Again a busy day, we started with lectures about the Svalbard flora from 9:00 - 12:00. We learned a lot about the different zones and distributions of the species  Lichen (Neuropogon spharcelatus) |
In the afternoon we had an excursion to the fields to practice what we had learned. We went to Endalen,
this is a side-valley of Adventalen. We were free to discover the species for ourselves. We found a Dwarf Birch
(Betula nana). This "tree" was actually about 3 feet tall but it grows lateral to the ground. We are starting
to miss tall trees now since all the vegetation on Svalbard is so low. We also checked out all the different
lichens we could find. We found several and with our expert Arve Elvebak, we were able to name them all!
Pictured is a beautiful lichen that grows on rocks. We were back at the UNIS at six. After a 2 hour dinner
break we had to go to the UNIS again. We had an identification practicum in the lab till 11 o'clock.
When we finally came home again there was a nice surprise waiting for us. The arctic fox was sitting
close to our barracks again. The picture is taken out of our living room!
 The arctic fox behind our barrack |
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