Polar fieldwork 2011

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Doug Currie on April 4, 2011 at 12:22pm

Hi Torbjørn,

The Northern Biodiversity Program (http://insectecology.mcgill.ca/NBP/index.html) is visiting 6 sites this summer, 4 of which are located in the Arctic or Subarctic ecoclimatic zones of Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories: Ogilvie Mountains (YT), Kugluktuk (NT), Banks Island (NT) and Victoria Island (NT).  We are collecting aquatic- and terrestrial arthropods and will be using malaise traps, yellow pan traps, and pitfall traps, among other collecting techniques.  We would be happy to hear from specialists with interest in our 'non-target' by-catch.

Cheers,  Doug

Permalink Reply by Torbjorn Ekrem on April 4, 2011 at 3:39pm

Sounds great Doug!

Do you have an overview of the most common 'non-target' by-catch for people that are not all too familiar with the project?

Cheers, Torbjørn

Permalink Reply by Torbjorn Ekrem on July 1, 2011 at 3:42am

Field Work on Jan Mayen

We have got an unusual opportunity to do some field work on the remote Arctic Island of Jan Mayen in the end of July. We will mainly collect terrestrial arthropods using Malaise traps and nets, but will also retrieve soil samples, plant fragments and tissue samples of birds. The groups we will be targeting for barcoding are mainly Diptera. Please contact me if you are interested in looking at other arthropod taxa!

Torbjørn

Permalink Reply by Punyasloke Bhadury on July 1, 2011 at 1:07pm

Hello Torbjørn,

 

Is there any possibility of getting access to soil samples? We are interested in studying the soil nematodes using high-throughput methods based primarily on barcoding.

 

Thanks

PB

Permalink Reply by Torbjorn Ekrem on July 2, 2011 at 12:00pm

Hi PB

Yes, we intend to take soil samples to retrieve soil arthropods (in collaboration with Steven Coulson on Svalbard), but I am unsure if the methods that Steve uses will preserve nematodes well. Are you interested in extracting DNA from the soil or just the nematodes? If yes, I could try to take a few parallell samples and send some your way. Please let me know what will be the optimal sample (substrate type, preservation etc.)

Torbjørn

Permalink Reply by Punyasloke Bhadury on July 2, 2011 at 12:11pm

Hello Torbjørn,

 

Thank you for the reply. We are interested to extract DNA from soil and then we will use nematode specific primers.

We need soil samples from top few cms (5-6 cms at the most) and if the sample can be preserved in molecular grade ethanol (90%) that would be perfect. The samples if collected in duplicate would be great. There is no preference in terms of substrate type.

 

Thank you so much for your help.

Best wishes

PB

Permalink Reply by Torbjorn Ekrem on July 3, 2011 at 2:10pm

Hi again

I will try to send some samples your way, but cannot promise much since the amount of ethanol that we will be able to take with us is quite limited.

 

Cheers,

Torbjørn

Permalink Reply by Punyasloke Bhadury on July 9, 2011 at 2:29pm

Thanks Torbjørn.

Permalink Reply by Punyasloke Bhadury on May 5, 2012 at 1:53am

Hi Torbjørn

Is there any update since my last email to you?

Cheers

PB

Permalink Reply by Torbjorn Ekrem on May 5, 2012 at 3:54pm

Hi PB,

unfortunately, the trip last year was not as successful as we hoped for. In fact, we never made it to Jan Mayen as the weather prevented the military aircraft to land. We flew over the island two days in a row, but in both cases the clouds were too low for the pilots to see the landing strip...

Sorry about that... and for not letting you know sooner...

Torbjørn