Arctic Council SAO plenary meeting (eDocs code: ACSAOUS201)
21-22 October 2015, Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A.
Document Title
Life Linked to Spring. Student Booklet.
Agenda item number
Due to fact that the agenda has not yet been finalized, an agenda item number is not
yet available for all documents. This section will be revised as information becomes
available.
7.1.4.a
Submitted by
CAFF
Document filename
EDOCS-2680-v1-ACSAOUS201_Anchorage_2015_7-14a_Life_Linked_to_Spring_Student_Booklet
Number of pages, not including this cover sheet
32
Status (e.g. draft, final if approved, etc.)
Educational Toolkit.
Life Linked to
Spring
Migratory Bird Flyways
Pacific
Mississippi
West Atlantic
East Atlantic
Mediterranean / Black Sea
West Asia / Africa
Central Asia / India
East Asia / Australasia
Spring migration
Millions of birds migrate north to the Arctic each spring. Some even travel
from the other end of Earth. And every year, they take the same route their
parents and grandparents took, following one of the great migration flyways
shown on this map.
S PR I NG G R E E N-U P:
2
Green is the Beginning
4
Tracking the Green
6
Timing Matters
S PR I NG WA K E-U P:
8
Into the Light
10
More than Sleep
S PR I NG M I G RAT ION:
14
Traffic in the Sky
16
Following the Food
S PR I NG R E PRODU CT ION:
18
High-rise Nursery
20
Long-distance Nursery
PEOPLE I N S PR I NG:
24
Keeping a Spring Journal
i
Spring Starts in Space
All year long, Earth circles the sun. In winter,
the north leans away from the sun and gets
little sunlight. Eventually, Earth reaches a
point where the north leans toward the
sun—and spring begins.
Autumn
N
equator
Winter
Tilted axis
sun
Spring
ii
Summer
Life Linked to
Spring
Spring is all about change.
The days get longer, and the sun feels
warmer. Snow and ice shrink and melt.
Green begins to appear—in the warm
shallows of ocean and lakes, on southfacing hillsides, in sheltered crannies
among sun-warmed rocks.
Small animals emerge from beneath the
snow. Birds fill the skies. Insects creep
and crawl and buzz. People put away their
winter clothes and go outside to enjoy the
sun.
What’s spring like where you live? You
could keep notes about your spring in
a journal like the one on page 24.
1
SPRING GREEN-UP
Green is the Beginning
In spring, green spreads across the Arctic.
First, algae and mosses turn green. Then
snow melts, away from small, green
plants, and new green shoots appear
around ponds and lakes.
The green comes from chlorophyll, the
substance plants use to manufacture
energy from sunlight in a process called
photosynthesis. When the sunlight returns
in the spring, the chlorophyll starts working,
and the plants turn green.
This process, called “green-up,” launches
all the other biological changes of spring.
The first spring plants feed tiny water
creatures, small mammals and insects.
Those small creatures, in turn, are eaten
by larger animals. Pretty soon, everybody’s
eating, and the Arctic is swarming with life.
2
Arctic poppies get a head-start on spring.
Their leaves stay green all winter, ready
to photosynthesize as soon as the snow
melts. Then long stems shoot up, each
with a flower that always faces the sun.
What’s the first sign of green
in your area? Does it show up
on land, in a river, in the sea, or
somewhere else?
Arctic poppy:
White or
yellow flower
Four petals
Thin stems
Black hairs on
stems
3
Tracking the Green
Green-up is so important to life in the
Arctic that scientists go to great lengths—
and heights—to study it. Since the early
1980s, they’ve been using satellites to
track shifts in vegetation across the Arctic.
Their studies have shown that the Arctic is
changing.
Temperatures have been increasing,
and snow-melt and spring green-up are
coming earlier. An earlier spring gives the
dwarf trees and shrubs of the Arctic longer
to grow. As a result, shrubs are getting
taller and more dense across much of the
Arctic and sub-Arctic.
One of the most common and useful Arctic
shrubs is dwarf birch. Ptarmigan eat its
buds and catkins (fruiting bodies). Insects
swarm to it for nectar, and small birds eat
the insects. People use dwarf birch for
firewood, bedding and tent flooring. A
bundle of birch twigs also makes a handy
broom.
4
What birds and insects have you seen
near the shrubs in your area?
Dwarf birch:
Thin trunk
Toothed edges
on leaves
Smooth bark
5
Timing Matters
The timing of green-up is important. Some
animals emerge from hibernation just as
their favorite foods turn green. Insects
suck nectar from early-blooming flowers.
Migrating birds arrive in time to eat both
the plants and the insects.
What might happen as spring comes
earlier? Will some insects hatch too late for
the flowers they rely on? Will birds arrive
to find that their favorite food insects have
already hatched, mated and died?
That kind of timing mismatch could mean
the difference between life and death. If
they can’t get the food they need, animals
can’t produce strong young and feed
them. Changes in the timing of green-up
could affect whole populations of animals.
What flower blooms first
in your area in the spring?
When does it appear?
6
Purple saxifrage is one of the first flowers
in an Arctic spring. It can bloom even
before snow around the plant has melted.
You can eat the sweet-tasting blossoms, or
make tea from the stems and leaves.
Purple
saxifrage:
Purple flowers
Tiny
overlapping
leaves
Mound-shaped
7
SPRING WAKE-UP
I nto the Lig ht
As green-up spreads, animals that have
spent the winter out of sight—from
mosquitoes to polar bears—come out into
the spring sunlight.
Most insects spend the winter as eggs
or cocoons, but the big, slow-moving
mosquitoes of early spring survived the
winter as adults. In fall, they stored up
extra fat and hid in crevices or old burrows.
In spring, they crawl back out and buzz
around early flowers in search of nectar.
Mosquito
8
Polar bear
mother
and cub
Spring also tempts some very different
animals out of hiding: polar bear families.
Most bears roam the ice all winter, but
not pregnant females. They dig dens in
snowdrifts near the sea. That’s where
their cubs are born and spend their first
few months.
Mother and cubs emerge from the den
in March or April, and the mother goes in
search of fresh food for her growing family.
Polar bears eat roots and vegetation in the
spring, as well as meat.
What is the first insect you saw this
spring, and when did you see it?
When did you get your first
mosquito bite?
9
More tha n Sleep
A few animals do more than hide
themselves away for the winter. They
hibernate.
The Arctic ground squirrel hibernates for
up to eight months, curled up in its snowcovered burrow. Its body temperature—
normally about the same as a human’s—
drops to just below freezing. But the
squirrel doesn’t freeze.
Every couple of weeks, it shivers for more
than half a day to reheat its body without
ever waking up! Then it settles down and
its temperature drops again.
Ground squirrels start waking up in late
April. Scientists aren’t sure what wakes
them up, but one possibility is that they
sense the return of sunlight, even in their
underground burrows.
At first, they eat the vegetation they stored
in their burrows in the fall. As soon as the
snow melts, they go in search of the fresh
green leaves and seeds.
10
What was the first
small mammal you saw in spring?
What was it doing?
Arctic ground
squirrel:
Small ears
Short face
White around
eyes
Dark tail
11
WHAT ARE THE FIRST SIGNS OF SPRING WHERE YOU LIVE?
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE SPRING ACTIVITIES?
DOES SPRING MAKE YOU FEEL DIFFERENT?
SPRING MIGRATION
Traffic in the sky
Instead of hiding away during the Arctic
winter, some animals just head south.
Then, in spring, they migrate back north to
raise their young.
The Arctic tern is the world champion of
migration. Arctic terns spend the winter in
Antarctica and the summer in the Arctic.
Over a lifetime, each bird flies a distance
equal to three return trips to the moon.
Arctic tern
14
Another long-distance traveler is a rustycolored little shorebird, the red knot. After
spending the winter in Africa or as far as the
southern tip of South America, red knots fly
about 15,000 km to nest in the Arctic.
What were the first small birds to
show up in your area in the spring?
What were they eating?
Red knot:
Straight, black
bill
Head and
breast red
Dark green legs
15
Following the Food
Not every migrating animal goes south
for the winter. Beluga whales live in
Arctic waters all year round, but spring is
migration time for some of them too.
They follow the food.
The whales spend the winter in patches of
open water near the pack ice. As the ice
melts in spring and summer, opening up
shallower waters, many belugas move to
summer feeding grounds along the coast
and in estuaries.
Some belugas even swim up rivers, chasing
migrating fish. Rivers are also a safe place
for beluga calves, out of reach of the
killer whales (orcas) that would love to
eat them. A few belugas have been found
hundreds or even thousands of kilometers
from the ocean.
16
If you live near the ocean, what
whales or other marine mammals do
you see in the spring? Do they stay in
your area, or are they passing by?
Beluga
17
SPRING REPRODUCTION
High-rise Nursery
Spring isn’t just about food. It’s about new
life.
Arctic ground squirrels emerge from
hibernation, fill up on fresh plants, and then
start searching for a mate. Arctic terns and
red knots fly thousands of kilometers to
build their nests and raise their young.
The thick-billed murre doesn’t have to travel
nearly as far to lay its eggs. And it doesn’t
bother with a nest.
Thick-billed murres are diving birds that
spend their whole lives in the Arctic, mainly
on the open ocean. They can dive as deep as
200 m and stay underwater for more than
three minutes.
In spring, huge colonies of thick-billed murres
come in from the ocean and settle on seaside
cliffs to lay their eggs and raise their chicks.
They lay the eggs directly on narrow ledges
above the sea, with no more protection
than—sometimes—a few pebbles arranged
to keep the egg from rolling off the ledge.
18
Where are birds nesting in your area?
What do their nests look like?
Thick-billed
murre:
Black back and
head
Thick, pointed
beak
White
underside
19
Long-distance Nursery
Spring means new life for the Arctic’s
reindeer and caribou too. Their calves are
born over a short period in May or June, but
before they’re born, their mothers make
a long journey to their herd’s traditional
calving grounds.
Caribou
20
All across northern North America and
Europe, the pregnant cows start their
journey as soon as the snow starts melting.
They might travel 20 km a day, over tundra
still deep in snow in places and across rivers
and streams covered with fragile spring
ice. Often, the journey is hundreds of
kilometers long.
They travel back to the same place year
after year because it provides what their
calves need for a good start in life: fresh
green vegetation so their mothers can
produce plenty of milk, not too many
predators, and brisk breezes to blow away
the clouds of biting insects.
Baby animals of all kinds—not just
caribou calves—are tempting prey.
What predators in your area might
be on the look-out for new-born
birds or animals? How do the
parents protect them?
21
PEOPLE IN SPRING
Spring is a time of change for people too.
Long hours of sunlight and the new warmth
in the air tempt people outside. Indoor
games give way to outdoor games. Snow
machines give way to cars, bicycles, and
boats. The ice is no longer safe to travel
across and snowy roads turn to mud. You
can fish from land, instead of from the ice.
22
QU EST ION
You’re the expert on people and spring
in your area. What’s your favorite thing
about spring? And how does life in your
community change when spring comes
along?
23
Keeping a Spring Journal
Scientists use field journals to take notes
about anything interesting they see on
expeditions. You can make a journal for
your expedition into spring.
Materials
•
A notebook
•
Pencils (colored are nice for drawing)
•
Binoculars, magnifying lens,
guidebooks, camera (optional)
Instructions
Start by going for a walk. But slow
down. Pay attention to shapes, textures,
movement, and colors. Close your eyes and
listen. Do you hear birds, or the buzzing of
insects? Take a deep breath. What does
spring smell like? Find something that
catches your eye, and study it. You can
start sketching and writing right away, or
take photos to examine later.
24
Record the date and location for each
entry.. Then you can look back and see
how spring unfolded, or go back to your
journal next year and see if anything
different is happening.
Be creative!
25
Notes
26
Borgir, Nordurslod
600 Akureyri, Iceland
+354-462-3350
www.caff.is
www.arcticbiodiversity.is
[email protected]
@CAFFSecretariat
facebook.com/CAFFS
Writing, research and design by:
Eamer Science & Policy
eamerscience.com
Artwork by:
Sherrie York
sherrieyork.com