Avati : Discovering Arctic Ecology

Mia Pelletier

Description

The Arctic is not a barren, frigid landscape filled with only ice and snow. It is a complex ecosystem that contains many thriving habitats, each supported by dozens of ecological relationships between plants and animals.

From the many animals that live and hunt at the floe edge, to the hundreds of insects that abound on the summer tundra, this book gives a detailed bird's-eye view of the fascinating ways that animals, plants, and insects co-exist in the Arctic ecosystem.

Written by Mia Pelletier, a biologist and wilderness field researcher, and complete with a glossary to clearly explain biological terms to young readers, this book provides a sound informational basis to understanding the Arctic ecosystem in all its facets.

Sujets

• Nunavut
• Science
• Nature
• Jour de la Terre
• Arctic
• Earth Day
• Juvenile Nonfiction
• Environmental Science
• Ecosystems

Informations

• Publié par: Inhabit Media
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781927095416
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the following individuals for fielding questions or for reviewing various parts of the text:
Steve Ferguson, Research Scientist, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Mark Mallory, Canada Research Chair of Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, Acadia University
Carolyn Mallory, Author, Common Plants of Nunavut and Common Insects of Nunavut
Shannon Badzinski, Waterfowl Biologist, Canadian Wildlife Service
Justin Buller, Graduate Student Researcher, Arctic lake systems
Published by Inhabit Media Inc. • www.inhabitmedia.com
Inhabit Media Inc. (Iqaluit), P.O. Box 11125, Iqaluit, Nunavut, X0A 1H0 • (Toronto), 146A Orchard View Blvd., Toronto, Ontario, M4R 1C3
Design and layout copyright © 2012 Inhabit Media Inc. • Text copyright © 2012 by Mia Pelletier • Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Sara Otterstätter • Map illustration copyright © 2012 by John Lightfoot
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrievable system, without written consent of the publisher, is an infringement of copyright law.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.
Printed by MCRL Overseas Printing Inc. in ShenZhen, China #4236471.

W hile the Arctic appears as a single place on a map, it is a vast land that changes endlessly as you travel across it from frozen ocean, icy blue glaciers, and towering mountains to green river valleys, boggy wetlands, and rolling hills. The boundaries of this region are defined in many ways. Some describe the Arctic as the part of the world that lies within the Arctic Circle. This imaginary line circles the globe at the top of the world to mark the place where the sun does not fully rise or set for at least one day of the year. Trace your finger along this line, and you will pass through the northern parts of several countries around the world, including the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut in northern Canada.
The Arctic can also be described as the part of the world that lies above the "treeline." As you travel north, trees become smaller and smaller, then seem to vanish entirely as it becomes too difficult for trees to grow. The treeline rises and falls as it winds across the map of northern Canada, and onwards around the globe.
Yet for the Arctic peoples that have lived in this region for thousands of years, the Arctic is simply home. Avati means "environment" in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit. While many of the plants and animals found in this book can be found in other parts of the Arctic, we’ll explore the landscapes of Nunavut, the part of the Arctic that means "our land."

T he name "Arctic" comes from the Greek word for bear, "arktos." It describes the constellations of stars that you can see in the northern night sky. See their shapes in the starry sky? These are Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great Bear and the Little Bear. These stars shine over the Arctic, the icy wilderness of treeless tundra and frozen ocean that lies at the top of the world.
From a distance, this bare, windswept landscape appears empty. Covered by ice and snow for much of the year, the Arctic winter is long, cold, and dark. Yet spring and summer bring an explosion of life to the Arctic. As the ice retreats from the land and sea, great flocks of birds arrive from the south, the ocean blooms with life, and tundra plants reach for the sun with new leaves, shoots, and berries.
Let’s explore the Arctic through the seasons. We’ll see that the Arctic is not empty at all, but contains many unique