A university of Alberta biologist says that if Canada truly wants to understand the North and predict changes north of 60, more research needs to be conducted in the Arctic year round, not just during the very short Arctic summer.

David Hik, who co-wrote an article for the journal Science on the International Polar Year, said that traditionally professors and graduate students interested in studying the Arctic and its climate have been stationed out of southern Canada, flying to the High Arctic and conducting their field research during the summer season.  Very few actually travel to the Arctic to study the climate during the winter.

With the world now interested in the Arctic, there has been more collaboration happening between researcher based in Southern Canada and people living in the Northern communities. While this is an improvement in helping scientists and researcher have a better understanding of the Arctic, Hik says that the existing collaboration needs to grow even more.  And in an effort to build on the momentum, the University of Alberta now has a faculty member at Yukon College and there is hope that more researchers will make the decision to be permanently based out of the North.

“Northerners are getting involved, having the support and the capacity to not just be involved but to actually lead some of these efforts. It’s their backyard,” Hik said.

The $200 million that Canada contributed to the International Polar Year allowed Northern community members and scientists to gather together previously conducted research and fill in any gaps in the observations made during those studies.

Hik also said that having this more detailed observation happening will help scientists and researcher to make better long-term predictions, particularly when it comes to just how fast the Arctic sea ice is melting and the boreal forest is moving North.

“That becomes much more useful for someone making a decision about whether or not to build a pipeline, or a house, or a bridge, to invest in a mining operation, or what sort of community and cultural changes to expect related to subsistence hunting,” Hik said. “Having an understanding about how the environment is going to change is basically a prerequisite to making decisions.”