Geography

Up first we have Hillary Bradshaw from MUN Environmental Science giving her talk: Low Marine Plastic Pollution in Iqaluit, Nunavut. "This talk will present preliminary findings for thesis research to determine the type, amount, and distribution of marine plastic pollution found in Inner Frobisher Bay and the intertidal zone in Iqaluit, Nunavut. The following sampling methods included sediment samples, seafloor video, and an intertidal survey, which demonstrated an overall low quantity of marine plastic debris."

Following that we have Geography's own Anna Crofts with her talk: The Case of the Missing Seed: biotic filtering of alpine treeline advance. "Climate change is expected to have widespread effects on species distributions, with species ranges predicted to shift to greater latitudes and elevations. Treeline, the ecotone between forest and non-forested ecosystems, is commonly ascribed as the thermal limit to tree growth, survival, and reproduction and is hypothesized to act as an indicator system to study climate change effects on forest distribution. A recent study found that only around 50% of global treelines are responding in the predicted direction, suggesting that regional and local scale factors may inhibit or slow treeline response. Intuitively, changes to treeline position must initially depend on increased recruitment (production or dispersal of viable seed and subsequent seedling establishment and survival) at and beyond current range limits. Here, I will present findings from a series of field and laboratory based experiments aimed at quantifying seed limitations, from seed production to germination, on black spruce and tamarack recruitment at an altitudinal treeline ecotone in central Newfoundland."