Welcome
Enhancing our capacity to identify polar life is something for which there clearly is a critical need. As has been noted recently, the anthropogenic climate change that is expected during the next century looms as an overarching and unprecedented threat to biodiversity. 
The predicted rate of warming alone may move many species well beyond their current climate-niche ranges. For conspicuous terrestrial vertebrates (the so-called “charismatic megafauna”), tracking climate-related changes in niche occupancy may be relatively straightforward. However, most life in polar regions, as elsewhere around the globe, is invertebrate and therefore presents major challenges for biomonitoring efforts reliant upon morphological identifications. Indeed, even in well studied temperate regions, biodiversity surveys of invertebrates often provide resolution only to the family level, making finer assessments of species distributions impossible. Our plans to lay the foundation for a program of Polar Research Observatories for Biodiversity and the Environment (PROBE) will alleviate this impediment by using DNA-based approaches to identify and characterize the genetic, genomic, and species diversity in Canada’s polar regions. 
This will mark the first multi-taxon genetic biodiversity survey carried out anywhere in the world, and it will be an important proof-of-principle for the utility of applied DNA based methods of species discrimination. It will also allow the use of biological, rather than geological or chemical, data to assess and predict the responses of living organisms to changes in their environment.PROBE 2006
The Probe 2006 research team with 35 researchers conducted a comprehensive field sampling program throughout August 2006. Sampling activities comprised new environments and new taxonomic groups. Gary Saunders led a dive team to survey benthic life in Hudson Bay, while Dirk Steinke orchestrated sampling efforts in the intertidal and pelagic zones. Elisabeth Stur, Rob Roughley, Manuel Guttierez and Torbjorn Ekrem accomplished sampling programs on aquatic insects and crustaceans, while Paul Hebert, Peter Kevan and Kevin Kerr led surveys on terestrial insects and arachnids. Finally, Robin Floyd directed a research team to survey soil invertebrates, especially nematodes and collembolans.
The Probe 2006 research team collected some 20000 samples for more than 1500 species. Efforts at present have switched to the identification of these specimens and to their subsequent barcode analysis.
The Probe 2006 research team with 35 researchers from 5 countries.
The Research Goals - Churchill 2006:
- Barcode all animal species
- Barcode selected fungi, lichens and marine algae
- Determine genome sizes for at least 1000 animal species
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Larva of the sawfly Cimex americanus, feeding on arctic willow (Salix reticulata). This is the first breeding record of this sawfly from Churchill. Several other species typical of more southerly areas have been collected for the first time during the PROBE Blitz. |
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Larva of the moth Hyles galli, feeding on fireweed (Epilobium latifolium). This is the sole member of the family Sphingidae which occurs in Churchill. |
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Many adults of the beetle Dytiscus alaskanus have now been collected in UV light traps. Three of the 26 known species of Dytiscus occur at Churchill. They are aggressive predators, feeding on small fishes and other aquatic life. |
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This larva of the moth Pheosia rimosa was found feeding on balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera). Individuals of P. rimosa show marked barcode divergences at Churchill, suggesting that they may actually be several species. Work is in progress to test this possibility by collecting more larvae of P. rimosa from willows (Salix) and birch (Betula). |
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This image shows the Black Witch Moth (Ascalopha adorata) collected on August 18, 2006 on a rocky headland jutting out into Hudson Bay. This moth, which breeds no futher north than Mexico, is not only North America's largest moth, it is famous for its long-distance migrations. However, this specimen is a record breaker; it represents the most northern specimen ever collected, displacing an indivual found near Juneau Alaska in 1957! |