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Program Details - the Illustrated Talks

The Importance of Sable Island: An Atmospheric Scientist’s Perspective

Thomas J. Duck

Physics & Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University

Tom Duck heads the Atmospheric-Optics Lab at Dalhousie. The group designs, builds and operates lidars (laser radars) for atmospheric research—particularly for remote sensing of atmospheric properties and composition. Tom is a Theme Leader in the Canadian Network for the Detection of Environmental Change (CANDAC), and his Dalhousie team worked with CANDAC and Environment Canada to establish the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) in the High Arctic, at Eureka. Tom’s research interests include climate processes and air quality, and also instrumentation used in space. He was a Co-Investigator for the successful Phoenix Mars Scout Mission in 2008, providing scientific and design input for the lidar technology used in the Canadian meteorological station on the Mars lander.

Talk subject: The Sable Island Station operates and supports a wide range of climate and atmospheric monitoring and research programs. Climatological record-keeping on the island began in 1871 with the establishment of the Meteorological Service of Canada, and has been continuous since 1891—one of the longest continuous collections of weather data in the Maritimes. The station has participated in greenhouse gases studies for almost four decades—initially this involved collecting data on background levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), a program which began on Sable Island in 1974 after research in Hawaii which first demonstrated the global increase of CO2. Long-term data collection is essential in understanding climate change and atmospheric chemistry, and the continuity of such databases is critical. The programs on Sable Island are not only a source of research data, they are a scientific heritage—integral and inseparable components of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage.

Inconspicuous Greens Revealed – Mosses and Liverworts

Anne Mills

Bryologist and Member of the NS Wild Flora Society

Anne Mills is a retired biologist. As a Senior Laboratory Instructor at Dalhousie University for twenty-six years, she taught first year biology and second year Terrestrial Diversity. Since 2004 Anne has been involved in summer workshops in Bryology at Humboldt Field Research Institute, Steuben Maine. In late April 2010 she gave a three day Bryology workshop for beginners at Mersey River Chalets in conjunction with Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute. She has spent several summers at Cape Chignecto Provincial Park collecting and identifying bryophytes for the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources to set up a data bank of mosses and liverworts present in the park.

Talk subject: Although numerous botanists have visited Sable Island—John Macoun in 1899, Hans Güssow in 1911, Harold St. John in 1913, John Erskine in 1952, Catling and Freedman in 1984, and David Richardson in 2007—there had not been a comprehensive survey of mosses and liverworts on the island. The first detailed study of Sable’s bryophytes began in the summer of 2008, and continued during 2009 and 2010. To date over 50 species have been recorded, some of them unusual. They have been found in habitats ranging from densely vegetated shrub-heath communities, soggy pond edges and pond bottoms, to bare sandy slopes. Mosses are also common in paths made by the island’s horses. Anne will review what has been learned thus far regarding the island’s bryophytes and their habitats. When this study is completed voucher specimens will be deposited in the Nova Scotia Museum Herbarium, Halifax, and in the E.C. Smith Herbarium, Acadia University, Wolfville.

Sable Island Year 2010 Review

Zoe Lucas

Naturalist and Sable Island resident

Zoe Lucas first visited Sable Island in 1971, and during the past three decades has been involved in numerous research and environmental monitoring programs, including long-term study of the Sable horses, and beach surveys for marine litter, and stranded cetaceans. Zoe also participates in projects supported by the Friends of the Green Horse Society, including study of the island’s lichens and mosses, invertebrates, and fresh water ponds. Results of programs have been published in various scientific journals. Since 2002 Zoe has managed and prepared text and images for the Sable Island website, www.GreenHorseSociety.com. In 2004 she became a Research Associate with the Nova Scotia Museum, and in 2008 received an Honorary Degree from Dalhousie University.

Talk subject: Zoe will provide a review of Sable Island highlights for year 2010—including weather events, visitors, and new publications, and will report on the progress of several research and monitoring programs, including study of the island’s extinct walrus population, shark predation on seals, and beached/oiled seabirds.