Scientists study berries to 'measure; effects of global 'warming; on vital vittles

Tiny pink, yellow and white flowers – tomorrow's berries – blanket the land at this time of year.

And, boosted by the recent warmer-than-average weather conditions, these plants may produce a greater number of berries than usual by the end of the summer.

But, if the summer turns dry, fewer berries may result.

These kind of changes in berry crops reflect changes in the climate, which, in turn, can affect people and animals over the long term.

That's why berries are the focus of a new project on climate change and tundra vegetation, which received $7 million in federal International Polar Year funds and support from ArcticNet's research network.

From Kangiqsualujjuaq to Kugluktuk researchers plan to look at berry-producing plants, which are a source of food for people who live in the Canada's northern regions.

They'll concentrate on berry plants that are important to communities, such the mountain cranberry (kimminaq), crowberry (paurngaq), blueberry (kigutangirnaq) and the cloudberry (aqpik).

Alain Cuerrier, a botanist from the University of Montreal, recently arrived in Kangiqsujuaq from Ungava Bay where he had combed the hills near Kangiqsualujjuaq and spoke to residents about their knowledge of berry plants. Now, he's doing the same around Kangiqsujuaq.

Cuerrier is no stranger to Nunavik's plants. He worked on Avataq Cultural Institute's Atlas of the Plants of Nunavik Villages, a trilingual, illustrated handbook, which is full of easy-to-consult information on a wide variety plants in Nunavik.

This summer, Cuerrier is looking at berry plants to start monitoring how they react to climate change.

"Will blueberries, crowberries, cranberries, juniper and cloudberries be helped or harmed? With the quality of berries diminish?"

Cuerrier also plans to more extensively document how berry plants can be used for medical purposes in Kangiqsujuaq and Kangiqsualujjuaq

In Kangiqsujualujjuaq, for example, people keep juniper berries in their freezer to prepare as a cure for respiratory problems. Crushed partridge cranberries are also used to heal oral infections like thrush in children.

Some researchers believe simply eating berries after a meal may reduce absorption of carbohydrates, which could help control the development of diabetes.

But berry plants under stress from climate change produce more antioxidants as a plant tries to protect itself. Other changes may also damage their berries' medicinal properties.

That's why Cuerrier and the researchers in his team are also sending berry samples south for analysis.

To track berry plants from year to year, they are also measuring squares out on the land, which will also them to survey berry productivity, ground temperature and snow heights as well as shrub growth over time.

Researchers will also be in Baker Lake, Pond Inlet, Pangnirtung and Kugluktuk this summer, drawing on science and local knowledge to help monitor the effects of climate on berry production.

At the same time, the Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing will perform a major mapping project of vegetation using satellite imaging.

The leader of the berry project called the "Canadian Tundra and Taiga Experiment," Greg Henry from the Univ. of British Columbia, also started an international tundra experiment on Ellesmere Island in 1990s.

This experiment, which is still ongoing, involves warming up sections of tundra by blocking them off from the wind with low-lying plastic walls.

To date, this experiment's results show shrubs grow taller in even slightly warmer temperatures. This suggests shrubs will dominate the High Arctic if the climate warms by even one or two degrees – and this past May temperatures around the southern Ungava Bay coast were about five degrees above normal.

The increased shrub growth is bad news if you're a caribou because the lichens may be blocked out and wither away as shrubs grow taller.

What climate change does to berries and the people and animals that depend on them should become clearer through the "Canadian Tundra and Taiga Experiment."

"Vegetation, culture and health are joined together. We can't divorce the plants from the people and animals who live here," Cuerrier says.