Thanks to local forces already in Svalbard and Ingrid traveling up, the annual vegetation monitoring in Svalbard was successfully carried out despite restrictions to travel due to covid-19.
The field team was able to go to all regular places, except for Alkhornet where a polar bear mom with two cubs had captured and killed reindeer close to one of the COAT sites. New for this year is pilot work in the newly established exclosures on Janssonhaugen and trying out ways to capture multispectral images of each COAT site using a handheld pole and camera. Compared to other years the weather was very warm, and although it was nice to wear a t-shirt it felt a bit unusual. Thanks to Jesper Mosbacher and Åshild Pedersen, the annual vegetation monitoring on Brøggerhalvøya was also completed at the same time with the reindeer counts.
The fieldteam (Anne Bruls, Ingrid, Christina Hess) in t-shirt in Sassendalen. Photo: Stein Tore Pedersen
Fieldwork is carried out with a rifle`s length in distance due to covid-19 (left to right: Stein Tore, Christina Hess, Anne Bruls, UNIS students). Photo: Ingrid M. G. Paulsen (left), Point framing is carried out in coat sites and exclosures. Photo: Ingrid M. G. Paulsen (middle) and Thermometer that shows that the temperature in Svalbard was more than 30 degrees in the sun some days this summer. Photo: Ingrid M. G. Paulsen (right)