Editing Community-lead Sampling CH 2022

In March 2022 fieldwork was carried out on Southampton Island which included bear den surveys and sampling of snow from polar bear tracks and filtering of snow melt from polar bear footprints ‘in the field’

The Southampton Island fieldwork was designed to further evaluate BW’S earlier progress toward SNP profiling of the snow collected from Polar Bear footprints. The main foci were to a) locate and excavate recently vacated polar bear dens and collect polar bear tissue including scat, hair, and snow from polar bear footprints, b) evaluate the amount of snow needed to accurately SNP profile the bear from the snow of its footprints, c) evaluate the utility of a Smith Root filter which expedites the collection sample material using 2 micron membranes critical for eDNA profiling from snow of polar bear footprints, d) determine the utility of snow from footprints of different ages and type (of snow), e) evaluate the in situ (field) preparation of the two micron filters via more ‘traditional’ eDNA protocols and Smith Root filters, and f) compare the eDNA results of the field collected filters for both methods for ½ of the snow from selected footprints against the other ½ of the same snow footprints that were processed in a rented house in Coral Harbour. As part of this work we also collected some footage of our collaborators collecting samples of snow from polar bear footprints and the collection of two micron filters from the snowmelt of polar bear tracks in ‘the field’. These were meant to be compiled into instructional videos, and currently collected on a not-public youtube channel that is accessible by shareable link.

Gallery videos