I50 POLAR PROBLEMS 



Species should be investigated by the use of quadrat methods, familiar 

 to all plant ecologists. The data obtained will be valuable in the 

 control of the Arctic ranges. In connection with this detailed 

 phytogeographic survey, the food plants and feeding habits of the 

 caribou should be studied, including the relative attractiveness of 

 different tundra plants, their nutritious qualities, and seasonal use. 

 As an incidental inquiry a study should be made of the controlling 

 factors of the caribou migrations in vast herds across the Arctic 

 tundra. 



Arctic Phenology 



The long, open summer of 1926 in Central Alaska, when the ice 

 left the Yukon and its tributaries almost a month earlier than usual, 

 was accompanied by an entire upset in the usual phenology of the 

 Alaskan flora. Plants bloomed and matured their fruits much earlier 

 than usual. The occurrence of this unusual season indicates that 

 the seasonal phenomena (phenology) connected with the growth, 

 flowering, and fruiting of Arctic plants would constitute a profitable 

 field of inquiry. Much has been done along these lines in Canada^" and 

 in Europe, particularly by Finnish and Scandinavian botanists,^^ but 

 not much in this country. The biological station at Abisko, Lapland, 

 Sweden, the United States Agricultural Experiment Stations at 

 Rampart and three miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska, and a Danish 

 Arctic station on Disko Island, Greenland, provide centers where 

 such investigations might be made.^^ 



Water Requirements of Arctic Plants 



Two Swiss botanists, Brockmann-Jerosch and Riibel, in their 

 classification of deserts have placed the Arctic tundra in their Frigori- 

 deserta (Kalteinoden), or frigid deserts.^^ This is recognition of the 

 fact that many of the arctic plants are xerophytes and suffer because 

 of the sterile frozen condition of the soil from physiological dryness. 



^ See the phenological observations published by A. H. MacKay relating to Canada {Trans. 

 Nova Scotian Inst, of Set., 1895-1904, and Proc. and Trans. Royal Soc. of Canada, 1895-1910) and to 

 Nova Scotia (Trans. Nova Scotian Inst, of Sci., 1901-1904, 1911 to date). 



26 T. C. E. Fries: Oekologische und Phanologische Beobachtungen bei Abisko in den Jahren 1917- 

 1919, Svenska Vdxtsociolog. Sdllskap. Handl., Vol. 5, Upsala, 1925. 



" Dr. Morten P. Porsild is the resident director of the station at Disko. Its investigations are 

 published in Meddelelser otn Cr0nland as "Arbejder fra den Danske Arktiske Station paa Disko." 

 Twelve numbers have been issued since 1910: Nos. 1-5 in Vol. 47 of the Meddelelser, No. 6 in Vol. 

 so, Nos. 7-9 in Vol. 51, Part II, No. 10 in Vol. 56, Nos. 11-12 in Vol. 58. No. 11, by Dr. Porsild, 

 assisted by A. E. Porsild, is entitled "The Flora of Disko Island and the Adjacent Coast of West Green- 

 land from 66° to 71° N. Lat., With Remarks on Phytogeographj', Ecology, Flowering, Fructification, 

 and Hibernation." 



Air. G. W. Gasser is in charge of the U. S. Agricultural Experiment Station at Fairbanks, Alaska, 

 and Mr. E. Al. Floyd of the station at Rampart. Agricultural bulletins bearing on Alaska are pub- 

 lished jointly by the six agricultural stations in Alaska, with headquarters at Sitka, under the super- ' 

 vision of the Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington. 



28 H. Brockmann-Jerosch and E. Riibel: Die Einteilung der Pflanzengesellschaften nach okolo- 

 gisch-physiognomischen Gesichtspunkten, Leipzig, 1912, p. 55. 



