Into the Wild: Research in the Boreal Forest

A year ago, if you asked Meghan Hamp where undergraduate research would take her, she might have replied, “Not far.” She certainly would never have guessed what the next twelve months had in store for her. As a third year student majoring in Biology at the time, Hamp said “Yes” to one undergraduate research opportunity, only to have it pave the way to many others.

Last summer in her third year, Hamp learned about an Undergraduate Summer Research Assistantship (USRA) from one of her professors, Dr. Jill Johnstone, who had notified some of her students that she was holding interviews for this position. At the time, Hamp was considering other potential jobs but agreed to the interview to “keep her options open.” Dr. Johnstone’s project focused on boreal forest ecology and she was looking for a research assistant to become part of the team conducting fieldwork. Hamp didn’t have a clear idea of what the position involved going into the meeting, but by the end, she was excited to learn that the research involved travelling to three locations: Yellowknife, NWT, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon.

The purpose of the research project was to examine boreal forests and their responses to changing climate trends, especially forest fires. By studying historical trends and collecting data on species composition at the study sites, the team wanted to better understand the types and pattern of species’ regeneration.The implications for this research are especially significant given the quickening pace of human-induced climate change. For Hamp, this research also influenced how we think of our boreal forests and our approach to natural phenomenon like forest fires, as well as how we conceive of nature in general.

By saying “yes” to that initial interview, an interview that turned into a summer research assistantship, Hamp embarked on summer-long journey that taught her a lot not only about Arctic research, but also about herself. She created some of her fondest memories during this experience – like the time a strong thunderstorm caught the team by surprise and nearly blew their tents away, or coming face-to-face with bison. Doing hands-on fieldwork gave Hamp the chance to correct certain misconceptions about research, as well. Although she didn’t have fully-formed expectations about what research would be like, Hamp learned that it was not as intimidating as she imagined, but that it could be time-consuming, and could also involve more teamwork than one might think. Despite having to adjust to the newness of it all, Hamp says that “something positive will always come out of it.”

For Hamp, one of the best respects to evolve was mentorship. It was the connections she developed that she valued most and the inspiration and encouragement she received. Research afforded her the chance to develop “incredible relationships” with her supervisor and other researchers on the team from both the University of Saskatchewan and Wilfrid Laurier University. As resources, Hamp found her mentors to be a wealth of information and a source of her deep learning. When her work term conflicted with her interest to do study abroad in the subsequent semester, Dr. Johnstone not only accommodated Hamp’s request but encouraged her further. This meant that Hamp could follow up her summer research in the Arctic with a term abroad in Svalbard, Norway, an experience that was as wonderful as a learning opportunity as it was picturesque. In Hamp’s experience, research was a first step that has since led to multiple meaningful academic experiences over the past twelve months – one thing leading to another – until she realized she was spending half of her last year of undergraduate studies travelling and learning nationally and internationally.

This summer, Hamp is working with Dr. Alec Aitken on data analysis and publishing a manuscript from a previous project completed in Hamp’s third year of course-work. In this project, Hamp and Dr. Aitken use historical data to look at benthic community structure across the Canadian Arctic Ocean. Hamp and Dr. Aitken were specifically interested in molluscs, which mollusc species are most often found together, and in which environments they are most characteristic. Hamp says that, “this project was really cool because all the datasets we used allowed us to look at this huge part of the Canadian Arctic Ocean where we have essentially no information regarding the benthos—or the terra incognito as Dr. Aitken likes to put it.” As well, Hamp will be completing fieldwork with Dr. Aitken on an arctic scientific research vessel called “The Amundsen” where they will be taking box-core samples of benthic invertebrates to further examine the molluscan community structure over a wide-spacial scale. This research will help to further knowledge of benthic community structure in the Canadian Artic, a region where little is known about the benthos. This cruise will head through Baffin Bay and partway into the Northwest Passage at the end of July, 2018.