Flowers, insects, and pollination ecology in the Canadian high Arctic

Abstract

The following report is based on work done in conjunction with the Canadian “Operation Hazen-Tanquary” at Hazen Camp (81° 49'N, 71° 18'W), Ellesmere Island, NWT, in the summers of 1966, 1967, and 1968. Hazen Camp offers an excellent high Arctic site because of the extensive facilities available and because the botany and entomology are comparatively well known and some insect-flower relationships there have already been considered. Furthermore, the Lake Hazen trough, sheltered by mountain ranges to the north, enjoys less cloudy and more benign summers than most high Arctic localities. These factors contribute to the support of a biota that is relatively rich for the high Arctic, even though the ecosystem is considerably simpler than in the low Arctic. There are only about 75 species of Dicotyledoneae and about 250 species of Arthropoda to consider, which makes it possible for one man to investigate such a broad ecological problem as insect-flower relations.