Doing Science at the Edge of the Earth
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Two summers ago, a team of scientists set out on an epic journey to the northernmost place on Earth. You could even call it the edge of the terrestrial world.
There's just something fascinating about the edge of things, like the last thing.
That's ecologist Brian Buma, who led the expedition. And he was joined by our very own Alejandra Barunda from NPR's Climate Desk. Hi. Hi, Emily. It is so great to be here. I am so intrigued by this trip you went on to the edge of the Earth. But where is that and why?
Yeah, it's a great question. So the main goal of this trip was about going all the way up to the northernmost landmass on Earth, which is this tiny gravel island surrounded by sea ice way at the top of Greenland. It's called Inuit Kerketat. It's also known as Kafe Klubin Island, which literally means Coffee Club Island.
Coffee Club Island? Take me there.
Yeah, it was named by some Danes who really loved coffee.
Okay. Why did you all want to go there?
What expedition did Alejandra Borunda join in Greenland?
Yeah, so I was up there with some ecologists who think a lot about how climate change is reshaping the Arctic. So in other parts of the Arctic, like Alaska, plant life is changing really fast. And that's changing how the permafrost works. The amount of carbon that gets stored in the ground and a ton of other stuff. But no one really knows if that's happening in northern Greenland as well because it's so hard to get to. And like that means that there's very few plant surveys at all. Here's what ecologist Jeff Kirby, who was another person on the questing party, here's how he put it.
We still have really fundamental gaps in understanding how things work. Satellite images and fancy tech doesn't solve all the problems that boots on the ground can.
So we were up there to be those boots on the ground. That's very cool. Okay, so what kind of research were you all doing and what were you looking for up there?
Yeah, so the question for this expedition was, what's the northernmost plant living up there right now?
Like the final plant, like the plant at the edge. Yes, the final plant.
And we wanted to know that so we can see what it is today, so we could keep track of how that changes in the future. Wow. And Brian, he's the ecologist who led us on the whole quest.
We'll be the first to truly document scientifically what's growing on the islands, what the island looks like in high detail, and create a record that can be followed up on in the future.
And so this was actually pretty fun. There was a bedding pool going. Some people thought that the northernmost plant would be this tiny electric yellow poppy. Others were voting for this little purple flower called a saxifrage. And others thought it might be a moss. But the real point of all this was just what Brian says here.
It's great to have a few blank spots on the map still in many ways.
So that was what we did. We went off into the blank spot.
Today on the show, we find out exactly what is growing in the northernmost blank spot and what the landscape there tells us about how the world is changing. You're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR. All right, Alejandra, the adventure begins to find the plant at the edge of the world. And you said something about this being a blank spot on the map. You all were going to a place that we don't really know what's there. How does one even get to a blank spot?
Oh, my gosh.
Why is Inuit Qeqertaat Island significant in this research?
So, so slowly. So it started like this. Four of us met in this little tiny town in northern Iceland. So it was Brian, who is this really hardy marathoner from Boulder, Colorado. Then there was Nat Geo photographer and ecologist Jeff Kirby, who you heard from already. And then there was Aka Simonson, who is an indigenous Greenlandic archaeologist.
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