PROFESSOR, STUDENTS TO VISIT ARCTIC

Three Southeast Missouri State University students and a professor of agriculture next month will explore prospects for change in the Boreal Forest of the Arctic as the Earth warms and the forest moves northward.

Dr. Michael Aide, professor of agriculture, along with a graduate assistant and two spring 1997 Southeast graduates, will conduct research in two regions of the Canadian province of Manitoba Aug. 1-12. The group will work near the cities of Thompson and Churchill.

Also participating in the research trip are Mark Cummings of Jackson, a graduate student pursuing a master's degree in geosciences, and Jeff Dorris of Bernie and David Kieffer of Chaffee, both spring graduates of Southeast majoring in agriculture.

They will take soil samples in the Northern Boreal Forest near Thompson and in an area to the north in the tundra near Churchill. The group will classify soils and examine soil fertility relationships, forest productivity and changes in soil development upon warming. The researchers will collect soil samples from four different locations each day to determine their chemical and physical characteristics.

This is Aide's fourth trip to the region. In the past, he has researched inorganic soils. This is the first year for his group to research organic soils.

"It is really spectacular. The region is beautiful," he said. "The vegetation and soils are so vastly different than anywhere else."

The Boreal Forest is largely composed of black spruce, whereas the northern tundra, above the tree line, features thick-patterned ground holding a carpet of arctic plants.

"It is a botanical dream there," he said.