A Unique International Polar Year Contribution: Lucien Turner, Capelin

• Main Authors: Climatic Change, M. J Dunbar
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Key words; capelin; Mallotus villosus. Ungava Bay; International Polar Year; Koksoak River; Ungava Bay; Arctic; IPY; North Atlantic; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.490.2397; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic36-2-204.pdf

ABSTRACT. Lucien McShann Turner (1847-19O9). one of the most able field naturalists in North America in his day, spent two years (1882-84) at Fort Chimo, Qudbec, as meteorological observer for the U.S. Army Signal Service during the first International Polar Year. Among his many ac-tivities over and above his IPY duties was the collection and description of the.fishes of the region. This paper reports on the significance of Turner’s first record, in 1884, of the presence of the capelin (Mallotus villosus) in very large numbers at the mouth of the Koksoak River. Mullorus is an ex-cellent indicator of marine climate conditions, and the subsequent records of,its presence and absence in Ungava Bay are reviewed in relation to climatic change in the North Atlantic-Subarctic region in general.