Saturday, December 27, 2014

My Year of Darwin 12/27/2014: White mountains and Aubrey

 Charles Darwin

"but it is far more remarkable, that the plants on the White Mountain, in the United States of America, are all the same with those of Labrador, and nearly all the same, as we hear from Asa Gray, with those on the loftiest mountains of EuropeCharles Darwin, Origin of Species 1st edition (on Kindle)

I was in the White Mountains 20 years or so ago but it was in January and everything was either rock or covered in snow. Lots of stories from that winter expedition including a tent that blew away and a kid that spent two days in the hospital afterwards for dehydration. 

Today is my wedding anniversary but are hearts are thinking of our dog suffering from Lyme-related kidney failure. 


4 comments:

  1. You can see a similar distribution within the butterfly genus Oeneis.

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  2. Interesting. I just wikied this genus and they take two years to develop? Not surprising because of the cooler summers but to survive the Arctic winters as a caterpillar - that is amazing.

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  3. A couple publications on the two species I have encountered:

    https://www1.maine.gov/ifw/wildlife/endangered/pdfs/katahdinarctic_110_111.pdf
    http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Wildlife/Wildlife_Plan/WAP_species_PDFs/Invertibrates/White%20Mountain%20Arctic.pdf

    "Pleistocene refugia" of a different variety!

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  4. Holy restricted range batman! I'll have to use this one for Conservation Biology and Pop Evo. I'd also like to get up there just to see Katahdin and see some through-hikers (or would they be end hikers). Thanks for sharing.

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