The Hudson Bay Project

Understanding community dynamics in the face of climate change.

Project Overview

The Hudson Bay Project is a collaborative team of researchers studying community ecology in the face of climate change in an Arctic Ecosystem along the western Hudson Bay in what is now Wapusk National Park. Started by Dr. Robert Rockwell (Rocky) from the American Museum of Natural History almost 50 years ago, the team has published over 300 research articles with 56 collaborators from 34 institutions, plus 84 thesis/dissertations and provided on-the-ground educational experiences for over 235 undergraduate researchers. Much of the initial research focused on a rapidly growing snow goose population and while they continue to be central to the annual research and monitoring the team does, their impacts on vegetation and the overall community (including a dynamic predator community) are now a critical part of our research.

University of North Dakota's Role

I started interacting with the Hudson Bay Project team during a 2014 site visit and quickly realized opportunities for UND researchers to become involved in the project. I was invited to be a part of the team and in 2015, my lab initiated collaborative several projects trying to use non-invasive methods to study nesting waterfowl, bears, and plants using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), nest camera monitoring, and passive sampling to obtain molecular data.

Project Collaborators

• Dr. Robert Rockwell, American Museum of Natural History
• Dr. Brian Darby, UND Biology
• Christopher Felege, UND Biology
• Andrew Barnas, UND Graduate Student
• Samuel Hervey, UND Graduate Student
• Tanner Stechmann, UND Graduate Student
• Michael Corcoran, Chief Pilot, Waypoint Global Strategies
• Will (Billy) Beaton, UND Undergraduate, Sandbagger News
• A complete list of Hudson Bay Project Team Members