Prince Leopold Island ( iu, ᐅᑉᐸᐃᑦ, ) is an island in the
Qikiqtaaluk Region of
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
, Canada. It is located in
Lancaster Sound
Lancaster Sound () is a body of water in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern entrance to the Parry Channel and the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin Bay ...
at the junction of
Prince Regent Inlet
Prince Regent Inlet () is a body of water in Nunavut, Canada between the west end of Baffin Island (Brodeur Peninsula) and Somerset Island on the west. It opens north into Lancaster Sound and to the south merges into the Gulf of Boothia. The Arc ...
and
Barrow Strait
Barrow Strait is a shipping waterway in Northern Canada's territory of Nunavut. Forming part of the Parry Channel, the strait separates several large islands including Cornwallis Island and Devon Island to the north, from Prince of Wales Isla ...
.
Somerset Island is situated to the southwest;
Port Leopold
The locality Port Leopold is an abandoned trading post in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It faces Prince Regent Inlet at the northeast tip of Somerset Island.
Elwin Bay is to the south, while Prince Leopold Island is to the north.
...
, an abandoned trading post, is the closest landmark. The island is significant as a summer habitat and breeding ground for large populations of several arctic bird species.
History
Evidence of Inuit habitation in the form of house pits and bones from
bowhead whales and other marine mammals is present on the north and southeast spits of the island.
The island and Somerset Island to its south were first sighted by a European on August 4, 1819, during
William Parry's 1819 expedition, who named them Prince Leopold's Isles after then prince
Leopold
Leopold may refer to:
People
* Leopold (given name)
* Leopold (surname)
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons''
* Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...
of
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld () was one of the Saxon Duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin Dynasty. Established in 1699, the Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield line lasted until the reshuffle of the Ernestine territories that occurred following the extinct ...
(the future King
Leopold I of Belgium
* nl, Leopold Joris Christiaan Frederik
* en, Leopold George Christian Frederick
, image = NICAISE Leopold ANV.jpg
, caption = Portrait by Nicaise de Keyser, 1856
, reign = 21 July 1831 –
, predecessor = Erasme Loui ...
). Ornithological field research began on the island in the 1950s, and an
Environment Canada
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ( ...
research station was established on the island in 1975. Research has been conducted on the island almost every year since then, for varying lengths of time during summer. The camp, situated in the southeast of the island, consists of an airstrip, two small plywood cabins, and two plywood platform for the erection of temporary structures.
Geography and Geology
Most of Prince Leopold Island rises steeply from the surrounding sea, with cliffs rising as high as above sea level surrounding most of the island. On the east and northeast sides of the island, the drops are sheer, going directly down to the sea, while around the rest of the island, there are steep
scree
Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ha ...
slopes between the base of the cliffs and the water. The majority of the island's area of is occupied by a plateau generally ranging in altitude between around and . The plateau is divided in the east by a gorge that runs north–south across the width of the island, while smaller steep canyons skirt the edge of the island and main gorge at various points. Four gravel
spits, in the north, southwest, south, and southeast of the island, jut out from the coast. During the summer, surface water on the island is scarce. A few small shallow lakes exist on the plateau; the largest, Far Lake, is about long, and is located near the eastern cliffs. There is one
perennial stream
A perennial stream is a stream that has continuous flow of surface water throughout the year in at least parts of its catchment during seasons of normal rainfall, Water Supply Paper 494. as opposed to intermittent river, one whose flow is interm ...
on the island, which drains the plateau, including Far Lake, through the main gorge, flowing into the sea near the southeast spit.
The
bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
of the island, which forms the prominent cliffs, is
horizontally bedded Silurian
The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
and
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
.
Erosion of the sedimentary rock has formed crevices and rock ledges on large sections of the cliff faces, which provides nesting sites for large numbers of breeding seabirds.
Ecology
Conservation
The island is a Canadian
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
(#NU006), a federally listed
migratory bird sanctuary
An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and to be protected for the rest of their lives. Pattrice Jones, co-founder of VINE Sanctuary defines an animal sanctuary as "a safe-enough place or relationship within the cont ...
since 1995, and a
Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site (NU Site 15).
Flora
Vegetation consists of
forb
A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically these are dicots without woo ...
s,
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.[moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...]
es, though the top of the island is mostly devoid of plants. Denser concentrations of vegetation occur in seepage areas on the spits, including
sedge
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...
s and some
dwarf willow
''Salix herbacea'', the dwarf willow, least willow or snowbed willow, is a species of tiny creeping willow (family Salicaceae) adapted to survive in harsh arctic and subarctic environments. Distributed widely in alpine and arctic environments ar ...
. The most densely covered area of highland is in the southeast, where some
saxifrages, mostly the
purple
Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...
and
nodding
A nod of the head is a gesture in which the head is tilted in alternating up and down arcs along the sagittal plane. In many cultures, it is most commonly, but not universally, used to indicate agreement, acceptance, or acknowledgement.
To ...
species, and
arctic poppy can be found. On the south cliffs too, growths of
common scurvygrass and
arctic mouse-ear occur.
Fauna
Large numbers of arctic seabirds,
thick-billed murre
The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' ...
s,
northern fulmar
The northern fulmar (''Fulmarus glacialis''), fulmar, or Arctic fulmar is a highly abundant seabird found primarily in subarctic regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. There has been one confirmed sighting in the Southern Hem ...
s,
black-legged kittiwake
The black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae.
This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' as ''Larus tridactylus''. The English ...
s, and
black guillemots breed on the cliff ledges, arriving in the vicinity in May or early June and departing by mid-September. Intermittent study since the 1970s record regular habitation by approximately 155,000 mating pairs of various species, nesting annually on cliff faces around the circumference of the island. The island is one of the most important locations for breeding marine birds in the Canadian Arctic, having larger numbers and a greater diversity of species than any other site in the region. Other birds nest in smaller numbers:
brant geese,
common eider
The common eider (pronounced ) (''Somateria mollissima''), also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large ( in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It breed ...
s,
parasitic jaeger
The parasitic jaeger (''Stercorarius parasiticus''), also known as the Arctic skua, Arctic jaeger or parasitic skua, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is a migratory species that breeds in Northern Scandinavia, Scotland, Iceland, ...
s,
ravens and
snow bunting
The snow bunting (''Plectrophenax nivalis'') is a passerine bird in the family Calcariidae. It is an Arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few hig ...
.
Glaucous gulls
The glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus'') is a large gull, the second-largest gull in the world. It breeds in Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and winters south to shores of the Holarctic. The genus name is from Latin ''larus'', which a ...
, which regularly predate on the eggs and sometimes adults of the other species, have similar sized nesting population, of about 75 pairs.
The surrounding sea-ice around the island breaks up relatively early, in March or April, and the nearby waters of Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait becomes rich with nutrients towards the late spring and early summer when it thaws, resulting in high
ecological productivity. Abundant plankton supports fish and crustacean populations, in turn becoming food for nearby birds and numerous species of marine mammals.
Beluga The beluga whale (/bɪˈluːɡə/) (Delphinapterus leucas) is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus Delphinapterus. It is also known as the wh ...
, and
bowhead whales,
narwhals,
walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large pinniped, flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in ...
es, and
ringed and
bearded seals roam nearby.
The only resident land mammals are a small population of
northern collared lemming
The northern collared lemming or Nearctic collared lemming (''Dicrostonyx groenlandicus''), sometimes called the Peary Land collared lemming in Canada, is a small lemming found in Arctic North America and Wrangel Island. At one time, it was consi ...
s, though visits by larger mammals -
caribou
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
,
hares
Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...
,
foxes
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
, and
bears
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
- are recorded.
Gallery
Closeup of the cliffs.jpg, Closeup of the cliffs
Tip of Prince Leopold Island.jpg, Northeastern tip of Prince Leopold Island, with Far Lake on the left
Prince Leopold Island.jpg, Prince Leopold Island
Leopold Island looking west.jpg, Full view of Prince Leopold Island
References
External links
Prince Leopold Islandin the
Atlas of Canada
The Atlas of Canada (french: L'Atlas du Canada) is an online atlas published by Natural Resources Canada that has information on every city, town, village, and hamlet in Canada. It was originally a print atlas, with its first edition being publishe ...
- Toporama; Natural Resources Canada
{{Authority control
Uninhabited islands of Qikiqtaaluk Region
Important Bird Areas of Qikiqtaaluk Region
Important Bird Areas of Arctic islands
Seabird colonies