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Four scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature are spending July following Nunavut’s Coppermine River in search of plant life never formally catalogued by science.

They plan to map the distribution of Arctic plants before the climate gets warmer. The 40-kilometre trip is taking them across a range of landscapes from boreal spruce forest across the tundra to the Arctic Ocean.

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And they will follow in the exact footsteps of other Canadian scientists who made a similar expedition (but slower, before helicopters) 100 years ago.

“We don’t have a good sense in any particular spot of the diversity” of plant life, said the museum’s expedition leader, Jeff Saarela before the trip. It hasn’t been surveyed for plants, “which is surprising because it’s a really popular river for tourists. It’s a big river, a beautiful river from the photos I’ve seen.”

While they don’t expect species new to science, they will find variations of well-known species that are adapted to local conditions. For instance, Arctic plants grow bigger in southern regions.