In July 2022 I joined a small team of researchers and scientists on a research expedition to the west Greenland province of Qeqqata. The aim of the trip was to sample wild geese populations (Greenland White-fronted Geese and Canada Geese) to investigate emergent infectious diseases with the organisation ‘VEO’ (the Versatile Versatile Emerging infectious disease Observatory). Our trip took us to the spectacular wilderness of the tundra ecosystem north of Kangerlussuaq, where we were camping for four weeks and surveying the hundreds of surrounding glacial lakes for the target populations of geese for this study. The expedition provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience this incredible area - a place undergoing rapid changes under the intensifying effects of global climate change. Understanding how the landscape and its diverse and varied ecological communities are being affected by such rapid changes is of increasing importance, and the work of this project will help shed light on such changes to inform measures that may help the wildlife of this amazing place. I hope these images convey some of the beauty of this area and the pressing need to address climate change to conserve such areas of wilderness.

Wildlife and landscape image gallery