Flora and Fauna
Ellef Ringnes Island is interesting to biologists because of its extremely rigorous arctic environment and its resulting meager flora and fauna. Together with Amund Ringnes, Borden, Brock, King Christian, Lougheed, Mackenzie King and Meighen Islands (the so-called northwestern Queen Elizabeth Islands) it constitutes the most barren part of the high arctic region. Some idea of its bleakness is conveyed by the remarks of others who worked there. Stefansson (1921), on visiting Ellef Ringnes in June 1916, wrote “I did not see a blade of grass and the district struck me as the most barren I had even seen”; MacDonald (1961) who spent the field season of 1954 at Isachsen, stated, “My immediate impression of Isachsen was of a region of utter desolation”. Summers at Isachsen, the richest locality on the island, are colder than at any other arctic weather station. Accordingly, Ellef Ringnes probably supports fewer forms of life than any other ice-free arctic land mass of comparable size (5,000 sq. mi.). The total confirmed flora comprises 49 species of vascular plants and about 85 of fungi; only 10 species of mammals and 15 of birds have been recorded on the island. Mammals include muskox, Peary caribou, polar bears and foxes
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—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)