NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: soil, climate change, historical data, arctic treeline, aquatic insects

Project Description: The researchers believe that the treeline zone is one of the most sensitive areas on earth to temperature changes, both natural and caused by global warming. They would like to take a small core (5 cm diameter) from the mud at the bottom of two small lakes close to Back Lake, northeast of Yellowknife. In the laboratory, they will analyze the cores for temperature-sensitive aquatic insect remains and chemicals. They will see how those insect remains and chemicals have changed over the past 2000 years to see how the climate has changed naturally and to see how recent greenhouse warming might be changing climate. They cored one of the lakes in 1987 and published scientific papers showing that the lake is very sensitive to environmental changes. They now have better techiques for testing the soil, and need to collect more soil to test. The field team consists of two people. Base camp is Yellowknife. They will be flying by helicopter to their study sites and land on the ice of the two small lakes. They will use a small auger to open the ice, and then a small hand-corer to take a sample of the mud at the bottom of the lake. The holes in the ice will be filled with snow when they are done. They will be on the ice only a few hours and will fly back to Yellowknife the same day, leaving no materials or waste behind. The researchers will send copies of reports to all interested groups and would be happy to present their results in Yellowknife and talk with people about climate change. They would also be happy to pay for translation costs and help in other ways so that they can share their results. The study will be conducted at two small unnamed lakes (150 m by 150 m size) located 5 to 7 km southwest of Back Lake (approximately 63.42 N 109. 20 W).