Regions: Gwich'in Settlement Area, South Slave Region
Tags: contaminants, bioaccumulation, lichen, vegetation, caribou, metals
| Principal Investigator: | Katz, Sharon (9) |
| Licence Number: | 14189 |
| Organization: | Aurora Research Institute |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2007
|
| Issued: | Jun 26, 2007 |
| Project Team: | Ruth Ann Gal (Team member, Education and Communcation , Aurora College/South Slave Research Institute), Mary Gamberg (Team Member, Monitoring, Gamberg consulting), Derek Muir (Team Member, Monitoring , Environment Canada), Jesse Ford (Team member, education and communication, Oregon State University), Laurie Chan (Team member, University of Northern British Columbia), Brooke Boswell (Team Member, field work, University of Northern British Columbia), Dan Leitch (Team member, sample collection, U Manitoba) |
Objective(s): The monitoring objectives of this project are: to conduct a targeted scientific program to analyze heavy metals and trace elements and stable isotopes in vegetation (caribou food); to correlate the results in vegetation with concentrations in caribou from a related NCP program [Gamberg 2006]; to test if contaminant patterns in caribou tissues will vary with patterns observed in lichen/moss, or willow/soil.
Project Description: The monitoring objectives of this project are: to conduct a targeted scientific program to analyze heavy metals and trace elements and stable isotopes in vegetation (caribou food); to correlate the results in vegetation with concentrations in caribou from a related NCP program [Gamberg 2006]; to test if contaminant patterns in caribou tissues will vary with patterns observed in lichen/moss, or willow/soil. The education and communication goals of the project are: to train community members to acquire vegetation samples for analysis; to acquaint northern residents with the methodology of using vegetation as contaminants detectors; to acquaint northern residents with vegetation as discriminating detectors e.g. for contaminants making their way to the north through long-range atmospheric transport; to give current findings to the community on contaminants and the work being done by NCP; to give community members easy access (completed CD) to results from other areas and acceptable levels of contaminants with which to compare the results from their local; develop specific curriculum and templates for the project which can be easily transferable to other communities and other projects. Together with a related (but separate) NCP project on contaminants in arctic caribou and moose [Gamberg 2006], this project will follow contaminants pathways from atmospheric and terrestrial sources, through vegetation, and then into caribou and moose. Of special interest are mercury and cadmium, as cadmium and mercury levels in caribou kidneys have prompted a health advisory from Health Canada. Vegetation samples will be collected from sites on the ranges of the Porcupine herd in central and northern Yukon and of the Qamanirjuak herd in south-eastern NWT and south Western Nunavut. Target vegetation species: One lichen and two plants that are part of caribou diet will be sampled [Kelly and Gobas]. The plants used in this study are willow and cotton grass. To help interpret the results of multi-element analysis of lichen and moss, soil samples (1 pool of multiple 0-5 cm depth cores collected with a small soil auger 2.5 cm dia) will be collected at the same sites as lichen, moss, willow and cotton grass. Samples will be collected in duplicates, except for one site where six replicates will be collected. This aim of measuring six replicates is to determine how variable are samples in the same locations. All species will be sampled in spring and fall. Number of samples: up to 112 vegetation samples (duplicates of lichen, moss and willow from eight sites) will be analyzed for 32 elements. A total of 24 soil samples (from pools collected at each site) will be analyzed for 32 elements. Remaining and unused soils, vegetation and caribou samples will be archived in sealed thickwalled polypropylene plastic containers and used to follow-up any analytical or data interpretation issues that may arise.Analysis: We propose to analyze heavy metals and trace elements (32) in lichen, mosses, willow and soil. Results will be communicated to each Territorial Contaminants Committee and will be presented at the 2008 NCP results workshop. Funding will be sought under the NCP education and communication envelop to prepare plain language presentations (e.g. posters) about the significance of vegetation in contaminants research, and how this is relevant to communities. A plain language summary and Powerpoint documents will be circulated to stakeholder groups. Results will be made available via the internet where appropriate. Fieldwork will be conducted from June 26 to December 31, 2007 in the Richardson Mountains, 20K SW of Fort McPherson (67° 18' 38" N 135° 0' 17" W). N.B. Pending approval from the community organizations in Lutsel K’e an amendment to this licence will be drawn up to allow data collection in this community.
