NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region

Tags: physical sciences, traditional knowledge, community based monitoring

Objective(s): The objective of this project is to establish 3 permanent research sites near the communities of Inuvik, Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk to monitor current and future conditions of climate, permafrost, snow, ice and vegetation. In addition, the objective of the study is to gather Inuvialuit knowledge about impacts on the salt-killed or “Dead Zone” on the outer Mackenzie Delta.

Project Description: The objective of this project is to establish 3 permanent research sites near the communities of Inuvik, Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk to monitor current and future conditions of climate, permafrost, snow, ice and vegetation. These sites will be established and maintained by local researchers and will provide high school and college level students with opportunities to learn about field science. These sites will be part of a larger project to monitor environmental change and natural variability across the NWT. In addition, the objective of the study is to gather Inuvialuit knowledge about impacts on the salt-killed or “Dead Zone” on the outer Mackenzie Delta. In the longer term, this project will serve as a case study that will provide information needed to select monitoring sites that are relevant to communities because they were selected with Inuvialuit understanding of the Delta ecosystem. Each site will be instrumented with a meteorological station to record climate conditions including wind speed, precipitation, air temperature, soil moisture and incoming radiation. Temperature cables will be installed in the ground to determine permafrost conditions at various depths (surface, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 8, 10 and 15 m). A "frost tube" tube will be installed at each site to determine the depth of annual thaw. Three 50m x 50m permanent plots will be laid out at each community within which vegetation data will be recorded. After the sites are set up, three full days will be spent at the camp, which will be set up on Harry Channel. Participants will boat to various areas within the “Dead Zone” to discuss impacts. A combination of group discussions at these sites and at camp, along with some directed interviews will take place. The sessions will be documented using a digital voice recorder and still camera. Interviews will be conducted with knowledge holders from Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik and Aklavik on the salt-killed or "Dead Zone" in the outer delta. Two members from each community will be directly involved in setting up monitoring sites and helping to collect vegetation, permafrost, snow depth and other biophysical data. The community members involved will receive environmental monitor training and will be hired to establish the sites and to collect data from the sites on a regular basis. Three representatives of the HTCs for Aklavik, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk will participate in the local and traditional knowledge research component of this project. A youth trainee from the above communities will also be involved in the camp to gain skills and knowledge. Youth trainees so far have shared their own traditional knowledge at workshops and have been trained for the monitoring program. The community will share ownership of the sites and will chose locations for research and have access to all of the sites and data. The monitoring sites will also provide opportunities for high school and college students to learn about environmental monitoring and become directly involved in data collection. The researchers will continue to be in contact with each community after the sites are established. Results and a plain language summary will be sent to each community via the Hunters & Trappers Committees and the Inuvialuit Joint Secretariat. There may be possible collaboration with a youth representative to prepare a presentation for the communities at an appropriate venue. There will also be a knowledge sharing workshop in March 2010 to present results and share experiences, knowledge and lessons learned from the pilot project. The Inuvialuit knowledge portion of the project will be communicated through a report by the Inuvialuit Joint Secretariat. A summary of the project will be included in the JS newsletter Common Ground, and will be posted on the JS website. Reports will be distributed to the HTCs. If future funding allows, there will be community meetings to share the findings of this study and the larger Delta CIMP. Transcripts of the discussions will be produced along with a final report on the results of the research. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from August 21 to December 31, 2009. The monitoring sites will be within 10km proximity to Inuvik, Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk. The Inuvialuit knowledge camp will be on Harry Channel. All sites are to be located within the Inuvialuit Settlement region: Inuvik - Blueberry 68°27'6.12"N 133°50'44.93"W Aklavik (Rat camp, Stink Creek) - 68°12'51.91"N 134°59'38.71"W Tuktoyaktuk - 69°25'0.24"N 133° 1'51.77"W Harry Channel - 69.21516N 134.99089W