Climate Change Impacts on Canadian Arctic Tundra Ecosystems – North Slave Métis Community Traditional Knowledge Study

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: climatology, vegetation, climate change, traditional knowledge, topography

Principal Investigator: Grieve, Sheryl (4)
Licence Number: 14767
Organization: North Slave Metis Alliance
Licensed Year(s): 2010 2009 2008 2007
Issued: Jul 23, 2010

Objective(s): To document the effect of climate change on arctic tundra ecosystems.

Project Description: This project is part of a larger IPY study, Climate Change Impacts on Canadian Arctic Tundra Ecosystems (CiCAT), looking at the effect of climate change on arctic tundra ecosystems. For this project, Metis traditional knowledge on vegetation and terrain changes in the North Slave region will be collected. The goal of this study is to connect and meld scientific studies with knowledge from people that live on the land. The same three tundra sites as the 2008 and 2009 field season will be visited by NSMA staff and selected members (as chosen during the community meeting). The sites include: Artillery Lake, Alymer Lake, Yamba Lake and Old Fort Rae. Each site will be visited once during peak growth (mid-July to mid-August). Several hours will be spent at each site in order to conduct scientific vegetation surveys, berry surveys, soil transects and bird observations as appropriate. NSMA staff will collect scientific data ... Show moreas per CiCAT protocols and the elders will be able to observe and participate, providing their comments on methodology and learning scientific sampling protocol. In addition to this work, collaborators from other CiCAT projects working in the North Slave region (namely out of Daring Lake) will meet with NSMA researchers to discuss scientific methodology and incorporation of traditional knowledge. The research team will include NSMA staff, elders and youth. This is a community led project, for the benefit of the community, and to contribute to the knowledge base of the larger NWT and Canadian communities. NSMA has partnered in this project with the CiCat IPY project led by UBC to share funding, research protocols, data, and results. At the end of the research, a report with findings will be produced and circulated to interested groups. The data, together with metadata, will be added to the online inventory for IPY. At the end of each field season, summary reports are produced for the ARI and IPY offices. Scientific samples and data collected are passed on to relevant collaborators for their use and publication. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 21, 2010 to September 20, 2010. Show less