| Principal Investigator: | Porter, Trevor (5) |
| Licence Number: | 16559 |
| Organization: | University of Toronto |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2019
|
| Issued: | Jun 05, 2019 |
| Project Team: | Trevor Porter, Samuel Beaulieu, Gerard Otiniano, Rhys Buceta, Rob Wilson |
Objective(s): To collect ‘disk’ samples from dead trees found on the surface or partially buried in sediments.
Project Description: This fieldwork aims to collect ‘disk’ samples from dead trees found on the surface or partially buried in sediments. Previous research in the Campbell Dolomite Upland area reported deadwood samples dating back to AD 1060. This area is well-drained, which is the ideal environment for preserving deadwood over long periods. The research team will return to this area to search for older specimens dating back ~2,000 years. The tree-rings of these samples will be studied at the University of Toronto to estimate the growing conditions (e.g., climate) at the time the trees were alive. The focus of this research is old trees that are likely to date more than 1,000 years before present day, and ideally extending the existing collection of tree-ring samples back to 2,000 years before present. Locating such old samples will be a major challenge. For the first few days of fieldwork the research team will use a helicopter to look for suitable sites that can also be accessed easily by boat or canoe on subsequent days of. The team will focus the search along the southern edge of Campbell Dolomite Upland where dead trees have fallen off the escarpment and accumulated, especially where trees may have been buried in rocks and other debris which help to preserve dead trees over long periods of time. Cross-sections (or 'disks') of dead tree trunks will be collected by chainsaw or manual bow saw. The samples will be shipped to the University of Toronto for further processing and analysed. In the laboratory, the age of these samples will be determined using standard tree-ring cross-dating methods. Once the ages of the samples are known, the ring-widths and chemical measurements from the wood will be used to estimate the climate at the time the samples were alive using methods that have already been applied to younger samples in this area. The research team will ensure that all reports and publications stemming from this work will be forwarded to the Aurora Research Institute and local stakeholders whose traditional lands overlap with the study area. The research team is also interested in giving a public presentation in Inuvik (possibly hosted at ARI) upon completion of this project. In the scientific community, the team anticipate this research will be presented in the peer-reviewed literature and at international geoscience conferences such as the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 17, 2019 to August 12, 2019.
