NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: biology, revegetation, permafrost thaw, soil nutrients

Objective(s): To understand which mechanisms are controlling soil nutrient cycling and soil-plant interactions across both permafrost thaw gradients and vegetation types.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5246. The main goal of the project is to understand which mechanisms are controlling soil nutrient cycling and soil-plant interactions across both permafrost thaw gradients and vegetation types. The research team are mainly interested in nutrient cycling processes and priming, as well as how microbial community composition changes across such gradients The research team will collect plant samples (i.e., a few leaves per plant) and soil samples of various soil layers along gradients of permafrost thaw. The team will select fine-scale changes in permafrost status from well preserved conditions of permafrost (e.g. high-centre polygons in peatlands) to severe degradation (degraded, low-centre polygons or thermokarst lakes). Soil samples will be collected with a spade or a motor-driven soil coring auger (8-10 cm diameter) down 1m. Sediment samples will be collected from the shore of lakes using a small gravity corer. In addition, water samples will be collected also from the shore in those ponds located at the end point of the thaw gradients. Sediment samples, active layer samples and water samples will be kept cold. For the permafrost samples, they will be kept frozen in the lab for further analyses at Aurora College and the University of Vienna. The results will be disseminated to NWT stakeholders and community organizations from the beginning of the research campaign. In addition, the team will organize outreach activities for the communities in Inuvik. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from August 15, 2022 to September 30, 2022