NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region

Tags: physical sciences, lichen, carbon budget, nitrogen, terrestrial ecosystem

Objective(s): To collect lichen, bryophyte (moss, liverwort and hornwort) and soil samples from Dundas Peninsula and north Banks Island while traveling through the Northwest Passage from Iceland to Alaska.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5273. This project will collect lichen, bryophyte (moss, liverwort and hornwort) and soil samples from Dundas Peninsula and north Banks Island while traveling on the French ecotourism ship Le Commandant Charcot during a cruise through the Northwest Passage from Iceland to Alaska. The project will be carried out opportunistically by Nicolas Cassar (PI), Ariana Desouza and Perrin Hagge. The research team then will measure the nitrogen fixing abilities of the samples in our lab at Duke University. The team will collect 1-5 small (10cm x 10cm) samples from multiple sites. To minimize disturbance to native tundra flora and fauna communities from the sampling, the team will subsample separate (or distant) small samples equivalent to a total surface area of 10cm x 10cm, instead of sampling a contiguous (or adjoining) 10cm x 10cm patch. This method is consistent with EU INTERACT’s fieldwork sampling guidelines described in their publication “Reducing the Environmental Impacts of Arctic Fieldwork,” which states that “many smaller samples are preferred to few larger.” After collecting the samples, the team will record the environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, light intensity) and place them in paper bags to dry and transport to Duke University. The research team will begin to reach out to NWT stakeholders and community organizations directly after submission of this proposal. The team are working with Aurora Research Institute and Department of Environment and Natural Resources to make sure the team are reaching out to the correct people. In addition, the team plan a robust series of data sharing efforts and outreach after our lab work. These efforts include making the data publicly-available on the repository website Zenodo, preserving for future work on the flora of the Northwestern Territories the samples collected in the Duke Herbarium, and submitting a non-technical article describing the work to popular publications in the Northwestern Territories. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from September 22, 2022 to October 27, 2022