NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: physical sciences, water quality, climate change, freshwater ecosystem, permafrost thaw, lake sediment

Objective(s): To understand how landscape changes caused by climate warming are impacting aquatic ecosystems, particularly lakes and streams.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5573. To understand how landscape changes caused by climate warming are impacting aquatic ecosystems, particularly lakes and streams. These disturbances focus primarily on permafrost thaw, in the form of thaw slumps and landslides. The understanding derived will allow better understanding of how water quality and aquatic habitats are changing in a rapidly changing environment. The research also allows understanding of rates of environmental change from a range of intense stressors (e.g., thaw slumping activity), which can be used to better understand global patterns of ecosystem response to climate change. The sampling to be carried out on lakes has very little environmental footprint. The research approach allows a start to understanding the physical, chemical, and biological impact of disturbances on lakes. All sampling will be carried out from either the pontoons of a helicopter, or a small, inflatable raft that is paddled around the lake. At some lakes (accessed by raft) a commercial fish finder will be used (echosounder) to map and log the bottom profile (depth) of the lake, used to create a bathymetric map. When sampling via helicopter or boat, small samples of lake water will be collected to be analyzed for chemical parameters. The mud at the bottom of a lake is a treasure trove of information on conditions in and around the lake, that can go back in time for hundreds of years. This allows an understanding and inference of changes in the lake from periods before samples were ever taken (as most lakes have not been regularly sampled for different parameters). The sediment core samples are analyzed for their physical (e.g., the size of sediment particles, how magnetic it is), chemical (e.g., how much carbon or nitrogen is in the mud), and biological (e.g., the remains of different species of algae that lived in the lake, or pollen from the trees and shrubs around the lake) parameters. This allows us to understand a great deal of the change in the lake and its watershed going back in time, using only a tube of the lake mud. It also allows us to spend a relatively short time sampling the lake, while generating a good deal of information on the lake environment, and how it has changed. A strong communication plan is key to developing regular communication that is multi-faceted, allowing a range of outputs that cater to all stakeholders, rightsholders, and community members. This needs to include both informal and formal communication outputs. Informal communication includes being readily available for phone discussions as requested by any interested individual or group. One of the preferred mechanisms for summarizing the background, objectives, methodology, in addition to the results and implications of research has been through short videos that can be readily shared with all stakeholders and community members, and consumed at the individuals discretion as time allows. NSERC requires all research outputs they support to be available free of change. All of data will be available for use by any interested parties, via a creative commons license. Findings of the research will be presented at meetings, such as the NWT Geoscience Forum, and other opportunities such as that, as close to the Western Arctic as possible. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: June 30 - July 21, 2023