NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Dehcho Region

Objective(s): 1. To determine the burned vegetation in the fires, to estimate whether specific vegetation is more susceptible to fire. 2. To determine the depth, carbon losses, and the age of carbon released in the fires. The results are critical to assess the climate impact of these fires. 3. To investigate the fire history of the region from lake sediment records. 4. To collect peat and organic matter samples for laboratory combustion experiments performed in Finland, to quantify the greenhouse gas and fine particle emissions by flaming and smoldering combustion of the material.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5869. The main objective of this study is to reveal patterns of northern wildfires. Vertical profiles of burned peat (and other organic matter) layers will be investigated, which produce pioneering results on the vertical pattern of peat fires, and critical information on the burn depth and age of burnt peat (modern vs. fossil) in smoldering peat fires. The research team will visit a burn scar of a tundra and peat fire that occurred in the Inuvik region in 2023 and 2012, and Scotty Creek Research Station and fire scars produced there by 2022, 2023 and 2014 fires. In detail the objectives for fieldwork in the Northwest Territories are: 1. To determine the burned vegetation in the fires, to estimate whether specific vegetation is more susceptible to fire. 2. To determine the depth, carbon losses, and the age of carbon released in the fires. The results are critical to assess the climate impact of these fires. 3. To investigate the fire history of the region from lake sediment records. 4. To collect peat and organic matter samples for laboratory combustion experiments performed in Finland, to quantify the greenhouse gas and fine particle emissions by flaming and smoldering combustion of the material. At study locations in Inuvik and around Scotty Creek Research Station, peat/organic matter samples (5*5*5 cm) of the burned (and adjacent unburned) layers will be collected, to determine the burned vegetation from ca. 5 different spots of the respective fire scar. In addition, 0-50 cm deep organic matter profiles will be collected from ca. 10 spots within a burn scar and right next to it, to determine what past vegetation has existed at the respective sites, how deep the fires penetrated the organic matter, and for carbon loss measurements. All collected samples are wrapped into plastic in field and transported back to Finland (estimated max. 30 kg altogether). When arrived in Finland, the samples are immediately frozen and kept frozen until subsequent laboratory analyses. Additionally, we will collect a lake sediment core from Inuvik from one of the many smaller lakes situated east of Noell Lake, and from the main basin of Goose Lake at the Scotty Creek Research Station. The sediment cores are collected from the deepest part of the lakes. The results of this study are presented in a PhD thesis. The final publications are sent to all Canadian authorities and communities wishing to see them, along with plain language summaries. As the results of our study are of consequence to the local people in Northwest Territories, the aim is to publish the results also in popular scientific forums reachable by all. The research team can give online presentations in various seminars requested by local communities or local research institutions. The data of this project will be freely available after primary publication in this project for the next 10 years (at least) in the Finnish Meteorological Institute's research data repository METIS which is openly accessible: https://fmi.b2share.csc.fi/. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: August 13 - August 23, 2024