Important new publication

We publish most of our research results in scientific journals that are reviewed by other researchers (or peer-reviewed).  It is an important part of sharing the knowledge that we gain from research with others, much in the same way we try to share with this blog and our Facebook page.

This week an important new paper was published in Nature Scientific Reports by the CBAWO group.  You can download a copy for free at Nature Scientific Reports.  In this, we show how recent permafrost change at Cape Bounty has made a significant impact on the lakes, changing the chemical composition of some elements by up to 500% in a few years.  This is an incredible rate of change, and this work documents how quickly this can happen and that it occurred in both lakes at the same time.  We also used the otoliths (ear bones) from Arctic char in the lakes to determine if this chemical change had influenced the fish.  We found that many elements changed abruptly in the fish otoliths at the time of the rapid changes in the lakes, signalling that the fish are responding to this environmental change.  By using a fish condition measure (by looking at length and weight of each fish), we show that the condition of the fish in the East Lake is improving, so it would seem that the permafrost change we have observed in recent years is contributing to enhanced living conditions for the fish.

Ice-push ridges on the shore of West Lake, August 2017.  Notice the cloudy water that has been that way since the winter of 2011-12.  

There is likely much more to the story, as the lake ice cover has become less persistent and water temperatures have increased as well.  The West Lake also tells an interesting story with the opposite effect:  underwater landslides (or slumps) that have made the lake continuously muddy have resulted in a continuous deterioration of the condition of Arctic char. 

So it would seem that the two lakes are going in different directions, but both are showing strong impacts from recent environmental change.

Part of the reason this paper is so important is that it summarizes work that has been carried out since 2004 at Cape Bounty, when the first lake water samples were taken and the ecosystem sampled.  We have continued this work and expanded it by working with collaborators at Environment and Climate Change Canada who are experts in contaminants in northern ecosystems, and residents of Resolute that have important knowledge about the fish and lake ecosystems.  This collaborative effort is reflected in the range of authors of this paper- each person contributed important parts of the overall story. 

Like most research, these results generate many new questions but we are working hard to pursue these.  We hope to be able to share them with you in the months and years to come!

West Lake at Cape Bounty, August 2009.

Sediment research in 2017

Guest post by Casey Beel, Ph.D. candidate

This season was interesting for High Arctic hydrology. Total snowfall, and snow water equivalence estimates, was amongst the highest at Cape Bounty since monitoring began in 2003. This year also saw a significant delay in the initiation of snowmelt and channel flow, with the start of discharge not beginning until June 22 - the second latest day of first flow in our records. This change to the hydrology creates more questions about how this year will fit into our longer term record and what increased snowfall means for suspended sediment transfer.

Camping out at the West River station during a long sampling campaign.

The main objective of my research this year was to gain a better understanding of the temporal patterns of suspended sediment transfer. To do this, I spent 15 hours camped out in my waders, with a deck chair for comfort, and over 200 sample bottles, collecting water every 10 minutes from the West River. Thankfully, I choose a perfect day for this saga - with blue skies and warm temperatures. Across the river, two Greater Snow Geese have chosen a small grassy knoll to nest, and for the majority of my day, they were my only company, and as the hours drew on, I began to realize that they weren’t great conversationalists.

West River at full runoff.

One of the exciting additions to my research is that it is spatially distributed across multiple catchments. This allows me the opportunity to explore the landscape and find exciting new landscape features, fossils, and even marine shells that are emerging from degrading slopes. So far this year, we have discovered a newly forming landscape disturbance in the lower East River catchment, revisited the expanding retrogressive thaw slump to the north of camp, and collected enough rocks for my collection to warrant an extra bag of luggage for the trip home.

What grows here....

Guest post from M.Sc. student Valerie Freemantle

I am happy to say that my sampling has been going well and that Cape Bounty has started to feel like home. I wake up every morning looking out to the weather haven and West Lake. The days are long, but being outside and surrounded by science all day makes it such a rewarding place to work.

A view from the tent!

For my thesis, I am using digital pictures and satellite imagery in order to see if there has been any change in the vegetation cover at Cape Bounty since 2004. In the field, I have been revisiting plots that were sampled in 2004 and 2008 and using digital images to estimate the percent coverage of vegetation. When I return to Kingston, I will use these images to scale up to the satellite imagery this year. Then, I can relate these pictures and the data from 2004 and 2008 to satellite imagery and determine if there has been any change in vegetation between 2004 and 2017.

The vegetation in the Arctic has to be able to survive in some difficult conditions. The Arctic growing season is short and there is little on the landscape to block the wind. However, flowers still manage to survive in the slight depressions in the landscape where trickles of water flow soon after snowmelt.

For example, here are some Arctic poppies (Igutsat niqingit, Papaver spp.) blowing on a slope. They are all pointing towards the (never setting) summer sun. The areas where they have managed to establish themselves are in slight depressions where enough water flows to support lichens, mosses and flowers.

Arctic poppies

Another very common plant is the purple saxifrage (Aupilattunnguat, Saxifraga oppositifolia). This is the territorial flower of Nunavut. These little flowers provide bursts of colour all over Cape Bounty.

Purple saxifrage

The real powerhouse of sequestration in the Arctic is made up of vegetation like mosses and sedges. I need some more work learning to tell these apart, but there are many varieties of sedges and grasses at Cape Bounty. Here is a picture of some sedge and moss growing in a small water rack at the side of a rocky slope. The vegetation out here is pretty awesome.

Moss and sedges

Knowing how much vegetation is on the landscape is important. Vegetation is an important mechanism for removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it. Generally, the Arctic has been considered a net sink of carbon, meaning that it stores more than it produces. Mosses and sedges are a big component of this storage. But, with the anticipated changes in Arctic climate due to climate change, there is the potential that this trend may change. Thus, the next step of my project will be to link any changes in vegetation cover to changes in carbon sequestration. I am planning on doing this by relating the trends in vegetation growth from the satellites to measurements of carbon intake and output from eddy covariance towers here at Cape Bounty.   

2017 field season underway

Post by Casey Beel, Ph.D. student

Casey waiting for the next sample at the West River.  Snow geese are unimpressed with hydrological research!
(photo:  P. Treitz)

This season has been interesting for High Arctic hydrology. Total snowfall, and snow water equivalence estimates, was amongst the highest at Cape Bounty since monitoring began in 2003. This year also saw a significant delay in the initiation of snowmelt and channel flow, with the start of discharge not beginning until June 22 - the second latest day of first flow in our records. This change to the hydrology creates more questions about how this year will fit into our longer term record and what increased snowfall means for suspended sediment transfer.

The main objective of my research this year is to gain a better understanding of the temporal patterns of suspended sediment transfer. To do this, I spent 15 hours camped out in my waders, with a deck chair for comfort, and over 200 sample bottles, collecting water every 10 minutes from the West River. Thankfully, I choose a perfect day for this saga - with blue skies and warm temperatures. Across the river, two Greater Snow Geese have chosen a small grassy knoll to nest, and for the majority of my day, they were my only company, and as the hours drew on, I began to realize that they weren’t great conversationalists.

One of the exciting additions to my research is that it is spatially distributed across multiple catchments. This allows me the opportunity to explore the landscape and find exciting new landscape features, fossils, and even marine shells that are emerging from degrading slopes. So far this year, we have discovered a newly forming landscape disturbance in the lower East River catchment, revisited the expanding retrogressive thaw slump to the north of camp, and collected enough rocks for my collection to warrant an extra bag of luggage for the trip home. With a month left in my season, I am hoping for more, exciting scientific and curiosity based discoveries.

Resolute Qarmartalik School Science Fair

Bad weather in Resolute during late winter.

Bad weather can be frustrating when your excitement to begin summer research is at a high. You have all your personal gear packed. You have spent two days organizing everything you need for the next month.  All of your scientific equipment is ready to be installed. But the weather keeps changing. Snow keeps falling. Visibility is poor. And planes remain grounded. This can be trying. But then an opportunity to visit the community and participate in the science fair at the school is presented to you. You forget about the fact that there are delays in getting to the field and you remember that outreach opportunities like this are one of the reasons we are involved in Arctic research.

For the last four years, the Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP), Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), have sponsored a science fair for Grades 1-11 at the Qarmartalik School in Resolute Bay. This year, students presented their research on which form of renewable energy would have the greatest benefit for Resolute, how to better insulate housing in the community, the best toothpaste to use to protect their teeth, the best compost to use in this environment, and many other topics that the students were either passionate about or that were directly relevant to their day-to-day lives in the Arctic.

Researcher Neal Scott with several students at the Qarmartalik School Science Fair.  NRCat was also on hand for the festivities! [picture posted with permission of parents and school]

We were fortunate enough to be invited to judge this year’s science fair along with other community members (e.g., the RCMP) and encourage the students’ scientific curiosities. This opportunity also enabled us to meet and talk with the parents and teachers of this remote community. We were shown traditional tools used to clean and stretch animal hides. We were each given syllabic charts to encourage us to learn how to write our names in Inuktitut, and we were taught a traditional game, where the goal is to be the first person to get the end of their stick into one of the small holes drilled into a caribou antler. But for the children (and ourselves if we are being honest), the best part of the day was a visit from the Natural Resources Cat (NRCat) – for which it didn’t take long for the kids to “de-tail” the costume (3 minutes to be exact).  

It was a great day to share the excitement of science with the children of Resolute!

Polar Continental Shelf Program

We are working hard to get ready for our 2017 field season at CBAWO. There is a lot to organize- people, schedules, equipment, flights, and funding.  It is a job that seems to start about a month after we return from the field and continues for most of the year- and in reality it is just that. There is a lot of work in the background that makes research at CBAWO and other projects across the Canadian Arctic possible.

Based in Resolute, Nunavut, PCSP is a logistics support agency that makes Arctic research possible.  

One group that deserves a lot of credit for our research success is the Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP).  This small program is part of Natural Resources Canada, the national government, and has been operating in the the Arctic since 1958.  It is probably not an overstatement to suggest that PCSP has supported almost every major research project in the High Arctic over the years, involving thousands of researchers. Many of the projects are based in Resolute or other communities in the Arctic, but a large number of them are like ours, located in remote field camps scattered over an area the size of western Europe.  PCSP has been a bedrock support for all of this research, by providing logistics, aircraft, vehicles, field equipment, and a base of operations in Resolute where they can seemingly help you with any problem.  They also have a well-earned reputation for serving great food in their cafeteria and there is nothing like cleaning up with a hot shower and reconnecting with the world after a long field season at the PCSP base.

PCSP facilities have changed quite a bit over the years but the core of the operation is an accommodation building and a warehouse where equipment is stored and maintained.  The accommodation building has expanded over the years, most recently in 2011 when a joint effort with the Canadian Military resulted in a significant expansion.  This collaboration means that military training operations have a home in the High Arctic, and researchers can use the facilities at other times.   They can hold and feed over 200 people, and when the weather is bad and flights are not moving, they can find themselves with a full house!

The PCSP accommodation and lab buildings in mid-May.  Staff have been working since January with researchers and military training exercises.

The PCSP warehouse is a huge building filled with field equipment. There is seemingly everything there:  tents, drills, boats, snow machines, radios, and every kind of camping gear.  There is a full mechanics shop for keeping everything thing running smoothly and those "can you help me with this?" moments. They have a supply of fuel for everything, all planned the year before and brought up on the sealift in September.  Upstairs there are storage spaces for us to leave equipment over winter, which saves a tremendous amount of freight expense for researchers.

Putting it together in the warehouse.  A load arranged to fly out to the field camp with everything you need to survive and do science.

Perhaps the most important aspect of PCSP is the access to charter aircraft they facilitate and support.  Small planes like the Twin Otter in the picture below are the workhorses of the Arctic, able to land on almost any surface and move equipment and people to the most remote parts of the Arctic. PCSP usually has 1-2 of these aircraft on contract, as well as helicopters and even larger planes when the need arises.  Aside from facilitating the use of the aircraft for researchers, PCSP Base Managers work to make the most of these planes. That often means arranging sharing of flights and using unused return flights for other purposes.  This is no small task to manage, and when the meter is running at about $2500 each hour, this effort is really critical to stretch research budgets. The process of dispatching flights is complicated and will be the subject of another post, but suffice to say it is something that the research community that PCSP serves is really dependent on!

Waiting for the next trip- a Twin Otter at the PCSP base in Resolute.

There are many other partners that make our research possible, but there are few that seem to do as much with so little as PCSP. They are really one of Canada's great successes that more people should know about.  When the rest of the world plans to develop their polar research support, they have come to PCSP to learn how to do it.

Lake ice cover time lapse

Have you ever wondered how ice melts on an Arctic lake?  We have time lapse cameras that take images every 30 minutes of each lake.  When we combine them into videos, you can watch the ice come off in a few minutes.

Sit back and enjoy the 2012 ice-off on East Lake!