Project Description:
The purpose of this research is to quantify and explain permafrost and landscape-scale responses in a high Arctic Polar desert system within the context of a changing climate.
The objectives for this research are: (1) to measure and characterise energy, water and mass fluxes at specific sites to determine their role in landscape-scale dynamics; (2) determine feedback systems and how the active layer is changing in response to climate forcing; and (3) to determine thresholds of change (tipping points) for thaw-related geomorphic processes (thermokarst).

Methods of Transportation: Commercial and chartered aircrafts will be used to travel between Montreal and Eureka. Once at Eureka, an ATV will be use to access sites around the weather station and a helicopter will be used to access sites further away during day trips.

Structures to be erected: Two Campbell automatic weather stations will be erected (starting July 2016) temporarily for the duration of the project (will be removed in July 2018).

Restoration/Abandonment Plans: All structures erected for scientific purposes will be removed completely at the end of the project.


Methodology

Collection Protocol and Mechanisms: Data collection for this project will avoid disrupting local vegetation communities and aims to avoid being a source of any impact on the local ecosystem. Methodology will be driven by a network of automatic systems will collect climatological and soil data at regular intervals for at least one consecutive year at a series of sites that represent different surface conditions (for example, bare ground and tundra vegetation). Each automatic system will be composed of a standard Campbell weather station with sensors extending at depths within the ground to measure energy and water fluxes at key interfaces (atmosphere-ground surface boundary and active layer-permafrost boundary). Sensors will be composed of temperature, moisture, conductivity and soil heat flux plates. Shallow soil and ground ice (from exposures) samples will be collected during each field season to determine geochemical fluxes. Ground ice exposures will be mapped using a differential GPS (Global Positioning System). Finally, this study will have a modelling component to simulate data collected from the field to estimate processes at a larger (i.e. landscape) scale.

Eureka, NU, was chosen for scientific interests (the presence of ice rich permafrost) and logistical reasons (I have been awarded a Research Support Award offering in-kind room and board at the Eureka Weather Station).


Data

Data collected will be used for my PhD dissertation. Results that are of interest to the Weather Station for infrastructure development will be provided.


Reporting

Results will be given to the Eureka Weather Station, the international scientific permafrost community and other interested parties, including Nunavut organizations. This research will result in three to four publications.