Northwest Territories Research Database

Principal Investigator: Côté, Michelle
Licensed Year(s): 2019 2018
Summary: The goals of this research are to ascertain the formation of marine pockmarks, which are circular depressions on the sea floor thought to have formed from the release of methane gas. The hypothesis is that these features are actively releasing gas to the atmosphere and that they are formed from degrading or thawing offshore permafrost. The research team intend to document the seabed characteris...

Principal Investigator: Varner, Ruth K
Licensed Year(s): 2019
Summary: The aim of this project is to combine remote sensing data, field measurements and biogeochemical modeling to improve methane emissions estimates from thawing permafrost peatland landscapes at local, regional and global scales. To accomplish this, the research team will integrate data on water table and vegetation from remote sensing (satellites, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs)), with local measurem...

Principal Investigator: Pumpanen, Jukka S
Licensed Year(s): 2019
Summary: The field work in Trail Valley Creek and Inuvik aims to study: 1) how catchment characteristics, such as vegetation and soil properties, control the amount and quality of aquatic dissolved organic matter (DOM) and its microbial degradability, and 2) how these factors further regulate greenhouse gas fluxes (carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4, nitrous oxide N2O) from Arctic lakes. At the Dempster hi...

Principal Investigator: Lafleur, Peter M
Licensed Year(s): 2019
Summary: The overall goal of this project is to increase the knowledge of how tundra environments interact with the atmosphere and predict how changing tundra vegetation will affect future climates. Tundra ecosystems exchange energy, water and carbon gases with the atmosphere, which are important elements of the climate system. As tundra vegetation reorganizes in response to global warming, these exchange ...

Principal Investigator: Boike, Julia
Licensed Year(s): 2019 2018
Summary: The goals for this expedition are to test new equipment for characterizing the energy fluxes from and around thermokarst slumps and to establish a baseline for future subsidence measurements. Additionally, lake and atmospheric methane concentrations in relation to thermokarst slumps will be quantified. The research team will conduct ground-truth surveys using a differential GPS. Small GPS obser...

Principal Investigator: Olefeldt, David
Licensed Year(s): 2019 2018
Summary: The objective of this research is to identify impacts of climate change and permafrost thaw on pond methane emissions, and on water chemistry in streams that drain peatland-rich catchments. Impacts on methane emissions will be assessed. Specific objectives are : 1) to characterize the trends and variability in magnitude of methane emission from ponds along climate gradients within both the Tai...

Principal Investigator: Sonnentag, Oliver
Licensed Year(s): 2019 2018 2018 2017 2016 2015
Summary: Through this project the following objectives will be addressed: What is the net effect of permafrost thawing-induced biophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks to the climate system? How do these two types of feedback differ between the sporadic and discontinuous permafrost zones? Is the reported decrease (increase) in net carbon dioxide (methane) exchange based on plot- (<1m2) and ecosystem-scale...

Principal Investigator: Sonnentag, Oliver
Licensed Year(s): 2019 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Summary: The project of the present application is the continuation of year-round eddy covariance measurements of carbon, water and energy fluxes at Scotty Creek, established in 2013. The key methodology is tower-mounted micrometeorological measurements around the eddy covariance technique using an open-path infra-red gas analyzer and a sonic anemometer. These measurements are supported by measurements ...

Principal Investigator: Hartmann, Jörg
Licensed Year(s): 2018
Summary: The objectives of this survey are to measure patterns of methane (CH4) concentrations over the Mackenzie Delta and to quantify the emissions of CH4 from this area. Together with the data of our previous campaigns we will be able to analyse the interannual variability of methane fluxes. Furthermore, the research team will investigate the possibility of linking in-situ data of tundra landscape ch...

Principal Investigator: Lafleur, Peter M
Licensed Year(s): 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2007 2005 2004
Summary: The broad goal of this research is to increase our understanding of tundra carbon balance of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and predict into the future the impacts of climate warming on these systems. Since we are interested in all aspects of the tundra carbon balance a variety of methods are employed. These can be broken down into 4 basic categories: 1. Tundra-atmosphere fluxes - the ex...