Glacier-Ocean Interactions in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Image: M.Cavaco
Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. The Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) is a hotspot for such melting, and the resulting meltwater has important impacts on the physical and chemical coastal marine environment and its ecosystems via mechanisms that are poorly understood.
In this project, we aim to understand how glacial meltwater impacts Arctic marine ecosystems, including the humans they support. To do so, we make measurements of ice, glacier meltwater, and the ocean waters surrounding melting glaciers in order to understand how glacier meltwater impacts the physical, chemical and biological environment in coastal waters near ocean-terminating glaciers in Jones Sound in the CAA. We also perform laboratory experiments to better understand how plankton in these environments respond to inputs of glacier meltwater. Finally, we partner with community members of the Inuit Hamlet of Ausuittuq (Grise Fiord) to document and leverage Indigenous knowledge of timing and locations of glacially-driven increases in marine productivity, as well as build a community-led environmental monitoring program.
We do this work with an interdisciplinary team including marine biogeochemists in the Bhatia lab at the University of Alberta, biological oceanographers in the Bertrand lab at Dalhousie University, glaciologists at Natural Resources Canada, and community members of the Hamlet of Ausuittuq. A full-time resident of the Hamlet, Jimmy Qaapik, who has guided scientific expeditions for the Government of Canada’s National Glaciology Monitoring Program for several decades, is a formal co-investigator on our project and enables us to incorporate Indigenous knowledge at all stages of our study and helps to ensure significant long-term benefits are created for the Hamlet from this project. Together we aim to develop best practices for the empowerment of Indigenous coastal communities to participate in the monitoring and management of their local ecosystems during a time of rapid and extreme change.
In this project, we aim to understand how glacial meltwater impacts Arctic marine ecosystems, including the humans they support. To do so, we make measurements of ice, glacier meltwater, and the ocean waters surrounding melting glaciers in order to understand how glacier meltwater impacts the physical, chemical and biological environment in coastal waters near ocean-terminating glaciers in Jones Sound in the CAA. We also perform laboratory experiments to better understand how plankton in these environments respond to inputs of glacier meltwater. Finally, we partner with community members of the Inuit Hamlet of Ausuittuq (Grise Fiord) to document and leverage Indigenous knowledge of timing and locations of glacially-driven increases in marine productivity, as well as build a community-led environmental monitoring program.
We do this work with an interdisciplinary team including marine biogeochemists in the Bhatia lab at the University of Alberta, biological oceanographers in the Bertrand lab at Dalhousie University, glaciologists at Natural Resources Canada, and community members of the Hamlet of Ausuittuq. A full-time resident of the Hamlet, Jimmy Qaapik, who has guided scientific expeditions for the Government of Canada’s National Glaciology Monitoring Program for several decades, is a formal co-investigator on our project and enables us to incorporate Indigenous knowledge at all stages of our study and helps to ensure significant long-term benefits are created for the Hamlet from this project. Together we aim to develop best practices for the empowerment of Indigenous coastal communities to participate in the monitoring and management of their local ecosystems during a time of rapid and extreme change.
Select Papers & Presentations:
- An overview talk by the Ice2Ocean team about our community-based studies to understand chaning tidewater glacier-ocean interactions in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago presented at the EGU General Assembly 2023 in Vienna Austria in April 2023.
- A talk by M.Sc. student Claire Parrot about glacier meltwater contributions to the regional freshwater system of Jones Sound presented at the 57th CMOS Congress in St. John's Canada in May 2023.
- A paper led by Ice2Ocean team leader Maya Bhatia about glaciers and nutrients in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago marine system published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles in 2021.
- A paper led by M.Sc. student Patrick Williams about nutrient and carbon export from a tidewater glacier to the coastal ocean in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago published in JGR Biogeosciences in 2021.
In the News:
- A media article about the impact of the pandemic on strengthening our collaboration with the Inuit community of Ausuittuq prepared by CBC Radi-Canada in May 2021.
- A commentary by Jon Hawkings published in JGR Biogeosciences about Patrick Williams et al.'s article and the discussion it prompts about the role of glaciers in coastal nutrient cycling.