Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

The proposed research will generate a comprehensive framework for assessing the landscape controls over permafrost disturbance and the impact of disturbances on vegetation and water quality. This integrated research is necessitated by the presence of two large natural gas fields adjacent to the Sabine Peninsula on northern Melville Island, Nunavut. Development of these resources will require unprecedented infrastructure to recover gas and deliver it to a liquefaction plant on the south coast of Melville Island for shipping to southern markets. Prior to industrial development in this High Arctic landscape, a framework to understand and predict the sensitivity of land and water to permafrost disturbances and to regional climate changes is required. The need for this research has been further highlighted by extensive permafrost slope disturbances reported on southern Melville Island in 2007-8, and the impact these localized disturbances have had on land, vegetation, and downstream water quality. This initial work demonstrates the need for integrated landscape research across the different physiographic and bioclimatic gradients that exist where energy resource development will occur. The absence of systematic land/water systems research in the region is acute, but necessary to establish policies that will ensure the appropriate development of the national-scale energy resources on Melville Island. The research team combines the expertise of researchers from Queen's University and the Canada Centre for Remote to establish a network of study sites that characterize the range of physiographic and bioclimatic conditions in the vicinity of the known gas fields. The research will generate crucial baseline data, cost-effective and innovative strategies for mapping permafrost disturbance and vegetation cover, and a hydrological modeling framework to evaluate the sensitivity of water quality to disturbances. The research team will contribute an integrated understanding of High Arctic systems, train highly qualified personnel, and provide a comprehensive knowledge base to undertake important resource development.