Dramatic (and often unexpected) Changes to Arctic Waters in Response to a Rapidly Changing Climate
April 9, 2020
Dr. Phillip Marsh
Recent studies have confirmed that all aspects of the Arctic biophysical system are changing rapidly in response to a changing climate, and the Arctic is heading away from the 20th century state, and into and unprecedented state. Although northern Canadians are asking specific questions about what this future state will be, scientists are not able to provide the detailed, local scale, information needed for northerners to adapt and plan for the future. This talk will consider what the limitations are to our knowledge and predictive ability, and discuss a research program being carried out in the taiga-tundra ecotone in the western Canadian Arctic. This program integrates across a range of disciplines in order to quantify the interrelated changes to climate, snow, vegetation, permafrost, lakes and streams, and to develop a next generation of hydrologic models.
Bio
Dr. Philip Marsh, Canada Research Chair in Cold Regions Water Science, is examining the effects that changes in climate, boreal forest, tundra vegetation, and permafrost have on stream flow and lake levels in Canada’s western Arctic. He is conducting his research at two long-term research sites near Inuvik, Northwest Territories, that straddle the Arctic treeline and are in a continuous permafrost zone.
