Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

CANADA #21: Paleoclimatology of the Canadian Arctic in relation to global climate change  (Paleoclimatology of the Canadian Arctic in relation to global climate change)

Outline
Purpose: Develop a network of high resolution, multi-proxy records from across the Canadian Arctic to be used for paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental analysis. These will then be synthesized with other circumpolar regions and, importantly, the arctic reconstructions will be integrated into global scale reconstructions. Background: Few quantitative and continuous paleoclimate data are available from the Canadian Arctic apart from ice cores. This differs from other arctic areas (Eurasia, Greenland), which are better known. Over the past decade basic pollen and diatom sequences have been obtained from a few areas, however, these are mostly done at low resolution. In addition, only in the past couple of years have modern data have been accumulated for calibration. Project: We will use the occasion of the IPY to advance this project, but move to a new phase, obtaining and analyzing a series of lake sediment cores from across the Arctic, including all zones from treeline northward. Microfossils from the cores will be analyzed at high temporal resolution to provide records of environmental change. Important aspect of this project include: - Multi-proxy analyses (pollen, diatoms, chironomids, sediment characters) - High resolution (analysis of sedimentary structures suggests bioturbation is low and some lake sediment sequences contain sufficient sediment, up to 3+ metres, to enable high resolution). - Quantitative reconstructions of paleoenvironments and climates will be made. - A network of cores will be analysed and linked to work from Greenland and Eurasia. - Immediate placement of the results in a context of circumpolar and global changes due to the presence of large databases of paleoclimate data and our experience in working with these. Currently, we are working with the North American European and African pollen database as well as with South American collaborators. Relevance: These results provide needed documentation of the many scales of environmental change. For example, analysis of lake sediments has indicated how unusual are the recent rapid changes. Monitoring is consistently mentioned in the community consultation and other documents. However, instrumental monitoring is itself limited in time and space and paleoenvironmental data can extend our understanding of natural variability.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
Theme 1, 2 & 3: A network of sites across the arctic, in combination with archived data from across North America (several 100 diagrams, and also around the world), will provide maps (1.1) of past climate changes at different timescales (2.1). This project will document how the structure and function of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems vary in space and time (1.3), in response to previous climate changes (3.2), and how these biodiversity changes have impacted ecosystem functioning (2.2). By documenting natural variability, this project will indicate how different is the recent change compared previous and the potential causes of climate variability (3.5).

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
In progress. We have worked with others from the US and EU in first attempts ate synthesis of past environments, and will establish the contacts to enable these for higher-resolution results we anticipate. For Theme 3, we have regular contacts with the major database initiatives to ensure our data are used in large-scale syntheses.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
Canadian Arctic Islands and adjacent mainland. The specific area would be determined based on sites already available.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: 05/07 – 07/07      05/08 – 07/08      
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
We assume we would be working with PCSP. We assume the usually sharing will apply.

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
No Note however the database is a legacy of this research project.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
National agency

PCSP

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
This work has been funded by NSERC and PCSP for over a decade. This pre-proposal has been reviewed and is being submitted by the Canadian Steering Committee (CSC). Ongoing discussions will integrate this pre-proposal into a larger network of related national and international initiatives. The CSC has initially sorted this pre-proposal into: Ecosystems: Paleo-environments

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
Expansion

The Canadian portion is continuation of Gajewski’s research program. There have been some attempts to make continental or circumpolar syntheses (e.g. CAPE). The data syntheses and comparisons would be a contribution of the IPY.

How will the project be organised and managed?
Because lake-sediment paleoclimatology can be done in small labs, a complex organizational structure is not needed. Existing lines of communication and collaborative networks will suffice. Organization will depend on the extent of other collaborators working in Eurasia and Greenland. Database management and archiving is in place through existing paleoclimate database projects.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
This will be done in collaboration with the Colleges in the Territories. We will also work closely with M Sawada who is proposing a visualization project under the IPY.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
We are the holders of the Canadian Pollen Database and are developing a Paleolimnology database; all of these are available on our website, as well as at the International Paleoclimatology Database (NOAA). We also have available the PCSP climate database on our website. In fact, all of our data are publicly available and all are also available in permanent government databases.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
At the present time, it is anticipated that basic funds from NSERC will be available. We have applied to CFCAS for funds for the next three years to move the project along more quickly. We should be hearing soon about the success of this grant.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
None

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr Konrad Gajewski
Department of Geography, Laboratory for Paleoclimatology and Climatology
Ottawa, ON
K1N 6N5
Canada

Tel: 613-562-5800x1057
Mobile: no
Fax: 613-562-5145
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation