[NYTr] Impact of Arctic Heat Wave "Stuns" Climate Researchers

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by tsimonds - activ-l

NASA's Earth Observatory - Sept. 26, 2007
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/2007/2007092625668.html

IMPACT OF ARCTIC HEAT WAVE STUNS CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCHERS

Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were
so extreme that researchers with a Queen's University-led climate change
project have begun revising their forecasts.

"Everything has changed dramatically in the watershed we observed,"
reports Geography professor Scott Lamoureux, the leader of an
International Polar Year project announced yesterday in Nunavut by
Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. "It's something we'd
envisioned for the future  but to see it happening now is quite
remarkable."

One of 44 Canadian research initiatives to receive a total of $100
million (IPY) research funding from the federal government, Dr.
Lamoureux's new four-year project on remote Melville Island in the
northwest Arctic brings together scientists and educators from three
Canadian universities and the territory of Nunavut. They are studying
how the amount of water will vary as climate changes, and how that
affects the water quality and ecosystem sustainability of plants and
animals that depend on it.

The information will be key to improving models for predicting future
climate change in the High Arctic, which is critical to the everyday
living conditions of people living there, especially through the lakes
and rivers where they obtain their drinking water.

Other members of the research team include, from the Queen's Geography
Department: Paul Treitz, Melissa Lafreniere and Neal Scott; Myrna
Simpson and Andre Simpson from U of T; and Pierre Francus from
INRS-ETE, Quebec. Linda Lamoureux of Kingston's Martello School will
work with the scientists to develop learning tools for schools in the
north.

>From their camp on Melville Island last July, where they recorded air
temperatures over 20:C (in an area with July temperatures that average
5:C), the team watched in amazement as water from melting permafrost a
meter below ground lubricated the topsoil, causing it to slide down
slopes, clearing everything in its path and thrusting up ridges at the
valley bottom "that piled up like a rug," says Dr. Lamoureux, an expert
in hydro-climatic variability and landscape processes. "The landscape
was being torn to pieces, literally before our eyes. A major river was
dammed by a slide along a 200-metre length of the channel. River flow
will be changed for years, if not decades to come."

Comparing this summer's observations against aerial photos dating back
to the 1950s, and the team's monitoring of the area for the past five
years, the research leader calls the present conditions "unprecedented"
in scope and activity. What's most interesting, he says, is that their
findings represent the impact of just one exceptional summer.

"A considerable amount of vegetation has been disturbed and we observed
a sharp rise in erosion and a change in sediment load in the river," Dr.
Lamoureux notes. "With warmer conditions and greater thaw depth
predicted, the cumulative effect of this happening year after year
could create huge problems for both the aquatic and land populations.
This kind of disturbance also has important consequences for existing
and future infrastructure in the region, like roads, pipelines and air
strips."

If this were to occur in more inhabited parts of Canada, it would be
"catastrophic" in terms of land use and resources, he continues. "It
would be like taking an area the size of Kingston and having 15 per
cent of it disappear into Lake Ontario."

The Queen's-led project is working with other IPY research groups
including: Arctic HYDRA, an international group investigating the impact
of climate change on water in the Arctic; Science Pub, a Norwegian group
working on broad research from science to public education about the
impacts of global warming; and CiCAT, a University of British
Columbia-led group of 48 researchers investigating the impacts of
climate change on tundra vegetation.
International Polar Year (IPY) is the largest-ever international program
of coordinated scientific research focused on the Arctic and Antarctic
regions and the first in 50 years.

##

Contact:

Nancy Dorrance
Queen's University
613-533-2869
nancy.dorrance at queensu.ca