Indigenous community partners are an important part of research in the Northwest Territories. The Patterson Lab uses many environmental proxies when examining core records to help understand how climate variability impacts regional lake ecosystems. The resultant changes in lake hydrology in turn impacts the sequestration of both natural occurring and industrially introduced contaminants (e.g. arsenic). To aid in their work, which involves analysis of sediments laid down prior to the establishment of official weather monitoring stations they have drawn on assistance from the Yellowknives Dene, who have contributed oral traditions of ecological knowledge and the North Slave Metis Alliance who provided them with written archival records with details weather data. A discussion of the work of collaborator Jennifer Galloway (GSC Calgary) and Tim Patterson was just published in the September 26th edition of EOS, the news magazine of the American Geophysical Union. Although not mentioned in the article their work would not be possible without the contributions of Hendrik Falck (Geological Survey of the Northwest Territories) and TerraX Minerals.
For the full article, please click EOS
Photo credit: Carleton Newsroom
Posted on: Friday, October 4, 2019