This past April, a team of polar ice scientists trekked to the Canadian high Arctic for a two-week expedition near Ellesmere Island to study the condition of the ice shelves and related ecosystems in this barren region.
|
Three scientists — Derek Mueller of Trent University, Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa and Andrew Hamilton of Laval University — traveled to this remote territory to continue an ongoing International Polar Year study.
Due to warmer climate conditions in the last 20 years, ice shelves along Ellesmere’s northern coast that have been attached to the shore for thousands of years have been breaking apart affecting this ecosystem.
To help shed light on why large chunks of the Arctic ice have been breaking-up; the team chose a HOBO® weather station with Iridium satellite interface to gather real-time environmental data. The system was deployed on the Serson Ice shelf and is the most northerly automated real-time weather station in the world.
As the arctic landscape continues to change, volumes of freshwater from deep sea inlets previously dammed by the ice shelves are being pumped into the ocean. These physical changes are affecting the habitat of aquatic microbial communities existing below the ice that play a significant role in the Arctic ecosystem.
It is not clear how these ecosystems will adapt to current and projected climate change as this region is difficult to access and has not been well studied. However, scientists are confident that the collected data will provide them with insight on how environmental conditions are affecting the Arctic’s ecosystem.
Related links:
: Ice sheet breaks loose off Canada http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/30/canada.arctic.ice.ap/index.html