Thermokarst landscape hydrology and paleohydrology

气候变化和多变性对水资源的影响是加拿大北方淡水景观的一个紧迫问题。这些地区的水在维持生态系统的生态完整性、经济发展和繁荣以及土著社区对土地及其资源的传统使用方面发挥着核心作用。热喀斯特地貌特别容易受到气候变化的影响。瓦普斯克国家公园（WNP）位于哈德逊湾低地（HBL）的哈德逊湾西南海岸，热岩溶作用形成了10，000多个浅水湖泊，为大量水鸟和其他野生动物提供了重要的栖息地。WNP成立于1996年，目的是保护HBL的一个代表性区域，但对这些淡水流域的水文情况知之甚少，他们如何应对过去的气候变化和变化，以及他们将如何在未来演变。在这一地区，预计到21世纪末变暖将是激烈的。WNP的湖泊通常深度小于1米，因此容易成为短暂的，这将产生相关的生态后果。缺乏基线水文信息阻碍了对高贝隆未来水资源可用性的评估。 为了解决这一知识差距，水文过程，控制当代湖泊水平衡的北方森林-北极苔原景观的WNP将确定使用水同位素示踪剂，水文变化在十年到百年的时间尺度将从多代理分析湖泊沉积物芯的特点。研究结果将产生新的知识的湖泊水文行为在WNP和提供的基础，以预测如何水文这个巨大的北方湿地生态系统将应对持续的气候变化和变异。研究将与加拿大公园和丘吉尔北方研究中心合作进行，并将为北方水文学领域的学生提供特殊的培训机会。来自NSERC NRS计划的资金将用于抵消租用直升机的费用，这对在这个偏远的北方地区进行采样至关重要。

The impact of climate change and variability on water resources is a pressing issue for northern freshwater landscapes in Canada. Water in these regions plays a central role in maintaining the ecological integrity of ecosystems, economic development and prosperity, and traditional use of the land and its resources by indigenous communities. Thermokarst landscapes are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Wapusk National Park (WNP) is located on the southwest coast of Hudson Bay on the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) and thermokarst processes have contributed to creating over 10,000 shallow lakes, which provide key habitat for large populations of waterfowl and other wildlife. WNP was established in 1996 to protect a representative area of the HBL, yet little is known about the hydrology of these freshwater basins, how they have responded to climate change and variability in the past, and how they will evolve in the future. In this region, projected warming by the late 21st century is intense. Lakes in WNP typically are <1 m deep and therefore are susceptible to becoming ephemeral, which would have associated ecological consequences. Lack of baseline hydrological information impedes assessment of the future availability of water resources in the HBL. To address this knowledge gap, hydrological processes that control contemporary lake water balances across the boreal forest - arctic tundra landscape of WNP will be identified using water isotope tracers, and hydrological variability over decadal to centennial time-scales will be characterized from multi-proxy analysis of lake sediment cores. Findings will generate new knowledge of the hydrological behaviour of lakes in WNP and provide the basis to anticipate how the hydrology of this vast northern wetland ecosystem will respond to ongoing climate change and variability. Research will be conducted in partnership with Parks Canada and the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, and will provide exceptional training opportunities for students in the field of northern hydrology. Funding from the NSERC NRS program will be used to offset costs to charter a helicopter, which is essential to conduct the sampling in this remote northern location.