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部淡水景观面临的一个紧迫问题。这些地区的水在维护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利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)上的哈德逊湾西南海岸，热岩溶作用造就了10,000多个浅湖，为大量水禽和其他野生动物提供了关键的栖息地。WNP成立于1996年，目的是保护HBL的一个有代表性的地区，但人们对这些淡水盆地的水文学、它们过去如何应对气候变化和多变性以及它们未来将如何演变知之甚少。在这一地区，预计到21世纪末全球变暖是剧烈的。西北地区的湖泊通常有1米深，因此很容易变得短暂，这将产生相关的生态后果。缺乏基线水文信息阻碍了对HBL未来水资源可获得性的评估。 为解决这一认识差距，将使用水同位素示踪剂确定控制西北地区北部森林-北极冻原地貌当代湖泊水量平衡的水文过程，并将通过对湖泊沉积物岩心的多指标分析来表征十年至百年时间尺度上的水文变异性。这些发现将产生关于西北地区湖泊水文行为的新知识，并为预测这一广阔的北方湿地生态系统的水文学将如何应对持续的气候变化和可变性提供基础。研究将与加拿大公园和丘吉尔北方研究中心合作进行，并将为北部水文学领域的学生提供特殊的培训机会。NSERC NRS计划的资金将用于抵消租用直升机的成本，这对于在这个偏远的北部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.