Seafloor composition and Holocene sediment dynamics on the Canadian Arctic continental margins

对未来气候变化的预测表明，高纬度地区将比世界其他地区经历更大的环境波动。然而，从长期的历史角度来看，这些环境变化，并提供一个更全面的数据集，为未来的北极气候模拟，我们需要更好地了解海洋北极加拿大的历史演变，通过晚第四纪和过去的气候突变的反应。在这种情况下，这一跨学科的建议，在北极海洋地质学和古气候研究的前沿，旨在：1）获得在加拿大北极群岛或CAA的中部海底沉积物的性质和起源的基本认识（即从加拿大博福特海至兰开斯特海峡的范围）; 2）评估晚全新世气候变化的影响（中世纪暖期、小冰期和近期变暖）对CAA中部沉积动力学的影响; 3）记录海洋终止出口冰川排水巴芬（彭尼）和埃尔斯米尔的反应（Sydkap，曼森，Eugenie和Ekblaw）岛屿冰盖变化的海洋和气候条件在全新世;重建了北美北极河流流入加冕湾和莫德皇后湾的河流沉积体系，并与全新世气候边界条件的变化有关。这些雄心勃勃的目标将通过使用一个整体的源-汇分析，包括粒度，定量矿物学，元素地球化学，dinocyst组合和磁性参数，在一套独特的表面和高分辨率（0.08-0.30厘米/年）的核心沉积物分布在一个大的准未勘探的地区在CAA。该提案还旨在从北方研究补充方案获得补充资金，以支付北极沉积物样本采集的高昂费用，并在北极湾、剑桥湾和乌卢哈克托克的因纽特人社区开展推广活动。总体而言，拟议的尖端研究计划将提供一个显着的多代理数据集，这将有助于我们目前对加拿大北极大陆边缘在十年，百年和千年时间尺度上不同气候条件下沉积过程的关键理解的根本进步。从环境的角度来看，拟议中的研究还将提供靠近几个因努伊特人社区的沿海表面沉积物的基线地球化学数据，这将有助于联邦政府机构（例如，加拿大环境和气候变化部、加拿大土著事务部和加拿大北方发展部），负责评估这些沿海地区的环境风险和制定污染物管制水平。最后，拟议的研究计划将有助于在海洋地质学，古气候学和环境科学领域培养5个理学士/2个理学硕士/3个博士生。

Projections of future climate change suggest that the high-latitude regions will experience greater environmental fluctuations than the rest of the world. However, to view these environmental changes from a long-term historical perspective and to provide a more comprehensive dataset for future Arctic climate simulations, we need to better understand the historical evolution of marine Arctic Canada through the late Quaternary and its past response to abrupt climate variations. In this context, this interdisciplinary proposal, at the forefront of Arctic marine geology and paleoclimate research, aims to: 1) acquire a fundamental understanding of the nature and origin of seafloor sediments in the central part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago or CAA (i.e. area from the Canadian Beaufort Sea to the Lancaster Sound); 2) assess the impacts of late Holocene climate variability (Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age, and recent warming) on the sediment dynamics within the central part of the CAA; 3) document the response of marine-terminating outlet glaciers draining the Baffin (Penny) and Ellesmere (Sydkap, Manson, Eugenie and Ekblaw) Island icecaps to changing ocean and climatic conditions during the Holocene; and 4) reconstruct the fluvial sedimentary regimes of North American Arctic rivers draining into the Coronation and Queen Maud Gulfs in relationship to changing climatic boundary conditions during the Holocene. These ambitious goals will be addressed by using a holistic source-to-sink analysis, including grain size, quantitative mineralogy, elemental geochemistry, dinocyst assemblages and magnetic parameters, on a unique set of surface and high-resolution (0.08-0.30 cm/yr) core sediments distributed across a large quasi-unexplored area within the CAA. This proposal aims also to obtain supplementary funds from northern research supplements program to cover the high costs involved with sediment sample collection in the Arctic and to performed outreach activities in Inuit communities of Arctic Bay, Cambridge Bay, and Ulukhaktok. Overall, the proposed cutting-edge research program will provide a remarkable multiproxy dataset that will contribute to the fundamental advancement of our current critical understanding of sedimentation processes under varying climate conditions in the Canadian Arctic continental margins over decadal, centennial, and millennial timescales. From an environmental perspective, the proposed research will also provide baseline geochemical data for coastal surface sediments close to several Inuit communities, which will help federal government agencies (e.g., Environment and Climate Change Canada, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada) with assessing environmental risk and setting regulatory levels of pollutants in these coastal areas. Finally, the proposed research program will contribute to the training of 5 BSc/2 MSc/3 PhD students in the fields of marine geology, paleoclimatology, and environmental sciences.