Northern Water Futures

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• Project Lead: Jennifer Baltzer
• Project Team Members: See NorthernWaterFutures.wordpress.com for list
• Project Location: Pan-Territorial

Project Description

Consortium of communities, government, industry, non-governmental organizations and universities, working collaboratively to understand, predict and address the impacts of climate change and industrial expansion on shared water resources across NWT.

Project Activities

• We quantified forest dynamic responses (growth, recruitment and mortality) to permafrost thaw in a 10ha mapped forest plot. We show that black spruce populations are in decline but the opposite is true for larch. Thaw induced increases in larch cover were important in predicting NDVI.
• We quantified the sap flow and other plant functional traits in green alder. Results show the importance of permafrost thaw in determining sap flow and suggest a potential doubling of tundra ET with shrub expansion. Work at this site also shows that expansion of green alder on the tundra has negative implications for biodiversity.

Project Outreach

• Standen, K. M., Sonnentag, O., Voigt, C., and Baltzer, J. L.: Response of boreal plant communities and forest floor carbon fluxes to experimental nutrient additions, Invited Seminar for Cold Regions Research Centre, 2020.
• Research update presentations to the Environmental Studies Research Fund involving Husky Energy and senior Government of the Northwest Territories staff.
• Stakeholder engagement working group, NASA ABoVE Wetlands Project (monthly meetings.
• Virtual research updates and planning with community partners in the Tlicho and Sahtu regions.
• Regular advisory meetings with ECCC, NRCan, and Canadian Wildlife Service regarding proposed developments in Ontario’s North.
• Working with Virtual Water Gallery Global Water Futures science and art project: As part of this project, GWF scientists were paired with artists for them to co-explore water-related themes and ultimately for the artists to create artworks inspired by these discussions. NWF researchers have been working with artists on artistic interpretations of different NWF themes. (Berg and Baltzer).
• Climate change adaptation meeting in Kakisa with Ka’a’gee Tu and Sambaa K’e First Nations, February 2020 (Blay-Palmer and Spring; Baltzer).

Meetings with Governments, Decision Makers, Practitioners; Policy

• Regular meetings with and presentations for a range of GNWT departments including ENR (Forest Resources, Waters, Wildlife, Protected Areas), Northwest Territories Geologic Survey, Health, ITI (Industry, Tourism, and Investment), Transportation (multiple NWF investigators and trainees).

Articles in Popular Media

• May 4, 2020: Laurier scientist studies effect of climate change on boreal forest
• May 5, 2020: Interview with Water Today about the GWF Northern Water Futures
• May 6, 2020: Sniderhan interviewed for an article on Cabin Radio, “‘This is an opportunity.’ Scientists and guardians team up in pandemic”.
• May 15, 2020: Derksen interviewed with Jimmy Thomson for an article in The Walrus.
• June 16, 2020: Baltzer interviewed on holdover fires in the Arctic. CBC Trailbreaker.
• June 25, 2020: Turetsky interviewed on Arctic heat wave for PBS ‘News Hour’ podcast.
• August 1, 2020: Turetsky interviewed on peat fires in Canada for CBC ‘What on Earth’ podcast.
• October 16, 2020: Baltzer interviewed about a recent paper from her group on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks
• November 23, 2020: Feature on the impact of COVID-19 on Emily Ogden, Alexis Jorgensen, and Stephanie Woodworth’s research on NWF blog
• December 8, 2020: Turetsky interviewed about global warming in the Arctic for an article in The Washington Post
• January 8, 2021: Baltzer featured on the Smithsonian ForestGEO News Blog about her work at Scotty Creek.
• April 21, 2021: Baltzer featured in a piece on climate tipping points in the Grist
• April 23, 2021: Turetsky interviewed on Canada’s thawing permafrost for an article in The Narwhal