U of S Geographer to Lead $300,000 Arctic Climate Change Study
Posted April 24, 2003
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 24th 2003-04-10-AR
U of S Geographer to Lead $300,000 Arctic Climate Change Study
A research team led by University of Saskatchewan geographer Alec Aitken
will participate in a $41-million international scientific mission in the
Canadian Arctic announced in Quebec City today.
Aitken will receive almost $300,000 over five years from NSERC to lead a
national team involved in a 13-university study of the ecosystem impacts of
melting ice in the Western Arctic.
Aitken's team, which involves researchers from the Canadian Museum of
Nature, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the United States and Norway will
undertake research aboard a refurbished icebreaker - the Franklin -- to help
determine whether the Arctic Ocean is a source or a 'sink' for greenhouse
gases that contribute to global warming.
Aitken is one of 45 Canadian Arctic researchers and 30 foreign Arctic
specialists who will participate in the mission which involves $30.7 million
from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to
retrofit the icebreaker and $10 million from NSERC for the Canadian Artic
Shelf Exchange Study (CASES) based at l'Université Laval.
"We are thrilled that the U of S is a study leader in this huge and very
important international project that will lead to better understanding of
the impact of global warming on the Arctic and other Northern communities,"
said U of S President Peter MacKinnon. "Professor Aitken's research will
contribute to our growing U of S expertise in Northern research."
"Today's announcement recognizes the talent and dedication of researchers at
the University of Saskatchewan," said Ralph Goodale, Saskatchewan MP for
Wascana. "Giving our local institutions access to leading research
collaborations and facilities will allow them to make an important
contribution to international science."
"The CFI investment will enable Canadian researchers -- working side by side
with some of the best researchers in the world -- to look at complex
environmental, social, and economic issues that are the result of global
warming," said CFI President David Strangway. "It will also provide a
world-class facility to train young Canadians in areas that are critical for
Canada as well as other nations in the world."
The Franklin will be used by researchers in the summer months and by the
Canadian Coast Guard during the winter. It will give researchers
unprecedented access to the Arctic Ocean, and the presence of a Canadian
icebreaker and research team in the Arctic will be a strong confirmation of
Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.
Some scientists think that given current trends in climate change, by 2050
there will be no Arctic ice cover during the summer months. This would
affect the Arctic ecosystem and the climate of the entire northern
hemisphere.
Aitken, one of only a handful of researchers in Canada who study the animals
that live on the Arctic sea floor, will investigate how changes in the sea
ice cover affect the types and numbers of sea floor animal populations such
as clams, snails, sea urchins, marine worms and shrimp. Graduate students
will also be involved.
The work will be carried out in the Western Arctic's Mackenzie Shelf on the
shallow southeast margins of the Beaufort Sea, an area currently
experiencing the greatest rate of warming and where the marine food chain is
most vulnerable to change.
Aitken's group will also study how much carbon is stored in the sediments of
the ocean floor and in animal tissues, and how much is potentially released
to the ocean from the sea floor as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that
contributes to global warming.
The aim is to understand the processes that influence the rate at which
carbon dioxide is stored in oceans and released into the atmosphere. "If
less carbon is stored in the Arctic Ocean than is released, then we have a
problem," says Aitken.
He says that the length of the ice-free period affects the populations of
sea ice algae and phytoplankton that nourish bottom-dwelling communities.
Annual variations in ice cover thickness also affect species composition
through ice scouring of the sea floor. These changes in diet and species
composition, in turn, influence the rate at which carbon is cycled through
these animal communities.
As part of the CASES project, 10 to 12 high school students will be selected
from across Canada to participate in research aboard the Franklin. The
Schools on Board program invites schools that are implementing an Arctic
science-related component in their curricula to nominate a student. For more
information, visit www.giroq.ulaval.ca/cases.
NSERC (http://www.nserc.ca) is Canada's largest federal scientific granting
agency. The CFI (www.innovation.ca) is an independent, not-for-profit
corporation established by the Government of Canada in 1997 to strengthen
the capacity for innovation in Canadian universities, colleges, research
hospitals, and other non-profit institutions.
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For more information, contact:
Kathryn Warden
U of S Research Communications
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research
Dr. Alec Aitken
Associate Professor of Geography
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-5672
aaitken@arts.usask.ca
Douglas Lauriault
Canada Foundation for Innovation
(613) 996-3193
Martine Perreault
Media Relations and Public Affairs
NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)
(613) 995-8824 / (613) 371-0219
