The Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) system study

• Main Authors: Barber, David, Bourgault, Daniel, Gagné, Jacques, Beaubier, Jessica, Fortier, Louis, Gosselin, Michel, Galbraith, Peter, Archambault, Philippe, Ferguson, Steve
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2012
• Subjects: Beaufort Sea; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Carbon dioxide; Marine birds; Marine mammals; Modeling; Nutrient cycling; Primary production; Sea ice; Traditional Knowledge; International Polar Year-The Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Pacific; Parry; Cape Bathurst; Darnley; Ulukhaktok; Sachs Harbour; Paulatuk; Cape Parry; Amundsen Gulf; Arctic Archipelago; Banks Island; Climate change; Icebreaker; International Polar Year; inuit; Inuvialuit; IPY
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5443/11395; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/?doi_id=11395

The CFL project consisted of ten sub-project teams: Physical oceanography; Sea ice; Light, nutrients, and primary production; Food webs; Marine mammals and birds; Gas fluxes; Carbon and nutrient fluxes; Contaminants; Modeling; and Traditional Knowledge. In the fall of 2007, 74 open water sites were sampled throughout the Amundsen Gulf and southern Beaufort Sea. During the winter months, 44 drift sites were sampled, ranging in duration from 1-22 days. Due to thin sea ice and high ice mobility, the fast ice bridge between Cape Parry and Banks Island did not form. For this reason, we were unable to establish a semi-permanent ice camp as originally planned. Instead, a series of ice camps were set up at the fast ice edge at the mouths of Franklin and Darnley Bays in May and June. Early results suggest that with decreasing ice cover we can expect powerful feedbacks into the climate system thereby exacerbating the reduction in multiyear sea ice, with commensurate changes in the ecosystem, biogeochemical cycling and human use of the flaw lead region. Nutrients may become more available to the food web through a higher occurrence of ice edge upwelling as well as eddies carrying Pacific water into the Amundsen Gulf. Frost flowers, which are produced on young first year ice, have been found to have an important role in atmospheric chemistry around flaw leads and may be important for contaminant transport. Marine mammal use of the flaw lead occurs much earlier and more extensively than previously known. Traditional Knowledge research efforts included the development, coordination and completion of community interviews in Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk and Ulukhaktok. This comprised of community-based field programs involving semi-directed interviews, a mapping component, and database development and input. The data gathered from 49 experts in 3 communities represents the first and most comprehensive documentation of Inuvialuit knowledge of the circumpolar flaw lead in the Beaufort Sea. The Traditional Knowledge study showed that Inuvialuit have extensive knowledge of changes taking place in seasonal patterns, marine and freshwater systems, fish and wildlife of the Beaufort Sea and their uses of these resources, as well as the implications of these changes for human travel and Inuvialuit subsistence and traditional activities. : Purpose: The Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) system study is a Canadian-led International Polar Year (IPY) initiative with over 350 participants from 27 countries. The study is multidisciplinary in nature, integrating the physical sciences, biological sciences, and Inuvialuit traditional knowledge. The research of CFL expands upon previous multidisciplinary projects such as the North Water Polynya Study (NOW), the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA), the Collaborative Interdisciplinary Cryospheric Experiment (C-ICE), and the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES) project. The study is designed to examine the importance of climate processes in the changing nature of a flaw lead system in the northern Hemisphere, and the effect these changes will have on the marine ecosystem, contaminant transport, carbon flux and greenhouse gases. The circumpolar flaw lead is a perennial characteristic of the Arctic Ocean, which forms when the central pack ice (which is mobile) moves away from coastal fast ice, opening a flaw lead which occurs throughout the winter season. The flaw lead is circumpolar in nature, with recurrent and interconnected polynyas occurring in the Norwegian, Icelandic, North American and Siberian sectors of the circumpolar arctic. Due to a reduced ice cover, these regions are exceedingly sensitive to physical forcing from both the atmosphere and ocean and provide a unique laboratory from which we can gain insights into the changing polar marine ecosystem. The CFL study was 293 days in duration and involved the overwintering of the CCGS Amundsen icebreaker in the Cape Bathurst flaw lead throughout the winter of 2007-2008, representing the first time a research icebreaker has remained mobile in a flaw lead throughout the winter. Aside from ship-based research, background research has been ongoing for a traditional knowledge study that researched many of the topics studied by scientists on board the Amundsen. This was done via interviews with local community members in the coastal communities within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and was in collaboration with Inuit Circumpolar Council and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. : Summary: A flaw lead is a natural opening in the sea ice that forms and persists throughout the winter, providing an exceptional opportunity to study the Arctic Ocean. This project is looking at ocean dynamics, climate, marine ecosystems, contaminants, greenhouse gases and carbon and nutrient cycles. The data was collected during the first ever overwintering of an icebreaker, the CCGS Amundsen, in a flaw lead system in the Canadian Arctic. Results are helping explain and predict how climate change will affect a flaw lead system. In addition, traditional knowledge is providing further perspective of how the Arctic Ocean has changed over time.