RESEARCH
Current Projects:
Cape Bounty Arctic Watershed Observatory
Pelly Bay
My research is focused on understanding the linkages between climate, hydrology and geomorphology in permafrost and landscapes. This research is driven by the need to understand how terrestrial landscapes are sensitive to climate variability and resource development. Research work within my Environmental Variability and Extremes (EVEX) Laboratory has focused on a number of related themes: contemporary fluxes of sediment and particulate organic carbon in the streams; climatic controls over streamflow and sediment transport; the impact of rainfall on catchment processes; sedimentary processes in lakes; varved lake sediments as records of past hydroclimate and landscape disturbance; aquatic ecosystem linkages and subfossil indicators of past ecological change and long term sediment transport dynamics.
Current work is directed a number of projects in the North American Arctic, including the High Arctic, Kitikmeot region of Nunavut, and southwestern Alaska. A major emphasis has been at the Cape Bounty Arctic Watershed Observatory (CBAWO), located on south central Melville Island in Nunavut. This program, established in 2003, is directed a number of integrated landscape and hydrological initiatives in collaboration with a number of researchers. My current research interests and projects reflect understanding the magnitude and relaxation of sediment fluxes from surfaces that have been disturbed at different times, the influence of snow pack on river processes, runoff generation and sediment transport characteristics, evaluation of the hydroclimatic and landscape disturbance signal in varved lake sediments, dendrochronological techniques for dating past slope failures, the chemical evolution of the lakes in the region and the application of hydrological modelling to watershed and sedimentary processes. Collaborative work currently links stream processes with the transport, characterization and origin of organic carbon in the watersheds. My work contributes to both the overall research program at Cape Bounty, and to the SEDIBUD and ITEX programs.
A second major project in collaboration with Darrell Kaufman at Northern Arizona University is focused on the use of varved sedimentary records to reconstruct hydroclimatic and glacial runoff during the past c. 2000 years. This work also includes monitoring of the lake sedimentary processes to develop a quantitative framework for investigating the sedimentary records.
A new initiative is to evaluate paleohydrological and sediment yield characteristics in large (>5000 km2) watersheds in the Kugaaruk region of Nunavut. This work will investigate shallow marine sediments with high sedimentation rates to scale long term hydrogeomorphic processes from c. 100-10 000 km2 watersheds.
Finally, I am a member of the Canadian PASADO team, part of a large international initiative to recover and evaluate the long sedimentary record from Laguna Potrok Aike, Argentina. This long lacustrine sedimentary record will provide critical comparison to Antarctic ice cores during the late Quaternary.
New projects are always starting, and many continue with a long term focus. Prospective students are encouraged to contact me for more information about potential projects.