INUVIK - Permafrost slumping is a dramatic form of shoreline erosion. While this occurs around many lakes near Inuvik, a visiting University of Victoria researcher is attempting to figure out the specific effect the process is having on the ecosystem of one lake just east of Inuvik.

Since last April hydrologist Erika Hille's research has been focusing on two lakes located near Noell Lake, one of which is the victim of permafrost slumps, the other is not.

Hydrologist Erika Hille stands inside an Aurora Research Institute lab where she'll process her study samples, which may determine the effects of shoreline erosion on the ecosystem of a local lake just east of Inuvik. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

"I'm trying to understand how permafrost degradation will impact Arctic freshwater ecosystems," she said. "You have a fresh water ecosystem which is extremely sensitive to climate change. You have climate warming and increased permafrost degradation due to climate change. I'm looking at how that's going to impact the hydrology of the lake."

Her research often involves long days in the field where she collects a range of tests and samples, including snow surveys to determine how much water will enter the lake due to snow melt, monitoring the water flowing into and out of the lake during snow melt, measuring the geochemicals going into the lake, the carbon inputs and the chemistry of the water and then figuring out what can be attributed to permafrost degradation.

"(The slumping) could have effects on the lake ecosystem," she said. "It's hard to say because we don't have any definitive answers yet."

The other lake, unaffected by slumping, will be used as a comparison model.

Hille's project, which is largely funded by Environment Canada, is part of her master's degree thesis. It's also part of a larger five-year study that includes a team of researchers looking at 66 lakes that run parallel to a section of the proposed Mackenzie pipeline route, stretching from Noell Lake north to Richards Islands, just west of Tuktoyaktuk.

Her portion of the project is expected to be completed in two years. She's currently working with a post-graduate student while under the supervision of two professors at the University of Victoria.

She'll start crunching the numbers and analyzing her data when she returns to Victoria next month.

She said there's no guarantees that the hydrology - the water's quality and movement - and the ecosystems of the studied lakes will be significantly affected by slumping. But she added the study is warranted given the serious effect permafrost melting is having on the overall Arctic environment.

"Permafrost is a big part of what's going to be changing in the Arctic in the upcoming years. It's changing rapidly and I think by assessing how that change is going to impact ecosystems is of the utmost importance."

Her research can be extremely demanding requiring her to travel to the site at a moment's notice and enduring harsh weather conditions, but she remains committed to the cause and sees her work as a piece of a larger puzzle.

"Arctic ecosystems are so dynamic, they're such sensitive systems because everything here is adapted to the cold," she said.

"Now that everything is warming, those ecosystems are going to have to adapt rapidly and that means everything changes so quickly. You have the ability to look at systems that are changing very quickly and maybe in the future you can apply what you've learned from these systems to other systems that are changing more slowly further south, which are not as sensitive as these Arctic systems."