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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Twelve students from Ontario universities are in engaging in an eye-opening study at Trapper's Lake Spiritual Lodge to examine the effects of climate change on Northern ecosystems.

University of Waterloo Student Sheena Campbell, left, associate professor Jennifer Baltzer from Wilfrid Laurier, and University of Toronto student Hannah Palozzi have been taking part in a course at Trapper's Lake on Highway 3 which studies the effects of climate change on Northern ecosystems. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo

The students are at the lodge west of the city from Aug. 18 to Aug. 31 to take part in a field biology course offered by Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., The course is called The Changing North: subarctic ecosystems in the face of change.

It is offered as part of a partnership between the university and the GNWT, as part of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) science agenda implemented in 2009, which aims to enhance research capabilities in the NWT through partnerships with various universities.

"I knew that permafrost existed. I knew it was melting and that was a bad thing, but that was all I knew," said Sheena Campbell, an environmental studies student from the University of Waterloo.

"So coming up here and seeing the (permafrost melting) and causing collapsing in landscapes, then filling up and causing a wetland is so huge and not something I thought could happen from permafrost."

Each of the students are using their time in Yellowknife to collect data for research papers for the course. Campbell's paper concerns invertebrates and how forest fires change the ecosystem in surrounding streams. She joined three other students who sampled insects in the sediment downstream from a burned site, upstream and then adjacent to the fire.

When an area is burned and trees are destroyed, there is extra run off to the stream without the natural filter of the tree roots, Campbell said. This means more contaminants get into the water and harm the ecosystem.

"It's kind of like a secondary effect. You can see the change that's happened to the landscape but you can't really see how that's changed the stream ecosystem right away," she said.

Campbell isn't sure what she'll find, but expects there to be a change.

"I'm expecting to see a difference in the abundance of certain families (of invertebrates)," she said. "I think that I might see a lot more sensitive bugs are just not at the burn site, but upstream I'll see them because they weren't affected."

Hannah Palozzi, an arts major from the University of Toronto who focuses on forest conservation and aboriginal studies, said she wants to study how multidisciplinary departments can work together to find solutions for environmental and social problems.

Palozzi said she has always had an interest in the North.

"I've always wanted to come," she said. "I think there's a greater connection to the land, and I think in southern Canada a lot of people have sort of separated themselves from nature. They've built work environment and natural environment, but (only) have this idea of wilderness."

Jennifer Baltzer, an associate professor from Wilfrid Laurier who is leading the study, said this is their first taste of Northern ecosystems.

While the course is observational and students aren't gathering data for broad research programs outside of their degrees, the course gives them a chance to make their colleagues, friends and family aware of environmental change in the North, according to Baltzer.

"Northwestern Canada is the spot in Canada that's seen the most rapid and intense change. Global warming is happening fastest and most urgent here than in the rest of Canada," Baltzer said.

"People in the south aren't aware of how rapidly these things are changing. Offering the course to students from the south is a good opportunity to raise awareness, get students engaged and help to tackle some of these problems in the future."

Judy McLinton, communications manager for ENR, said awareness also needs to be raised on the research being done in the NWT.

"A lot of research goes on in the NWT that we don't know about, or aren't benefiting from," McLinton said. "We want to make sure we're tied in with some of the research, or at least know we can use it as we're doing our monitoring program, and tie into some of the decision making in the future."

The students will gather their data from various sites around Yellowknife, and return in September to their respective universities where they'll write their reports.

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