INUVIK
A University of Victoria professor knows the importance of local knowledge when it comes to the Mackenzie Delta.

Dr. Trevor Lantz, an assistant professor at the University of Victoria, is tapping into the traditional knowledge of Beaufort Delta residents as he tracks landscape and vegetation changes. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Dr. Trevor Lantz was the guest speaker at the Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik March 25. His talk on the changing landscape of the region was attended by a sparse but enthusiastic audience.

Lantz, who is a landscape ecologist, spoke of his projects tracking changes in the delta, which are primarily due to climate change, particularly the increasing temperature.

He also spoke at some length about how he has involved local residents – especially those who spend a considerable amount of time on the land – in those projects to track the alterations.

In doing so, Lantz is following in the footsteps of other branches of the natural sciences in using what's commonly known as "citizen scientists."

He provides training to anyone willing to participate in the work, following long consultations as to how they would like to proceed.

That's how he helped discover the massive and lingering effects of an unprecedented storm surge in September 1999 in the Beaufort Delta.

In that storm, the outer Beaufort Delta west of Tuktoyaktuk was inundated with salt water from the storm surge. That affected the salinity of the water nearly as far as Aklavik, where residents noticed strong signs of salinity in the watershed.

At that time, Lantz said, scientists completely missed the event.

It was only by talking to delta residents over the next two or three years that he and other researchers stumbled across it and began to explore its impact.

That research has shown the marine flooding to have been the worst in at least 1,000 years, Lantz told the group. Core samples show nothing like it in that time span, he said.

There are still areas of the outer Beaufort Delta, notably the tundra shrub zone, where the deposited salt continues to inhibit growth, his research has shown.

Other ecozones, especially where willows are thick, have recovered much faster.

The information provided by delta residents showed him the importance of tapping into their knowledge in an organized fashion, Lantz said, and he's followed up on that in his subsequent research.

Overall, the delta area is showing strong signs of climate change in its vegetation.

Lantz said lichens are starting to show a significant decline while tall shrubs and some tree species are increasing, making the delta into more of a forested zone.

That's due almost entirely to temperature change, Lantz said of his research results.

The Beaufort Delta and Mackenzie Valley have warmed by about three degrees Celsius in recent decades, a rate far faster than anywhere else in Canada, and one of the most significant changes in the world.

That's upping the risk of forest fires, he said, as well as impacting the food supplies of vital species such as caribou, that favour lichens as food.