seminars

Seminar – 13 November – Modelling the nitrogen cycle of mosses across the boreal forest.

Rose Lefebvre will be presenting Modelling the nitrogen cycle of mosses across the boreal forest.

Date: 13 November 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).

Mosses are common ground cover species in the boreal forest. They can influence different components of the ecosystem, such as the ground thermal regime due to their insulating properties, and the nitrogen cycle through biological nitrogen fixation. Mosses are not always included in terrestrial biosphere models, which are used to make climate projections. The Canadian Land Surface Scheme Including Biogeochemical Cycles (CLASSIC) was modified with the goal of improving productivity simulations across the North American boreal forest. Feather mosses and the nitrogen cycle of mosses were implemented in CLASSIC. The model was validated by comparing observation data against model output at eight sites. The sites range from being near the southern limit of permafrost to being in the continuous permafrost zone. Once validated, the model was run across the North American boreal forest.

By Tristan MacLean, ago

Seminar – 16 October – Performance of Drilling Waste Sumps, Western Arctic Canada.

Rae Landriau will be presenting Performance of Drilling Waste Sumps, Western Arctic Canada.

Date: 16 October 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).

Petroleum resource exploration and development has occurred in the Northwest Territories since the 1920s. Freezing-point depressants, mainly potassium chloride, were added to drilling fluids to facilitate drilling into permafrost. Disposal of these fluids was typically in large man-made pits (sumps). Sumps were excavated in permafrost, with the intention that frozen ground would contain the fluids indefinitely. Climatic warming in northwest Canada has raised the temperature of near-surface permafrost, increasing the potential for failure of sumps in the region. Using electro-magnetic surveys, ground conductivity on and off sumps can be collected and analyzed to detect the presence of these fluids and determine if they have migrated.

By Tristan MacLean, ago

Seminar – 18 September – Development and demonstration of a statistical ranking framework for ground temperature models, tailored towards permafrost environments.

Hannah Macdonell will be presenting Development and demonstration of a statistical ranking framework for ground temperature models, tailored towards permafrost environments.

Date: 18 September 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).

Models used to simulate permafrost variables such as ground temperature are important tools for understanding the current state and future conditions of permafrost. However, few objective methods of establishing model accuracy exist for permafrost environments. Additionally, models often range in their performance given different conditions such as terrain type or seasonality. Hannah will be presenting her master’s research that looked at (1) identifying patterns in ground-temperature model performance under different testing conditions and (2) developing a quantitative measure of ground-temperature model performance in permafrost zones.

By Tristan MacLean, ago

POSTPONED Seminar – 29 May – Performance of Drilling Waste Sumps, Western Arctic Canada.

Rae Landriau will be presenting Performance of Drilling Waste Sumps, Western Arctic Canada.

Date: 29 May 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).

Petroleum resource exploration and development has occurred in the Northwest Territories since the 1920s. Freezing-point depressants, mainly potassium chloride, were added to drilling fluids to facilitate drilling into permafrost. Disposal of these fluids was typically in large man-made pits (sumps). Sumps were excavated in permafrost, with the intention that frozen ground would contain the fluids indefinitely. Climatic warming in northwest Canada has raised the temperature of near-surface permafrost, increasing the potential for failure of sumps in the region. Using electro-magnetic surveys, ground conductivity on and off sumps can be collected and analyzed to detect the presence of these fluids and determine if they have migrated.

By Tristan MacLean, ago

Seminar – 22 May – Precise Change Detection with Airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) & Optical Photogrammetry Data and its application to Active Permafrost Regions.

Usman Iqbal Ahmed will be presenting Precise Change Detection with Airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) & Optical Photogrammetry Data and its application to Active Permafrost Regions.

Date: 22 May 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).

Permafrost thaw can cause several problems; the ground becomes unstable and can cause damage to infrastructure such as roads, buildings, and pipelines. It can also cause erosion and changes in the landscape, which can have ecological and social impacts and disruption of indigenous ways of life. Monitoring these changes is a key factor in reducing the impact of such disasters as well as timely reaction/adaptation to such changes. I am exploring the option of developing a change detection method using Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry and Optical Photogrammetry data for precise change detection. I will present the results of our controlled experiment with simulated permafrost related changes to showcase the capability of our method in active permafrost thaw environments.

By Tristan MacLean, ago

Seminar – 1 May – Advancing Arctic coastal erosion measurement and monitoring through UAV-SfM and object-based image analysis.

Andrew Clark will be presenting Advancing Arctic coastal erosion measurement and monitoring through UAV-SfM and object-based image analysis.

Date: 1 May 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).

Arctic coasts are vast and exhibit some of the highest rates of erosion in the World due to the presence of permafrost. Rates of erosion are expected to increase with warming air and water temperatures, reductions in Arctic sea ice extent and duration, sea level rise, and increased storm severity and frequency. This presentation will describe the use of emerging technologies (UAV-SfM and OBIA) to further our understanding of Arctic coastal processes, specifically, volumetric erosion, and broad scale delineation of multiple shoreline proxies for monitoring and quantification of erosion.

Andrew Clark
By Tristan MacLean, ago

Seminar – 17 April – Climate change induced increases in maintenance costs for Yukon highways, 1994–2022.

Astrid Schetselaar will be presenting Climate change induced increases in maintenance costs for Yukon highways, 1994–2022.

Date: 17 April 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00 Eastern Time
Location: Zoom (details are posted in our Teams site).

Transportation networks in Canada’s North are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Rising ground temperatures and permafrost thaw have been a cause of road damage as the bearing capacity of the ground is significantly reduced. Hydrological changes may further induce hazards, such as landslides, washouts, and icings (aufeis). Astrid’s presentation will outline a retrospective assessment of climate change-induced maintenance expenditures for highways in Yukon. Changes in costs are linked to climate, physiographic, conditions and underlying permafrost.

By Tristan MacLean, ago

Seminar video – SIKU: the Indigenous Knowledge Social Network as a tool for Indigenous-led research and meaningful research engagement with Indigenous communities.

The NSERC PermafrostNet seminar video on SIKU is now available.

Sophie Crump presented her seminar on SIKU: the Indigenous Knowledge Social Network as a tool for Indigenous-led research and meaningful research engagement with Indigenous communities. Sophie presented examples of how SIKU is being used to document permafrost in the environment and opened up the discussion on using the platform for both knowledge sharing and monitoring of permafrost.

By Tristan MacLean, ago

New seminar videos – Variation in the morphology of permafrost peatlands and Compacting snowbanks to lower ground temperatures.

Two new NSERC PermafrostNet seminar recordings are now available.

Alexandre Chiasson presented his seminar on Variation in the morphology of permafrost peatlands across the transition from continuous to discontinuous permafrost, central Mackenzie Valley.

Pat Jardine presented his seminar on Field experiments investigating snowpack compaction as a method of lowering ground temperatures.

By Tristan MacLean, ago