Grants and Contributions

Ce projet vise à développer et à mettre en œuvre une série de recherches interactives sur la cartographie du thermokarst afin d'améliorer l'expérience d'apprentissage dans le domaine de la recherche sur le pergélisol. En créant une relation de travail avec de multiples organisations et partenaires autochtones, les chercheurs auront accès aux conditions du terrain et à la distribution des thermokarsts dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest, ce qui favorisera une meilleure compréhension de concepts complexes et encouragera un engagement actif pour former des étudiants cartographes afin d'améliorer les connaissances sur le pergélisol dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest et à l'étranger.

This proposed research is a workshop in Nunatsiavut that would be a continuation of the Arctic Corridors Northern Voices project but would also serve as an opportunity to share methods and skills with the Nunatsiavut Government (NG), so they may conduct their own mapping workshops. This project is relevant to Northerners as this new spatial information and increased understanding will play an important role in ensuring participants' use of the marine environment is respected with the Low Impact Shipping Corridor Initiative and that traditional knowledge is fully infused into federal policy and planning. In this way it is hoped that the impact of future arctic shipping on traditional coastal use and access and ecologically sensitive zones will be minimized.

This project aims to study the health and resilience of the northern ecosystems and communities by collecting lakes samples in Northwest Territories to better understand their hydrology, geology, geomorphology and limnology. By using Indigenous knowledge and research, collaborators will have access to samples collected to analyze data, fostering a deeper understanding of complex concepts and promoting active engagement in STEM education for future work in research.

Leveraging onjoing moose and wolf research through the collaborative Porcupine Caribou Knowledge Hub, the project combines western-scientific and Gwich'in Knowledge to: estimate moose abundance, demographics, and predation; and, collect Gwich'in Knowledge and community perspectives on contemporary and historic trends in moose populations, harvest, and drivers of change. We will support on-the-land knowledge sharing through community moose hunts and gatherings to facilitate knowledge exchange, and analysis and dissemination of VGFN elders' knowledge recording within the local government's Traditional Knowledge database. Knowledge will inform planning for enhanced community resilience and food security, and will provide necessary and current information about moose ecology in a changing climate within Vuntut Gwitchin Traditional Territory while informing partners of changes occurring within the Porcupine Caribou summer range.

NYCS will be an Indigenous-led think tank or “circle of experts” located in Northern Yukon where the most pressing impacts of climate change in
North Yukon are discussed; solutions are studied and developed; and knowledge is consolidated and governed by the Nations. NYCS aims to build true full-life sustainability, climate resilience, and self-determination for First Nations in Northern Yukon by creating a space where climate solutions rooted in Indigenous science and ways of being are developed.

This collaborative initiative will provide and facilitate strategic direction, leadership, and funding to help address knowledge gaps surrounding what is driving the changes in barren-ground caribou abundance and what the future holds. The team sets out to publish a collaborative special report comparing the barren-ground caribou herds to support decision-making in the NWT and beyond. This will be achieved through funding research and monitoring projects that are traditional knowledge-based, science-based and/or projects that combine approaches, including community-led monitoring projects, focusing on barren-ground caribou herds that are entirely or partially within the NWT.

We propose new research on forest management near Teslin, Yukon to design and test timber harvest and revegetation treatments to direct trajectories of forest recovery from disturbance towards desirable ecological outcomes that support community resilience and well-being. Teslin is at an ideal stage to serve as a model system for community adaptation to climate change and fire risk in northern boreal forests, and the learning that results from this project will be of great value to other northern communities facing similar challenges

Expanding on recent water quality monitoring work by the First Nation of Nacho-Nyak Dun (FNNND) in collaboration with researchers at Carleton University, the project aimst to further develop FNNND’s capacity for continuous (automated) monitoring of key water quality parameters to ensure extreme conditions are observed, such as large pulses of sediment in streamwater following rain events over disturbed watersheds and during breaches of settling ponds from placer mine sites. The focus of continuous water quality monitoring will be on total suspended solids and water temperature, which are critical indicators of Chinook Salmon and Arctic Grayling habitat. Additional objectives include analysis and mapping of the cumulative impacts of landscape disturbances on water quality across the southern traditional territory of the FNNND as confirmed within our modern-day treaty agreement.

This project aims to build climate change decision-making capacity within the Kluane First Nation (KFN) community with a researcher-led and community supported participatory approach. In the short term, the project will engage KFN citizens to express how their livelihoods and relationships with the land are currently impacted by climate change, and to foster partnerships and co-learning opportunities between KFN and climate change researchers to empower KFN citizens in environmental stewardship. Longer term, the project will generate accessible, high resolution climate change scenarios for the Kluane region.

This project will teach youth (16-30) who live in a selected Arctic community what podcasting is about, how to create podcasts on location, build and supply content that will be edited for inclusion into three Can Geo EXPLORE podcast series, to be launched on the Can Geo podcast distribution network in February 2024. By sharing stories from the north from a northern perspective, greater awareness and knowledge is built and distributed through the expansive Canadian Geographic digital platform.