Physical Geography of Arctic Canada:

1
Physical Geography of Arctic Canada Climate
Change and Pollution
2
How do pollutants reach Arctic Canada?
Contamination Pathways
Arctic Ocean watershed
Mercury levels in the blood of indigenous women
of reproductive age
PCBs in the blood of Arctic peoples
3
Arctic food web The biomagnification of
pollutants
Murres migrate 1000s of miles, and bring
contaminants with them.
Inuit woman preparing Country Foods
4
Diamond mining in the Arctic Canada

• Diamonds form in extremely high pressure and
  temperature. These conditions are only possibe
  very deep in the Earths crust or upper mantle
• Volcanic rock kimberlite pass through the
  cratonic rock in magma during volcanic eruptions.
  These veins act as carriers of diamonds and other
  rock fragments.

5
Diamond mines in the Northwest Territories

• Two operaiting mines Ekati and Diavik
• Two other diamond projects Jericho and Snap Lake
• Impacts caused by mining
• blasting, dangerous excavations and shafts,
  movements of heavy equipments, dust and gases in
  underground workings
• Key to mitigating environmental risks is setting
  and monitoring appropriate standards. Focus on
  six areas
• land and water use
• waste management
• chemicals and pollutants
• tailings disposal
• human health risks and
• potential environmental risks and the plans to
  mitigate these risks

6
Methane Production and Effects

• Methane is a greenhouse gas produced by many
  different processes including the breakdown of
  organic material in anoxic environments,
  livestock, and organic activity from flooded rice
  fields (to name a few)
• It is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2
• The warming of the arctic is introducing more
  methane into the atmosphere
• Arctic warming is reducing the extent of
  permafrost in the arctic and changing continuous
  to discontinuous
• Melting permafrost and an increasing depth of
  the active layer produces waterlogged soils and
  exposes the built up organic material to
  anaerobic processes which release methane

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Feedback Loop

• Methane in the atmosphere traps solar radiation
  in the atmosphere
• By reflecting the wavelengths emitted by the
  earth back down to the surface it adds additional
  energy to the surface, increasing the temperature
• This increase in temperature drives the melting
  of permafrost, and other changes in the biotic
  and abiotic arctic environment
• The warming temperatures and melting permafrost
  provide an anoxic environment for methane
  production
• Methane is then released and moves up into the
  atmosphere compounding the problem further by
  trapping more solar radiation at the surface and
  increasing warming

8
Arctic Oscillation

• Positive Phase
• Prevailing low pressure over North Pole
• Strong Westerlies
• Warmer Winters for Northern Hemisphere

• Negative Phase
• Higher than normal pressure over North
  Pole
• Weak Westerlies
• Colder winters for Northern Hemisphere

9
Responsible for global warming?

• General increase in both trends from 1960-1992
• During 1990s, Arctic Oscillation index levels
  off while global temperature continues to rise
• Arctic Oscillation and broader global warming
  trend not strongly correlated

10
Sea Ice Depletion
Mean deviation from average area.
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Importance

• Climate control
• Albedo
• Ocean circulation
• First indicator for global warming

12
Repercussions of Sea Ice Depletion on Global
Climate
Hypothesis Thermohaline circulation will shut
down temporarily or permanently depending on the
continued rate of warming.
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Thermohaline Circulation

• Great Ocean Conveyor Belt
• Is caused by temperature and density differences.
• Freshwater is evaporated or frozen into pack-ice,
  increasing the salinity of the remaining ocean
  water.
• Increasing Arctic temperatures decrease North
  Atlantic water density by adding more freshwater
  through melting pack ice and glaciers. Also,
  less freshwater is removed in first place by
  pack-ice formation.

14
What Could Happen?

• Image shows projected cooling caused by shut down
  of the thermohaline circulation in the North
  Atlantic. Maximum cooling of -6C, -8C is
  centered around Greenland, eastern Canadian
  Arctic region, and Scandinavia.

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Conclusion

• Pollution and climate change have the potential
  of severely changing the Arctic environment.
• It is important to understand the environmental
  systems of the Arctic in order to predict future
  changes.
• Please recycle and dont drive.