CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Douglas, M.; Michelutti, N.; and Smol, J.P.
Date : 2001.
Title : The Meretta Lake (Nunavut) story: sewage addition has potential for paleoclimate and archaeological applications.
Publication : Canadian Quaternary Association/ Association canadienne pour l'etude du Quaternaire, Annual Meeting 2001. Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, August 20 – 24, 2001.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
Meretta Lake, Cornwallis Island, Nunavut (72°41.75’N, 94°59.58’W) was one of the High Arctic sites studied during the International Biological Programme (1968-72). For close to 30 years (beginning in 1949) it received sewage effluent from a nearby transportation base. Initially, loadings of nutrients to the lake were high. Because sewage effluent is high in algal nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, Meretta Lake was heavily impacted with algal blooms and became highly eutrophied, especially by high latitude standards. We conducted a paleolimnological analysis of the sediments (early 1800s to 1993) and traced the nutrient impact on the lake using diatoms, a group of siliceous microfossils and 210Pb dating. The diatoms recorded the initial impact of nutrient additions and our limnological analyses (1992-1999) showed that the amounts of nutrients were declining steadily. The application of these findings are applied to a site (72°08.66N, 94°01.50W) on Somerset Island. "Savelle Lake" is of archaeological interest because it was the site of a large encampment of Thule people (ca. 80 "houses"). These marine hunters accumulated many whale carcasses on the lake. Many nutrients from these carcasses would have entered the lake. We are using diatoms to track the impact and duration of their occupation of the site.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology