Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
GWI “Water Conversations” Series: Who Killed Frame Lake? A Precautionary Tale for Urban Planners
February 13, 2018 at 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
| Location: | 3235 Mackenzie |
| Cost: | Free |
| Audience: | Anyone |
| Key Contact: | Christiane Mineau |
| Contact Email: | christianemineau@cunet.carleton.ca |
| Contact Phone: | (613)520-2600 x2516 |
Speaker: Tim Patterson of Carleton University’s Earth Sciences Department.
Frame Lake in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
Abstract: Frame Lake, located within the city of Yellowknife, NWT, has been identified as requiring significant remediation due to its steadily declining water quality. This had resulted in significant loss of Aquatic Ecosystem Services by the early 1970s as by then the lake was no longer able to support fish, and associated changes to the lake ecosystem forced the closure of a once popular swimming beach. This was unfortunate as Frame Lake still serves as an important recreational and meeting area for both tourists and local citizens, with a walking trail extending around the periphery, and with Yellowknife City Hall, the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, and the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center located on its shore. Now shuttered gold mining operations within the city limits (arsenic contamination), and expanding urbanization (nutrification) around the lake were suspected as probable causes for the precipitous decline in water quality, but due to a surprising lack of written documentation, paleolimnological tools had to be deployed to reconstruct hydroecological lake history. In this presentation I will explain, using the example of Frame Lake, how my research group uses high-resolution paleolimnological proxy data to track lake degradation, which provides policy makers and planners with data required to make informed decisions on appropriate remediation and mitigation methods.
Click here for more information about Dr. Tim Patterson, his activities, and his laboratory.