{"id":68547,"date":"2020-08-27T14:48:34","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T18:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=68547"},"modified":"2025-09-30T14:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T18:11:21","slug":"derek-mueller-climate-change-arctic","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/derek-mueller-climate-change-arctic\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton’s Derek Mueller Studies Consequences of Climate Change in Canada’s Arctic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton's Derek Mueller Studies Consequences of Climate Change in Canada's Arctic\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

The Milne Ice Shelf<\/a> on the northwest coast of Nunavut\u2019s Ellesmere Island has broken up, reducing in size by almost half and setting large ice islands adrift in the Arctic Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ice shelves are thick, floating sheets of ice attached to the coast. The Milne Ice Shelf was the last remaining intact ice shelf in Canada\u2019s North.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial break was discovered by Adrienne White, an ice analyst at the Canadian Ice Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada<\/a>, who has worked on the Milne Ice Shelf in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prof.
Prof. Derek Mueller<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Carleton Geography Prof. Derek Mueller<\/a> has visited the ice shelf 12 times since 2001 and was scheduled to visit again this summer before the trip was cancelled due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mueller is the co-director of the Water and Ice Research Laboratory<\/a> (WIRL) alongside his colleague, Murray Richardson<\/a>. The research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada<\/a>, the Polar Continental Shelf Program<\/a> and ArcticNet<\/a> and explores how climate change is impacting the melting of ice shelves. As they drill down into that question, they have discovered interesting features and processes that are occurring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost people think of ice shelves as being completely sterile, but in fact, their presence creates several habitats for organisms,\u201d explains Mueller.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Derek<\/figure>\n\n\n

A closer look at ice shelves<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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An environmentalist at heart, Mueller grew up in Ottawa and began his academic career at the intersection of biology and geography. His interest in glaciology was piqued after writing his master\u2019s thesis on the microbes living in melt holes on the surface of glaciers. His PhD then looked at life on the surface of ice shelves and he discovered the breakup of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on the north coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mueller began studying the Milne Ice Shelf because, at the time, it was one of the most intact shelves in the Canadian Arctic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008, the Canadian Rangers did an extended sovereignty patrol along the northern coast of Ellesmere Island. Seeing an opportunity, Mueller wrote to the Rangers asking if they would consider bringing scientists along with them in recognition of the International Polar Year, and they agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe were the first \u2018embedded scientists\u2019 in one of these patrols and it was a tremendous boon to our research,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Mueller and his colleagues were able to travel to the location by skidoo and see the land from the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Why the Milne Ice Shelf?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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What\u2019s interesting about the Milne Ice Shelf in particular is a channel of flowing water that has carved its way into the underside of the ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using a hole meter\u2014a tool used to melt a small hole in the ice\u2014the research team was able to place a robotic submarine into the channel and explore the hidden world<\/a> underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe discovered a totally hidden community of bottom dwelling organisms\u2014like scallops, sea anemone, and there’s even a fish down there\u2014in the complete darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

These creatures live off the sediment that\u2019s scattered on horizontal sections of ice. Mueller\u2019s team was able to observe the temperature and salinity of the water, and how fast the water was flowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know how they got there or how long they\u2019ve been there,\u201d says Mueller. \u201cBut we do know that this particular location is drifting away in the Arctic Ocean right now so it\u2019s no longer accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Derek<\/figure>\n\n\n

Milne Ice Shelf breaks away<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The research team doesn\u2019t know if this habitat is unique to this particular location, or if similar ecosystems exist elsewhere in Canada\u2019s North. When a large portion of the ice shelf collapsed, Mueller and his team not only lost scientific equipment, but the potential focus of their study. Despite the setback, research continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re there to study the transition between the way the Arctic was and what the Arctic will turn into,\u201d he says. \u201cOur job is to document this transition, and we\u2019re still doing our jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe key is not just to sail through and say, \u2018well it’s gone, so we’re out of here.\u2019 It’s about asking what this is going to mean, what are the processes at play and how can we document and understand them better,\u201d he says. \u201cWe’re on a continuum.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Their research team hopes to conduct more studies on the remaining portion of the Milne Ice Shelf while they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not gone completely,\u201d Mueller says. \u201cBut it will certainly break away at some point in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The environmental impact<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Despite the unpredictable nature of studying ice shelves, Mueller knows that this is crucial work to understanding how climate change is impacting Canada\u2019s North and the environment in general.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s like a freight train,\u201d he says. \u201cEven if we all stopped emitting carbon as a society tomorrow, the climate would still continue to warm, because there’s that inertia.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Scientists have been documenting the damage to infrastructure caused by climate change for years. Thawing permafrost has caused buildings and roads to collapse. Floating ice islands that break away from ice shelves could one day collide with ships or oil rigs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Mueller believes many Canadians do care about what is happening in the Arctic, climate change in the North can feel like a distant and far-off concern for the majority of Canadians that live within 100 km of the southern border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut what happens in the Arctic doesn’t necessarily stay in the Arctic,\u201d says Mueller. \u201cIf we make changes now, then we can stop further change. We can mitigate the situation and ameliorate our future. Time is of the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mueller says he feels very privileged to visit Canada\u2019s North with his students, learn about what is happening and hopes that their research findings will inspire the political will needed to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThis region is shaping our climate and we need to take care of it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cAs a northern nation, I hope that we care. There’s an ethical element to this too… Do we have the right to change our climate so that it causes unintended environmental damage, now that we know what we’re doing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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—
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The Milne Ice Shelf on the northwest coast of Nunavut\u2019s Ellesmere Island has broken up, reducing in size by almost half and setting large ice islands adrift in the Arctic Ocean. Ice shelves are thick, floating sheets of ice attached to the coast. The Milne Ice Shelf was the last remaining intact ice shelf in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":68553,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13,31],"cu_story_tag":[1920,1925],"class_list":["post-68547","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_type-sustainability","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-arts-and-social-sciences","cu_story_tag-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/68547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/68547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98157,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/68547\/revisions\/98157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=68547"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=68547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}