scholarly journals Pingo investigations, north-central Banks Island, Canadian Arctic

1976 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 937-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Pissart ◽  
H. M. French
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Central Banks ◽  
North Central ◽  
The North ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Small Tributary

A number of pingo-like mounds, located in the north-central part of Banks Island, are described. The features are situated on low terraces within the valleys of the Thomsen River and its small tributary, Able Creek. Many are elongate in plan and partially collapsed in form. Sections excavated across four of the mounds reveal cores of massive ice. It is hypothesized that these ice bodies are the result of both segregation and injection processes, induced by the freezing of localized sub-channel taliks.

New evidence from the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago for the resubmergence of Bering Strait

2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. England ◽  
Mark F.A. Furze
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Laptev Sea ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Bering Strait ◽  
The North ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Laptev Sea

AbstractWidespread molluscan samples were collected from raised marine sediments to date the last retreat of the NW Laurentide Ice Sheet from the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago. At the head of Mercy Bay, northern Banks Island, deglacial mud at the modern coast contains Hiatella arctica and Portlandia arctica bivalves, as well as Cyrtodaria kurriana, previously unreported for this area. Multiple H. arctica and C. kurriana valves from this site yield a mean age of 11.5 14C ka BP (with 740 yr marine reservoir correction). The occurrence of C. kurriana, a low Arctic taxon, raises questions concerning its origin, because evidence is currently lacking for a molluscan refugium in the Arctic Ocean during the last glacial maximum. Elsewhere, the oldest late glacial age available on C. kurriana comes from the Laptev Sea where it is < 10.3 14C ka BP and attributed to a North Atlantic source. This is 2000 cal yr younger than the Mercy Bay samples reported here, making the Laptev Sea, ~ 3000 km to the west, an unlikely source. An alternate route from the North Atlantic into the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was precluded by coalescent Laurentide, Innuitian and Greenland ice east of Banks Island until ~ 10 14C ka BP. We conclude that the presence of C. kurriana on northern Banks Island records migration from the North Pacific. This requires the resubmergence of Bering Strait by 11.5 14C ka BP, extending previous age determinations on the reconnection of the Pacific and Arctic oceans by up to 1000 yr. This renewed ingress of Pacific water likely played an important role in re-establishing Arctic Ocean surface currents, including the evacuation of thick multi-year sea ice into the North Atlantic prior to the Younger Dryas geochron.

The diary of Assistant Surgeon Henry Piers, HMS Investigator, 1850–54

1990 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-38
Author(s):  
Ann M. Savours
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
North West ◽  
Senior Surgeon ◽  
The North ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Maritime Museum

SummaryFrom the 16th to the mid 19th century, many voyages were made from England to discover a North West Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. The Investigator was one of some 40 vessels that searched for the lost North West Passage expedition of 1845–48 under the command of Sir John Franklin in HM Ships Erebus and Terror, which became beset among what are now known as the Canadian Arctic Islands. The “Investigators” found no trace of Franklin, but were the first to traverse the North West Passage, although their ship had to be abandoned in Mercy Bay on Banks Island after two winters there. The diary of Assistant Surgeon Henry Piers, from the manuscript collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, is here examined. Reference is also made to the narrative and report published by the senior surgeon of the Investigator, Dr Alexander Armstrong.

scholarly journals A test of the herbivore optimization hypothesis using muskoxen and a graminoid meadow plant community

Rangifer ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Standing Crop ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Central Banks ◽  
North Central ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Shoot Tissue ◽  
Tissue Removal ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
Herbivore Optimization

A prediction from the herbivore optimization hypothesis is that grazing by herbivores at moderate intensities will increase net above-ground primary productivity more than at lower or higher intensities. I tested this hypothesis in an area of high muskox {Ovibos moschatus) density on north-central Banks Island, Northwest Territories, Canada (73&deg;50'N, 119&deg;53'W). Plots (1 m2) in graminoid meadows dominated by cottongrass (Eriophorum triste) were either clipped, exposed to muskoxen, protected for part of one growing season, or permanently protected. This resulted in the removal of 22-44%, 10-39%, 0-39% or 0%, respectively, of shoot tissue during each growing season. Contrary to the predictions of the herbivore optimization hypothesis, productivity did not increase across this range of tissue removal. Productivity of plants clipped at 1.5 cm above ground once or twice per growing season, declined by 60+/-5% in 64% of the tests. The productivity of plants grazed by muskoxen declined by 56+/-7% in 25% of the tests. No significant change in productivity was observed in 36% and 75% of the tests in clipped and grazed treatments, respecrively. Clipping and grazing reduced below-ground standing crop except where removals were small. Grazing and clipping did not stimulate productivity of north-central Banks Island graminoid meadows.

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