Off the side of the road not far from the airport in Inuvik, N.W.T., among the shrubs and spruce trees, a series of rusted metal bars are buried deep in the ground.Jennifer Humphries, permafrost specialist at the Aurora Research Institute, says it’s the only site in the world south of the treeline looking at the long-term thermal expansion and contraction of the ground connected to annual changes in air temperature. She says the ground there has been expanding two centimetres every year.
The Western Arctic Research Centre in Inuvik houses the Aurora Research Institute’s headquarters and is home to the permafrost information hub. It supports several research projects, including permafrost monitoring along the Dempster and Inuvik-to-Tuktoyaktuk highways. Studying permafrost can be complex and challenging, Humphries says. As a layer is buried underground, she says research methods capture snapshots in time and space. While researchers can make generalizations on baseline conditions for a region, every permafrost landscape is unique, she adds.
“It tells us that the permafrost conditions in the Inuvik area are actually more susceptible to climate change than people had probably originally thought 20 years ago.” Originally opened in 1960, Humphries says the well designed building has vents that allow the basement and foundation to stay cold. During renovations several years ago, however, she says those vents were accidentally covered and the top was insulated, which caused permafrost degradation and settlement issues.