Image of Great Slave Lake taken by Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite in June 2020 showing coring locations, remnants of ice cover, and suspended sediment discharged into the West Basin from the Slaver River. Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2A imagery
The research team used information preserved in dated lake sediment cores as an archive of past ecosystems changes. They showed that a rapid restructuring of algal communities has occurred, clearly linked to declining lake ice cover and other climate-related changes, which were unparalleled over at least the last 200 years.
These changes at the base of the food chain have unknown ramifications for fisheries and aquatic ecosystem functioning and hence their impacts on First Nations, Métis, and other northern communities. Great Slave Lake also supports the largest commercial, recreational, and Indigenous freshwater fishery in the Northwest Territories, with approximately 60% of the territory's population living near the shorelines of the lake.