A PALEOLIMNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF COMBUSTION PARTICLES FROM LAKES AND PONDS IN THE EASTERN ARCTIC, NUNAVUT, CANADA An Exploratory Classification, Inventory and Interpretation at Selected Sites NANCY COLLEEN DOUBLEDAY A thesis submitted to the Department of Biology in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada December 1999 Copyright@ Nancy C. Doubleday, 1999 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibf iographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your lYe Vorre réfhœ Our file Notre refdretua The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pemettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, Ioan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othemise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son pemission. autorisation. ABSTRACT Recently international attention has been directed to investigation of anthropogenic contaminants in various biotic and abiotic components of arctic ecosystems. Combustion of coai, biomass (charcoal), petroleum and waste play an important role in industrial emissions, and are associated with most hurnan activities. A fiinctional and artificial classification of combustion particles in the arctic environrnent has been developed and applied in an exploratory paleolimnological investigation of naturd and anthropogenic combustion particulates in lake and pond sediments. Combustion particle features are descrïbed and artificial and diagnostic keys are presented. Particle photographs are included as an aid to description and identification. The study sites selected included lakes or ponds at Alert and Cape Herschel, EIlesmere Island, and from the west and east coasts of Hudson Bay, Nunavut, C'mada, This broad transect begins approsimately 825 km fiom the North Pole and nins almost 3000 km from Alert to the Belcher Islands. The combustion particle spectra represented in sediments varied widely: with spheroidal carbonaceous and non-carbonaceous particles contributing >90% at the most northerly sites at Alert, and with wood charcoal comprising - 60% of the combustion particles found at Hawk Lake, Keewatin, and 20 to 45% in the Belcher Island sediments. Recent sedirnent records showed a decline in the percentage relative abundance of combustion particles of ai1 types at the top of the core at Alert. A similar change was noted at Hawk Lake, where the particle maximum dated to the 1970s. At the Belcher IsIands however, the particle maxima occurred at the surface in two of the three sites. The detection of a range of combustion related particles at the sites studied suggests -.. 111 that these particles may have wider application both as proxies for, and as vectors of, contaminant transport and deposition. While Merwork is required on a wider spatial scale in order to draw conclusions about causal relationsliips, we can now Say that combustion particles do appear in the sediment records in the Eastern Arctic. More importantly, these particles display spatial and temporal variability that cmbe correlated cvith otl-ier environmental trends. CO-AUTHORSHIP In Chapter 4, the data and analysis presented for the Lower Dumbell Lake core are from an earlier paper with Marianne Douglas and John Sm01 (Doubleday et al., l996).I am the author of this mmuscnpt. The contributions of others to this research are described in the Acknowledgements that folIow. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1would like to thank Dr. Jolm P. Sm01 for the opportunity to return to the field of paleolimnology and to experience graduate research at the leading edge in a dynamic lab group. Your enthusiasm for arctic research is an inspiration. I would like to thank Dr. Adele A. Crowder for giving me the opportunity to pursue doctoral studies and for sharing your knowledge in the field and in the Herbarium. Thank you both for your support through good times and bad. and for your guidance for a much longer time thm any of us anticipated. 1 would like to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Geny Morris and Dr. Bob Gilbert, for your support and encouragement. Thank you al1 for your endurance, good advice and cheerfùl responses to requests for yet another Cornmittee Meeting. You have al1 tauzht me by your esmiples. as well as with your words. It has been a prïvilege to be associated with you. This project would not have been possible without the support of a number of people who helped at critical times. 1 thank M. S. V. Douglas and J. P. Srno1 for providing the unpublished 2'0 Pb data used in Chapter 6. The interpretation of this data was facilitated by S. Dixit, A. Dixit, Brian Curnming and Andrew Paterson. Also in Chapter 6, the pollen and loss-on-ignition data were analysed by K. A. Moser and the diatom data were analysed by M. S. V. Douglas and J. P. Smol. I am grateful in particular to Dr. L. A. Barrie, of the Atmospheric Environment Service, Environment Canada who provided support at the outset, to Drs. J. P. Johnson, Jr., and J. K. Torrance of the Geography Department of Carleton University who vi permitted me to borrow lab space to be nearer my family; and to Drs. Bourgeois, Koerner and Fisher, of the Glaciology Group, Geological Survey of Canada, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada, who kindly allowed me to use their facilities for a prolonged period at an important stage and who also assisted by providing sarnples. Thank you al1 for the Sour generosity, wonderful stories and strong coffee. Support for the fieldwork conducted by Smol, Douglas and Doubleday at Alert kvas provided by Polar Continental Shelf. the Department of National Defence, and the Nortliern Scientific Training Grants Program. 1 wouId also like to thank the Base Commander and staff of CFB Alert for their generous support. My research was supported financially by a Tri-Council Eco-Research Doctoral Fellowship, the Lorraine Allison SchoIarship awarded by the Arctic Institute of North America. and a Queen's Graduate Award. Following nly academic appointment to the Department of Geoçraphy & Environmental Studies at Carleton University, 1 received support for development of a research facility, which permitted me to complete this work. The sarnples from Pond 5, Raised Beach Pond and Dry Pond in the Belchers that I used for this study were collected by Marianne Douglas and John Smol. Samples and 2'0 Pb data from Horseshoe Pond, Cape Herschel, were provided by W. Blake, (formerly of the Geological Survey of Canada), J. P. Sm01 and M. S. V. Douglas (1994). For Hawk Lake, 1 used published "O Pb and PAH data of L. Lockhart (Muir et al., 1996). Hawk Lake samples were provided by Lyle Lockhart, Fresh Water Institute, Winnipeg. I thank John Glew, Barb Zeeb and Kate Duff for collecting some combustion samples in the field. Fly ash samples were also obtained thanks to Ontario Hydro and to Dr. Malhotra vii and his lab group at CANMET. I thank Drs. R. Koerner, D. Fisher and J. Bourgeois for collecting ice and snow samples as well as sharing your knowledge. A number of people helped with scanning electron microscopy and 1would like to thank Marianne Douglas, Ray Haythornthwaite, and Peter Jones. 1 would like to th& Marianne Douglas and John Sm01 for expert field advice, and for your support at Alert. (Without you 1am sure I would still be stuck in one of those ponds!) Support with sample freeze-drying was kindly provided by Dr. Roger McNeeIy, of the Geological Survey of Canada, and by Paul Hamilton of the Canadian Museum of Nature. 1would like to thank Drs, Bill Schroeder and Julia Liu, and Alexandra Stephenson of the Atmospheric Environment Service, for their generous assistance in obtaining snow samples from Alert. I am also indebted to those who sliared their knowledge and expertise with me. In particular 1 would like to thank Dr. Dennis Gregor, who gave me the opportunity to leam about glaciology and environmental chemistry in the field, and to his associates Dr. Andrew Peters, Neil Jones, and the Agassiz crew. In this regard, 1 would also like to thank Dr Fred Hopper for the use of air sampling equipment, and for an expert introduction to atmospheric black carbon studies. I would also like to thank Dr. Ken Reimer and Dr. John Poland for their interest and encouragement at the outset. 1 would like to acknowledge the contributions made to my understanding of coal by the late P.A. Hill. The elegant line drawings of combustion particles illustrating the diagnostic key a*. Vlll in Chapter 3 were prepared by J. R. Glew, of PEARL, with the support of J. P. Srnol. Thank you both. A special tl~anksto Marianne Douglas, Barb Zeeb, Tamsin Laing, Brian Cumming and Kate Liard, Ewan Reavie, Katherine Ruhland, and Sushi1 and Amna Dixit for your friendship and good advice, and for "showing me the ropes". A big "thank you" to al1 of the members of P.E.A.R.L.who have been so kind and who have always cheerfully made room for one more. The maps showing site locations in this thesis were prepared by W. W. Munroe, with, in the case of the site rnap for Chapter 4 (Alert), the benefit of a base map prepared by C.