Askiy Ochi Acimowin - Story of the Land

A major collaborative paleolimnological study (the reconstruction of past environments in lakes) has begun!

The Lubicon Lake Band, Solstice Environmental Management, AGAT Laboratories, and Carleton University are pleased to announce a collaborative research project that will pair scientific reconstructions of past climate and environmental change with First Nations oral histories and traditional knowledge. The goal is to better understand and manage the effects of climate change on Indigenous traditional food, water, medicines, and cultural practices, as well as to reconstruct baseline environmental conditions which provide context for ongoing environmental monitoring programs.

To carry out the field component of the research, the team pushed freeze coring devices filled with dry ice deep into lake bottom mud that had taken thousands of years to accumulate.  With these specialized corers lake mud freezes to the flat metal surface providing an undisturbed sedimentary record. This method is particularly useful for capturing a perfect record of soupy lake bottom sediments, which are extremely difficult to sample without disturbance using conventional corers.

This project was undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada through the federal Department of Environment and Climate Change.

Ce projet a été réalisé avec l'appui financier du gouvernement du Canada par l’intermédiaire du ministère fédéral de l’Environnement et du Changement climatique.

Special thanks goes out to AGAT Laboratories for generously donating Dr. Lisa Neville’s field time to this important collaborative project!