Researchers dive for kelp in the Arctic

Divers are wrapping up an expedition in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, after weeks of studying seaweed biodiversity.

It's an area that's been rarely studied.

Over the past few weeks, researchers have been working to track and understand what effect climate change is having on seaweed along the coastal waters of Canada's Western Arctic. They also hoped to map and study the ecology of Arctic kelp forests in the area.

Dr. Amanda Savoie, who is leading the project, spoke with CBC a couple weeks into the trip.

"There's kind of an idea that there's not really any kelp forests around here and there's not as much seaweed. And so we're kind of looking to see if that's true," Savoie said.

Savoie is a research scientist with the museum of Nature in Ottawa and the director for The Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration.

Ocean temperatures play a big role in where seaweed grows around the world, Savoie said. As waters warm, the distribution of different seaweed species changes. The Arctic and Antarctic are expected to be the most negatively affected by this, as once those waters warm there will be nowhere colder for seaweed to go.

"We know that the species composition will change and Arctic kelps will have nowhere else to go when the water gets too warm. But other kelps will move up from the South," Savoie explained.

"We're really trying to just figure out what's going on right now so that if things change in the future, we'll have a baseline to look back to for this area."

Joining her as part of the research program is a team of scientists affiliated with the ArcticNet-funded project ArcticKelp along with Laval University and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. So far, the ArcticKelp project has studied and mapped kelp forests in the Eastern Arctic and this partnership will extend the knowledge to the Western Arctic. 

Savoie visited Cambridge Bay this spring to meet with community members and the local Hunters and Trappers Organization, where she learned that some in the community are interested in seaweeds as a food source. She said local knowledge has been crucial to finding diving sites.

"We have a local guide who's been taking us out scuba diving on his boat and without him this study wouldn't be happening. He's so important to our work," she said.

"I think people are interested to know what we find in the marine environment in general around Cambridge Bay — if there is potential for harvesting kelp in this area."

Because tides are smaller there, researchers need to scuba dive to access the seaweed.