1999

Images-Canada
(C. Hillaire-Marcel)

In Canada, research activities pertaining to Images fall under the umbrella of a national network reasearch program on Climate System, History and Dynamics (CSHD), led by Pr. Peltier (University of Toronto). This network is financially supported by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and by Environment-Canada until year 2003. Images-Canada also receives some support from the Geological Survey of Canada, and on an ad hoc basis, direct funding from NSERC, notably for ship-time. The financial participation of Canada (300,000 CAD) to the 1999 summer cruise of the Marion Dufresne has been raised from these sources. The CSHD network has already secured an equivalent amount of money for the North Pacific cruise in year 2001.

About twelve researchers and associates are involved in Images activities in Canada. They are based at the University of British Columbia, Universitè du Quèbec a Montrèal (UQAM), University of New Brunswick, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and at the Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic branch).

A highlight in Canadian activities of 1999 has been the participation to the summer cruise, in the North Atlantic, notably to legs 1 and 2. A substantial part of the intial coring objectives has been achieved during these legs (cf. cruise report). Long Holocene records for high resolution paleoclimate studies have been notably recovered in the Saguenay Fjord, the estuary of the St. Lawrence, at Bay of Island (Western Newfoundland), and in Lake Melville (Labrador Coast). The success has been somewhat mitigated for deep sea records, notably due to coring difficulties in the deep Labrador Sea, where sediments contain too abundant ice-rafted boulders to allow easy coring.

Major scientific outcomes were presented in a special session of the annual meeting of the Geophysical Union of Canada, at Banff (Alberta), and at the December AGU meeting, in San Francisco, within the Union-session on Rapid Climate Change and the Oceans. Another momentum has been the invitation by CSHD-Images Canada of the PMIP-community, at the St-Michel-des-Saints field station of UQAM, in October. A report on this last meeting should appear soon in Eos.

With respect to research priorities, and planning Images-Canada has set a few objectives:

i) the setting of high resolution paleoceanographic records of the last interglacial (from IS 6 to ISS 5d), with special attention to surface/intermediate/deep water conditons in the NW Atlantic
ii) a better documentation of thermolhaline condition changes during two Heinrich events (H1 and H4)
iii) the setting of high resolution Holocene records for fjords and coastal areas, with special attention to hydrological changes, and geological hazards
iv) the planning of the Canadian participation to the North Pacific cruise under Pr. T. Pederson's coordination (University of British Columbia).

A planning meeting of the Canadian PIs of CSHD-Images is planned (February 2000). It will allow to finalize the planning of research activities for the forthcoming three years.

C. Hillaire-Marcel
Canadian representative
Scientific Committee of Images