A change in the wind: Climate Change in Québec

What about the Far North ?

Water resources

Research in northern Quebec (above latitude 50°N) has shown that water levels there have been high over the past century. Between 1930 and 1980, winter snowfalls and summer rains were heavy. Drier conditions in the years since have resulted in increased evaporation and lower water levels.

Robert Bourassa dam, Rivière La Grande

(Hydro-Québec)

The low flow coefficient in some hydroelectric reservoirs is cause for concern. Scientists believe that this situation could be the result of a regional anomaly in the trend toward increasing precipitation. The anomaly may be generated by air masses shifting southward in the fall and winter, leaving the more northerly areas open to the influence of cold, dry air.

Permafrost

Permafrost (permanently frozen ground) is a feature that is sensitive to any change in temperature. Recent data obtained on frozen soil profiles indicate that winter temperatures moderated over the 1990s, particularly since 1993.

A change in climatic parameters has a direct impact on permafrost, causing a change in the thickness of the active surface layer and an increase in the temperatures within this layer. Indirect effects are also seen in soil instability and subsidence, which have an impact in terms of the growth rate and density of vegetation, snow accumulation, surface drainage, and erosion in coastal areas.

Northern landscape

(Yves Michaud, Quebec Geoscience Centre)

Permafrost area

(Yves Michaud, Quebec Geoscience Centre)

Northern infrastructure

(Centre d'études nordiques, Laval University)

The most significant infrastructures in northern Quebec are the landing strips and small road networks in coastal villages. Some of these infrastructures would be particularly threatened by climate-warming because they have been built on thaw-sensitive terrain.

The northern forest

Black spruce in a northern setting

(Christian Bégin, Quebec Geoscience Centre)

The northern forest is the bioclimatic domain of the black spruce, characterized by mosses and lichens (boreal forest), and the forest-tundra zone. North of the 57th parallel, the plantscape of the arctic tundra (Arctic Region) prevails.

Climate-warming would undoubtedly enhance the reproductive capacity of species now at threshold levels, and communities would move northward. Tree growth would also be improved both in terms of size and shape.

Did you know?
Northern regions are likely to be most affected by the warmer climate that is projected for the coming decades.

2006-10-06

http://www.adaptation.nrcan.gc.ca/posters/qc/qc_08_e.php