The Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) system study

The Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) system study is a Canadian-led International Polar Year (IPY) initiative with over 350 participants from 27 countries. The study is multidisciplinary in nature, integrating the physical sciences, biological sciences, and Inuvialuit traditional knowledge. The research of CFL expands upon previous multidisciplinary projects such as the North Water Polynya Study (NOW), the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA), the Collaborative Interdisciplinary Cryospheric Experiment (C-ICE), and the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES) project. The study is designed to examine the importance of climate processes in the changing nature of a flaw lead system in the northern Hemisphere, and the effect these changes will have on the marine ecosystem, contaminant transport, carbon flux and greenhouse gases. The circumpolar flaw lead is a perennial characteristic of the Arctic Ocean, which forms when the central pack ice (which is mobile) moves away from coastal fast ice, opening a flaw lead which occurs throughout the winter season. The flaw lead is circumpolar in nature, with recurrent and interconnected polynyas occurring in the Norwegian, Icelandic, North American and Siberian sectors of the circumpolar arctic. Due to a reduced ice cover, these regions are exceedingly sensitive to physical forcing from both the atmosphere and ocean and provide a unique laboratory from which we can gain insights into the changing polar marine ecosystem. The CFL study was 293 days in duration and involved the overwintering of the CCGS Amundsen icebreaker in the Cape Bathurst flaw lead throughout the winter of 2007-2008, representing the first time a research icebreaker has remained mobile in a flaw lead throughout the winter. Aside from ship-based research, background research has been ongoing for a traditional knowledge study that researched many of the topics studied by scientists on board the Amundsen. This was done via interviews with local community members in the coastal communities within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and was in collaboration with Inuit Circumpolar Council and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.