Diatom population from Pocket Lake, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

In order to properly assess the anthropogenic impact of mine development on environmental contaminants (e.g. Arsenic) and set realistic remediation goals, it is necessary to establish a baseline of natural geochemical variability within a region. This is complicated due to complex regional geology, changing climate conditions, and the mobility of contaminants within the hydrologic system. To understand natural variations in Arsenic, changes in diatom population will be integrated with other previously collected paleolimnological data (particle size analysis, rock eval, etc) to reconstruct paleoclimate change and compare them to down-core geochemical shifts.为准确评估矿山开发对环境污染物（例如砷（Arsenic））的人为影响，并制定切实可行的修复目标，有必要建立区域内自然地球化学变异性的基准基线。然而，由于区域地质条件复杂、气候动态变化，以及污染物在水文系统中的迁移特性，该工作极具挑战性。为明晰砷的自然变异性，本研究将硅藻种群变化与此前收集的其他古湖沼学（paleolimnological）数据（包括粒度分析（particle size analysis）、岩石热解分析（rock eval）等）相结合，以重建古气候变化，并将其与岩芯剖面的地球化学偏移特征进行对比分析。