The Baffin Island region in the eastern Canadian Arctic has recently experienced a rapid warming, possibly unprecedented in millennia. To investigate the response of freshwater environments to this warming and place it in a secular perspective, we analyzed a 90-cm-long sediment core from Nettilling Lake, the largest lake of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The core was taken from a part of the lake basin that receives meltwater and sediment inputs from the nearby Penny Ice Cap. The core time scale, established using 137 Cs and palaeomagnetic techniques, spans an estimated 600 years. A multi-proxy approach was used to document changes in the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the sediments. We found evidence for a relatively warm period (mid/ late 15th century to mid/late 16th century) during the early part of the 'Little Ice Age' (LIA), characterized by high sedimentation rates and laminations. This was followed by colder, drier, and windier conditions corresponding to the coldest phase of LIA and coinciding with the latest and most extensive period of regional ice cap expansion (early 16th to late 19th centuries). A rapid warming occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. Variations in titanium (Ti) content in the core, a proxy for detrital sediment inputs, showed good agreement with reconstructed secular variations in summer melt rates on Penny Ice Cap between the mid-14th century and the present-day, providing supporting evidence for a climatic-hydrological connection between the ice cap and Nettilling Lake.
This study explores the academic, professional and personal career benefits of leading Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) outreach, from the perspective of undergraduate student leaders. We consider traditional and non-traditional STEM university students, gender and type of position (paid or volunteer) in this evaluation. Data were collected through an online survey completed by 30 former student STEM outreach leaders from the University of British Columbia. Survey data indicated that STEM outreach had a moderately strong impact on academic, professional and personal career development. Outcomes did not differ between genders and paid work was found to contribute to greater personal and professional impact. The positive influence of outreach on academic and professional decision making was higher in traditional STEM fields than STEM based health-science studies. Future studies are needed to fully understand how demographics and year of study might differentially inform career decision making within as well as between STEM fields to maximize university student leader involvement and create advances in the university-leaders academic and professional development. The outcomes of this research will further inform the relevant impacts of STEM outreach on university student leaders.
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