Biography

Chris Burn held an NSERC Senior Northern Research Chair at the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies from 2002-12, throughout the program’s life. He came to Canada in 1981 as a Commonwealth Scholar, and completed both the M.A. (Geography, 1983) and Ph.D. (Geology, 1986) at Carleton. He then moved to U.B.C. as a Killam fellow, to study with J.Ross Mackay, the world authority in his field. In 1989 Chris was awarded an NSERC University Research Fellowship, which he brought back to Carleton in 1992.

Chris is committed to long-term field investigations of frozen ground. His research is focused on the relations between climate and permafrost. He has been particularly interested in determining the response of ground temperatures and the active layer to climate warming as observed in the western Arctic since 1970. His program involves partnerships with several northern agencies, particularly AANDC, Yukon Parks, Parks Canada, the Village of Mayo, Yukon and Aurora Colleges, the City of Dawson, and the Departments of Transportation in Yukon and NWT. Dr Burn has been involved with the environmental and regulatory reviews of several northern projects, including the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project and, most recently, the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway.

His research program strives to provide explanations for the behaviour of permafrost terrain that are founded in field verification of physically based models. Projects completed and in progress at Herschel Island relate the present ground thermal regime to climate change over the past 120 years. Fieldwork there has also shown how temperatures inside an ice cellar at Pauline Cove allow comparison between convective and conductive heat transfer. Long-term observations at the Illisarvik drained lake field experiment build on Dr Mackay’s work, and have just given an uninterrupted 30-year record of active-layer development that may be the longest in North America. Ground temperatures collected at Illisarvik confirm the effect of regional warming in winter on summer thaw depth. In central and southern Yukon data collection is primarily concerned with the effect of changes in surface conditions on ground temperatures, especially following forest fire in Takhini River Valley, near Whitehorse, and after thaw slumping, near Mayo. Graduate student projects are woven into the general program that covers these themes.

The work is supported by NSERC, PCSP, the Aurora Research Institute, Transport Canada, and AANDC. Northern agencies also provide critical assistance, especially the Village of Mayo, Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park, and Tuktut Nogait National Park. Since 1992, 18 Master’s and two PhD theses have been completed in the program, with four Ph.D. theses and three M.Sc. projects underway.

Chris has served as Chair of NSERC’s Committee 186 (Scholarships and Fellowships Committee for Ecology and Earth Sciences, 2010); as Chair of the Canadian Northern Studies Trust Northern Science Committee for adjudication of Weston Awards for Northern Research (2007-11); as Vice-President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2004-09); and President of the Arctic Circle (2009-12). Until November 2013 he will be Co-Chair of Transport Canada’s Network of Expertise in Northern Transportation Infrastructure Research. He is on the editorial board of Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, and in 2012 was guest editor of a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences devoted to Fundamental and Applied Research on Permafrost in Canada.

 In 2012 Chris edited a 242-page, multidisciplinary account of the natural and cultural history of Herschel Island, Herschel Island Qikiqtaryuk. The book is a partnership with 12 supporting agencies, involving 43 authors, 24 of whom live north of 60°.  It is lavishly designed and carefully copy edited to be accessible to a broad audience, ranging from community members to graduate students beginning their program.

 

Recent awards

 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for service to the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. April 2012.

Permafrost and Periglacial Processes Prize for Excellence in Permafrost and Periglacial Research. June 2012.

Inaugural Yukon North Slope Conservation Award, Wildlife Management Advisory Council (North Slope). October 2012.

 

Research Interests

• Permafrost and ground ice
• Physical Geography of Yukon and Northwest Territories

 Current Research projects 

• Assessment of soil carbon in permafrost, western Arctic Canada (Marcus Phillips, Ph.D. student; NSERC funded)
• Permafrost conditions near the Dempster Highway (Brendan O’Neill, Ph.D. student; NSERC funded)
• Influence of lakes on permafrost conditions in the Old Crow Flats (Pascale Roy-Roy-Léveillée, Ph.D. student; IPY and NSERC funded)

2013-2014 Courses

• GEOG 2013  Weather and Water
• GEOG 3010  Field Methods in Physical Geography
• GEOG 4108  Permafrost
• GEOG 5001  Modeling Environmental Systems
• GEOG 6000/ 6001  Doctoral Core Seminar : Geography, Society and the Environment

 

Key publications

 Burn, C.R., and Smith, C.A.S. 1988.  Observations of the “thermal offset” in mean annual ground temperature profiles at Mayo, Yukon Territory. Arctic, 41(2): 99‑104.

Burn, C.R., and Smith, M.W. 1990. Development of thermokarst lakes during the Holocene at sites near Mayo, Yukon Territory. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 1(2): 161-176.

Burn, C.R. 1997. Cryostratigraphy, paleogeography, and climate change during the early Holocene warm interval, western Arctic coast, Canada.  Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 34(7): 912-925.

Burn, C.R. 1998. The response (1958 to 1997) of permafrost and near-surface ground temperatures to forest fire, Takhini River valley, southern Yukon Territory.  Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 35(2): 184-199.

Burn, C.R. 2002. Tundra lakes and permafrost, Richards Island, western Arctic coast, Canada. .  Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 39(8): 1281-1298.

Mackay, J.R., and Burn, C.R. 2002. The first 20 years (1978/79 to 1998/99) of ice-wedge growth at the Illisarvik experimental drained lake site, western Arctic coast, Canada.  Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 39(1): 95-111.

Burn, C.R., and Zhang, Y. 2009. Permafrost and climate change at Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk), Yukon Territory, Canada. Journal of Geophysical Research (Earth Surface), 114: F02001, doi:10.1029/2008JF001087.

Burn, C.R., and Kokelj, S.V. 2009. The environment and permafrost of the Mackenzie Delta area. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 20(2): 83-105. doi: 10.1002/ppp.655

Burn, C.R. (editor), 2012. Herschel Island Qikiqtaryuk:A natural and cultural history of Yukon’s Arctic island. Whitehorse: Wildlife Management Advisory Council for the Yukon North Slope. (Distributed by University of Calgary Press.)
 

Publications 2011-2013 with graduate students

 O’Neill, H.B., and Burn, C.R. 2012. Physical and temporal factors controlling the development of near-surface ground ice at Illisarvik, western Arctic coast, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 49: 1096-1110 doi: 10.1139/e2012-043.

Ensom, T.P., Burn, C.R., Kokelj, S.V. 2012. Lake- and Channel-Bottom Temperatures in the Mackenzie Delta, NWT. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 49: 963-978 doi: 10.1139/e2012-001.

Morse, P.D., Burn, C.R., Kokelj, S.V. 2012. Influence of snow on near-surface ground temperatures in upland and alluvial environments of the outer Mackenzie Delta, N.W.T. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 49: 895-913 doi: 10.1139/e2012-012.

Palmer, M.J., Burn, C.R., and Kokelj, S.V. 2012. Factors influencing permafrost temperatures across tree line in the uplands east of the Mackenzie Delta, 2004-2010. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 49: 877-894 doi: 10.1139/e2012-002.

Morse, P.D., and Burn, C.R. 2013. Perennial frost blisters of the outer Mackenzie Delta, western Arctic coast, Canada. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 38:  (in press, accepted 16.05.13) doi: 10.1002/esp.3439

Morse, P.D., and Burn, C.R. 2013. Field observations of syngenetic ice-wedge polygons, outer Mackenzie Delta, western Arctic coast, Canada.  Journal of Geophysical Research (Earth Surface), 118: doi:10.1029/2012JF002634. (in press, accepted 02.06.13).

 

Community Posters

• Ground temperature monitoring on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory
• The thermal regime of Mayo Lake, central Yukon Territory
• The water balance of the sewage lagoon at Mayo, Yukon Territory
• Ground temperature monitoring at Paulatuk, Northwest Territories

 

Graduate Student Projects

Wendy Sladen (M.Sc.): Icings along the Tibbett-Contwoyto winter road, NWT.  Wendy is studying the conditions that lead to overflow and icing along the portages of winter road that leads to the diamond mines of the Slave Province. Her work involves winter field investigations and remote sensing assessment of icings that provoke maintenance issues along the corridor. Wendy works for the Geological Survey of Canada, and her project has been developed in collaboration with her colleagues there.

Pascale Roy-Léveillée (Ph.D.): Permafrost in the Old Crow Basin, northern Yukon Territory.  Pascale is working on permafrost dynamics beneath tundra lakes of the Old Crow Flats, the aggradation of permafrost into drained lake sediments, and near-surface ground ice development in the region over the Holocene. Old Crow Flats is a large wetland containing a significant carbon stock, both in the active layer and in the surface of permafrost.

Brendan O’Neill (Ph.D.): Permafrost and ground stability in the Peel Plateau, NWT.  Brendan is studying permafrost conditions adjacent to the Dempster Highway in the ice-rich uplands west of the Peel River. The work considers how the road embankment has affected snow and drainage, and thereby changed permafrost conditions. The project is in collaboration with the NWT Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program, with assistance from residents of Fort McPherson.

Marcus Phillips (Ph.D.): Hummocks and carbon in permafrost terrain. Marcus is examining the carbon content of near-surface permafrost in the Mackenzie Delta area. He is interested in determining how carbon is differentially sequestered  in various biophysical settings separated by tree line and the boundary of the delta. The project is part of NSERC’s ADAPT initiative, and will consider the quantity and quality of carbon in various settings.

Alexandra Zemskova (M.Sc.): Near-surface ground ice on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory. Sasha spent summer 2012 on Herschel Island, obtaining core samples to determine the differential ground ice characteristics of three landforms near Pauline Cove: an alluvial fan; a retrogressive thaw slump; and an undisturbed hill top.

Adrian Gaanderse (M.Sc.): Ground ice conditions in the Yellowknife area, NWT. Adrian has been working with the Geological Survey of Canada on ground ice in clay ridges alongside Highway 3 near Yellowknife. He is co-supervised by Steve Wolfe.

 

Recent Theses (completed)

Peter Morse (Ph.D):  Near-surface permafrost conditions, Kendall Island Bird Sanctuary, western Arctic coast, Canada. March 2013.

Kumari Karunaratne (Ph.D.):  A Field Examination of Climate-Permafrost Relations in Continuous and Discontinuous Permafrost of the Slave Geological Province. April 2011.

Timothy Ensom (M.Sc.): The Thermal Regime of Mackenzie Delta Lakes and Channels. December 2010.

Brendan O’Neill (M.Sc.): The development of near-surface ground ice at Illisarvik, Richards Island, Northwest Territories. September 2011.

 

Memberships

• Canadian Association of Geographers
• Geological Association of Canada
• Canadian Quaternary Association
• Canadian Geomorphology Research Group
• Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario
• Canadian Geophysical Union