Ellesmere Island

Bacteria in thawed ice samples from Ellesmere Island (79°38 N, 74°23 W) produced CO2 and CH4 during extended incubation at 4°C in a diluted complex medium (yeast extract, casamino acids, starch, and glucose) (Skidmore et al. 2000). It was suggested that the results demonstrated that the subglacial environment beneath a polythermal glacier provided an acceptable habitat for microbial life. 

Patton et al (1989) collected air samples on a floating ice island in the Beaufort Sea, located about 50 km off Ellesmere Island at about 81 0 N, 100 ° W. The samples were collected in August-September 1986 and in June 1987. Oiganochlorine concentrations were measured, including p,p -DDE and p,p -DDT. 

Schledermann, Peter, Notes on Norse finds from the east coast of Ellesmere Island, N.W.T. Arctic. 33(3), 454-463 (1980). 

Blake, Weston, Jr., Radiocarbon age determinations and postglacial emergence at Cape Storm, southern Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada, Geografiska Annaler, 57, Ser. A, 1-2, 1-71 (1975). 

Peters, A.J., Gregor, D.J., Teixeira, C.F., lones, N.P., Spencer, C., 1995. The recent de-positional trend of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and elemental carbon to the Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, Canada. Sci. Total Environ. 161, 167-179. 

Fig. 4. GC-ECNI high resolution mass spectrometry selected ion chromatograms of the C10H15C17 formula group, based on the [M-Cl] ion, for beluga blubber samples from Cumberland Sound and Hudson Bay are compared with an extract of an air sample from Alert (NWT) at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island and in the PCA-60 standard. The air sample shows a strong resemblance to the commercial product while the profile in beluga suggests considerable biotransformation. Results from Tomy et al. [78]...

Hattersley-Smith, G., Keys, J.E., Serson, H. and Mielke, J.E., 1970. Density stratified lakes in northern Ellesmere Island. Nature, 225 55—56. 

Quadrupole ICP MS has been used for the determination of trace elements in snowfall in the remote Scottish Highlands at the ng/g level after preconcentration of samples by non-boiling evaporation (59, 60). Trace elements have been also determined in Arctic snow (Ellesmere Island) coupling a quadrupole ICP-MS with an Electrothermal Vaporization (ETV) system (61). In spite of the considerable improvement in terms of sensitivity achieved through the use of the ETV sample introduction system, the detection limits of quadrupole ICP-MS are still inadequate for the direct determination of trace elements in the snow and ice of remote polar regions. 

M.S.V. Douglas, J.P. Smol (1994). Limnology of high arctic ponds (Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island, N.W.T.). Arch. Hydrobiol., 131,401-434. 

W. Blake Jr. (1992). Holocene emergence at Cape Herschel, east-central Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada Implications for ice sheet configuration. Can. J. Earth Sci., 29, 1958-1980. 

Stratified Lakes in Northern Ellesmere Island, Nature (1970) 255, 55-6. 

Patton GW, Walla MD, Bidleman TF, et al. 1991. Polycyclic aromatic and organochlorine compounds in the atmosphere of northern Ellesmere Island, Canada. Journal of Geophysical Research 96 10,867-10,877. 

Reductive dechlorination in anaerobic sediments also caused the conversion of pp DDT to p,p -DDD. Sediment half-lives of pp DDT were estimated to be between 14 and 21 years in Lake Ontario sediments with D order kinetics (Oliver et al., 1989) thus rates of degradation in sediments could be considered to interpret historical deposition. For example, the rate of reductive dechlorination of DDT in sediment cores was calculated by plotting In (DDT/ DDT + DDD) vs. sediment age as inferred by Pb (Oliver et al., 1989). Muir et al. (1995) found that the proportion of DDD/DDD + DDT increased downcore in many lakes along a mid-continental transect from Northwestern Ontario to Ellesmere Island (Canadian High Arctic). The half-life for anaerobic conversion of DDT to DDD was <20 years in most lakes (assuming a constant ratio of DDD/DDT input to sediments). 

Doubleday, N. C., M. S. V. Douglas J. P. Smol, 1995. Paleoenvironmental studies of black carbon deposition in the High Arctic a case study from Northern Ellesmere Island. Sci. Tot. Envir. 160/161 661-668. 

Fisher, D.A., R.M. Koemer, and N. Reeh, (1995), Holocene climatic records from Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, NWT, Canada, The Holocene, 5 (1) 19-24. 

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