Nunavut Research Institute

Station name and owner

Nunavut Research Institute is located in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, and is operated by Nunavut Arctic College.

Location

The institute is located in the City of Iqaluit which lies on Koojesee Inlet at the end of Frobisher Bay on the southeastern coast of Baffin Island. The institute further maintains accommodation facilities in Arviat and Igloolik, and laboratory facilities in Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay.

Climate data

Grey colours are WMO Climate Normals including maximum and minimum values. Blue colours are individual years.

Climate data for the stations where extracted via Copernicus Climate Data Store, from the global gridded reanalysis product: ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present. Description and source code: Roemer J.K. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214922 Data Source: Hersbach et al. 2023. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS), https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7

Biodiversity and natural environment

The Nunavut Research Institute is situated in the arctic zone with vegetation consisting of mosses, lichens, small shrubs, grasses, and low flowering plants. The sub-soil remains frozen throughout the year. Temperatures average below freezing eight months of the year. The terrain around Iqaluit is hilly with influence of marine and glacial deposits. Tidal range in Iqaluit is up to 12 m with a mean tidal range of 9 m. Caribou, polar bear, fox, wolves, and hares can be found in the vicinity of the town. Ring, harp, and bearded seal are found in Frobisher Bay, and beluga whales and walrus are common in the region as well. Eider ducks and Canada geese appear during the warmer months, and wheatears, snow buntings, and rock ptarmigan are present in spring and summer. Arctic char are abundant in the rivers and coastal lakes. Landlocked cod can be found in some lakes off Frobisher Bay.

History and facilities

The Iqaluit Research Centre was opened by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in 1978 to support the Eastern Arctic Marine Sciences Project. Operations were transferred to the Science Institute of the Northwest Territories (SINT) in 1988. Today the Nunavut Research Institute in Iqaluit consists of a research institute with two laboratories and a teaching facility with a laboratory, workshop, and storage facility. In addition, the research institute has accommodation facilities in Arviat and Igloolik. Laboratory facilities are available for use by researchers in Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet.

General research and databases

Nunavut Research Institute accommodates more than 100 research projects each year within the fields of natural, social, and health sciences. Descriptions of research projects licensed by the institute are available on the website at www.nri.ca. Nunavut Research Institute shares a research library with several other organisations that carry out research in Nunavut. The library can be accessed at www.nwmb-lib.com. Research is carried out by Canadian and international universities with an interest in the Arctic.

Station Monitoring

Human dimension

The Nunavut Research Institute is situated in the city of Iqaluit. The city is the largest community and capital in Nunavut. The city has a population of approximately 8000 people. Approximately 60% of the population is Inuit.

Access

Iqaluit is located 2084 km north of Ottawa and 2200 km east of Yellowknife. The Iqaluit Airport is a hub for aircrafts to several small communities throughout Nunavut as well as Ottawa and Montreal. Two airlines from Ottawa serve Iqaluit daily while scheduled flights arrive and depart for Yellowknife and Edmonton 3 days of the week. Weekly flights between Nuuk, Greenland and Iqaluit may occur during the summer months.