Research Projects

In an effort to showcase available technologies for the production of renewable energy in northern communities, a demonstration project was installed at the Aurora Research Institute (ARI) in Inuvik. The system was built entirely from components readily available on the...

This project aims to look at bio-accumulation of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in a northern food-chain: vegetation – caribou- wolves. These compounds are emerging contaminants of concern in the Arctic, and they have been found in relatively high concentrations in caribou...

Healthy Foods North (HFN) is a community-based, multi-institutional, nutritional and lifestyle intervention program that began in the Beaufort Delta region of the NWT and in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut in 2006.

The International Polar Year (IPY) is an international scientific program focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009. The Canadian north, including the Northwest Territories, is a key region for IPY researchers from Canada and...

ARI has participated in a biodiversity assessment for the Northwest Territories (NWT) to assist with future land-use planning. The biodiversity project is a way to assess the variety of life at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels.  The first part of...

Information about all research and exploration in the Northwest Territories (NWT) has been collected since at least the 1950s. Licensing first began with the federal government, then in 1984 the territorial government took over the responsibility with the implementation of the NWT Scientists Act. This...

Gas hydrates are crystalline substances composed of water and gas, in which a solid water-lattice accommodates gas molecules in a cage-like, clathrate structure. Past research by the Geological Survey of Canada, under NRCan, has documented the widespread occurrence of gas hydrates...

In order to assess the feasibility of using wind energy in communities across the NWT, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) and the Aurora Research Institute (ARI) have been conducting wind energy studies in the NWT for nearly...

The Husky Lakes area is of great cultural and traditional value to the Inuvialuit. Situated between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk (Tuk), the Husky Lakes Watershed is a ‘true’ Arctic watershed, in that all waters originate north of the Arctic Circle. Fishing and hunting in...

In June 2012, ARI staff and 6 local field assistants, conducted breeding bird surveys in the Inuvik, Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic regions of the Northwest Territories. A total of 182 individual surveys were completed on four routes along the Dempster Highway....