Wayne Pollard

Background

About Wayne Pollard

I am a field geomorphologist and geologist with 40 years of experience in the Canadian Arctic/Subarctic and 15 years of experience in the Antarctic. My research seeks to understand past, present and future patterns in permafrost conditions, processes, and landforms in cold hyper-arid environments. It focuses on three complementary aspects of permafrost systems: The first involves the analysis of the origin, age, physical properties and stratigraphic characteristics of massive ground ice and ice-rich permafrost, and understanding their role in Arctic and Antarctic landscape evolution. The second focus is concerned with the interaction between groundwater and permafrost and the analysis of cryohydrological processes and landforms. Central to this focus is the study of saline springs on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian High Arctic. The presence of cold saline groundwater flow through thick permafrost has become one of the best terrestrial analogs for past and present groundwater flow on Mars. A third focus has emerged in the last 10 years and involves collaboration with microbiologists to seek out and characterize the nature of microbial communities in cold polar environments related to ground ice and groundwater, and to define the physical limits of habitability. My research has contributed to a better understanding about the geomorphologic, geologic and biophysical state of permafrost and groundwater systems in cold polar desert environments and the sustainability of physical and biological systems under current and future climates.