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Rates of carbon and peat accumulation were studied in a series of peat landforms within discontinuously frozen peatlands near Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories. An extended distribution of the White River volcanic ash layer was used as a chronostratigraphic horizon to ensure a consistent time span of peat deposition among peat cores and to allow a large core sample size without the expense of radiocarbon dating. Apparent recent carbon accumulation rates measured over the past 1200 years were not significantly different among rich fen, peat plateau, and collapse fen (means 13--14 g C M-2 yr-1). Poor fen and bog mean accumulation rates were 20--22 g C M-2 yr -1 and were not significantly different from each other. Microtopography and water table position appear to be important controls on both carbon and vertical peat accumulation rates. A regional survey incorporating measurements from other parts of the southwestern Northwest Territories and the southeastern Yukon shows rates similar to those near Fort Simpson. / The aggradation of permafrost results in 50 and 65% decreases in carbon and vertical peat accumulation rates, respectively. Carbon and peat accumulation continue to decrease significantly with both increasing permafrost maturity and the number of ground fires. The internal degradation of permafrost results in nearly a doubling in carbon accumulation rates, yet permafrost degradation at the margins of a peat plateau results in carbon accumulation rates similar to the peat plateau. / Clymo's (1984) carbon accumulation model was applied to cores from each landform in addition to a core spanning the entire developmental history of the peatland. Results indicate that true carbon accumulation and sequestration efficiency rates in ombrotrophic peatlands are lower in the upper Mackenzie Valley than for other boreal regions, primarily owing to high decomposition rates. The cessation of carbon accumulation is being approached. The model also serves to highlight the dangers of using apparent and true carbon accumulation rates interchangably. / Apparent and true carbon accumulation rates are significantly lower than published rates from other parts of northern Canada, Finland, and the Former Soviet Union. Low and variable summer precipitation in the region may be a significant factor through increased aerobic decomposition and/or decreased plant production caused by moisture stress.

A static chamber technique was used to measure methane emissions in July and August, 1995 from peatland sites in the Fort Simpson area, Northwest Territories, at the southern fringe of the discontinuous permafrost zone. Sites were classified ecologically and geomorphologically, and water table and temperature regimes were monitored. / Methane emissions ranged from $-$3.3 to 1144.2 mg/m$ sp2 cdot$d, from raised frozen sites to pond sites, respectively, similar to emissions recorded from other boreal regions. Water table was the strongest predictor of CH$ sb4$ emission. Although peat temperature is significantly correlated to methane flux, it did not significantly improve the flux-water table relationship. Methane storage within the saturated portion of the peat profile ranged from 0.2 to 4.2 g/m$ sp2$ over depths ranging from 30 to 76 cm, and did not play a large role in surficial emissions. The zone immediately above and below the water table appears to regulate methane diffusion to the surface. Residence times (storage/flux) ranged from 12 to 30 days in poor fens, and from 6 to 5789 days in fens. / Ranges and mean fluxes of methane were determined according to landform and water table position. Based on the geomorphology of the area, overall flux determined for the Fort Simpson area, map NTS 95H, NW1/4, is estimated to be 19 mg/m$ sp2 cdot$d.

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This thesis studies the relationships between newcomers employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Simpson and the Ts’msyen people who came to live outside the fort from its establishment in Ts’msyen territory in 1834 until the founding of a Christian Ts’msyen village at Metlakatla in 1862. I argue that a mutually intelligible – if not equally understood – world was developed at this site in which the lives of these newcomers and local Ts’msyen people became intertwined and somewhat interdependent. While this world was not characterized by universal conditions of fellowship and trust it did involve shared Ts’msyen-newcomer participation in significant cultural activities, the repurposing or remaking of each other’s customs, and jointly developed practices in which customs from both groups were intermingled. I propose that some of these practices, particularly those of law and marriage, can be considered as culturally hybrid. This study suggests the compromised position of the HBC on the northern Northwest Coast, Ts’msyen cultural disposition, and dynamics of power within and between these groups fostered the development a mutually intelligible world and hybrid Ts’msyen-newcomer practices. Far from any centre of British power, greatly outnumbered by the Ts’msyen, and soon out-armed, the newcomers of Fort Simpson were particularly vulnerable. Ts’msyen people, it is claimed, generally valued innovation and had a long-established system for acquiring ownership of changes brought from outside into their communities. Ts’msyen women had a special role in this process. Moreover, both the Ts’msyen and the newcomers had hierarchically structured societies in which displays of power and authority were important. These local circumstances were fundamental to the formation of the hybrid institutions of marriage and law at Fort Simpson/Laxłgu’alaams and to the other complex social and cultural interactions of the two groups documented here. While this study acknowledges that Ts’msyen and newcomer people had distinct motivations for entering relationships with each other, for sharing and cross-participating in customs of the other, and for developing new joint and hybrid practices, it argues that for both groups power and authority were crucial factors. The distinct circumstances which made a mutually intelligible world possible at Fort Simpson/Laxłgu’alaams came to an end in 1862. The return of smallpox in Ts’msyen territory, the removal of the missionary William Duncan and his followers from Fort Simpson to Metlakatla, and the increasing colonial regulation of Indigenous people brought an end to the brief period of accommodation and collaboration between HBC newcomers and Ts’msyen people.