Lakes and ponds are a major feature of the Arctic landscape and are recognized as effective ‘sentinels of change’. Here we present water chemistry characteristics of lakes and ponds (n=1300 with 26 variables) across the Canadian Arctic collated from published studies. We also extracted geological and ecoregion data in an attempt to determine the key drivers. In general, most lakes were shallow (85.4%, <10 m), nutrient (phosphorus) poor (oligotrophic = 45.6% and ultra-oligotrophic = 24.8%), located at low elevation (66.5%, <200 m asl), close to coastlines (72.5%, 0-50 km), and underlain by sedimentary geology (66.5%). The first two components from Principal Component Analysis explained 49.3% of the variation in the dataset; the first component was dominated by conductivity/carbonate materials, and the second component suggested allochthonous inputs of phosphorus. In general, bedrock geology is the primary driver of water chemistry; as such, there were major differences between lakes underlain by igneous and sedimentary rocks. Those on sedimentary bedrock tend to have higher pH, nutrients and higher inorganic ion concentrations.

湖泊和池塘是北极景观的主要特征，被认为是有效的“变革先兆”。在这里，我们根据已发表的研究整理出加拿大北极地区湖泊和池塘的水化学特征（n = 1300，具有26个变量）。我们还提取了地质和生态区域数据，以试图确定关键驱动因素。一般而言，大多数湖泊为浅水区（85.4％，<10 m），营养（磷）贫乏（贫营养= 45.6％，超贫营养=（24.8％），位于低海拔（66.5％，<200 m asl），靠近海岸线（72.5％，0-50 km），并且根据沉积地质条件处于地下（66.5％）。主成分分析的前两个成分解释了数据集中49.3％的变化；第一个成分主要由电导率/碳酸盐材料组成，第二个成分表明磷是异源输入的。通常，基岩地质是水化学的主要驱动力。因此，在火成岩和沉积岩下的湖泊之间存在主要差异。沉积基岩上的那些倾向于具有较高的pH，养分和较高的无机离子浓度。