Development and evaluation of benthic algal bioassessment methods for use in northern Canada

北方河流和湖泊受到环境压力的压力越来越大，但其有效管理，包括预测生态系统适应能力和确定适当干预措施的能力，继续受到描述当前生态条件的不足和基础知识的阻碍。将制定底栖藻类生物评估议定书，用于加拿大北部的河流和湖泊，以监测受人类影响和气候变化影响的水质和生态完整性的变化，并将为加拿大水生生物监测网络（CABIN）做出贡献，该网络将于2008年开始在选定的北部国家公园实施。与加拿大公园合作，位于纳汉尼国家公园及其附近的河流和Vuntut国家公园的湖泊以及邻近的老乌鸦平原特别管理区将作为试点研究，因为这些生态系统的健康目前可能受到多种环境压力的威胁，计划中的研究补充了正在进行的相关研究。在两年（2008-09年）期间，将对水体进行水化学和底栖藻类取样，并对其进行分析，以确定当前的水生生态系统条件并探索其年际变化。研究结果将用于制定具有成本效益的生物评估方案（即采样，分析，报告），用于整个加拿大北部的长期生物监测计划，这是许多用户群体感兴趣的，包括工业，政府机构，保护当局，私人公民团体和当地第一民族社区。这些项目对于维持淡水资源的环境可持续性至关重要，并且有许多其他应用，包括评估和预测水生生态系统对环境压力的适应能力，并为基于科学的知情环境政策奠定基础。加拿大北部目前还没有底栖藻类监测的协议，但通过生物监测和生物评估活动建立早期预警系统将使水资源管理者能够积极主动地减轻水生生态系统的退化。

Northern rivers and lakes are under increasing pressures from environmental stressors but their effective management, including the ability to predict adaptive capacity of ecosystems and to identify appropriate interventions, continues to be hampered by inadequate and yet fundamental knowledge to characterize current ecological conditions. Benthic Algal Bioassessment Protocols will be developed for use in rivers and lakes of Canada's North to monitor changes in water quality and ecological integrity affected by human impacts and climate change, and will contribute to the Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network (CABIN) to be implemented in selected northern National Parks beginning in 2008. In partnership with Parks Canada, rivers located in and adjacent to Nahanni National Park and lakes in Vuntut National Park and the adjacent Old Crow Flats Special Management Area will serve as pilot studies because the current health of these ecosystems maybe threatened by multiple environmental stressors and planned research complements ongoing related studies.  Water bodies will be sampled for water chemistry and benthic algae over a two-year period (2008-09) and analyzed to define current aquatic ecosystem conditions and explore their inter-annual variability. Findings will be used to generate cost-effective bioassessment protocols (i.e., sampling, analyzing, reporting) for long-term biomonitoring programs for use throughout northern Canada, which is of interest to numerous user groups including industry, government agencies, conservation authorities, private citizen groups and local First Nation communities. Such programs are essential to maintaining environmental sustainability of freshwater resources, and have a myriad of other applications, including the evaluation and prediction of the adaptivecapacity of aquatic ecosystems to environmental stressors and establishing the foundation for informed science-based environmental policy. No protocol currently exists for benthic algal monitoring in northern Canada, yet creation of an early warning system via biomonitoring and bioassessment activities will empower water managers to be proactive versus reactive in their efforts to mitigate aquatic ecosystem degradation.