Climate control of northern aquatic ecosystems

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Lakes, rivers and wetlands are major components of the northern landscape and provide important ecosystem services such as drinking water supplies, transport routes and hunting and fishing resources for Aboriginal communities. These living systems are vulnerable to environmental impacts, and are sentinels of global climate change. This request is for funds to help meet the logistic costs associated with our ongoing NSERC Discovery Grant research on the complex question of how northern aquatic ecosystems respond to changes in regional and global climate. Our research will take place at three sets of sites. Most of our research is based out of Ward Hunt Island, Quttinirpaaq National Park, Nunavut, and focuses on ice-dependent lakes and other coastal aquatic ecosystems as indicators of climate change, and as models of ecological survival under environmental extremes. Part of our research will be on lakes in the Resolute Bay area to examine the community structure and function of microbes in the three domains of life (Bacteria, including cyanobacteria; Archaea, including ammonium-oxidizers; and microbial Eukarya). The third set of sites will be on permafrost thaw lakes near Kuujjuarapik, Nunavik, to examine impacts of climate warming. The research program will provide advanced training of students, postdoctoral researchers and technicians, and the results will be communicated to northern communities and other members of the public via reports (including translations into Inuktitut), public presentations, ongoing liaison with schools, TV, radio, newspapers and the internet. Our participation within ArcticNet provides opportunities for collaboration across and within sectors, exchange of data and information via the ArcticNet/CCIN initiative "Polar Data Catalogue" (www.polardata.ca), and communication with northern stakeholders via the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.