NSERC Canadian Network for Aquatic Ecosystem Services

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Aquatic ecosystems are recognized for the many direct ecological, social and economic benefits they provide (e.g. fisheries, drinking water) but they also provide many services not well recognized, including hydrologic and nutrient regulation, and waste processing. Increasingly the importance and associated economic value of these ecosystems are being recognized (e.g. Canada's Roundtable on the Economy and the Environment), including most recently by the United Nations General Assembly in creating the Inter-governmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES 2011). This, and related conventions and agreements, require Canada to develop detailed knowledge and policy to address issues specific to ecosystem services. Furthermore, there are plans for extensive development of remote northern areas throughout Canada (e.g. Quebec's Plan Nord, Ontario's Far North Act) for mineral, petroleum and hydroelectric resources. However we have limited knowledge about how these developments may impact these ecosystems, and how to manage these ecosystems to allow enhanced development. The Canadian Network on Aquatic Ecosystem Services (CNAES) will provide the collaboration from academia, industry and government to develop knowledge about, and provide training on, the relationship between these ecosystem services and stressors (e.g. development, climate change). Research will lead to the production of necessary tools to detect impacts on these systems, appropriate restoration targets, and the understanding essential for policy and management development. Canada's aquatic ecosystems are tremendously varied, so CNAES takes a watershed-based approach to address understudied systems (northern wetlands), knowledge gaps associated with forest-stream and lake ecosystems, and linkages across these systems. CNAES will determine how properties of ecosystem services from these systems vary due to spatial and temporal scale in order to provide results that have general applicability, rather than being size or site specific. We will develop understanding and management tools for government and industry through the study of predominant Canadian landscapes.