A multi-disciplinary assessment of spatial and temporal changes in Arctic coastal ecosystems

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Approximately 40% of Canada's coastline lies in the Arctic. This region is currently experiencing rapid environmental change due to global warming, contamination, and industrial and urban development pressures such as shipping and mineral extraction. Our knowledge of important wildlife habitats along coastlines and in marine areas of the Canadian Arctic is limited and often very outdated. New information is vital to provide sound scientific advice on wildlife habitat conservation needs for environmental assessment agencies, governments, policy-makers, Inuit organizations, and industry as they assess future projects in the Arctic. This interdisciplinary research program will use remote sensing and telemetry, aerial surveys, focal ecological research, and local ecological knowledge (LEK) interviews to test hypotheses and develop applied tools useful for the sustainable management of Arctic coastal ecosystems. First, our research will produce an inexpensive, remote-sensing technique for identifying wildlife hotspots (particularly bird colonies) along coastlines, which can be applied to remote areas that remain largely unsurveyed, notably for endangered species like Ivory Gulls. Second, paleoenvironmental analyses will track both bird populations and contaminant histories at selected sites, allowing us to better interpret when colonies were established and what has happened to them through time, thereby helping us predict future anthropogenic effects on Arctic marine birds such as climate change. Third, we will use tracking devices to examine seasonal and colony-specific feeding areas for different marine bird species at several colonies. This will help to determine if we can recommend standardized, scientifically-defensible guidelines for setback distances near marine bird colonies that allow protection of the birds' feeding habitats (a key feature required for Arctic shipping concerns). Finally, we will quantitatively assess the similarity between local ecological knowledge and ecological research as a way of integrating different data sources in remote regions of Canada.