Functional, structural and biodiversity studies of Arctic freshwater watersheds: validating protocols for monitoring and cumulative impacts assessment

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The project aims at the development of an improved understanding of how human-induced changes in Arctic freshwater ecosystems, such as climate change and resource development, may impact the health of northern freshwater resources and the provision of ecosystem services such as sustainable fisheries. The work will establish baseline studies of the structure, function and diversity of the Lake Greiner watershed, Victoria Island Nunavut, from its lowest trophic levels (micros, algae, plankton) to its upper trophic levels (fish) to describe how the functioning and structure of aquatic ecosystems support the production of juvenile fishes and the diversity other resident organisms and the habitats upon which the health and sustainability of fisheries ultimately depend. The work will involve a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from across the country and will expand beyond simple study of lake ecosystems to include landscape level attributes of the watershed such as tributary streams that serve as important rearing and connectivity habitats for fish. The work will establish and validate monitoring protocols for aquatic ecosystems in the north, thereby providing tools to government agencies for the continued routine monitoring of the systems and a means by which the significance of the accumulation of future ecosystem impacts (e.g., climate change, resource development) may be determined. The work will incorporate local ecological knowledge to connect northerners to the discipline of scientific assessment and provide them with the necessary access to the science need to aid them in the local management of aquatic resources. Finally the research work will link Canadian science to the larger international set of initiatives aimed at improving understanding of Arctic aquatic ecosystems at a global scale, thereby helping to enhance Canada's reputation for Arctic science.