TRANSITIONS: Using the ecological response to previous climate changes to predict the future changes in the Canadian Arctic ecosystem

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Understanding how ecosystems respond to climate change is one of the main challenges in ecology today. Climate warming is changing the distribution of species along with the ecosystem and food webs which support them. One way to understand how this will affect Canada is to examine previous changes in other areas. For instance, the Earth warmed dramatically at the end of the last glaciation, some 10 thousand years ago. Many animals common to the Canadian Arctic (e.g. caribou, wolves and lemmings) were extirpated form Ireland during this time. We will use chemical tracers and radiocarbon dating to determine the diet of these animals at end of the last ice age. By understanding the chemical make-up of bones left behind as these animals diet out we will learn how the changes to the environment affected them and the food webs which support them, shedding light on similar processes in the Canadian Arctic today.