Hydro-ecological responses of upland Arctic lakes to climate-related landscape disturbance

正如政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC 2001,2007）和北极气候影响评估（ACIA 2005）所预测的那样，加拿大北极地区的气候变率/变化（CVC）预计将对淡水生态系统的水文和生态产生深远的影响。主要影响包括区域气候学和相关水文学的变化，水生物种的分布、丰度和生态的变化，构成其栖息地的物理环境的变化，该环境的化学性质的变化，以及作用于淡水生态系统及其内部的过程的变化。北极淡水系统对CVC特别敏感，因为许多水文生态过程对相对较小的气候变化作出反应，而这些变化反过来直接或间接地影响景观/流域生物地球化学过程和相关的生态反应。对历史和当代记录的综合分析，加上全球和区域气候模拟，已经确定北极西部特别容易受到当前和未来CVC的影响。拟议项目的重点是填补加拿大北极地区因努维克和图克托亚图克地区的水文生态学和北极高地湖泊/池塘生态系统对CVC的敏感性方面的关键知识空白。这项北部补充计划将支持改善与其他北部研究人员（大学，学院和政府），非大学组织以及研究区域的北部和土著社区的互动和合作，并协助提供必要的现场后勤和技术支持。正在计划在该区域举行以社区为基础的会议，以便向当地居民通报研究的性质和意义，并随着工作的进展提供最新的主要发现。此外，该项目的一个主要目标是加强和促进北部培训机会，培养具有北部/寒冷地区水文生态学专门知识的合格人员。在培训这方面的适当专家方面，加拿大仍然落后于许多其他“北方”国家，该方案提供的机会有助于解决这一问题。

Climate variability/change (CVC) in the Canadian arctic is expected to have far-reaching impacts on the hydrology and ecology of freshwater ecosystems as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2001,2007) and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA 2005). Key effects include changes in regional climatology and related hydrology, alterations in the distribution, abundance and ecology of aquatic species, changes in the physical environment that makes up their habitat, changes to the chemical properties of that environment, and alterations to the processes that act on and within freshwater ecosystems. Arctic freshwater systems are particularly sensitive to CVC because numerous hydro-ecological processes respond to relatively small changes in climate and these in turn directly and indirectly affect landscape/catchment biogeochemical processes and associated ecological responses. Synoptic analyses of historical and contemporary records augmented by global and regional climate modelling have identified the western Arctic as being particularly vulnerable to present and future CVC. The proposed project focuses on filling key knowledge gaps on the hydro-ecology and sensitivity of upland Arctic lake/pond ecosystems to CVC in the Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk regions of the Canadian Arctic. This northern supplement program will support improving the interaction and collaboration with other northern researchers (University, College and Government-based), non-university organizations, and northern and Aboriginal communities in the study area and aide in providing necessary field-logistic and technical support. Community-based meetings are being planned in the region to inform local residents of the nature and significance of the research, and to provide updates on key findings as the work progresses. In addition, a primary goal of the project is to enhance and promote northern training opportunities and to produce qualified people with expertise in northern/cold-regions hydroecology. Canada remains behind many other "northern" countries in training appropriate experts in this area and the opportunities offered in this program help address this situation.