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

加拿大大约40%的海岸线位于北极。由于全球变暖、污染以及航运和采矿等工业和城市发展的压力，该地区目前正在经历快速的环境变化。我们对加拿大北极地区沿着和海洋地区重要野生动物栖息地的了解是有限的，而且往往非常过时。新的信息对于为环境评估机构、政府、政策制定者、因纽特人组织和工业界在评估北极未来项目时提供有关野生动物栖息地保护需求的合理科学建议至关重要。 该跨学科研究计划将使用遥感和遥测，航空调查，重点生态研究和当地生态知识（LEK）访谈来测试假设并开发适用于北极沿海生态系统可持续管理的工具。首先，我们的研究将产生一种廉价的遥感技术，用于识别沿着海岸线的野生动物热点（特别是鸟类栖息地），这种技术可以应用于基本上未被调查的偏远地区，特别是象牙鸥等濒危物种。其次，古环境分析将跟踪选定地点的鸟类种群和污染物历史，使我们能够更好地解释殖民地何时建立以及随着时间的推移发生了什么，从而帮助我们预测未来人为因素对北极海洋鸟类的影响，例如气候变化。第三，我们会利用追踪仪器，在多个海鸟聚居区，研究不同海鸟的季节性和特定聚居区的觅食范围。这将有助于确定我们是否可以推荐标准化的、科学上可辩护的指导方针，用于海洋鸟类栖息地附近的后退距离，以保护鸟类的觅食栖息地（北极航运问题所需的一个关键特征）。 最后，我们将定量评估当地的生态知识和生态研究之间的相似性，在加拿大偏远地区整合不同的数据源的一种方式。

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of important wildlife habitats along coastlines and in marine areas of the Canadian Arctic is limited and often very outdated.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.