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

加拿大约40%的海岸线位于北极。由于全球变暖、污染以及航运和矿产开采等工业和城市发展压力，该地区目前正在经历快速的环境变化。我们对加拿大北极海岸线和海洋地区重要野生动物栖息地的了解有限，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、因纽特组织和工业界评估北极未来的项目提供关于野生动物栖息地保护需求的合理科学建议至关重要。 这一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)访谈来检验假设，并开发有助于北极沿海生态系统可持续管理的应用工具。首先，我们的研究将产生一种廉价的遥感技术，用于识别海岸线上的野生动物热点(特别是鸟类聚居地)，这种技术可以应用于基本上仍未进行调查的偏远地区，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建立的时间以及随着时间的推移它们发生了什么，从而帮助我们预测未来对北极海鸟的人为影响，如气候变化。第三，我们将使用跟踪设备来检查不同海鸟物种在几个殖民地的季节性和特定群落的觅食区域。这将有助于确定我们是否可以为海洋鸟类群体附近的退缩距离推荐标准化的、有科学依据的指导方针，以保护鸟类的觅食栖息地(这是北极航运方面所需的关键特征)。最后，我们将定量评估当地生态知识和生态研究之间的相似性，以此作为整合加拿大偏远地区不同数据源的一种方式。

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of important wildlife habitats along coastlines and in marine areas of the Canadian Arctic is limited and often very outdated.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