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

该项目旨在更好地了解气候变化和资源开发等人为引起的北极淡水生态系统变化可能如何影响北方淡水资源的健康和提供可持续渔业等生态系统服务。这项工作将建立从最低营养级(微生物、藻类、浮游生物)到最高营养级(鱼类)的维多利亚岛努纳武特Greiner湖流域的结构、功能和多样性的基线研究，以说明水生生态系统的功能和结构如何支持幼鱼的生产和其他常驻生物的多样性，以及渔业的健康和可持续性最终依赖的生境。这项工作将涉及来自全国各地的多学科研究团队，并将超越对湖泊生态系统的简单研究，包括流域的景观级属性，如作为鱼类重要饲养和连接栖息地的支流。这项工作将建立和验证北方水生生态系统的监测协议，从而为政府机构提供工具，继续对系统进行常规监测，并为确定未来生态系统影响(如气候变化、资源开发)累积的重要性提供一种手段。这项工作将纳入当地的生态知识，将北方人与科学评估学科联系起来，并为他们提供必要的科学机会，以帮助他们管理当地的水产资源。最后，这项研究工作将把加拿大科学与更广泛的国际倡议联系起来，旨在全球范围内增进对北极水生生态系统的了解，从而有助于提高加拿大在北极科学方面的声誉。

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.