Response of endangered turtle to environmental change can inform industry biodiversity mandate

量化动物对不断变化的自然环境条件的反应方式，可以了解它们将如何应对人类活动引起的变化。通过在这种“自然实验”中研究这些动物的反应，可以为工业活动影响环境的地区中出现的濒危物种制定科学的生物多样性、栖息地恢复和缓解计划。当代环境变化之一是五大湖水位上升，这是湖泊水位长期自然循环的一部分。劳伦斯大学的研究人员将与休伦湖畔的核能发电公司Bruce Power合作，研究当地濒危斑龟种群的种群生存能力、空间生态和筑巢地点选择，以应对湖水水位的变化。该合作项目将提供重要的生态信息，以直接帮助Bruce Power努力实现其生物多样性任务，满足其环境监测计划的立法要求，并与他们与大湖区委员会(CGLR)的合作伙伴关系保持一致，以开展为期3年的气候变化对水生系统和发电业务的影响研究。鉴于发电是加拿大的一项主要经济活动，像Bruce Power这样的电力公司对环境和社会事业的贡献将通过环境责任，为加拿大个人的福祉和加拿大的整体经济福祉做出贡献。

Quantifying the ways that animals respond to changing natural environmental conditions can inform how they will respond to changes induced by human activities. By studying these animal responses in such "natural experiments", scientifically-informed biodiversity, habitat restoration, and mitigation plans can be developed for Species At Risk that occur in areas where industrial activities impact the environment. One such contemporary environmental change has been the increase in water levels in the Great Lakes as part of the long-term natural cycling of lake levels. In collaboration with Bruce Power, a nuclear power generating company located on the shores of Lake Huron, researchers at Laurentian University will examine the population viability, spatial ecology and nest site selection in a local population of Endangered Spotted Turtles in response to the changing water levels of the lake. The collaborative project will provide important ecological information to directly assist Bruce Power's efforts to realize their biodiversity mandate, to meet legislative requirements of their Environment Monitoring Program, and to align with their partnership with the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR) to conduct a 3-year study of the impacts of climate change on aquatic systems and power generation operations. Given that power generation is a major economic activity in Canada, the contributions of electricity companies like Bruce Power to environmental and social undertakings, will contribute through environmental responsibility, to the well-being of individual Canadians and the overall economic well-being of Canada.