Introduction: Biology of the Canadian Arctic: A Crucible for Change in the 21st Century1

Integrative and Comparative Biology, Apr 2004 by Hik, David S, Boonstra, Rudy

Canada is a northern country. Whether defined in terms of geography, climate, culture, or political boundaries, the North is an integral part of Canadian national identity and a strategic component of the country's future (Coates, 1995). Often defined as the half of the landmass and water that lies above the line of discontinuous permafrost, extending from northern British Columbia to Labrador, this vast region is home to only 1% of the human population in Canada. However, many other species are endemic to the North and many more seasonal migrants depend on northern environments for a significant part of their life history. The Canadian North, and indeed the entire circumpolar region, is a sensitive environment, facing rapid and unprecedented social, biophysical, and environmental changes.

Several long-term, persistent, and pervasive changes are affecting northern environments simultaneously. Global climate change, ozone depletion, long-distance transport of contaminants, and rapid economic development have placed undue stress on terrestrial, fresh-water and marine ecosystems. These Stressors may have a wide range of ecologically significant effects on populations that will cascade upwards to affect the integrity of entire communities. World demand for energy supplies has increased interest in Canada's northern oil and gas fields with the resultant prospect of a pipeline snaking down the Mackenzie River becoming ever closer to reality. The Canadian North is also the world's third largest producer of diamonds, and mining for these precious stones now accounts for 20% of the Northwest Territories economic activity (McDonald, 2004). At the same time, new governance realities are being shaped by the settlement of aboriginal land claims and devolution of federal government responsibilities to the territories.

These stressors and changes are a great cause of concern for aboriginal peoples as their health is affected by the consumption of country foods and their culture is linked to their desire to maintain traditional livelihoods. Nevertheless, much of the Canadian North is still in a natural, relatively undisturbed state, where most wildlife species are intact in terms of population abundance, distribution, and movement, and their habitats are relatively undisturbed. Ensuring a sustainable future for northern people and wildlife requires that ecosystems remain healthy and do not become progressively fragmented and degraded by local developments or global changes. It is also evident that an understanding of the biology and ecology of northern species and ecosystems is incomplete, and that alterations to the distribution, abundance, and behavior of species and their northern habitats will profoundly change the Arctic as we now know it. The current state of knowledge will be most comprehensively reviewed in the upcoming Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, currently being prepared by the Arctic Council (http://www.arctic-council.org).

Our Symposium focused on the adaptations of northern organisms and their predicted responses to changing environmental conditions, particularly terrestrial wildlife and habitats, with particular emphasis on climate change impacts, transboundary pollutants, and ecosystem dynamics. Our premise was that northern species and environments are sensitive indicators of the thresholds of adaptation to stress in natural systems and that their survival is a crucible for understanding change in the 21st century.

BACKGROUND TO THE SYMPOSIUM

Studies of the biology of northern Canada were dominated by faunal and botanical inventories until the 1950s, when an explosion of detailed experimental research and long-term monitoring programs were initiated (Clarke, 1954; Roots, 1996). While many individual scientists have made life-long commitments to northern research, their curiosity was often sustained and facilitated by collaborative, high profile, well funded, ambitious and imaginative research programs. Some of these early efforts included Operation Hazen (1950s) on Ellesmere Island, the Icefield Ranges Research Project (1960s) in the St. Elias Mountains, and projects associated with the International Biological Programme (1964 to 1975), such as the Char Lake Project (Rigler, 1972) and studies of tundra ecology (Bliss et al., 1973), among many others.

The potential effects of climate change and industrial development on northern environments were clearly recognized four decades ago (Bliss, 1970). Economic interests, such as the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline proposals in the 1970s, provided the impetus for many environmental studies and served as the basis for later efforts, such as investigations of the potential effects of climate warming and cumulative effects during the Mackenzie Basin impact Study of the 1990s (Cohen, 1997).

Concerns about the management and conservation of northern wildlife have also been the focus of many studies and reports. For example, the Task Force on Northern Conservation (1984) was a joint federal-territorial effort to develop a framework for creating a conservation policy and strategy that recognized the need for balance among conflicting values and endeavors: protecting the environment; the traditional pursuits of hunting, trapping and fishing; the sustainability of communities; and the impacts of large industrial developments. Conservation and development plans in the north have consistently recognized the need for improving capacity to generate knowledge through science and research in order to provide the necessary information to implement social, economic, and environmental strategies (e.g., RWED, 2000).