arctic biodiversity climate environmental change impact on biodiversity research focus impediments...
TRANSCRIPT
Arctic BiodiversityClimateEnvironmental Change
• Impact on biodiversity• Research focus• Impediments• Public engagement
Dr. Mark Graham, Director, Research Services [email protected] 613-566-4743
IYB
Impact on Biodiversity
• Wide range of uncertainty in the models about the extent of warming – half predict sea ice absence by 2080
• Sea ice and multiyear ice extent is declining rapidly – has an impact on all aspects of biological diversity, including ice algae
• Disappearing ice impacts ice adapted whales (beluga, narwhal, bowhead) and allows others to move in
• Traditional knowledge leaders have seen new species and have had more accidents with thinning sea ice
• Mercury is prevalent in the Arctic environment and in food species; more open water in the ocean and lakes increases tissue levels
• Marine biodiversity hotspots are emerging and being studied
• The Arctic is greening – e.g. tree-lines are marching north
• Permafrost melting and more precipitation cause water quality issues
Impact on Biodiversity
Research Focus
• Maintain independent, ongoing research in the North
• Better understanding air circulation – transfer of heat and contaminants
• Refine climate models of large-scale physical elements – sea ice
• Inclusion of traditional knowledge in research
• Understand the effect of contaminants on country foods
Research Focus
• Finding conservation management actions that include the new invasive species
• Incorporate technological innovations into biodiversity research – DNA barcoding, remote sensing and biodiversity informatics
• Find effective mechanisms to share biodiversity data freely and broadly
• Collaborative scientific approaches considering ecozones
• Get young HQPs involved in Arctic research
Impediments
• Traditional knowledge leaders and western scientists need mechanisms to interact
• No organized system for data sharing
• Information is lacking yet essential for economic, social and environmental awareness and decision making – meteorological, biodiversity, contaminants, social
• No program of full-scale, long - term discovery and monitoring of biodiversity
• Field stations and other infrastructure – access and on-going field-based research in the Arctic
• Funding is always an issue for nearly everything
Impediments
Public Engagement
• The Arctic is important and is under global influences
• Climate change is the single biggest social issue ever
• There is a human component to climate change in the Arctic – air temperature and precipitation
• The Arctic is warming more than other parts of the northern hemisphere – amplification from open ocean
Public Engagement
• Traditional uses of Arctic biodiversity are ongoing and important – essential to healthy communities
• There is a Nunavut Biosciences Corporation – e.g. products from seaweed, shrimps and medicinal plants
• Arctic developments should be based on environmental, social, traditional, and economic knowledge – sustainability of biodiversity resources
• The Arctic marine food web is dependent upon a rich diversity of phytoplankton (microscopic plants)
• Traditional use of marine mammals is sustainable over long periods and commercial whaling is not
• The last bits of sea ice will occur in Canada as well as all ice-adapted marine mammals
Other Observations
• Increased awareness about the Arctic – important & timely
• There are tremendous intangible value in the Arctic from the landscape and biodiversity
• International cooperation is necessary to address climate change issues in the Arctic – the Arctic Council as a possible mechanism
• National parks and reserves are good – located in areas predicted for the most rapid environmental changes
• There aren’t enough parks to conserve biological resources in the Arctic, considering the changes that are indicated
Other Observations
• Intensity of competition for Arctic resources will increase – China has more capacity to work in the Arctic than any other nation
• Huge infrastructure investments needed in the north to be competitive and keep pace with global developments
• Climate warming is real, adaptation by humans in the Arctic will be important – food, buildings, roads.
• Adaptations and mitigations need to occur in response to climate changes with a mechanism that allows for balance sustainability.
