Canada’s Arctic Marine Biodiversity

Kathleen Conlan

Canadian Museum of Nature

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Canada’s Arctic Coast

• Canada’s Arctic marine coast embraces the Beaufort Sea to the west, dominated by the effects of the Mackenzie River

• and to the east, the vast island network of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

• Southward is Hudson’s Bay, Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay.

• Although south of 60, Newfoundland and Labrador are bathed by the cold Labrador Current and receive icebergs from Greenland.

• Biogeographic affinities: Pacific fauna moved eastwards after the Bering Strait opened about 3.5 mya

Marine biodiversity regions in the Canadian Arctic

• Mackenzie River

• Polynyas

• Shelf break and basins

• Canyons

• Sills and basins

• High current channels

• Bedrock

• Fjords

Beaufort Shelf Topography

• Through the use of acoustic profiling, we are finding that Canada’s Beaufort Shelf is anything but a featureless submerged plain.

• Methane gas and fluids seep upwards, creating pockmarks and mud volcanoes.

• Grounding ice keels gouge deep scours into the seabed. • Glaciofluvial outwash and lower sea-level shorelines

created significant sand deposits. • The oil industry has locally mined these sands leaving

deep pits. • Abandoned exploration drilling islands have now become

hazards to navigation. 

Science Data Inventory Database

• Canada has a science data inventory database which will aid investigators in finding biodiversity information for the Arctic

• http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/regions/central/index_e.htm

• 247 Canadian Arctic marine records covering 1910-2000

Known Arctic Marine Biodiversity in Canada

• ? Kinds of viruses

• ? Kinds of microbes

• 1098 species of invertebrates

• 190 species of fish

• about 20 species of seabirds

• 8 species of marine mammals

Population Distributions in the Canadian Arctic

• Belugas have eastern and western populations, though there is some interchange. Western population congregates near the Mackenzie inflow in the summer then disperses westwards. Eastern population congregates in Radstock Bay, Somerset Island, then disperses to Greenland for the winter.

• Polar bears: there are different populations too; Hudson Bay population is threatened by climate warming

• Bowheads: western healthier than the eastern

Some Marine Research Programs in the Canadian Arctic

• NOW: International Northwater Polynya Study

• Beaufort Seabed Mapping Program

• CASES: Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study

• ArcticNet: Understanding the impact of global warming on the Arctic

NOW: International North Water Polynya Study

http://www.fsg.ulaval.ca/giroq/now/

Beaufort Seabed Mapping Program

• Geological Survey of Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canadian Museum of Nature

CASES

CASES:

Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study

http:www.giroq.ulaval.ca/cases/

JWACS:

Joint Western Arctic Climate Study

Carmacke@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

CASES

ArcticNet

• www.newswire.ca/releases/August2003/26/c4568.html

CASES

Accommodation and logistics

• Aurora Research Institute (http://www.aurresint.nt.ca/index.htm)

• Nunavut Research Institute (http://pooka.nunanet.com/~research/)

• Polar Continental Shelf Project (http://polar.nrcan.gc.ca/home_e.html)

Canadian Coast Guard ship support: http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/

Louis S. St-Laurent Amundsen

Sir Wilfrid Laurier NahidikCanadian Coast Guard