News from Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program

Partner News

IPY Project in the Old Crow Flats, Yukon, Canada

USGS Yukon River Basin Studies

Climate Variability & Change in the Northwest Territories, Canada

Dolly Varden Char Management Planning in Gwich'in Settlement Area

Lakes of Alaska's Arctic Coastal Plains

Fish in Small Tundra Streams

Biological Communities in Arctic Streams

IPY Project in the Old Crow Flats, YukonYeendoo Nanh Nakhweenjit K'atr'ahanahtyaa: Environmental Change and Traditional Use of the Old Crow Flats in Northern Yukon is an IPY project that has been monitoring and evaluating the hydrology, limnology and wildlife biology of the Old Crow Flats (OCF) ecosystem since 2007. The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, the Vuntut Gwitchin Government, Environment Yukon and researchers from six universities have partnered on this project that is one of many IPY efforts to develop community-based freshwater ecosystem monitoring programs in the Arctic.

OCF water, sediment, algae and animal tissue samples are collected by local community members, then research teams assess and monitor spatial and temporal trends in lakewater balance, biological productivity, algal communities and wildlife abundance.

The datasets collected from each lake are evaluated to determine the relationships between the ecosystem components. The links between lake ecosystem characteristics and climatic trends will be used to understand and anticipate current and future states of the OCF ecology. Back to top.

U.S. Geological Survey, Yukon River Basin Studies
The U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and northern university faculty have initiated a 5-year study of the putative effects of warming induced lake drying on biodiversity, hydrology, soil carbon and landscape dynamics in Yukon River Basin wetlands. The biodiversity studies will be conducted by a suite of PhD graduate students who will use space-for-time sampling within a Generalized Random Tessellation Stratified (GRTS) spatially-balanced survey design to build spatially explicit models of biodiversity in wetlands. This sampling model will be adapted to provide the framework for subsequent long term monitoring in boreal wetlands. The empirically based and spatially explicit models of biodiversity, combined with remote-sensing-assisted projections of the future abundance, distribution, and characteristics of lakes will be used to project warming-induced changes in boreal wetland biodiversity, hydrology, and carbon sequestration that may result from a suite of climate warming scenarios. Post-project implementation of the monitoring design will provide a mechanism for testing and refining projected climate induced changes in boreal wetlands. Contact Brad Griffith, 907-474-5067, for further information on the biodiversity component of the project or Peter Murdoch for overall project information. Back to top.

Climate Variability and Change, and Tundra Lakes in the Northwest Territories, Canada
The goal of this project is to understand the effects of climate variability and change (using permafrost degradation as an analogy for changes under a warming climate) on the supply of nutrients to tundra lakes, and on the biological communities within the lakes.

From earlier work, it became evident that some of the small lakes' food webs may include small fish as a top-down control on the food-web structure. We were also interested in the food web of Noell Lake, as two of our study lakes drain into Noell.

In July 2009 we conducted food-web surveys on Noell Lake and the two small lakes that drain into Noell, and in August on nine small lakes northeast of Inuvik. Of the eleven small lakes originally thought to be fishless, four lakes do not host fish. The other seven locations hosted either ninespine stickleback, pond smelt, or northern pike.

In one case both stickleback and pond smelt were present. In one small lake, we also collected a juvenile burbot. At Noell Lake, the expected suite of fish species was collected, including lake trout. We also collected submerged macrophytes, pelagic zooplankton and benthic invertebrates using a seine net and zooplankton net tows.

Samples of all food-web organisms are currently under laboratory analyses to determine the structure/function of the food webs in these lakes using species.

We are conducting identification/quantification, stomach content analysis (on fish), paired with stable isotope analysis (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, and δ³⁴S). This work contributes to biodiversity research in Arctic freshwater systems by characterizing species composition and energetic dependencies within lake-food webs.

All field work was aided by members of the community of Inuvik and Aurora Research Institute (ARI).
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Dolly Varden Char Management Planning in Gwich'in Settlement Area
The Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board (GRRB) was established under the Gwich'in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement as the central body for wildlife, fish and forest management in the Gwich'in Settlement Area (GSA). Char management is a major focus of GRRB operations:

Char declines in the early 1990s initiated the Rat River Working Group (RRWG) to be developed with a mandate to manage the Rat River char population. The group includes all responsible management authorities in the GSA and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR).

The RRWG developed the Rat River Char Fishing Plan in 1996 and use it to guide successful management of northern form dolly varden char in the GSA.

Declines in char populations have prompted the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) to consider listing northern form dolly varden char under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).

Pre-COSEWIC assessment prompted the creation of the Integrated Fisheries Management Plan by representatives from several governing bodies. This plan determines co-management regulations in the GSA and ISR and may be adopted as an existing management strategy if char are listed under SARA. Community input is being sought on a draft of the plan during consultations in early 2010.

A report was commissioned to synthesize traditional knowledge (TK) of dolly varden for use in the COSEWIC assessment process. The TK in this report was verified by relevant GSR and ISR community members in a workshop held in February 2010. Back to top.

Lakes of Alaska's Arctic Coastal Plain

From 1995 to 2008 over 450 freshwater lakes between the Colville and Chipp rivers on the Arctic Coastal Plain were surveyed for fish presence, water quantity and water chemistry. Thirteen fish species were encountered, with ninespine stickleback occurring most frequently, being found in 43% of the surveyed lakes. Least cisco and broad whitefish were found in 36% and 20% of the lakes, respectively. Ninespine stickleback were widely dispersed across the region, while least cisco and other whitefishes tended to be found in lakes associated with stream systems that allowed access. Arctic grayling and ninespine stickleback were found in shallower lakes than other species; 26% of the lakes containing Arctic grayling were less than 2.5 m deep, while 33% of those containing ninespine stickleback were less than 2.5 m. Few other species were found in lakes shallower than 2.5 m.

These studies were partially funded by ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. Submitted by Lawrence Moulton, MJM Research (under contract to ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc.)
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Fish in Small Tundra Streams
Fish presence and habitat use were investigated in small tundra streams of eastern NPR-A, in the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain, from 2001 to 2009. Stream systems studied were tributaries to Fish Creek, which discharges into the Beaufort Sea adjacent to the Colville River. Fourteen fish species were documented in the streams during the period of study. Arctic grayling dominated the catches, representing over 57% of the catch, followed by ninespine stickleback at 35%.Broad whitefish fitted with radio tags moved extensively within the streams, with some moving out of the drainage into the adjacent Colville River for wintering, then returning for feeding in the following summer. Radio-tagged burbot and arctic grayling also moved extensively within the streams, but remained within the drainage. Shallow lakes up to 420 ha with strong connections to streams were used for feeding during summer, with fish moving out of the lakes to winter within deep sections of the streams. Four species of Pacific salmon were caught sporadically through the study period.

These studies were partially funded by ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. Submitted by Lawrence Moulton, MJM Research (under contract to ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc.)
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Climate Change, Water Sources and Influences on Biological Communities in Arctic Streams

Climate change in Arctic regions will alter the balance among river-basin water sources, i.e., rainfall, glacier melt, snowmelt and groundwater, and has the potential to modify streamflow quantity and quality regimes. Changes in diversity and composition of water-source contributions, such as modifications to key physicochemical determinants (particularly water temperature and channel stability), will have significant implications for biotic communities. Aquatic organisms may be vulnerable to these changes and must either adapt physiologically and/or genetically, or migrate to more suitable habitats to persist; this is likely to impact species distribution and community structure of invertebrate and fish biodiversity.

Both stream systems show clear longitudinal patterns in macroinvertebrate communities and where groundwater flow is a significant contributor to streamflow, diversity and abundance is higher. Changes in source contributions are quantified by ionic composition and stable isotopes.

Alexander Milner and David Hannah (School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham), and Lee Brown (School of Geography, University of Leeds) have been investigating these changes in two studies of Arctic stream systems: a five-year study of the glacier-fed Karsevagge system (near Abisko), Lappland, and a study that's just begun of the Bayelva system (near Ny Ålseund), Svalbard.

The Karsevagge system is unique because it includes two large lakes that should influence channel stability downstream and enhance water temperature. However, preliminary data indicates that this is not the case because of the apparent shallowness of the lakes, the rapid flow-through and the minimal increase in water temperature.

For more information on this research, please contact Alexander Milner.

Images: (Top) Gaging station on the Karsevagge; (bottom) Bayleva system. Back to top.