Search

Amid Earth's ongoing sixth mass extinction event, numerous measures have been proposed to recover the populations of species at risk of extinction. However, the methods and objectives of different species' recovery plans sometimes conflict with each other, causing a conundrum we refer to as recovery–action antagonism. Recovery–action antagonism reduces the cost‐effectiveness of conservation programs and can increase the extinction risk of nontarget species. We describe a method to identify interactions between recovery actions, including antagonisms proposed for different at‐risk species in a given location. The method includes a process to evaluate potential drivers of recovery‐action antagonism and other interaction types using principal coordinates analysis and distance‐based redundancy analysis. We illustrate various applications of the method through case studies performed in Pelee Island and Rouge National Urban Park, two biodiverse areas in Ontario, Canada. Potential antagonism was identified between 1.5% (Pelee) and 5% (Rouge) of the evaluated recovery actions. Although the rate of antagonism was low in our case studies, the method allows the identification of a variety of interactions, which can help to prioritize similar and complementary actions that will benefit a large number of species while minimizing actions that may have competing outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post‐harvest recovery of biodiversity is one of important goals in modern forestry. A variable retention (VR) approach has been of particular interest in North America because it promotes rapid faunal recovery, while minimizing negative lasting impacts of logging on the natural fauna. We studied responses of rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) to a broad range of retention harvests (2, 10, 20, 50 and 75% retention) in comparison to uncut controls as part of the Ecosystem Management Emulating Natural Disturbance (EMEND) experiment in the boreal mixedwood forest of western Canada. We sampled beetles using pitfall traps 1, 2, 11 and 16 years post‐harvest in replicated (n = 3) stands representing four cover types (deciduous‐dominated, deciduous with spruce understory, mixed and coniferous‐dominated). We collected 74 263 individuals distributed across 99 species (excluding Aleocharinae). Estimated species richness was highest in clear‐cuts until year 11, but by year 16 species richness was similar among treatments. Species composition initially varied strongly in relation to intensity of harvest treatments, but overall variation decreased with time, and by year 16, species composition overlapped among most treatment combinations. Assemblages recovered more quickly in early successional (deciduous‐dominated) than in late successional (mixed and conifer‐dominated) stands. Overall, our results show that rove beetle assemblages in stands harvested to all VR prescriptions converged more rapidly toward those in fire‐origin mature stands than did assemblages in clear‐cuts over the first 16 years post‐harvest. Thus, it demonstrates that even modest levels of forest retention can facilitate the recovery of staphylinid assemblages in managed landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily polar-orbiting satellite MODIS thermal detections since 2002 were used as the baseline for quantifying wildfire activity in the mixed grass and agricultural lands of southernmost central Canada. This satellite thermal detection record includes both the responsible use of fire (e.g. for clearing crop residues, grassland ecosystem management, and traditional burning) and wildfires in grasslands and agricultural lands that pose a risk to communities and other values. A database of known wildfire evacuations and fires otherwise requiring suppression assistance from provincial forest fire agencies was used to train a model that classified satellite fire detections based on weather, seasonality, and other environmental conditions. A separate dataset of high resolution (Landsat 8 thermal anomalies) of responsible agricultural fire use (e.g. crop residue burning) was collected and used to train the classification model to the converse. Key common attributes of wildfires in the region included occurrence on or before the first week of May with high rates of grass curing, wind speeds over 30 km h -1 , relative humidity values typically below 40 %, and fires that are detected in the mid-afternoon or evening. Overall, grassland wildfire is found to be restricted to a small number of days per year, allowing for the future development of public awareness and warning systems targeted to the identified subset of weather and phenological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forested peatlands are widespread in the boreal landscape, but their role as carbon (C) pools remains poorly documented. In this study, we investigated the long-term C sequestration function of boreal forested bogs in relation to fires in eastern Canada. Results show that the forested peatlands comprise substantial peat C mass reaching values similar to open peatlands. At the six studied peatland sites, the amount of C stored in peat (62–172 kg C m−2) exceeds substantially the aboveground tree biomass C (1.5–5.3 kg C m−2). The C locked up in live conifers on the peatlands corresponds only to a small fraction of the C stored in peat (1–6%). In comparison, the shallow organic layer (≤ 30 cm) in the adjacent paludifying stands store 10.8 kg C m−2 on average, which is about twice as much C as the live conifers. Long-term apparent C accumulation rates are relatively low in the studied forested bogs (mean: 15.9 g C m−2 y−1), suggesting that these ecosystems have lower C sequestration potential than non-forested bogs over millennia. The charcoal data suggest that past local fires reduced C sequestration rates, but these peatlands burn much less frequently than upland forests and are thus more efficient long-term C stores. This study highlights the importance of boreal forested peatlands as C reservoirs and helps understanding how fires, logging and climate change can affect their C sequestration function. These findings have important implications for ecosystem management that aims at maximizing C sequestration at the landscape level to mitigate climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Developed a guidance framework for the selection and evaluation of indicators. • Selected a suite of parsimonious, complementary indicators using clear criteria. • Applied the framework to the Scotian Shelf Bioregion, at multiple spatial scales. • Patterns of redundancy among indicators generally consistent at all spatial scales. • The Scotian Shelf has endured huge negative change with limited signs of recovery. Ecosystem indicators are key to understanding, assessing, and managing ecosystems and to implementing an Ecosystem Approach to Management. We present a guidance framework for the selection and evaluation of indicators for assessment of ecosystem status, trends monitoring and reporting and apply it to the Scotian Shelf Bioregion, Nova Scotia, Canada. In particular, we focus on the selection of a parsimonious suite of complementary indicators using clear criteria and hierarchical cluster analysis to reduce redundancy in the indicator suite. In applying the framework to the Scotian Shelf Bioregion we separate the region into a range of spatial scales for indicator estimation to determine the impact of spatial aggregation on indicator redundancy. Overall results suggest patterns of redundancy among indicators were generally consistent at all spatial scales. Differences in indicator trends for eastern and western Scotian Shelf were observed, reflecting their different environmental properties and fishing histories. In a few cases, spatial differences in indicators trends were large enough to remove these indicators from a cluster representing all spatial scales. We recommend that the Redundancy Analysis should be repeated every 5–10 years to ensure that the clusters are still strong and that the indicator selected to represent the cluster is still optimal. Overall, the assessment of the Scotian Shelf Bioregion highlighted large coherent trends across indicators and attributes at all spatial scales indicating that this system has undergone massive, negative change since 1970. Despite reductions in fishing pressure in many fisheries through resource management actions, most attributes have not improved in recent years. This Framework represents a general approach that can be extended to additional system goals, attributes and indicators and is widely applicable across data rich and data poor systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic ecosystems are constantly changing due to natural and anthropogenic stressors. When dealing with such 'moving targets', one of the greatest challenges faced by scientists, managers and policy makers is to use appropriate time scales for environmental assessments. However, most aquatic systems lack monitoring data, and if a programme does exist, rarely have data been collected for more than a few years. Hence, it is often difficult or impossible to determine the nature and timing of ecosystem changes based on these short-term datasets. Furthermore, as environmental assessments are typically performed after a problem is identified, critical data regarding pre-disturbance (or reference) conditions are rarely available. Here, I summarize some recent studies employing lake sediment analyses (i.e. palaeolimnology) that have provided retrospective assessments of ecosystem changes that have been emerging slowly and often innocuously 'under the radar'. My examples include the identification of legacy effects of acid rain and logging, namely long-term declines in calcium concentrations in softwater lakes, which have led to significant repercussions for ecosystem services. I then show that past trajectories of aerial pollution from the burgeoning oil sands operations of western Canada can be tracked using environmental proxies preserved in dated sediment cores, and how these data can be used to determine the relative contributions of natural versus industrial sources of pollutants. I conclude by reviewing how palaeolimnological analyses have linked climate change with the proliferation of harmful blue-green algal (cyanobacterial) blooms, even without the addition of limiting nutrients. Collectively, these studies show that effective ecosystem management, particularly for incremental environmental stressors, requires temporal sampling windows that are not readily available with standard monitoring, but can be supplemented with high-resolution lake sediment analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Mitigation and offset programs designed to compensate for ecosystem function losses due to development must balance losses from affected ecosystems with gains in restored ecosystems. Aggregation rules applied to ecosystem functions to assess site equivalence are based on implicit assumptions about the substitutability of functions among sites and can profoundly influence the distribution of restored ecosystem functions on the landscape. We investigated the consequences of rules applied to the aggregation of ecosystem functions for wetland offsets in the Beaverhill watershed in Alberta, Canada. We considered the fate of 3 ecosystem functions: hydrology, water purification, and biodiversity. We set up an affect‐and‐offset algorithm to simulate the effect of aggregation rules on ecosystem function for wetland offsets. Cobenefits and trade‐offs among functions and the constraints posed by the quantity and quality of restorable sites resulted in a redistribution of functions between affected and offset wetlands. Hydrology and water purification functions were positively correlated with one another and negatively correlated with biodiversity function. Weighted‐average rules did not replace functions in proportion to their weights. Rules prioritizing biodiversity function led to more monofunctional wetlands and landscapes. The minimum rule, for which the wetland score was equal to the worst performing function, promoted multifunctional wetlands and landscapes. The maximum rule, for which the wetland score was equal to the best performing function, promoted monofunctional wetlands and multifunctional landscapes. Because of implicit trade‐offs among ecosystem functions, no‐net‐loss objectives for multiple functions should be constructed within a landscape context. Based on our results, we suggest criteria for the design of aggregation rules for no net loss of ecosystem functions within a landscape context include the concepts of substitutability, cobenefits and trade‐offs, landscape constraints, heterogeneity, and the precautionary principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report summarizes the outcome of the PAGES Global Paleofire Working Group workshop 2017 that took place in Montreal, Canada - Paleofire knowledge for current and future ecosystem management. The workshop aimed to (1) discuss the importance of past fire or paleofire research, focused on long-term influence of fire on the environments worldwide, in nature conservation, (2) find ways to integrate scientific achievements of paleofire research into ecosystem management practices, and (3) start the dialogue with ecosystem managers, practitioners and policymakers (EMPPs). With this report, the members of the Global Paleofire Working Group would like to open a discussion about how igniting new collaborations with EMPPs and make paleofire data useful for fire risk management. We recognized four main challenges in communication and cooperation between scientists and EMPPs: little awareness of EMPPs about paleofire research, differences in professional language used in an operational context by scientists and EMPPs, scientific data availability, and costs of paleoecological expertise. Moreover, we indicate the way to improve the communication between scientists and EMPPs by proposing a scheme of cooperation between both groups. We want to encourage researchers working in various fields of paleoecology to open up for the cooperation with EMPPs in the future, especially helping to create ecosystem management plans, because paleoecological data carry important information about the evolution of ecosystems that is vital in the context of global change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As our view of disturbances such as wildfire has shifted from prevention to recognizing their ecological necessity, so too forest management has evolved from timber-focused even-aged management to more holistic paradigms like ecosystem-based management. Emulation of natural disturbance (END) is a variant of ecosystem management that recognizes the importance of disturbance for maintaining ecological integrity. For END to be a successful model for forest management we need to describe disturbance regimes and implement management actions that emulate them, in turn achieving our objectives for forest structure and function. We review the different components of fire regimes (cause, frequency, extent, timing, and magnitude), we describe low-, mixed-, and high-severity fire regimes, and we discuss key issues related to describing these regimes. When characterizing fire regimes, different methods and spatial and temporal extents result in wide variation of estimates for different fire regime components. Comparing studies is difficult as few measure the same components; some methods are based on the assumption of a high-severity fire regime and are not suited to detecting mixed- or low-severity regimes, which are critical to END management, as this would affect retention in harvested areas. We outline some difficulties with using fire regimes as coarse filters for forest management, including ( i) not fully understanding the interactions between fire and other disturbance agents, ( ii) assuming that fire is strictly an exogenous disturbance agent that exerts top-down control of forest structure while ignoring numerous endogenous and bottom-up feedbacks on fire effects, and ( iii) assuming by only replicating natural disturbance patterns we preserve ecological processes and vital ecosystem components. Even with a good understanding of a fire regime, we would still be challenged with choosing the temporal and spatial scope for the disturbance regime we are trying to emulate. We cannot yet define forest conditions that will arise from variations in disturbance regime; this then limits our ability to implement management actions that will achieve those conditions. We end by highlighting some important knowledge gaps about fire regimes and how the END model could be strengthened to achieve a more sustainable form of forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 25 years, greater understanding of natural dynamics in the boreal forest has led to the integration of forest ecosystem management principles into forest policy of several Canadian provinces and, in turn, to greater interest in developing silvicultural treatments that are grounded in natural stand-level dynamics – often referred to as natural disturbance-based silviculture. As a result, alternative silvicultural practices including variants of partial cutting are increasingly being applied in the boreal forest as an approach to balancing economic and ecological management objectives. While the numerous benefits of partial cutting reported in the literature are acknowledged, the objective of this paper is to provide an overview of factors or constraints that potentially limit the application of these practices in boreal Canada in the context of forest ecosystem management and natural disturbance-based silviculture. Among constraining factors, numerous studies have reported elevated mortality rates of residual stems following partial cutting, initial growth stagnation of residual trees, problems related to recruitment of desirable species and, on certain flat or lowland sites, risks of long-term decline in site and stand productivity. A number of operational challenges to partial cutting in the boreal forest are also presented and several avenues of research are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conservation practitioners widely recognize the importance of making decisions based on the best available evidence. However, the effectiveness of evidence use in conservation planning is rarely assessed, which limits opportunities to improve evidence-based practice. We devised a mixed methodology for empirically evaluating use of evidence that applies social science tools to systematically appraise what kinds of evidence are used in conservation planning, to what effect, and under what limitations. We applied our approach in a case study of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), a leading land conservation organization. We conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses of 65 NCC planning documents (n = 13 in-depth) to identify patterns in evidence use, and surveyed 35 conservation planners to examine experiences of and barriers to using evidence. Although claims in plans contained a wide range of evidence types, 26% of claims were not referenced or associated with an identifiable source. Lack of evidence use was particularly apparent in claims associated with direct threats, particularly those identified as low (71% coded as insufficient or lacking evidence) or medium (45%) threats. Survey participants described relying heavily on practitioner experience and highlighted capacity limitations and disciplinary gaps in expertise among planning teams as barriers to using evidence effectively. We found that although time-intensive, this approach yielded actionable recommendations for improving evidence use in NCC conservation plans. Similar mixed-method assessments may streamline the process by including interviews and refining the document analysis frames to target issues or sections of concern. We suggest our method provides an accessible and robust point of departure for conservation practitioners to evaluate whether the use of conservation planning reflects in-house standards and more broadly recognized best practices., (© 2021 Society for Conservation Biology.)

Understanding windthrow is essential for the implementation of ecosystem management, especially in forests with long fire return intervals. Our study describes windthrow dynamics at a landscape scale of the Quebec North Shore region, Canada, and evaluates the effect of some site (soil surface material thickness or deposit thickness, drainage, slope, topography and wind), and stand (dominant species, height and density) characteristics on windthrow probabilities. The SIFORT database, created by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Wildlife of Quebec, the Quebec forest fire control agency and the Quebec forest pest and disease control agency, was used to perform a spatiotemporal analysis of windthrow, according to site and stand characteristics. Windthrow probabilities were influenced by topographic exposure (topex), slope classes and deposit thickness. Windthrow probabilities increased with topographic exposure. Windthrow occurrence was highest when deposit was thick (more than 1 m) and slope class was medium (from 15 to 30 per cent). Finally, this study has shown the importance of partial windthrow at the landscape scale in the North Shore region. Thus our results suggest that from an ecosystem management perspective, clear-cutting must be partly replaced by partial cuts, in order to emulate the regional dynamics of partial windthrow. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims Combining field data analysis and modeling, this study investigates factors influencing the diurnal boundary layer (BL) development in boreal forest. Methods Field data analysis used both air sounding and surface flux measurements collected during the Boreal Ecosystem–Atmosphere Study field campaigns in central Canada. Model study applied a non-local transilient turbulence theory (TTT) to simulate the impact of the heterogeneous boundary conditions together with initial conditions on the BL development at the Candle Lake and Thompson release sites over boreal forests. Boundary conditions were characterized by the integrated surface flux measurements from different forest stands. The lake effect was included in constructing the surface fluxes at Candle Lake release site. Important Findings Analyses of serial upper air sounding data and tower flux data indicate strong linear impacts of surface sensible heat forcing on the diurnal BL development above boreal forests. The regression slopes on the relationship between the BL development and the surface fluxes reflect the influences of initial boundary conditions to the BL developments. Both the modeled and the measured diurnal BLs show that lakes reduce sensible heat flux, leading to a shallower boundary in Candle Lake than in Thompson. Comparison of the model results and field measurements on the BL profiles indicates that the TTT model has the capability to simulate the BL development above boreal forests for sunny, rainfall or cloudy days. This study demonstrates the importance of lake on surface fluxes and BL development. The modeling effort shows the potential to couple the transilient theory with a land surface process model to study land surface and atmosphere interaction in boreal forest. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The interactive effects of climate change and invasive alien species (IAS) pose serious threats to biodiversity, ecosystems and human well-being worldwide. In particular, IAS are predicted to experience widespread changes in distribution in response to climate change, with many expanding their ranges into new areas. However, the two drivers of global change are seldom considered together in policy and management. We conducted a knowledge synthesis to assess the state of research on IAS range shifts under climate change in Canada. We found that the study of IAS distribution changes caused by climate change is a relatively new field of inquiry that integrates research in the areas of ecology, conservation biology, and environmental sciences. The multidisciplinary dimensions of the issue are largely overlooked in the scholarly literature, with most studies having a purely natural science perspective. Very little original research has occurred in the field to date; instead literature reviews are common. Research focuses on modeling range changes of current IAS threats, rather than predicting potential future IAS threats. The most commonly studied IAS already occur in Canada as native species that have spread beyond their range (e.g., lyme disease, mountain pine beetle, smallmouth bass) or as established invaders (e.g., gypsy moth). All of these IAS are expected to expand northward with climate change, resulting in widespread negative impacts on forest and freshwater biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and public health. Many barriers to predicting IAS range change under climate change are identified in the literature, including the complexity of the issue, lack of ecological data, and failure to integrate climate change - IAS interactions into research, policy, and management. Recommendations for increased research and monitoring, and the need for policy and management reform predominate in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada is a large nation with forested ecosystems that occupy over 60% of the national land base, and knowledge of the patterns of Canada's land cover is important to proper environmental management of this vast resource. To this end, a circa 2000 Landsat-derived land cover map of the forested ecosystems of Canada has created a new window into understanding the composition and configuration of land cover patterns in forested Canada. Strategies for summarizing such large expanses of land cover are increasingly important, as land managers work to study and preserve distinctive areas, as well as to identify representative examples of current land-cover and land-use assemblages. Meanwhile, the development of extremely efficient clustering algorithms has become increasingly important in the world of computer science, in which billions of pieces of information on the internet are continually sifted for meaning for a vast variety of applications. One recently developed clustering algorithm quickly groups large numbers of items of any type in a given data set while simultaneously selecting a representative-or 'exemplar'-from each cluster. In this context, the availability of both advanced data processing methods and a nationally available set of landscape metrics presents an opportunity to identify sets of representative landscapes to better understand landscape pattern, variation, and distribution across the forested area of Canada. In this research, we first identify and provide context for a small, interpretable set of exemplar landscapes that objectively represent land cover in each of Canada's ten forested ecozones. Then, we demonstrate how this approach can be used to identify flagship and satellite long-term study areas inside and outside protected areas in the province of Ontario. These applications aid our understanding of Canada's forest while augmenting its management toolbox, and may signal a broad range of applications for this versatile approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the major management tools that are utilized to resolve coastal zone problems, including the integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) and ecosystem-based management (EBM). It reviews several research areas that could be used in coastal management, such as marine spatial planning (MSP), ecological modelling, and the tools to communicate science to managers. It cites the U.S. National Estuary Program (NEP) as an example of EBM for the management of estuaries. The Atlantic Coastal Action Program (ACAP) is an example of EBM in Canada.

To provide habitat for late-successional wildlife species, new ecosystem-based forest management practices aim to retain elements of complex stand structure, including live residual trees, dead wood legacies, and advanced regeneration, within managed stands. Predicting the effectiveness of these strategies is a challenge for species whose habitat relationships may involve multiple factors and can vary among sites. For 2 years, we live-trapped a common, late-successional microtine rodent, the southern red-backed vole (Myodes [formerly Clethrionomys] gapperi), in 40 1.4-ha boreal mixed-wood sites in Ontario, Canada. Using a neighborhood-scale modeling approach, we related red-backed vole capture locations to spatially referenced measures of overstory trees, shrubs and saplings, downed woody debris (DWD), and forest floor substrate. We further assessed how associations with these features varied with availability of the features within a site and as a function of stand management history. In spring, red-backed voles were associated with trap stations that had, within a 26-m radius, a dense shrub layer, abundant late-decay DWD, coniferous understory and litter, and possibly, understory vegetation associated with moist conditions. Positive associations with shrub cover, late-decay DWD, and a moisture-associated understory were most apparent in sites in which these elements were scarce (e.g., <1,500 stems/ha of hardwood saplings and short shrubs; <0.8% projected ground cover of late-decay DWD). The importance of late-decay DWD; shade-tolerant, coniferous understory composition; and substrate varied depending on a site's management history, with each feature having a strong positive effect in 47-64-year-old stands that were harvested using horse skidding and weaker effects in both 31-40-year-old stands that were clearcut with mechanical skidding and >80-year-old fire-origin stands. Our models of fine-scale habitat relationships for red-backed voles may be useful in establishing structural retention guidelines suitable for wildlife species dependent on late-successional habitat structure. In this regard, retaining abundant DWD and 10-30% live trees at harvest may be effective management strategies for providing favorable habitat conditions at localized scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key challenge of ecosystem management is determining how to manage multiple ecosystem services across landscape. Enhancing important provisioning ecosystem services, such as food and timber, often leads to tradeoffs between regulating and cultural ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling, flood protection, and tourism. We developed a framework for analyzing the provision of multiple eco-system services across landscapes and present an empirical demonstration of ecosystem service bundles, sets of services that appear together repeatedly. Ecosystem service bundles were identified by analyzing the spatial patterns of 12 ecosystem services in a mixed-use landscape consisting of 137 municipalities in Quebec, Canada. We identified six types of ecosystem service bundles and were able to link these bundles to areas on the landscape characterized by distinct social-ecological dynamics. Our results show landscape- scale tradeoffs between provisioning and almost all regulating and culturalecosystem services, and they show that a greater diversity of ecosystem services is positively correlated with the provision of regulating ecosystem services. Ecosystem service-bundle analysis can identify areas on a landscape where ecosystem management has produced exceptionally desirable or undesirable sets of ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals have permeated global ecosystems, crossing international boundaries to contaminate people far from initial sources of production and consumption. Not only do toxic residues complicate political boundaries, they also confuse temporal distinctions, for their legacies persist long after they have been banned. Moreover, the risks of exposure to these chemicals are rarely equitably distributed in a human population. This article examines chemical exposures in four indigenous communities in the United States and Canada, arguing that quantitative risk assessment protocols have failed to protect these communities from harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses climate change and the peripheral populations' conservation in Canada. It notes the debate that has sparked over the inclusion of peripheral populations in the national species conservation and the three population-level responses such as range migration, adaptation, and extirpation. It indicates that the range of species maybe squeezed if the leading edge of peripheral populations is threatened by other anthropogenic pressures. It proposes that better understanding of the dynamic processes of conservation biology and the practice of conservation is important in conserving the at-risk species in the country.

The establishment of protected areas is seen as one solution to preserve remaining components of natural ecosystems. However, the preservation role of protected areas may conflict with human activities such as industrial development and tourism. Canada's Banff National Park (BNP) hosts about 3 million visitors per year, has approximately 8000 full-time residents, and is bisected by nationally significant rail and road transportation routes. The upgrading of the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) from two to four lanes within BNP has highlighted the park's conflicting roles. The TCH in BNP has been subject to pioneering efforts to reduce its negative effects on wildlife mortality and movement. Over 12 years of monitoring, BNP's highway mitigation measures have made this stretch of road one of the most intensely studied in the world. Both adaptive management and flexible institutional arrangements made this effort possible. The results of monitoring studies are being shared with a broad audience, from transportation practitioners and ecologists to the general public and school children. By learning more about the success of highway mitigation, a community of informed citizens is taking shape and becoming active in their understanding of nature and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystems are complex and difficult to predict and control. Western science-based societies have tended to simplify ecosystems to manage them. Some indigenous and other rural groups who interact closely with a given resource system seem to have developed practices that are adapted to live with complexity. This paper examines how indigenous Cree hunters in James Bay, subarctic Canada, understand and deal with ecological complexity and dynamics, and how their understanding of uncertainty and variability shape subsistence activities. The focus is the Canada goose ( Branta canadensis) hunt which is adaptive to shifts and changes in local and regional conditions. Ecological understandings of Cree hunters allow them to account for and deal with a very large number of variables at multiples scales. The Cree deal with these variables qualitatively, an approach consistent with some scientific ways of dealing with complexity, such as adaptive management and fuzzy logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian prairies represent one of the world's great breadbaskets, supplying people all over the world with agricultural commodities ranging from various grains, through legumes and oilseeds, to both grain and grass-fed meat products. However, the expansion and intensification of Canadian agriculture in the last century has significantly altered the structure and degraded the function of prairie ecosystems. This, combined with climate change, has put the ecological sustainability of the region at risk and raises questions about the region's ability to continue supporting millions of distant consumers. We use variants of two existing sustainability assessment tools, material flows analysis (MFA) and ecological footprint analysis (EFA) to estimate the terrestrial ecosystem area and other physical inputs used on the Canadian prairies to satisfy export demand and to link this production to documented processes of ecological degradation. We discuss the implications of this interregional framework for impact analysis and conclude that, in a globalizing, ecologically full-world, trade-dependence implies previously-ignored risks to both importers and exporters. The results underscore the importance for all countries to protect or restore their own natural capital assets and enhance their self-reliance. Citizens and their governments, particularly of countries that have become irreversibly import-dependent, have a direct interest in ensuring that the ecosystems that support them are sustainably managed, wherever in the world the latter may be located. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The scientific community, forest managers, environmental organizations, carbon-offset trading systems and policy-makers require tools to account for forest carbon stocks and carbon stock changes. In this paper we describe updates to the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) implemented over the past years. This model of carbon-dynamics implements a Tier 3 approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Good Practice Guidance for reporting on carbon stocks and carbon stock changes resulting from Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry (LULUCF). The CBM-CFS3 is a generic modelling framework that can be applied at the stand, landscape and national levels. The model provides a spatially referenced, hierarchical system for integrating datasets originating from different forest inventory and monitoring programs and includes a structure that allows for tracking of land areas by different land-use and land-use change classes. Ecosystem pools in CBM-CFS3 can be easily mapped to IPCC-defined pools and validated against field measurements. The model uses sophisticated algorithms for converting volume to biomass and explicitly simulates individual annual disturbance events (natural and anthropogenic). Several important scientific updates have been made to improve the representation of ecosystem structure and processes from previous versions of CBM-CFS. These include: (1) an expanded representation of dead organic matter and soil carbon, particularly standing dead trees, and a new algorithm for initializing these pools prior to simulation, (2) a change in the input data requirement for simulating growth from biomass to readily available merchantable volume curves, and new algorithms for converting volume to biomass, (3) improved prediction of belowground biomass, and (4) improved parameters for soil organic matter decay, fire, insect disturbances, and forest management. In addition, an operational-scale version of CBM-CFS3 is freely... [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The boreal forest, earth''s second largest terrestrial biome, is currently thought to be an important net carbon sink for the atmosphere. In this study, a newly developed carbon exchange model of TRIPLEX-Flux (with half-hourly time step) is used to simulate the ecosystem carbon exchange of a 75-year-old boreal mixedwood forest stand in northeast Ontario and a 110-year-old pure black spruce stand in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Results of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) simulated by TRIPLEX-Flux for 2004 are compared with those measured by eddy-flux towers and suggest overall agreement between model simulation and observations. The mean coefficient of determination (R 2) is approximately 0.77 for boreal mixedwood and 0.62 for old black spruce. Differences between model simulation and observation may be attributed to uncertainties not only in model input parameters and calibration, but also in eddy-flux measurements caused by systematic and random errors. The model is able to capture the diurnal variations of NEE for the growing season (from May to August) of 2004 for both sites. Both boreal mixedwood and old black spruce were acting as carbon sinks for the atmosphere during the growing season of 2004. However, the boreal mixedwood stand shows higher ecosystem productivity, carbon sequestration, and carbon use efficiency than the old black spruce stand. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Peatland ground layer species composition is intricately tied to ecosystem function (for example, carbon storage). As the primary disturbance in boreal bogs, wildfire selectively removes the ground layer vegetation, creating heterogeneous habitat conditions and initiating succession. However, the successional trajectory of the ground layer community following fire is poorly understood. Here we assess spatial and temporal changes in community composition along a chronosequence of post-fire bogs (1–105 years since fire) in north central Alberta, Canada. We established vegetation plots in 13 bogs and repeatedly monitored them from 2003–2006. We found three phases of the post-fire bog community, grading from pioneer true moss (for example, Polytrichum strictum) dominance soon post-fire (<10 ysf) to persistent Sphagnum dominance in mature sites (20–80 ysf) with partial replacement by feathermosses (for example, Pleurozium schreberi) in older bogs (>80 ysf). Mature bogs dominated by Sphagnum fuscum had the greatest species richness, although species evenness was low. Spatial heterogeneity of ground layer community composition was bimodal, peaking approximately 10 ysf (co-occurrence of true mosses and Sphagnum) and more than 80 ysf when feathermosses encroach and break-up Sphagnum dominance, resulting in inverse relationships of community species richness and diversity along the post-fire recovery gradient. Based on these results, we develop a conceptual model of post-fire bog recolonization and succession, in which microtopography, soil moisture, and combustion severity interact, thereby presenting the first comprehensive description of the spatio-temporal post-fire successional trajectory of the bog ground layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which investigates woodpecker foraging patterns in infested trees with, and without monosodium methanearsonate (MSA) treatment using a combination of tree debarking indices, point count surveys and radio telemetry methods in addition to insect flight traps to measure mountain pine beetle emergence in British Columbia, Canada. Results show that debarking indices indicated woodpecker foraging of MSMA-treated trees was significantly lower than nontreated trees in all sampling years. It is noted that the results identifies the potential negative effect that forest management practices using pesticides can have on woodpecker populations that depend on bark beetles and their host trees.

Dense nesting cover (DNC) has been a conspicuous component of habitat management for upland-nesting ducks for >30 years, but its benefits for nesting ducks have been contentious. During 1994-1999 we monitored 3,058 dabbling duck (Anas spp.) nests in 84 DNC fields located throughout the Canadian Parklands to examine sources of among-field variation in nest density and nesting success. Nest density averaged 1.51 (SE = 0.15) nests/ha and overall nesting success was 20.4%, but there was pronounced annual variation in both estimates. Nesting success increased with increasing field size (range = 6-111 ha), but nest density remained constant. Nest density increased with percent wetland habitat within DNC fields and declined with percent perennial cover in the surrounding 2.4 x 2.4-km landscape, but these variables were not important for predicting nesting success. Nest abundance and nesting success roughly doubled in fields seeded with alfalfa (Medicago sativa) or sweet clovers (Melilotus spp.), but there was no benefit from using native as opposed to tame grasses. We recommend that waterfowl managers in the Canadian Parklands establish DNC with alfalfa in large fields in landscapes with abundant wetlands but minimal competing cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the time of this study, Sir Sandford Fleming College’s (Lindsay, Ontario, Canada) Ecosystem Management (EM) diploma program offered two mandatory third year college community based (CCB) courses. These team-based courses were designed to promote an understanding of scientific methodology and to refine field research and team skills. Although CCB curriculum entailed workgroups consisting of students (two to three), an EM agent (i.e., from the community), and a faculty member, it offered no formal training in collaboration or natural resource conflict resolution; nevertheless, these were expected outcomes. Through this descriptive study, the authors sought to comprehend the shared and unique views of the CCB curriculum in terms of its contribution, if any, in the preparation of individuals to resolve natural resource conflict through collaboration for ecohealth (referred to as NRCE herein). The key finding indicated that the CCB curriculum required moderate change to help individuals prepare for NRCE. The primary finding suggests the introduction of a preparatory CCB course (i.e., replacing the fall semester CCB course), which focuses on: (a) teams, collaboration, conflict, and participation; (b) the roles of the participants (students, agents, and faculty); and (c) assessment of the individuals (i.e., in terms of previous related experiences). This new course would also provide opportunities for the administrators to ensure that resources (i.e., human and other), time, and the infrastructure (i.e., facilities and technology) required for each team project in the subsequent CCB course are available, efficient, and adequate. Additionally, secondary curriculum changes were recommended for the preparation of individuals to resolve natural resource conflict through collaboration for ecohealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Net ecosystem productivity (NEP) is a key ecological variable in forestry and carbon sequestration sciences. Advances in eddy-covariance instrumentation in recent years have improved the accuracy to which productivity in ecosystems can be measured. However, equipment failure, power outages, system maintenance shutdowns, and inclement weather frequently introduce gaps in the measurement data stream, which can reduce the integrity, usefulness, and interpretation of the data. To compensate for these limitations, a simple NEP model with few automatically adjustable parameters is developed to improve gap filling of discontinuous time series. Initial model formulation and parameter-value determination are founded on 2004 growing-season NEP measurements collected at eight Fluxnet-Canada (FCRN) stations (i.e., eight ecosystems) from across Canada's southern commercial forest zone. A preliminary inter-equation comparison of three commonly used flux equations, all with photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) as the independent variable, revealed that the three equations provided similar mean description of NEP. In this paper, we use Landsberg''s equation [Landsberg, J.J., 1977. Some useful equations for biological studies. Exp. Agric. 13, 272–286] in modelling NEP. Initial parameter values of the Landsberg''s equation were shown to depend on forest species composition, stand age, and existing site conditions. Further analysis indicated that on average for a 9-day period for the Atlantic Maritime balsam fir site in New Brunswick, Landsberg''s equation represented mean NEP very well for cloudy days, but performed poorly when light conditions deviated from average conditions. We hypothesized that variation in the level of diffuse and direct radiation contributed to differences in light response. As Landsberg''s equation does not explicitly address (i) light quality, i.e., level of diffuse to direct illumination, and (ii) vertical canopy structure, a simple NEP model combining Landsberg''s equation with a two big-leaf (sunlit versus shade leaf model concept) and multiple-layer canopy light transmission formulation was developed for modelling the day-to-day variation in NEP and for gap filling. Results from these enhancements captured more of the NEP peaks (coefficient of determination, r 2 =0.70) than were previously modelled with the unaltered form of Landsberg''s equation (r 2 =0.63). Model sensitivity analysis suggested partitioning the canopy in four canopy layers provided the best overall improvement in NEP calculations; beyond four layers, model improvement was minor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It has long been recognized that communities and their ecosystems are structured at several, nested spatial scales. But identifying the appropriate scale(s) to collect, analyse and interpret data to answer specific questions about ecosystems has been a vexing problem for ecologists. We collected observations of the benthic invertebrate community and its environment in 10 primarily agricultural tributary streams of the Thames River in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Within each stream we sampled two reaches, in each reach we sampled three riffles, and in each riffle we took three kick samples of invertebrates and characterized the substrate environment. We also characterized the habitat at each of the 20 reaches (10 streams × 2 reaches/stream). Most of the variability in the stream invertebrate community structure (as described with taxonomic richness and the biotic index of tolerance, as well as by the Bray-Curtis distance of the community composition from the mean at a spatial scale) was at larger spatial scales of among streams and between riffles. Much of the substrate and habitat variation was also at the larger spatial scales, as were correlations between the biota and the environment of the benthic invertebrate community. We concluded that for the purposes of bioassessment, characterization of one reach per stream is sufficient, at least in this context, for describing a stream and evaluating its health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conceptual rubric of ecosystem management has been widely discussed and deliberated in conservation biology, environmental policy, and land/resource management. In this paper, I argue that two critical aspects of the ecosystem management concept require greater attention in policy and practice. First, although emphasis has been placed on the “space” of systems, the “time”—or rates of change—associated with biophysical and social systems has received much less consideration. Second, discussions of ecosystem management have often neglected the temporal disconnects between changes in biophysical systems and the response of social systems to management issues and challenges. The empirical basis of these points is a case study of the “Crown of the Continent Ecosystem,” an international transboundary area of the Rocky Mountains that surrounds Glacier National Park (USA) and Waterton Lakes National Park (Canada). This project assessed the experiences and perspectives of 1) middle- and upper-level government managers responsible for interjurisdictional cooperation, and 2) environmental nongovernment organizations with an international focus. I identify and describe 10 key challenges to increasing the extent and intensity of transboundary cooperation in land/resource management policy and practice. These issues are discussed in terms of their political, institutional, cultural, information-based, and perceptual elements. Analytic techniques include a combination of environmental history, semistructured interviews with 48 actors, and text analysis in a systematic qualitative framework. The central conclusion of this work is that the rates of response of human social systems must be better integrated with the rates of ecological change. This challenge is equal to or greater than the well-recognized need to adapt the spatial scale of human institutions to large-scale ecosystem processes and transboundary wildlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The species-specific response of tree-line species to climatic forcing is a crucial topic in modelling climate-driven ecosystem dynamics. In northern Québec, Canada, black spruce ( Picea mariana) is the dominant species at the tree line, but white spruce ( Picea glauca) also occurs along the maritime coast of Hudson Bay, and is expanding along the coast and on lands that have recently emerged because of isostatic uplift. Here we outline the present distribution, structure, dynamics and recent spread of white spruce from the tree line up to its northernmost position in the shrub tundra along the Hudson Bay coast. We aimed to obtain a minimum date of the arrival of the species in the area and to evaluate its dynamics relative to recent climate changes. Location White spruce populations and individuals were sampled along a latitudinal transect from the tree line to the northernmost individual in the shrub tundra along the Hudson Bay coast and in the Nastapoka archipelago in northern Québec and Nunavut, Canada (56°06′–56°32′ N). Methods White spruce populations were mapped, and the position, dimension, growth form and origin (seed or layering) of every individual recorded. Tree-ring analyses of living and dead trees allowed an estimation of the population structure, past recruitment, growth trends and growth rate of the species. A macrofossil analysis was performed of the organic horizon of the northernmost white spruce stands and individuals. Radiocarbon dates of white spruce remains and organic matter were obtained. The rate of isostatic uplift was assessed by radiocarbon dating of drifted wood fragments. Results The first recorded establishment of white spruce was almost synchronous at all sites and occurred aroundad 1660. Spruce recruitment was rather continuous at the tree line, while it showed a gap in the northern shrub tundra during the first decades of the 19th century. A vigorous, recent establishment of seedlings was observed in the shrub tundra; only wind-exposed, low krummholz (stunted individuals) did not show any sexual regeneration. A period of suppressed growth occurred from the 1810s to the 1850s in most sites. A growth increase was evident from the second half of the 19th century and peaked in the 1880s and the 20th century. A shift from stunted to tree growth form has occurred since the mid-19th century. No sample associated with white spruce remains gave a date older than 300 14C yearsbp [calibrated age (cal.)ad 1430–1690]. Main conclusions White spruce probably arrived recently in the coastal tundra of Hudson Bay due to a delayed post-glacial spread. The arrival of the species probably occurred during the Little Ice Age. The established individuals survived by layering during unfavourable periods, but acted as nuclei for sexual recruitment almost continuously, except in the northernmost and most exposed sites. Warmer periods were marked by strong seedling recruitment and a shift to tree growth form. Unlike white spruce, black spruce showed no evidence of an ongoing change in growth form and sexual recruitment. Ecological requirements and recent history of tree-line species should be taken into account in order to understand the present dynamics of high-latitude ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common property arrangements govern the subsistence harvest of berries in the Gwich'in region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Some of these arrangements, including rules for resource access, sharing information and harvest sharing, enable the Gwich'in to deal with ecological variability. The rules change in response to year-to-year variations in the abundance and distribution of the species, spatially and temporally across the region. This paper illustrates the interrelationships between ecosystem dynamics and local institutions, a neglected area of commons research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Arctic is undergoing considerable social and environmental change. Anthropogenic stressors on this sensitive environment include climate change, contaminants, resource extraction, tourism and increasing human populations. The Northern Ecosystem Initiative (NEI) is a program aimed at supporting the sustainability of northern communities, and at improving our understanding of how northern ecosystems respond to these environmental stressors. A key element of the NEI is to establish partnerships between all levels of government, non-governmental environmental agencies, and northern residents. The NEI is an important source of financial support critical for social and environmental scientists as well as northern residents and their community and regional organizations. Initiated in 1998, the NEI has supported numerous northern scientific and capacity-building projects, and has evaluated the information gained from this work to refine and focus its future support to address key information gaps and northern needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1988 to 2003, the St. Lawrence Action Plan, a Canada – Quebec cooperation agreement on the St. Lawrence River, helped to mobilize a still-growing number of stakeholders in the conservation and protection of this great river and generated tangible results in a number of areas of intervention. The successes enjoyed in the area of industrial, agricultural and urban clean-up, in protecting plant and animal species and their habitats, and in acquiring new knowledge on the state and trends of the ecosystem reflect the sustained efforts of government and non-government partners over the course of those 15 years. The committed involvement of local communities provides assurance of the sustainable development of this vast ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a comparison of ecosystem management (EM) to the traditional regulatory management approach and outlines the characteristics of EM from a policy perspective, defining the conditions under which this management tool can be successfully implemented. Ecosystem management is a collaborative and integrative tool focused on balancing societal needs, economic growth, and environmental protection to ensure the long-term ecological integrity of a particular ecosystem. The characteristics of this particular tool include: (1) its holistic approach to environmental problems; (2) its integration of values (economic, social, and environmental) through a collaborative, multi-partner, decision making structure; (3) its reliance on science to guide decisions and set boundaries; and (4) its ability to learn from the implementation of decisions (adaptive management). Examples are draw from Environment Canada's various regional ecosystem initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Aboriginal groups, in northern Canada and elsewhere, recognize the strong relationship between the health and well-being of people and environment. Western science, including theory and literature related to forest ecosystem management, has been .slow to recognize the complex and diverse values that Aboriginal people associate with their lands and resources. Through case study research on the berry-harvesting practices of Gwich'in women from the community of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, Canada, we investigated the values that Teetl'it Gwich'in women associate with the land or nan kak. Nine different values, as well as a set of detailed measures, were identified during the research, including individual preference and well-being, family well-being, social connectivity, cultural continuity, land and resource use, stewardship, self-government, and spirituality. The commercial value of berries was not identified as important to women. This interdisciplinary research has the potential to contribute to several bodies of literature including that on social-ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we compared the effects of fire on understorey vegetation in the Québec southern boreal forest with effects of salvage-logging (clear-cutting after fire). All 61 400-m 2 sampling sites were controlled for overstorey composition (Deciduous, Mixed and Coniferous) and disturbance type,which consisted of three fire impact severity (FIS) classes (Light, Moderate and Extreme) and two harvesting techniques (Stem-only and Whole-tree Harvesting). Percent-cover data of vegetation and post-disturbance environmental characteristics were recorded in the field during the first two years after fire as well as soil texture. Ordination of fire alone demonstrated that, on Coniferous sites, fire initiates a succession whereby the understorey Coniferous sites approaches that of Deciduous-Mixed sites, due to the release of the understorey from Sphagnum spp. dominance, this pattern being a function of FIS. On Deciduous-Mixed stands, increased FIS resulted in a transition from herb to shrub dominance. Ordination of all five disturbance types showed that the impact of salvage-logging on understorey composition was within the range of fire, but marginalized to the extreme end of the FIS spectrum. Variance partitioning demonstrated that overstorey and soil texture were the most important explanatory variables of fire alone, while disturbance type explained the largest independent fraction of understorey variation when salvage-logging was introduced. Salvage-logging also results in significant reductions in understorey abundance, richness and diversity, while indicator species analysis suggests that it favours mesoxerophytic to xeric species. Results are interpreted in light of shade-tolerance dynamics, forest floor disturbance and soil moisture regimes. Implications for sustainable forest management are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed more changes in protected area systems in Canada than any other. The area set aside has more than doubled, and almost 7 percent of Canada's ecosystems are now protected compared with 3 percent in 1989. Several high-profile reports have indicated a decline in ecological integrity of protected area systems. Major changes in legislation and policy have followed with a new National Parks Act, National Marine Conservation Areas Act, a Parks Canada Agency Act and a revised national park's policy. The paper describes these major changes and their implications, provides understanding of why they occurred and suggests ongoing challenges facing protected area systems in Canada in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the need for spatio-temporally explicit analysis techniques linking the scales of ecosystem, observation, and analysis, using a hierarchical ecoregionalization to examine remotely sensed data at spatial scales of ecological and management significance. Long- and short-term changes in vegetation functioning are a key indicator of ecological processes. We predict net primary production (NPP) at monthly temporal resolution for 16 years (1981-1996) at an 8-km spatial resolution for the approximately 10[sup 6] km² area of Ontario, Canada. We calculate landscape-level light use efficiency values that are tuned to monthly and long-term ecoclimates, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index from the NOAA-AVHRR sensor. Applying our spatio-temporal analysis tools, we show evidence for increasing NPP across most of the province. This increase varies seasonally and annually across Ontario, and its magnitude and distribution varies with the spatial scales of analysis. Bridging the gap between local and global studies, this research supports spatio-temporal monitoring and analysis of ecosystem functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examined prospects for international ecosystem management in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem ( COCE ), a transboundary region of the Rocky Mountains that straddles the border between Canada and the United States. From the spring of 2000 to the fall of 2001, I conducted 33 semi-structured interviews with middle- and upper-level public land and resource managers, administered a brief attitude survey to the interviewees, and analytically reviewed the management policies of and historical cooperative ventures between public land and resource jurisdictions in the region. Through a qualitative analysis of the data collected, I identified 10 challenges to enhancing transboundary cooperation in the COCE that were consistently present throughout the region. I describe and analyze these issues in terms of ( 1 ) determining common policy goals and management priorities, ( 2 ) developing information resources at the scale of the greater ecosystem, and ( 3 ) supporting a political and institutional atmosphere conducive to collaboration. Survey results suggest that international transboundary cooperation is less supported, in terms of higher management support, support from staff and colleagues, and access to sufficient information, than transboundary cooperation within a province or state. I conclude with recommendations for three concrete initiatives that public land management jurisdictions in the COCE can undertake to facilitate further ecosystem management opportunities: ( 1 ) formalizating transboundary cooperation, ( 2 ) developing a cumulative-effects analysis of the COCE, and ( 3 ) thoughtfully presenting transboundary efforts within agencies and to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological damage to sensitive aquatic ecosystems is among the most recognisable, deleterious effects of acidic deposition. We compiled a large spatial database of over 2000 waterbodies across southeastern Canada from various federal, provincial and academic sources. Data for zooplankton, fish, macroinvertebrate (benthos) and loon species richness and occurrence were used to construct statistical models for lakes with varying pH, dissolved organic carbon content and lake size. pH changes, as described and predicted using the Integrated Assessment Model (Lam et al., 1998; Jeffries et al., 2000), were based on the range of emission reductions set forth in the Canada/US Air Quality Agreement (AQA). The scenarios tested include 1983, 1990, 1994 and 2010 sulphate deposition levels. Biotic models were developed for five regions in southeastern Canada (Algoma, Muskoka, and Sudbury, Ontario, southcentral Québec, and Kejimkujik, Nova Scotia) using regression tree, multiple linear regression and logistic regression analyses to make predictions about recovery after emission reductions. The analyses produced different indicator species in different regions, although some species showed consistent trends across regions. Generally, the greatest predicted recovery occurred during the final phase of emission reductions between 1994 and 2010 across all taxonomic groups and regions. The Ontario regions, on average, were predicted to recover to a greater extent than either southcentral Québec or the Kejimkujik area of Nova Scotia. Our results reconfirm that pH 5.5–6.0 is an important threshold below which damage to aquatic biota will remain a major local and regional environmental problem. This damage to biodiversity across trophic levels will persist well into the future if no further reductions in sulphate deposition are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environment Canada and the Québec Department of the Environment, partners in the St Lawrence Vision 2000 Action Plan, set out to prepare a compendium of knowledge of the flora and fauna of the St Lawrence and to identify potential conservation sites. The resulting Portrait is an Internet site that presents the current knowledge base of the river's ecological and biological diversity (http://lavoieverte.qc.ec.gc.ca/faune/biodiv/index.html). The Portrait provides information on over 5,000 species of flora and fauna. On the website, you will find a detailed ecological analysis of the richness, rarity and vulnerability of several broad groups of plant and animal species. Furthermore, you will find a list of species for each of the 700 survey units and a distribution map for 2,500 species recorded along the St Lawrence., in atlas form, along with a detailed conservation plan. The plan encompasses the most unique and heterogeneous landscapes of the St Lawrence, some of which have no protection at present. The Portrait provides an overview of the sites that are currently protected by public agencies and private-sector organisations and identifies new sites of interest for conserving biodiversity and protecting species at risk. This paper exposes the content of this extensive compendium on the biodiversity of the St. Lawrence. For conciseness, it presents some of the analyses conducted on birds to illustrate a few of the analytical approaches that were used. Then, the information on species richness and concentration areas for priority species of vascular plants, breeding birds and herpetofauna will serve to identify the terrestrial sites of significance for biodiversity. Finally, a similar approach having been applied to the aquatic environnement, we will conclude with a conservation plan that identifies the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and the geographic sites where the most important elements of St. Lawrence biodiversity are concentrated. Our analysis of the biodiversity of the most thoroughly studied taxa of the St. Lawrence clearly shows the importance of wetlands, particularly those located at the mouths of rivers or within archipelagos or delta complexes, such as the groups of islands and channels found at both ends of the Montréal Archipelago. These aquatic landscapes are sites of intense biological production, combining in a small geographical area spawning, nursery and feeding grounds for a large number of fish species and breeding, rearing and foraging areas for aquatic birds. Variable flooding conditions, associated with seasonal flooding or daily tidal fluctuations, create a complex mosaic of wetland and aquatic habitats. Although wetlands occupy only a small area in comparison with terrestrial habitats, they support a large number of rare plant and animal species in relation to their size. At present, 10% of the vascular flora and 27% of the herpetofauna of the St. Lawrence are at risk. In the case of reptiles and amphibians, the situation is especially worrisome because nearly all of the most threatened species live in a narrow band along the river corridor. Not only is this the sector that is under the greatest pressure from human development, very little public land remains here, making it difficult to create protected areas. Increased participation by non-governmental organisations and individuals, through private stewardship arrangements, is an essential precondition for completing the network of conservation areas in this part of the St. Lawrence. Along the estuary and the Gulf, habitat integrity has not been affected as much by the expansion of Québec's human population. This is a vast territory, and sites have been identified with a view to making up for the deficiencies in the present network of protected sites in terms of representing biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network's (EMAN) operational and program response to certain challenges of environmental monitoring in Canada, in particular, efforts to improve the ability of the network to deliver relevant information to decision makers. In addition to its familiar roles, environmental monitoring should deliver feedback to society on environmental changes associated with development patterns, trends, processes and interventions. In order for such feedback to be effective, it must be relevant, timely, useful and accessible: all characteristics that are defined by the user, not the provider. Demand driven environmental monitoring is explored through EMAN's experiences with Canada's Biosphere Reserves, the NatureWatch Program and the Canadian Community Monitoring Network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based ecosystem monitoring activities in Canada are increasing in response to a number of factors including: (i) the needs of decision-makers for timely information on local environmental changes; (ii) limited use of government monitoring data and information by decision makers; (iii) government cuts to monitoring programs; (iv) the increasingly recognized need to include stakeholders in planning and management processes; and (v) the desire of citizens to contribute to environmental protection. To date there has been no network coordination of community based monitoring in Canada. This paper reports on the establishment of the Canadian Community Monitoring Network by Environment Canada's Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network Coordinating Office and the Canadian Nature Federation. Information on research prepared in support of network establishment is presented along with a discussion of the potential of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines a hypothesis which could be applied to upland vascular plant species in the mixedwood boreal forest of Saskatchewan, Canada. It discusses ecosystem management's goal in maintaining plant species diversity as well as the standardized multiple regressions on the influence of time-since-fire nor canopy coverage in accounting for species richness, evenness, and diversity.