NRC Research Press: Arctic Science: Table of Contents Table of Contents for Arctic Science. List of articles from both the latest and ahead of print issues.
- Geese as keystone species in the Low Arctic of central Canada: the Karrak Lake Research Stationby Ray T. Alisauskas on October 9, 2024 at 7:00 am
Arctic Science, Ahead of Print. <br/> True abundance of lesser snow (Anser caerulescens caerulescens, Linnaeus 1758) and Ross's geese (Anser rossii, Cassin 1861, collectively referred to as “light geese”, in North America had been unknown in the 1980s. However, different indices of abundance suggested steady increases at the time. The Karrak Lake Research Station (KLRS) was established partly because it was not known if the breeding biology from more southern latitudes (the only information available at the time) was representative of more northern colonies where 90% of the midcontinent population of lesser snow geese nested. Visits in 1990 confirmed the continued importance of Karrak Lake and surrounding areas in Canada’s central Arctic to a large nesting concentration of both snow and Ross's geese documented previously. Key activities at KLRS were (1) colony-wide annual monitoring of nesting goose abundance and nesting performance and (2) large-scale marking efforts to monitor survival, range-wide abundance, distribution, and exploitation rate from hunter harvest and natural mortality rate. The scope of research expanded to include their interaction with local vegetation and other sympatric wildlife, including Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus, Linnaeus 1758), king eiders (Somateria spectabilis, Linnaeus 1758), long-tailed ducks (Clangula hyemalis, Linnaeus 1758), and cackling geese (Branta hutchinsii). Following exponential growth in the 1990s and 2000s, nesting populations of light geese at Karrak lake collapsed since 2012, presenting a unique opportunity to examine how local ecosystems recover and revert from heavy grazing by hyperabundant geese.
- Occurrence of the invasive pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, Walbaum 1792) in Greenland 2020 and 2021 as revealed using citizen science, snorkeling, and environmental DNA metabarcoding of fishes in the Kapisillit Riverby Julius Nielsen on July 17, 2024 at 7:00 am
Arctic Science, Volume 10, Issue 3, Page 511-519, September 2024. <br/> The occurrence of the invasive pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, Walbaum 1792) in Greenland was initially described in 2019 using social media to collect data on their presence. In this study we continue data collection through social media and initiate a monitoring program of the Kapisillit River in Southwest Greenland using snorkeling and environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding in 2020 and 2021. The Kapisillit River is the only freshwater system in Greenland, where the red-listed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, Linnaeus 1758) is known to spawn. This genetically unique population of Atlantic salmon has been found to decline, wherefore there is general conservation concern that the occurrence of pink salmon at some point can become an additional stressor to the “Kapisillit salmon”. In 2021, pink salmon were present near all larger populated areas in Greenland and likely more abundant than in 2019. From visual observations and using eDNA, the presence of pink salmon was documented in the Kapisillit River in 2021. From the number of individuals observed combined with the spatial distribution of eDNA detections in the river, we suggest that the pink salmon invasion in the Kapisillit River is at an early stage.
- Cree-driven community-partnered research on coastal ecosystem change in subarctic Canada: a multiple knowledge approachby Caroline Fink-Mercier on June 24, 2024 at 7:00 am
Arctic Science, Ahead of Print. <br/> Indigenous-driven and community-partnered research projects seeking to develop salient, legitimate, and credible knowledge bases for environmental decision-making require a multiple knowledge systems approach. When involving partners in addition to communities, diverging perspectives and priorities may arise, making the pathways to engaging in principled research while generating actionable knowledge unclear to disciplinarily-trained natural science researchers. Here, we share insights from the Eeyou Coastal Habitat Comprehensive Research Project (CHCRP), an interdisciplinary, Cree-driven community-academic partnership. This project brought together Cree community members, regional organizations, industry (Hydro-Québec), and academics from seven universities across Canada to address the unprecedented loss of seagrass Zostera marina (eelgrass), the concurrent decline in migratory Canada geese and its impact on fall goose harvest activities in Eeyou Istchee. After describing the history and context of the project, we discuss the challenges, complexities, and benefits of the collaborative approach balancing saliency, legitimacy, and credibility of the knowledge produced. We suggest the paper may be of use to researchers and partners seeking to engage in principled and actionable research related to environmental change including impacts of past development.
- Ways of identifying lichen and plant species by the Nenets reindeer herders in Yamalby Roza Laptander on June 24, 2024 at 7:00 am
Arctic Science, Ahead of Print. <br/> Yamal Nenets herders have historically developed a rich knowledge of lichens and vascular plants, which feature in the diet of their migratory reindeer herds in the tundra zone of northwest Siberia. In the Nenets language there are native names for certain species of lichens and other reindeer forage plants, including graminoids, herbs, shrubs, berries, and mushrooms. During participant fieldwork together with nomadic tundra Nenets herders, we documented names and definitions of reindeer food on herding territories during their long migration routes from the northern forest-tundra transition zone to the northern coastal tundra. Like many other Indigenous peoples of Siberia, Nenets have noticed that the Arctic is changing and some of its recent dynamics are seriously affecting their livelihood. The degradation of some lichen composition and cover on tundra pastures has also contributed to a decrease of herders’ linguistic palette for describing these losses in a concrete manner. Since the Nenets language is on the list of endangered languages of the world, this has an especially negative impact on the language skills and traditional knowledge of the younger generations of Nenets people, who may not know what these lichens look like and why they are important for the Nenets reindeer herding culture.
- Directional succession and species-specific patterns observed in repeat study of vascular plants at three glacier foreland chronosequences in the Canadian High Arcticby Katriina O'Kane on June 24, 2024 at 7:00 am
Arctic Science, Ahead of Print. <br/> The expanding area of glacier forelands provides new terrain for ecosystem development. Plant succession facilitates this development, but this process remains poorly documented in marginal environments such as the High Arctic. This paper presents the results of the first repeat study of glacier foreland chronosequences conducted in the Canadian High Arctic. The forelands of Twin Glacier, Beitstad Glacier, and Teardrop Glacier near Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut were first surveyed in 1995, and these surveys were repeated 21 years later using the same methods. The objectives of this study were to document the patterns of vascular plant species composition and abundance across these three forelands to (1) determine the accuracy of the hypothesis from the original study that succession on these forelands was directional, and (2) investigate the use of the chronosequence method in High Arctic succession studies. Forelands were surveyed using % cover estimates or presence/absence counts. Indicator species analysis and rates of change were used to quantify shifts in vascular plant species over time. Total plant cover increased by 2.4% in the first 100 m of the Twin Glacier foreland study area, and species richness also increased on younger terrain. Rates of peak cover and first appearance advance varied greatly between species and forelands, but were generally faster for graminoid and forb species than shrub species, and slower on species-poor Beitstad Glacier foreland. At all three forelands there was a general pattern of directional succession as all species advanced towards the retreating glacier margin. This supports the original hypothesis that directional succession is a common pattern for glacier forelands in the High Arctic. However, we also found that species-specific patterns and rates of change acted to create assemblages that differed between 1995 and 2016. Different abundances of species and successional trajectories were observed between the three forelands, pointing to the importance of local species pools and dispersal limitation. Finally, we observed that the first occurrence of most species was further from the glacier margin in 2016 compared to 1995, perhaps due to accelerating rates of glacier retreat. These species-specific patterns, differences between forelands, and the delayed response of vegetation to glacier retreat demonstrate the importance of using repeat studies over time and replication over space to confirm the results observed in High Arctic glacier foreland chronosequence studies.