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Canada’s Arctic Marine Biodiversity

Canada’s Arctic Marine Biodiversity. Kathleen Conlan Canadian Museum of Nature Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Canada’s Arctic Coast. Canada’s Arctic marine coast embraces the Beaufort Sea to the west, dominated by the effects of the Mackenzie River

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Canada’s Arctic Marine Biodiversity

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  1. Canada’s Arctic Marine Biodiversity Kathleen Conlan Canadian Museum of Nature Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

  2. Canada’s Arctic Coast • Canada’s Arctic marine coast embraces the Beaufort Sea to the west, dominated by the effects of the Mackenzie River • and to the east, the vast island network of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. • Southward is Hudson’s Bay, Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay. • Although south of 60, Newfoundland and Labrador are bathed by the cold Labrador Current and receive icebergs from Greenland. • Biogeographic affinities: Pacific fauna moved eastwards after the Bering Strait opened about 3.5 mya

  3. Marine biodiversity regions in the Canadian Arctic • Mackenzie River • Polynyas • Shelf break and basins • Canyons • Sills and basins • High current channels • Bedrock • Fjords

  4. Beaufort Shelf Topography • Through the use of acoustic profiling, we are finding that Canada’s Beaufort Shelf is anything but a featureless submerged plain. • Methane gas and fluids seep upwards, creating pockmarks and mud volcanoes. • Grounding ice keels gouge deep scours into the seabed. • Glaciofluvial outwash and lower sea-level shorelines created significant sand deposits. • The oil industry has locally mined these sands leaving deep pits. • Abandoned exploration drilling islands have now become hazards to navigation. 

  5. Science Data Inventory Database • Canada has a science data inventory database which will aid investigators in finding biodiversity information for the Arctic • http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/regions/central/index_e.htm • 247 Canadian Arctic marine records covering 1910-2000

  6. Known Arctic Marine Biodiversity in Canada • ? Kinds of viruses • ? Kinds of microbes • 1098 species of invertebrates • 190 species of fish • about 20 species of seabirds • 8 species of marine mammals

  7. Population Distributions in the Canadian Arctic • Belugas have eastern and western populations, though there is some interchange. Western population congregates near the Mackenzie inflow in the summer then disperses westwards. Eastern population congregates in Radstock Bay, Somerset Island, then disperses to Greenland for the winter. • Polar bears: there are different populations too; Hudson Bay population is threatened by climate warming • Bowheads: western healthier than the eastern

  8. Some Marine Research Programs in the Canadian Arctic • NOW: International Northwater Polynya Study • Beaufort Seabed Mapping Program • CASES: Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study • ArcticNet: Understanding the impact of global warming on the Arctic

  9. NOW: International North Water Polynya Study http://www.fsg.ulaval.ca/giroq/now/

  10. Beaufort Seabed Mapping Program • Geological Survey of Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canadian Museum of Nature CASES

  11. CASES: Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study http:www.giroq.ulaval.ca/cases/ JWACS: Joint Western Arctic Climate Study Carmacke@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca CASES

  12. ArcticNet • www.newswire.ca/releases/August2003/26/c4568.html CASES

  13. Accommodation and logistics • Aurora Research Institute (http://www.aurresint.nt.ca/index.htm) • Nunavut Research Institute (http://pooka.nunanet.com/~research/) • Polar Continental Shelf Project (http://polar.nrcan.gc.ca/home_e.html)

  14. Canadian Coast Guard ship support: http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/ Louis S. St-Laurent Amundsen Sir Wilfrid Laurier Nahidik Canadian Coast Guard

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