Index > Ecological Monitoring > Climate Impact on the Ecosystem

Animal Species | Plant Monitoring | Climate Impact on the Ecosystem | Carbon Cycle

climate impact on
the ecosystem

		Introduction
Introduction     Greater Snow Goose     Wetland Productivity     Mesic Communities     Other Animal Species		Ultimately, one of the greater concerns related to environmental changes such as climate warming is the species capacity to adapt to those changes. For cold adapted species, such as those encountered in the Arctic, the concerns are even bigger. Yet, the extent to which Arctic species may benefit or suffer from environmental changes is not fully understood. Using our actual knowledge on Arctic species and their interaction with climate factors could therefore help predicting their responses to climate changes.

Examining the relationship between climate factors and ecological variables is a complex task. A variety of parameters are involved in each ecological process making it hard to isolate key relationships, especially when dealing with climatic data that can take over 20 years to show noticeable trends. We nonetheless conducted preliminary analyses to see where we could find potential interactions between our ecological data and climatic factors. These preliminary analyses can help us direct and plan our future monitoring. In all analyses, climatic factors such as air temperature (during the previous winter and actual summer and spring), radiation, precipitation, number of thawing degree-days, number of days above 0°C and snowmelt have been taken into consideration. Discover our findings.