Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and.Tuktut.Nogait.NPs.complete.this.latitudinal.ecological.representation.in.the.cen-
tral.areas.of.the.Canadian.North.
The. comprehensive. ecological. representation. of. northern. national. parks. has.
been. the. goal. of. the. Parks. Canada. System. Plan. (PCA. 1997b),. and. 5. of. the. 10.
parks.shown.in.Figure 10.1.have.been.established.since.2001..Recent.park.estab-
lishment. has. been. the. result. of. consultations. with. different. indigenous. groups.
across.the.Canadian.North,.and.follow.successful.land.claims.settlements.(see,.for.
example,. www.gov.nu.ca/hr/site/doc/NLCA.pdf).. As. a. result,. traditional. cultural.
activities.are.maintained,.and.parks.are.cooperatively.manages.with.different.Inuit,.
Gwitch'in,. and. Metis. groups. through. comanagement. boards. that. make. all. deci-
sions.regarding.park.management.
The.broad.ecological.representation.of.Canada's.northern.national.parks.means.
that. effective. and. systematic. monitoring. and. reporting. of. ecological. change. in.
national. parks. will. not. only. inform. park. management,. but. will. also. make. a. com-
prehensive.ecological.statement.of.the.condition.of.Canada's.North..For.this.reason,.
and.because.of.the.size,.cost,.and.complexity.of.the.monitoring.task,.Parks.Canada.
strives.to.work.with.other.northern.governments,.academics,.aboriginal.peoples.and.
community.partners.to.share.expertise.and.pool.resources.to.help.design.and.imple-
ment.monitoring.and.research.within.northern.parks.and.across.the.North.
PREDICTED ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
There.is.a.general.scientiic.consensus.that.the.next.50.years.will.see.historically.
unprecedented.rates.of.change.in.temperature.and.precipitation.parameters.across.
arctic.and.subarctic.landscapes.in.northern.North.America.(Sturm.and.Tape.2001;.
Lloyd. and. Fastie. 2002,. 2003;. Jia. et. al.. 2003;. Stow. et. al.. 2003;. Hinzman. et. al..
2005;. Olthof. et. al.. 2008;. Pouliot. et. al.. 2009),. and. that. these. changes. will. have.
profound. implications. for. the. condition. of. park. ecosystems. and. the. successful.
management.of.national.parks.(Jones.et.al..2003;.Lemieux.and.Scott.2005;.Scott.
and. Lemieux. 2003,. 2005;. Scott. and. Sufling. 2000).. By. the. year. 2050,. it. is. pre-
dicted.(Scott.and.Sufling.2000).that.all.northern.national.parks.will.experience.
signiicant. increases. in. mean. summer. (2.6-5.0°C). and. mean. winter. (4.3-8.2°C).
temperatures,. as. well. as. signiicant. but. highly. variable. responses. in. winter. and.
summer. precipitation. (Table 10.1).. These. climate. factors. are. key. drivers. of. the.
composition. and. structure. of. the. ecological. communities. that. characterize. the.
biomes.that.national.parks.were.established.to.protect,.and.the.magnitude.of.pre-
dicted. changes. are. suficient. to. radically. alter. these. characteristic. communities..
To.emphasize.the.potential.magnitude.of.this.biotic.change,.Lawler.et.al..(2009a).
assessed.the.central.Canadian.Arctic.as.a.global.hotspot.of.species.change,.pre-
dicting.an.overturn.of.70-80%.in.bird.and.mammal.species.composition.over.the.
next.100.years.
Table 10.2.uses.conclusions.from.the.Arctic.Climate.Impact.Assessment.(ACIA.
2005). and. the. most. recent. IPCC. publications. (Anisimov. et. al.. 2007),. as. well. as.
a. number. of. reports. commissioned. speciically. on. assessment. of. climate-change.
impacts.for.Canadian.national.parks.(Scott.and.Sufling.2000;.Jones.et.al..2003;.Scott.
and.Lemieux.2003),.to.provide.a.summary.of.potential.changes.to.park.ecosystems,.
