ArcticNet

www.arcticnet.ulaval.ca

Earth’s climate is warming and the increase in average global temperature predicted by climate models will be amplified at Arctic latitudes. Understanding the present transformation of the Arctic environment and anticipating its consequences is one of the greatest challenges faced by the international scientific community. In Canada, climate warming will have tremendous environmental, socio-economic and strategic consequences that will be felt first and most severely in Arctic communities and territories. The reduction of coastal sea-ice already hinders traditional hunting by Inuit, reduces the habitat of the unique Arctic fauna, increases exposure of coastal communities to storms and could soon open the way to intercontinental shipping, raising new challenges to Canadian sovereignty and security. In the terrestrial coastal environment, warmer temperatures and permafrost thawing are already disrupting transportation, buildings and other infrastructure.

ArcticNet connects well-established Centres of Excellence in the natural, human health and social sciences, and their partners in Inuit organizations, northern communities, federal and provincial agencies, and the private sector to study the impacts of climate change in the coastal Canadian Arctic. The central objective of ArcticNet is to contribute to the development and dissemination of the knowledge needed to formulate adaptation strategies and national policies to help Canadians face the impacts and opportunities of climate change and globalization in the Arctic.

ArcticNet is conducting Integrated Regional Impact Studies on societies and on marine and terrestrial coastal ecosystems in the Canadian High Arctic, in the Eastern Canadian Arctic and in Hudson Bay. These studies contribute the knowledge needed to put together impact assessments, national policies and adaptation strategies to help Canada face the consequences of a changing Arctic by focusing on such areas as the rate of change of the Arctic environment; reducing human vulnerability to hazardous events; adapting the public health system to change; protecting key animal species; managing shipping in a seasonally ice-covered Canadian sector of the Arctic Ocean; and the socio-economic impacts of environmental change and globalization on the Arctic. In addition to work conducted in and around northern communities, ArcticNet researchers from various fields use the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen to access the vast expanses of the coastal Arctic.

In the summer of 2004, ArcticNet was a major partner in the Nunavik Inuit Health Survey, which involved a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, and scientists visiting all Nunavik communities with the Amundsen in order to assess the overall health of over 1000 randomly selected Nunavik residents, including lifestyle, diet, heart disease, bone density, safety habits and exposure to environmental contaminants.

In the summer of 2005, over 80 ArcticNet researchers, graduate students and technical staff participated in the 2005 ArcticNet expedition onboard the Amundsen to deploy a network of marine observatories in the Beaufort Sea, Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay.

ArcticNet provides a unique scientific environment for the training of young Arctic specialists, exposing them to the multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral and international science needed to address the ecosystem-level, holistic issues arising from the ongoing transformation of the Arctic.

One of the major objectives of ArcticNet is to train the young experts, from north and south, needed to study, model, manage and ensure the stewardship of the changing Canadian Arctic.

Numerous initiatives have already been developed by the Network to help achieve this goal:

• An ArcticNet Students Association was created to encourage collaboration between students and to foster interactions with northerners.
• An ArcticNet Training Fund was set up to help support the training of ArcticNet students within national and international field schools, courses or institutes.
• The Schools on Board program was developed to promote Arctic sciences in high schools across Canada and to excite young Canadians about the challenges and career opportunities of Arctic research.

Provincial Reach:

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Distribution of Research Personnel in 2004-2005

For more information visit the ArcticNet Web site.