Monitoring the Pulse of Our Ecosystems

Every day, Canadian ecosystems are exposed to a multitude of human-induced stresses, from harmful pollutants in the air, land and water, to exotic species in our lakes, rivers and forests. Knowing where and how our ecosystems are being affected by these multiple stresses – and what we can do to minimize their impacts on biodiversity and the sustainability of our resource-based economy —is crucial to our well-being.

Changes as subtle as a decrease in the number of frog species in remote lakes or the diversity of lichens on trees can signal potential problems that, left unnoticed, could result in dire consequences. Keeping an ear to the ground for such changes is one of the roles of the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN), a national alliance of government, academic and private-sector biologists, ecologists, soil scientists, hydrologists, climatologists and citizen volunteers who conduct research and monitor ecosystem change through georeferenced observations — from measuring water levels to counting trees.

Established by Environment Canada in 1994 as a way to further expand mutually beneficial partnerships, EMAN fosters the sharing of information and collaboration among different disciplines and jurisdictions involved in long-term ecological monitoring. More than 140 partners across the country are part of the network, including universities, government departments and agencies, aboriginal groups, non-government organizations, industry, and international institutions.

Although all are independent bodies conducting research and monitoring for their own purposes, their involvement in EMAN means that, where their interests overlap, they piece their findings together to form a bigger picture of what is happening in our ecosystems. The knowledge gained from these cross-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional collaborations helps determine areas for further research and assessment, and enable Canadians to make more informed choices related to conservation and sustainability of our natural capital.

EMAN's partners work at nearly 100 case study sites across the country. These sites conduct some $20-30 million worth of intensive, long-term research each year, and include Long-Range Transport of Air Pollutant sites for studying acid rain, national parks, UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, and various university and other government research sites. Independent sites within an ecological unit, such as an ecozone based on Canada's Ecological Framework, are encouraged to work together to describe what is happening there and how sustainability might be threatened.

The sites are as diverse as the Canadian landscape. Among them is Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia, where Environment Canada, the Canadian Forest Service, and local universities are monitoring everything from mercury in loons to spruce budworm infestations. At Wolf Creek, in the Yukon, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the Department of National Defence, Environment Canada and the International Tundra Experiment are studying watershed hydrology, the seasonal formation and melting of ice, and the growth of tundra vegetation — all of which are excellent indicators of the effects of climate change.

The glue that bonds EMAN is the network's coordinating office at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW) in Burlington, Ontario, and Environment Canada's regional leaders who help maintain contact with partners through ongoing communications, site visits and special events, such as workshops. The office keeps tabs on who is monitoring what and where, and links sites and partners so they can more easily share and discuss information on issues of common concern. It also develops techniques and products, such as metadata systems, monitoring protocols or web-based communications, that serve the common interests of all EMAN partners.

Where an issue is of particular relevance to both Environment Canada and one or more of its partners, the office may suggest that a report be undertaken. For example, in 1999, six EMAN Biosphere Reserves produced reports on landscape changes over the past 300 years. In addition to assessing data from their ongoing vegetation monitoring efforts — which involve counting tree species, diameters and heights in one-hectare plots — these sites pulled together information from historic land surveys, aerial maps and other sources.

The resulting report, which was presented at a recent UNESCO Biosphere Reserve meeting, provided local insights into processes that merit community attention and an adaptable approach to identifying threats to sustainability. Some of this information has already been used to assess the impact of, and recovery from, the ice storm that hit eastern Ontario and western Quebec in 1998. A similar initiative is under consideration this year to collate information on changes in nearshore marine areas of Canada in order to identify concerns, monitoring approaches and hotspots where biodiversity is threatened.

The latest dimension in EMAN's work has been the development of core variables to serve as the basis for an early warning system of ecosystem change. The variables, still under development, are based mostly on phenomena and species that are sensitive to environmental change and relatively easy to monitor, such as tree health, frog populations, and water levels. Although some groups already keep track of changes in some of these variables, the intent is to engage partners in each of Canada's ecozones in using them, so that standardized comparisons can be made. The EMAN coordinating office is currently finalizing a methods manual for monitoring the variables in the field, and trying to determine how best to implement them. Plans are to involve sites, parks, and environmental monitoring networks, and to adapt the variables to local monitoring needs, so that partners will also derive clear benefits from using them.

In a new initiative which could begin as early as this year, the office plans to begin producing EMAN advisories in collaboration with its partners. These would be short papers summarizing the most current results of ecosystem monitoring or science, so that decision-makers and resource managers can be given early warnings of issues that merit additional attention. The determination of ecosystem changes can take 10-15 years to reach a level of statistical certainty. The advisories would be an important vehicle for bringing information forward early, based clearly on risk and best expert opinion, and would help to better fulfill the needs of responsive priority setting and adaptive management.

The EMAN coordinating office at CCIW also provides support to EMAN partners. It was instrumental in developing the Ontario Forest Data Cooperative web site, which maps data on forest composition, soil chemistry, species biodiversity and other parameters collected by Environment Canada, the Canadian Forest Service, and the Ontario ministries of Natural Resources and the Environment. The office is currently working to develop an interactive web site database of ecological monitoring activities in Canada that will allow users to search using a number of different fields, and view the results as listings of data sources or as a geospatial map.

In recent years, EMAN has expanded its network to include citizen volunteers who are trained to make simple observations by following standard protocols.

A student volunteer with the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve – an EMAN site in southern Ontario – cores a tree to determine its age.
Photo: Brian Craig

These observations are focused on indicators that are sensitive to environmental stresses — such as the diversity of plants and animals. The data generated by these important volunteer efforts provide information to Environment Canada on ecosystem changes at a national or ecozone scale and to communities on what is happening locally. The volunteers are taught to identify species by sight or by call, and to submit geographically referenced counts by phone, mail or by logging onto a centralized web site. EMAN is working in partnership with the Canadian Nature Federation to promote the expansion of a variety of local or regional observation programs, such as Frogwatch, Plantwatch and Wormwatch, across Canada. It is also involved in initiating new ones, such as the Icewatch and Lichenwatch programs.

This fall, the network will assist in the launch of the Thousand Eyes project, in which children in schools across Nova Scotia will begin making observations pertaining to the arrival of spring — ranging from the appearance of the Spring Peeper (a frog), to the blooming of flowers and the timing of various agricultural chores. The 20-year project will mirror a similar effort that took place in the province from 1900 to 1920 in the hopes that comparisons between the old and new data will reveal trends about how our climate is changing.

As environmental issues become more complex, interconnected and far-reaching, monitoring the health of our ecosystems requires an increasingly holistic approach that considers the impacts of human activity on every aspect of the natural world — regardless of disciplinary or jurisdictional boundaries. By encouraging scientists of different disciplines to share and discuss their research findings, and engaging citizen volunteers in the collection of data, EMAN is keeping its finger on the pulse of our environment. For more information on the important work being done by EMAN, please visit its web site at http://www.eman-rese.ca.

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