Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Northern Research Supplement

My long-term research goals include examining long-term variability in freshwater ecosystems in response to human-influenced and natural stressors. In Arctic systems, at present there are large deficiencies in our understanding of freshwater ecology. Long-term dynamics of benthic communities in freshwater aquatic systems are little known, and current knowledge of Arctic benthos is scarce and mainly derived from faunal taxonomic surveys with little or no accompanying ecological context. As the benthos are the dominant or sole energy pathway between primary producers and top trophic levels (e.g. fish and birds) in ponds and lakes, it is therefore difficult to assess or predict food-web consequences of enhanced-greenhouse climate warming in high latitude regions. This research will generate critical baseline ecological data through the limnological sampling of benthic invertebrate populations in ponds and lakes.