Long-term data are critically important to science, management, and policy formation. Here we describe a number of data collections from arctic Canada that monitor vertebrate population trends of freshwater and marine fish, marine birds, marine and terrestrial mammals. These time series data cover the last ca. 30 years and capture a period from the onset of global changes affecting the Arctic up to ...

Climate and land-use changes are leading to impacts on individual ecosystems as well as shifts in transfer dynamics between interconnected systems. At the land-ocean interface, changes in riverine inputs of organic matter (OM) and nutrients have the potential to lead to shifts in coastal carbon and nutrient cycling with consequences for ecosystem structure and function. In this study, we assess OM ...

Interactions involving parasites often account for large proportions of links within aquatic food webs, yet few studies integrate parasites into their food web analyses. This analysis compares three sets of highly resolved food webs that differ in taxa composition, space, and time for a subarctic lake system. Key topological food web metrics, including connectance, linkage density, and mean generality ...

Birds are endothermic homeotherms that regulate internal metabolic heat production to keep a stable body core temperature. Lung ventilation, which is required to obtain oxygen for metabolism, is potentially a large source for heat and water loss. In a polar habitat with low year-round temperatures and scarcity of food in the winter, conservation of heat and water is crucial for survival of the ...

Knowing the metabolic rate of marine mammals is often important as baseline knowledge of their biology and physiology, e.g., to allow ecosystem assessments and estimation of their resource needs and use, and prey requirements. However, our current knowledge of energetics of large cetaceans is limited compared to many smaller cetaceans. Determining the energy expenditure of large free-ranging whales ...

Citizen science is increasingly used to include in ecological monitoring over the past three decades. Web-based applications or smart phones enable citizens to record observations or experiences at larger temporal and spatial scale and provide opportunities for a larger number of citizens to participate in mapping observations. Citizen science can also be used to record, or map observed and experienced ...

Vertical behavior, such as diel vertical migration (DVM) and swarming are widespread among zooplankton. At higher latitudes, synchronized DVM is mostly absent during summer and predominantly herbivorous copepods tend to form large near-surface swarms. This behavior is risky because it can make them vulnerable to visual predators. Here, we used ca. 12 days of mid-summer (28 June to 10 July 2018) ...

Assessing the role of weather in the dynamics of wildlife populations is a pressing task in the face of rapid environmental change. Rodents and ruminants are abundant herbivore species in most Arctic ecosystems, many of which are experiencing particularly rapid climate change. Their different life-history characteristics, with the exception of their trophic position, suggest that they should show ...

Feeding studies give an indication about the role and position of species within ecosystems and provide crucial knowledge for management. Traditional methods are based on morphological identification of prey. DNA metabarcoding is a promising tool that allow for identification of specific prey items, also when highly digested. A total of 63 stomachs from three skate species caught in the Barents Sea ...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been extensively used to explore phylogenetics since the its use became available. This science is considered useful in discerning relationships and evolutionary histories that are not possible with morphological studies alone. The sleeper sharks (genus: Somniosus) are a group of poorly understood, long-lived, iconic species whose taxonomic status within the genus have ...