Putting the Canadian Polar House in Order

Northern Canada is facing unprecedented social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural changes. Unfortunately, attention to northern issues has typically been sustained for only short periods in response to external events usually associated with interests in minerals, oil and natural gas reserves, or pipelines. Public policy needs to be supported by a strong knowledge base: the results of scholarly studies and various research and monitoring programs can help government to identify problems, set priorities, and implement solutions. The cumulative effect of inadequate federal funding has been to marginalize northern research, creating a crisis in capacity and knowledge that can no longer be ignored. ... Several fundamental problems have contributed to the current crisis in northern science and research in Canada. Canada has no accepted northern science and research strategy. ... There is a conspicuous lack of funding for northern research in Canada, at a time when most other polar countries have significantly increased their investment in research capacity, including infrastructure and logistical support. ... Federal northern science and research programs and resources are fragmented across numerous departments and agencies. Conflicting mandates between and within individual departments result in poor planning and a lack of continuity. ... Numerous disincentives in the research community have diminished interest in northern research. Thus a lack of training and replacement of northern researchers has led to a serious reduction in our capacity to address northern issues in many fields. So how do we put our polar house in order? ... Building on the suggestions made by England (2000), we propose a two-part solution to secure Canadian leadership in northern science and research. These proposals both enhance political identity and accountability and improve opportunities for effective planning and action. First, there is a critical need to develop a national strategy for Northern Science, Research, and Knowledge (NSRK). This NSRK Strategy would be tabled in Parliament and would provide direction for national commitments and activities. The Strategy would be developed by an interdepartmental deputy minister committee, in consultation with northern governments (territorial and aboriginal), the northern colleges and research institutes, university-based northern research institutes, northern communities and the private sector. ... Second, we propose that the federal government establish a Canadian Northern Research Service. The Service would support the development of a NSRK Strategy .... The Service would also provide a home for northern training and education initiatives, particularly the University of the Arctic. The Northern Scientific Training Program is already one of the most successful ways of enhancing northern research expertise, but it could be expanded to include northern students and greater community involvement. ..

The sheep in wolf‘s clothing? Recognizing threats for land degradation in Iceland using state-and-transition models

Land degradation and extensive soil erosion are serious environmental concerns in Iceland. Natural processes associated with a harsh climate and frequent volcanic activity have shaped Icelandic landscapes. However, following human settlement and the introduction of livestock in the 9th century the extent of soil erosion rapidly escalated. Despite increased restoration and afforestation efforts and a considerable reduction in sheep numbers during the late 20th century, many Icelandic rangelands remain in poor condition. A deeper understanding of the ecology of these dynamic landscapes is needed, and state-and-transition models (STMs) can provide a useful conceptual framework. STMs have been developed for ecosystems worldwide to guide research, monitoring and management, but have been used at relatively small spatial scales and have not been extensively applied to high-latitude rangelands. Integrating the best available knowledge, we develop STMs for rangelands in Iceland, where sheep grazing is often regarded as a main driver of degradation. We use STMs at a country-wide scale for three time periods with different historical human influence, from pre-settlement to present days. We also apply our general STM to a case study in the central highlands of Iceland to illustrate the potential application of these models at scales relevant to management. Our STMs identify the set of possible states, transitions and thresholds in these ecosystems and their changes over time, and suggest increasing complexity in recent times. This approach can help identify important knowledge gaps and inform management efforts and monitoring programmes, by identifying realistic and achievable conservation and restoration goals.I. C. B. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship funded by theIcelandic Research Fund (Rannsóknasjóður, grant 152468‐051) andAXA Research Fund (15‐AXA‐PDOC‐307). D. S. H. recieved supportfrom the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada),and ISJ from the University of Iceland Research Fund

Global maps of soil temperature.

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km <sup>2</sup> resolution for 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km <sup>2</sup> pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

The impact of live-trapping on the stress response of the meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus).

In physiological research on natural populations, it is essential to understand the impact of capture-induced stress because of its numerous effects on many physiological processes. Our objective was to determine the extent to which the stress levels of meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) were affected by short-term responses to live-trapping and how these were influenced by the amount of time spent in live-traps. Baseline levels were obtained from a snap-trapped sample and stress levels were determined from voles that had spent variable amounts of time in live-traps (up to 16.5 h). Stress levels were inferred from corticosterone and glucose concentrations and hematocrit levels. In the live-trapped sample, corticosterone concentrations reflect only the stress of trap confinement whereas glucose concentrations and hematocrit reflect both the effects of trap confinement and handling. Live-trapping caused corticosterone concentrations to increase by 108% (from 390.3 ng/mL to 810.6 ng/mL), glucose concentrations to increase by 58% (from 55.4 mg/dL to 87.4 mg/dL), and hematocrit levels to increase by 10% (from 49% to 54%) from baseline levels. The length of time a vole spent in a live-trap did not affect corticosterone and glucose concentrations; however, hematocrit levels increased slightly over time (0.21%/h). We conclude that live-trapping induced a stress response in voles, but that longer times in traps did not increase the stress levels