Investigating the Effects of Environmental Change on Arctic Char (<i>Salvelinus alpinus</i>) Growth Using Scientific and Inuit Traditional Knowledge

Abstract

For centuries, and still today, fishing and hunting of local natural resources have been a source of food and a part of the culture of the Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic region (Fig. 1) (Alunik et al., 2003; Inuvik Community Corporation et al., 2006). The Inuvialuit have attained an intimate and detailed understanding of their surroundings through their own experiences as well as from nearly a thousand years of accumulated observations passed on by their ancestors. This understanding of the local environment, known as traditional knowledge (TK), can provide expert information for the study of climate change effects on northern species (Riedlinger and Berkes, 2001; Furgal et al., 2006; Laidler, 2006) and is being increasingly recognized by the scientific community as a valuable way to understand our environment (Huntington et al., 2004; Hinkel et al., 2007). The direct effects of climate change observed through scientific studies in Canada’s Arctic regions include increasing annual temperatures, unprecedented changes in sea-ice conditions, melting permafrost, and increasing storm events (ACIA, 2004). It is hypothesized that these climate changes will lead to indirect secondary effects on Arctic freshwater and anadromous fishes, resulting in changes to body condition and growth, changes in anadromous behaviours, and losses of local biodiversity due to alterations to habitat (Reist et al., 2006a). The people in the local communities will have to adapt to the potential outcomes of these secondary effects. However, there is a general lack of long-term environmental and faunal data for many of the northern regions of Canada, including the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) (Reist et al., 2006a), and therefore, a lack of understanding of how the changing climate will ultimately affect northern species. The Inuvialuit of Sachs Harbour and Ulukhaktok (formerly known as Holman), the two northernmost and only permanent island communities in the ISR (Fig. 2), have been noticing unprecedented changes in their environment and local fauna since the mid 1990s and have expressed concern about the impacts of these changes. They have reported that the weather has become “unpredictable” and have observed a suite of rapid environmental changes, which include thinning and melting sea ice, melting permafrost, changes to the seasons, new species occurrences near their communities, and changes in the quality of the Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) on which they rely as a source of country food (Riedlinger and Berkes, 2001; Nichols et al., 2004; Barber et al., 2008; Pearce et al., 2009; Sachs Harbour community residents, pers. comm. 2009; Ulukhaktok community residents, pers. comm. 2010). Arctic char is an important biological indicator of climate change in the Arctic because it is the only freshwater fish that has a circumpolar distribution and uses a wide variety of aquatic habitats, including marine, river, and lake environments (Reist et al., 2006b). As the chars are a vital traditional subsistence and economic resource to the Inuit of Canada (Usher, 2002), we need to understand how climate change might affect their condition and populations in Canada’s North. The current importance of Arctic char to Inuvialuit communities and the impending effects of a changing environment necessitate effective long-term community-based monitoring (CBM) plans. CBM supports opportunities for both local study and the collection of scientific data to inform the ongoing inquiry into how environmental stressors affect northern fish species. The purpose of my PhD research is to anticipate and demonstrate the secondary effects of climate variability on Arctic char and provide understanding of these effects to FIG. 1. Margaret Kanayok, a resident of Ulukhaktok, Northwest