Posters

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B

Earth Observation in Support of International Land Use Reporting

Blain D.¹, McGovern M.¹, Huffman T.², Leckie D.³, Guindon B.⁴, Hofmann N.⁵, Zang Ying⁴, Seed E.⁶

¹Environment Canada, Greenhouse Gas Division; ²Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, Research Branch; ³Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service; ⁴Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Centre for Remote Sensing; ⁵Statistics Canada, Environment Accounts and Statistics Division; ⁶Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service

Since 1995, Canada has prepared and submitted annually a national inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, to meet its commitment under the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The National GHG Inventory (GHG Inventory) is used to assess compliance with international reporting obligations under the UNFCCC and will fulfill the same role under the Kyoto Protocol. The Inventory is developed and submitted by Environment Canada/Greenhouse Gas Division, in partnership with several other governmental departments and agencies.

The Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector of the Inventory includes GHG emissions and removals associated with land management activities and land-use change among six basic land categories: forest, cropland, grassland, wetlands, settlements and other lands. Among other information, the GHG inventory should report the breakdown of Canada’s lands between the six categories in 1990, and changes that occurred since.

Expertise is rapidly developing in various departments in using both Earth Observation (EO) and non-EO data for locating and estimating areas under various land uses, and monitoring change. Separate efforts are on-going in the domains of urban and urbanization mapping, agricultural land uses, forests and deforestation, the Canadian North and wetlands. The unique contribution of this project is to provide an opportunity to facilitate the exchange of this expertise and combine it to deliver a well-documented, reproducible, and spatially consistent product. The development of rule-based data integration methods is the main focus of the project; the goal is to produce consistent land use information at the national scale for 1990.

Some of the challenges are:

1. Landcover data alone is insufficient to determine land use category, because of poor correspondence between the two, even with very broad categories (e.g. what is ‘shrubland’?)
2. Inconsistencies between input data sets, and efficiencies in rule set development and use, limit the number of useable input products
3. Significant ‘expert knowledge’ is required in rule development – a decision support system is needed to encode this knowledge in a reproducible fashion
4. The resolution of final product still under discussion, but it must meet reporting requirements.

D

Long-term, Multi-faceted Environmental Monitoring Program at RIM Park, Waterloo

Tara Dailey and Elaine Gosnell

Natural Resource Solutions Inc. and the City of Waterloo

Natural Resource Solutions Inc. was retained by the City of Waterloo to conduct a long-term, multi-faceted environmental monitoring program for RIM Park, Waterloo. RIM Park is a municipal park, located in the northeast corner of the City of Waterloo. The Park was created between 2000 and 2002 and incremental construction is on-going. In keeping with the City of Waterloo’s commitment to monitor the natural environment before, during and after development of a site, the following monitoring programs were established:

• Breeding Birds
• White-tailed deer
• Vegetation, and
• Amphibians

2006 represents the 8th year of monitoring conducted at RIM Park by Natural Resource Solutions Inc. and the City of Waterloo. Analysis of the data displays variability from year to year in species, population, behaviour and abundance, indicating that post-construction monitoring should be conducted for more than 5 years.

Information gathered from RIM Park monitoring is allowing Natural Resource Solutions Inc. and the City of Waterloo to better understand how a balance between human and natural features can be obtained. Monitoring information has been used to educate the public, assist City of Waterloo staff and RIM Park staff with park management and provide educational signage and trail guides. Natural Resource Solutions Inc. is now able to implement knowledge gained from RIM Park to other development projects such as wildlife crossings, constructing herpetofauna ponds and design of trail systems.

Space for Habitat: Adapting to Meet the Challenges of Habitat Conservation in the 21st Century

Jason A. Duffe¹ and Brenda R. Morehouse²

¹Environment Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre; ²Environment Canada, Wildlife Enforcement Directorate

Habitat degradation and loss are now prime causes of species declines, globally and in Canada. Multiple environmental stressors are at play simultaneously across the landscape, requiring new approaches for effective habitat conservation. Earth Observation (EO) technologies, combined with in situ and airborne monitoring, can improve the ability to understand and address wildlife habitat conservation issues. Environment Canada, in collaboration with other Federal Departments, Provincial Governments, industry and non-government partners, has undertaken a pilot initiative to modernize wildlife habitat monitoring and enforcement capabilities. Focusing on Migratory Bird habitat in forests across Canada and designated Protected Areas, the Space for Habitat interdisciplinary project team is working toward developing a national compliance and effectiveness monitoring system using Earth Observation (EO) data and state of the art analysis techniques. EO technologies, tools and associated modelling techniques have the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of wildlife conservation activities for management, research, and enforcement programs. With improved and timely information in support of decision making, Canada can better target limited resources toward high priority needs.

A variety of satellite and airborne sensors are being tested for their ability to delineate wildlife habitat and monitor change through time. Work in protected areas has focused on matching the EO technology and analysis to the ecotype as well as specific monitoring requirements. Consideration of priority habitats/species, industrial development, geographic location and size of protected area were assessed. Initial work on habitat monitoring in industrial forests has focused on developing a habitat classification system for forest birds using ecological niche modelling. Compliance monitoring capabilities of EO technologies in active forests is being evaluated in partnership with Provinces.

F

Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Science for Nearshore Marine Monitoring: Experiences from the Belcher Islands

Miriam Fleming¹ and Richard Whittaker²

¹Municipality of Sanikiluaq; 2Nunavut Hudson Bay Inter-Agency Working Group

The Municipality of Sanikiluaq in the Belcher Islands has a well-established record in the systematic compilation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in the Hudson Bay bioregion. In the early 1990s, the community was concerned about the cumulative impact of several proposed hydroelectric projects on the natural environment and the indigenous inhabitants of the bioregion. The Hudson Bay Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Management Systems study was initiated in response to these concerns as part of a three-year initiative undertaken by the Municipality.

Over ten years later, community concern about major ecological changes as a result of climate change and the environmental impacts of a new phase of hydroelectric developments has resulted in an increased need for effective community-based monitoring programs. Sanikiluaq is now developing a new community-based environmental monitoring system to incorporate TEK and scientific monitoring in a GIS database. A pilot monitoring program was initiated in 2005 to systematically monitor the Kataapik area near the community of Sanikiluaq. This area was chosen by the community to help determine the cause of poor health and discolouration of Sea Cucumbers and Mussels that are harvested in the locality. The pilot project also involves liaison with Elders and hunters to determine other environmental health concerns in the Belcher Islands region. TEK and scientific observations, samples, photos and community concerns are all being recorded and analyzed using the GIS database application.

Use of Rotational Grazing Systems to Conserve Remnant Tallgrass Prairie Patches

David L. Smith¹, Roger Yerdon¹ and Gene Fortney²

¹University of Nebraska at Kearney, Nebraska; ²Conservation Programs, Nature Conservancy of Canada

Since tallgrass prairie has been grazed by native ungulates such as plains bison for thousands of years, it is proposed that cattle can be used as a management tool for the maintenance of tallgrass prairie ecosystems. It is hypothesized that cattle grazing at moderate intensities does not have adverse effects on tallgrass prairie ecosystem structure and function.

The objectives of this research near Vita and Gardenton, Manitoba include:

1. to quantify and qualify the effects of grazing at a variety of frequencies by cattle on native tallgrass prairie range,
2. to measure parameters such as utilization, species composition, species abundance, standing crop of live and dead tissue, abundance of bare ground and plant litter, abundance of exotic/non-native species (e.g., smooth brome) and abundance of endangered plant species, and
3. to make recommendations for future research and management at tallgrass prairie sites.

G

Butterflies as Biological Indicators: Monitoring the Abundance and Diversity of Butterflies to Detect Changing Environmental Trends

Jessica Grealey, Natural Resource Solutions Inc.

The rare Charitable Research Reserve is located at the confluence of the Speed and Grand Rivers and covers a total area of 913 acres, making it the largest urban green space in Canada. The species diversity present at the reserve reflects its location along the boundary formed by the Carolinian forest zone of southern Ontario with the Northern Hardwood forest zone of the province. Several monitoring programs have been established on rare’s property to track the health of its ecosystems including tree health monitoring, lichen monitoring, salamander monitoring, stream monitoring and most recently- butterfly monitoring. Two transects approximately 2-3 km long are walked once a week in order to collect data on butterfly abundance and diversity. The methods employed are based on the British Butterfly Monitoring Scheme first outlined by Ernest Pollard in the 1970’s. To date, data on forty-two different species of butterfly has been collected on rare’s property, four of these species being uncommon and local in south western Ontario. The data collected may be used to create an index of abundance for each species of butterfly and diversity indices may be used to determine the amount of diversity between sites. Long-term monitoring of butterflies, which can be very sensitive to changes in their environment, has the potential to provide information on rare’s ecosystem health now that baseline data has been collected.

A Conservation Blueprint for Canada’s Prairies and Parklands

Sarah Green, Nature Conservancy of Canada

The conservation blueprint for Canada’s prairie and parkland ecoregions is a first attempt by the Nature Conservancy of Canada and its partners to identify and map biodiversity targets and to identify critical core areas for biodiversity conservation. The conservation blueprint is a GIS-based analysis of the Aspen Parkland, Moist Mixed Grass, Mixed Grass and Cypress Uplands ecoregions in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba as well as northern portions of Montana and North Dakota. The blueprint project involved the first-ever mapping of natural ecological systems across the entire prairie-parkland landscape. Data were also compiled on the status and distribution of species of conservation concern across the biome. A gap, or representation, analysis was performed in order to assess the representation of these coarse- and fine-filter biodiversity targets in existing protected areas and conservation lands. The blueprint quantifies the conservation achievement of these lands and identifies other sites that are critical for biodiversity conservation in these ecoregions. It remains a worthwhile and achievable goal to assemble region-wide data sets that can support region-wide assessments of our collective achievements and needs with regard to biodiversity conservation. This first-iteration attempt is an encouragement to others to continue to partner in this difficult task, and to consider a deliberate organization of collective conservation planning.

M

Insect observations from wild populations of roses (Rosa spp.) in Eastern Canada

Victoria J. MacPhail and Peter G. Kevan

University of Guelph, Dept. of Environmental Biology

Wild roses (Rosa spp.) have the potential to become a new Canadian crop as their hips (“fruits”) contain many healthful compounds, but information regarding their pollination biology is limited. Experimental trials were carried out in 2004 through 2006 on Rosa blanda, R. canina, and R. multiflora in Ontario and R. cinnamomea and R. virginiana in Prince Edward Island. The objectives were: 1) to investigate their reproductive systems (data not presented), and 2) to survey the types of insects that visit these species through insect observations and collections. Floral insect activity was quantified at a minimum of two sites for each species in 2004 and 2005. The number, type (most were hover flies or bees), and foraging time of floral insect visitors (longest in beetles, shortest in bees) was recorded during 10 minute intervals on an hourly basis from 0800 to 1300h (with peak activity noted mid-morning) on two different occasions for each site. Representatives of most floral visitors were also collected during all three summers, and were then pinned and labelled. Genera identified thus far (bees only) include Andrena, Apis, Augochlora, Augochlorella, Augochloropsis, Bombus, Calliposis, Ceratina, Halictus, Hylaeus, Lassioglossum, Megachile, and Xylocopa. Roses are a generalist species, and because they were found to attract a great diversity and abundance of insects, they are an ideal species to conduct monitoring on. The techniques used in this study allow for easy observation and recording of valuable data on both insects and communities, which can then be compared with other areas and studies over time.

The Halifax Experimental Pollen and Spore Monitoring and Forecast Program: Publicizing 6-year Results and Trends

Ann A.L. Miller^1,2, Erin Pitman¹, David L. Waugh³, David H.S. Richardson¹ and Benjamin J. A. Moulton¹

¹Department of Biology, Saint Mary's University; ² marine g.e.o.s., Nova Scotia; ³Atmospheric Science Division, Meteorological Service of Canada – Atlantic Region, Environment Canada

The Saint Mary's University-Environment Canada Experimental Pollen and Spore Monitoring Program began operating in Nova Scotia in 2000. Airborne pollen and spore levels have been recorded daily throughout the flowering season at various locations, based on land use and population density. Previously sites have included include Halifax, Beaverbank or Wellington, and Noel Shore (urban, suburban and rural, respectively). This year samplers were stationed in Halifax, Kentville, and Sydney, allowing monitoring over greater geographical and climatic ranges. Annual variation in the pollen records appear to be due to biannual reproductive behaviour, local weather conditions, latitudinal differences, and prevailing climatic conditions.

Pollen forecasts are made based on the species trapped, the densities calculated, and the predicted weather. Pollen and spores are potentially allergenic to sensitive individuals, and the forecasts publicize when activity and medication modification may be advisable, helping reduce the demands on the health-care system. Long-term monitoring may reveal early indications of vegetation responses and increased health risks from anthropogenic atmospheric contamination and global warming.

Forecasts are updated for Halifax each afteroon Monday to Friday and are available to the public electronically via a hyperlink found at Environment Canada’s Halifax weather forecast website. It is also available for Halifax on an automated voice message system. Press releases have been issued each spring, and publicized by television and print media and medical associations. Presentations have been made at a number of environmental, horticultural, and medical conferences and meetings. Articles are currently being written for the scientific community and more general audiences.

Making a Difference

ZoAnn Morten, Pacific Streamkeepers Federation

This series of informative posters highlights Module 10 of the Streamkeepers Handbook, "to heighten community awareness of the value of your stream". They describe some of the concerns for stream health that are brought to light during monitoring works, which Streamkeepers Modules were associated with the findings, methods used to solve the problems and the successful results that are an outcome of community's commitment to stream health.

Mixed-grass Prairie Inventory Project

Kathy Murray, Critical Wildlife Habitat Program, Manitoba Conservation

Mixed-grass prairie has been dramatically reduced in the last 200 years. It has been estimated that less than 25% of this community remains in its native state (WWF 1989). In 1996, the Critical Wildlife Habitat Program initiated an inventory to identify and rank the remaining parcels of mixed-grass prairie in Manitoba. To date, approximately 72 037 hectares (178 000 acres) have been included in the inventory, with approximately half of this area rated as good quality mixed-grass prairie. Inventory information includes a species list, general condition assessment and a grade. The grading follows the Manitoba Conservation Data Centre grading guidelines, based on the relative abundance of native and nonnative species and the extent of negative impacts on the community. Grades range from “A” through “D”, where a grade of “A” indicates excellent quality habitat and “D” indicates a community dominated by exotic species. In 2006, the project focused on reassessment of privately owned sites graded as “C” or better to evaluate the long term viability of these prairie habitats. As part of the reassessment, landowners were interviewed to assess their attitudes and awareness about mixed-grass prairie management and conservation. The inventory has helped to determine the status of remaining mixed-grass prairie habitats and to identify the most common threats in the mixed-grass region of Manitoba. This in turn helps to focus future efforts for habitat conservation, including management recommendations and long term protection through perpetual conservation agreements.

S

The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program: a Rigorous Initiative to Measure and Report on Changes in Biodiversity at Regional and Provincial Scales.

Jim Schieck, Jim Herbers, Stan Boutin, Erin Bayne, Diane Haughland, Scott Nielsen, Lisa Mahon

Government, industries, and academia in Alberta have worked jointly during the last nine years to develop the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program (ABMP). This program will sample terrestrial biota (fungi, lichens, mosses, vascular plants, springtails, mites, birds, mammals), aquatic biota (vascular plants, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic invertebrates, amphibians, fish), terrestrial and aquatic habitats (live and dead trees, down logs, shrub cover, litter, water physiochemistry, water basin characteristics) and landscape elements. Three types of information will be monitored at each site: i) species, ii) habitat, and iii) human footprint. This information will be used to estimate the “degree of intactness” for species, guilds and taxonomic groups within regions and at the provincial scale. A web-based data management system is being developed to store, manage, and disseminate ABMP data and results. This data management system will have capability to supply raw data plus the composite metrics for species, guilds, taxonomic groups, habitats, and landscapes for any user defined region within Alberta, or for the province as a whole. To assist adaptive management, associations between changes in biota and changes in human land uses will be evaluated. A pilot of the ABMP is nearing completion (2003-2006), and the program is poised for implementation. Starting in 2007, each of the 1656 ABMP sites will be sampled once during each 5-year interval to document changes in biodiversity over time. In addition, deviation in biodiversity within a region from that expected if the region was intact will be determined.

T

Saskatchewan PlantWatch

Deanna Trowsdale-Mutafov, Saskatchewan PlantWatch Coordinator

Saskatchewan PlantWatch, an extension of the Canadian PlantWatch program, is a joint venture of Nature Saskatchewan, Environment Canada’s Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) and Nature Canada, with funding from EcoAction and SaskPower. PlantWatch has been delivered by Nature Saskatchewan since 2004, so is still a relatively new program. Nature Saskatchewan is a member-based, not-for profit charity dedicated to protecting nature, its diversity, and the processes that sustain it. PlantWatch has been an excellent fit for Nature Saskatchewan, as Nature Saskatchewan already provides opportunities for members and the public to participate in monitoring initiatives. PlantWatch enables volunteer “citizen scientists” to contribute to an understanding of how and why our natural environment is changing by watching specific indicator flowers bloom. In Saskatchewan, 20 species have been identified as key indicator species for the program – 18 native and 2 non-native plants. In 2005, these plant images and descriptions were printed in a poster format, along with climate change information, and made available to any interested individuals or groups. In June, 2006, a poster sized wall chart, with a graphing area, was created to help schools and community groups record the flowering of indicator species over a period of several years. This will provide a better picture of how climate change is affecting biota over time.

PlantWatch Saskatchewan has been taking the program, the posters, and the climate change message into schools! In 2005, myself, along with Saskatchewan Watershed Authority and Native Plant Society of Saskatchewan representative Ben Sawa, teamed up to talk to school children about planting urban prairie restoration gardens. On a small scale, these restoration projects will represent native plant communities, create wildlife habitat, provide educational opportunities, and preserve biological diversity of native plants from the Regina Plain Landscape area. Along with the focus of native prairie restoration, this project has added the monitoring of climate change as an equally important initiative. Saskatchewan PlantWatch will have key indicator species planted in the native prairie observation plots and hope to have children, our “citizen scientists”, watch the plants and record blooming times to aid in climate change research. PlantWatch delivers its message to schools and groups through a youth-friendly PowerPoint presentation and talk, through which the program and climate change issues are discussed with the students. A very important part of the presentation is what each of us, including children, can do to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions and help the earth.

A total of 12 presentations were given to schools and community groups in the first year of collaboration (2005), including a special school fall media event where the excited children “buffalo stomped” the native seeds into their own garden. So far, in 2006, there have been 6 presentations together. More joint presentations are forthcoming in the fall.

This is a good example of how the collaboration of different agencies helped create the end result of prairie gardens, along with educating the students on the benefits of restoring our native prairie, and participating in a program that helps scientists monitor climate change.

We expect positive outcomes from our school based presentations and garden plantings, and I plan to continue to take PlantWatch into the schools, along with our poster and wall chart, to discuss both participation in the program and climate change issues. Education of youth will continue to be a very key component of the Saskatchewan PlantWatch program.

Steppler WEBs Project – South Tobacco Creek

Jim Yarotski¹ and Bill Turner²

¹Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; ²Deerwood Soil and Water Management Association

Participants:

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
• National Water Research Institute
• Environment Canada
• Department of Fisheries and Oceans
• Ducks Unlimited Canada
• Deerwood Soil and Water Management Association
• University of Manitoba (Soils Department)
• Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives
• Water Quality Management, Manitoba Water Stewardship
• Local Area Producers

The nutrient enrichment or eutrophication of streams and rivers, particularly from phosphorus, is one of the most important surface water quality issues on the Canadian prairies. Phosphorus originates from many sources, including natural sources and human activities. Nutrient loading from small watersheds can potentially contribute to nutrient loadings downstream.

The Watershed Evaluation of Beneficial management practices (WEBs), is a four-year project designed to examine the effectiveness of certain beneficial management practices (BMPs) in helping to improve surface water quality by reducing sediment and nutrient runoff into water bodies. In an agricultural setting BMPs are farming activities that attempt to minimize the overall potential impacts of agricultural activities on the environment. To date, the effectiveness of BMPs has been tested primarily on plots or small fields. Through WEBs, the effects of BMPs will be determined on a micro-watershed scale. These results will be extroploated to larger watersheds using appropriate modelling techniques.

The Steppler Watershed

The Steppler watershed is near Miami, Manitoba, approximately 150 kms southwest of Winnipeg. The 228-hectare watershed is situated on the Manitoba Escarpment. This sub-watershed drains through South Tobacco Creek and the Morris River into the Red River. The Red River flows north through Winnipeg and into Lake Winnipeg. As a sub-watershed within the South Tobacco Creek Watershed, it has been the focus of scientific studies and research projects for more than 20 years. It already has an existing runoff/water sampling infrastructure. It is contained within a single farm operation and there is strong local support, including the involvement of a well-established conservation group - Deerwood Soil and Water Management Association.

The Steppler Study Approach

Five BMPs have been incorporated into the Steppler or surrounding sub-watersheds.

1. The runoff and nutrient loading from a Zero tillage field vs. a minimum tillage field will be assessed using an existing, long-term twin watershed site adjacent to the Steppler watershed.
2. The inflow and releases from a holding pond constructed to capture runoff from a cattle containment area will be monitored and water quality analysed.
3. The impact on water quantity and quality of converting cropped land to forage will be assessed using the twin watershed approach for two sets of sub-watersheds.
4. Selected riparian areas will be developed or enhanced so that the forage can be mechanically harvested, eliminating or reducing the need of burning and cattle grazing. Runoff and nutrient information before and after the riparian improvements will be compared.
5. The effectiveness of two small reservoirs in reducing downstream nutrient runoff will be assessed by monitoring and comparing the runoff and nutrients entering and exiting them.