In honour of Inuit Day, we are highlighting research collaborations between northern communities and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). Projects connected to the Northern Contaminants Program employ the scientific expertise of ECCC scientists to complement local and traditional Inuit Knowledge in communities throughout the North.
Seabirds
As increased human activity in the Arctic generates economic opportunities, it comes with the risk of greater levels of pollution and other impacts on the environment. A new collaborative study started this year out of Pond Inlet, Nunavut, to address concerns about seabird health in the region. This research is a partnership between ECCC and the local communities that identified the Baffin Bay-Davis Straight as critical habitat for Northern Fulmars, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Thick-billed Murres and Black Guillemots. It is part of a series of community-based monitoring projects taking place over the last few years to better understand seabird health in the northern waters that run between Canada and Greenland.
Tracking the health of ecosystems requires a baseline understanding of the current levels of pollution including contaminants from oil and gas, and microplastics. Research scientist, Jennifer Provencher, says, “Oil spills are easy to see, but long term effects are not always visible on the surface. This study will compare results to samples from other areas where there have been diesel spills to get a complete picture of health and impact on birds.”
ECCC wildlife technician, Jamie Enook, works on the project out of the ECCC Pond Inlet Research Station. He liaises with the local hunters and trappers organization to acquire approvals and permission to collect birds for research. He then organizes trips with hunters to harvest birds by boat and returns samples to Jennifer’s lab in the National Wildlife Research Centre in Ottawa for analysis.
“It’s important to figure out if the bird population is healthy or not. Birds are harvested for consumption and we want to make sure they are safe to eat and contaminant free,” Jamie says. “The more information and data we have on a species, the better we can manage it and plan for the future.”
Ringed Seals
Ensuring the safety of species traditionally harvested for food is also of concern in Nain, Nunatsiavut. ECCC has been supporting research in that region through the Northern Contaminants Program since the 2000s. Multiple projects are run in collaboration with the Nunatsiavut Research Center-Kaujisapvinga. The joint monitoring projects investigate levels of contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyl (commonly known as PCB), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (commonly known as DDT), mercury and other metals in water, fish and wildlife.
Magali Houde is a research scientist studying contaminants and their effects on wildlife. She is the ECCC co-lead on the study of ringed seals in the area. The species is of great cultural, economic and nutritional importance for Inuit. She says the local community and regional government direct the project in terms of sampling, coordinating with hunters and communicating results while ECCC conducts the analysis and interpretations of data through ECCC labs in Montreal and Burlington.
“There are so many environmental changes occurring in the Arctic and people in the communities know more about the ecology of the species such as changes in migration, habitat and diet,” explains Magali. “This information really helps the interpretation of the data. The partnership is essential to the entire project.”
Five years ago, Magali started working with Dominique Henri, an environmental social scientist with ECCC on the ringed seal research project to increase engagement in northern communities. Dominique specializes in community-based participatory research. Through interviews in the community, she gathers and documents Indigenous Knowledge. “Complementary to what other scientists at ECCC do, I bring perspectives of people to the research,” Dominique explains.
Along with other ECCC colleagues, and in partnership with local schools, hunters and trappers organizations and the Nunavut Arctic College, Magali and Dominique developed innovative workshops to engage Inuit and northern communities in research on contaminants. The workshops have taken place in Nunatsiavut, Nunavut, and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. They provide an opportunity for scientists to share information about their work with youth and northern residents and for Inuit Elders to share their knowledge with students and researchers. The workshops also support the training of college students and early career researchers.
Magali and Dominique look forward to resuming these workshops to expand collaboration and communication with northern residents and scientific researchers once pandemic-related travel restrictions are lifted.
Working together
There are more than twenty active research collaborations ongoing in communities across the Arctic. Inuit Knowledge and Western science come together to study air and water quality, wildlife ecology, food security and more. This cooperation through science contributes to a better understanding of the health and resilience of the entire northern ecosystem.