MAR33 - Methodological Advances to Enhance Arctic Research and Monitoring

The Arctic is experiencing the highest rate of warming globally due to climate change, which could lead to ice-free summers as early as 2035. While climate change is causing rapid shifts in seasonal sea ice, which can particularly affect ice-dependent species, it has already caused shifts in density, distribution, and abundance of novel species to the Arctic such as killer whales. With the ongoing loss of sea ice, human activity is also rising in the Arctic, leading to higher chances of both direct and indirect disturbances to marine life. Changes in sea ice, range expansion of southern species, and increased human activity all pose significant threats to culturally important and at-risk species, underscoring the need to fill the many knowledge gaps for Arctic species. The Arctic is an understudied region in part due to the huge costs of monitoring wide-ranging, low-density, and sometimes cryptic species that occur in very difficult to access places. This session will focus on methodological advances that can be used to study marine Arctic species in the face of these challenges. Examples may include emerging technologies such as remote data collection apps, enhanced satellite imagery, UAVs, thermal imaging cameras or analytical advances to handle large, sparse, or intermittent datasets. While the aim of this session is to highlight examples of new methods that have been successfully implemented in Arctic research, it also to highlight ongoing challenges or methods that didn’t go as planned - and why they didn’t work. We hope work presented here will broaden the application of emerging technologies. 

Co-Chairs: Annie Loosen, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada 

Stephen Insley, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada