|
|
|
TABLE OF CONTENTSGeoscience and Climate Change in the Palliser Triangle of the Southern Canadian Prairies Economists' Statement on Climate Change Designing Economic Instruments to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in North America International Global Change Programs - Structures for Understanding Paleoenvironmental Studies in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia Biodiversity Conservation in Quebec National Science Meeting of the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) CCP INFO
|
National Science Meeting of the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN)A successful third National Science Meeting of the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) was held in Saskatoon in January 1997. There were about 300 attendees from all levels of government, universities, industry and non-governmental organizations. Considerable progress was made in developing the Network activities and in promoting the new State of Environment concept of data gathering leading to assessments supported by routine reporting of indicators. Volunteer networks, which are essential to extend the detailed ecological information to larger geographical areas, are developing rapidly. There were many examples of the necessity of having multi-disciplinary datasets to properly answer the key questions set out by the ecological monitoring network — to understand what is changing and why. Highlights of the meeting included two papers, one presented by Robert Coupland of the University of Saskatchewan and the other by Thomas Nudds of the University of Guelph.Coupland presented the results of an ongoing study of nutrient flow in agricultural systems to measure the efficiency of transfer of fertilizer nutrients to human use as plant and animal products. In other words, how much fertilizer is consumed in relation to each unit of nitrogen in products returned to humans. For the world, this number was 2.9 times as great in 1989-91 as compared to 1961-63 — and in Canada 4.1 times as great. Thus, through examining nitrogen flows, it appears as if our agricultural systems are becoming less efficient at meeting human needs. Nudds examined the great need for integrated monitoring and integrated analysis of databases. He showed that duck populations, as an example, have not declined everywhere by more than can be accounted for by climate change; and where declines exist, they are in proportion to the amount of agricultural land use, and not as a result of nest predators. Without the appropriate integrated monitoring and integrated analysis, these answers would not be available. The meeting closed with the announcement that the 1998 meeting will be in Charlevoix, Quebec from January 20-24. For more information contact Tom Brydges, Director, Indicators, Monitoring and Assessment Branch, Environment Canada, 867 Lakeshore Rd., P.O. Box 5050, Burlington, Ontario L7R 4A6; tel: +1-905-336-4410; fax: +1-905-336-4989; e-mail: tom.brydges@cciw.ca |