Parks Canada

Terra Nova National Park monitors intertidal invertebrate communities using a line transect and quadrat sampling method. The survey focusses on invertebrate community composition and diversity, and should detect presence of invasive marine species.

The park monitors angling stress in several ponds (lakes) in Terra Nova with Fyke nets. Angling stress is assesed against calculated values of fish biomass and fish condition (Fulton’s condition factor, K).

Terra Nova National Park monitors crab populations for the presence of the invasive European Green Crab; the abundance of native Rock Crab is also monitored. Park personnel uses baited traps for these surveys.

Terra Nova National Park employs fixed station pressure/temperature loggers to continuously monitor stream water temperatures over the entire summer at designated stream study sites.

This measure aims at monitoring forest plant community structure in Terra Nova National Park, including taxa richness, and presence of exotic species.

Terra Nova National Park monitors annual decay rate by measuring decomposition of tongue depressors buried within randomly selected Balsam Fir and Black Spruce plots.

The park maps the existing human footprint and footprint edge in Terra Nova.

The park assesses expected ranges for each land cover type: successional stages by stand type, area regenerating after natural disturbance (e.g., fire), mature forest, non-forest, wetlands, and waterbodies.

Terra Nova National Park uses fixed station stream gauges and pressure temperature loggers to monitor the following stream flow aspects: Richards-Baker index of flashiness, ratio of yearly precipitation to runoff, low flow volume, annual maxima/minima, and mean monthly flow.

Effort, catch, and biometric fish data are produced using the Summer Profundal Index Netting (SPIN) methodologies developed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Monitoring is generally conducted generally on a five year cycle, with additional sampling as necessary. Data are from...

Occupancy data for wildlife species are collected from seven snow track transects, where the presence or absence of tracks for each species is recorded every 100m. Tracks are allowed to accumulate for at least 48 hours after transects have been set by a fresh snowfall or a snowmobile pulling a...

This dataset identifies the location and area burned for fires within the current Prince Albert National Park boundary. All fires over 2 ha from 1930--2017 are included and fires under 2 ha are included opportunistically. Multiple sources are used to gather information about each fire. If area...

The richness of benthic macro-invertebrate species is used to monitor the overall health of stream ecosystems in Gwaii Haanas. Any shifts in community composition, initially detected as an increase or decrease in species richness, can be the result of nutrient levels, atmospheric pollutants, or...

Using permanent transects, geo indicators are tracked annually to monitor the effects of long term erosion and deposition processes and significant erosional events to ecologically sensitive sand dune ecosystems.

Areas with high potential for exotic introductions are monitored annually for new growth and new plants are treated as necessary.

In partnership with ECCC, Gwaii Haanas monitors five Marbled Murrelet colonies by using a radar station located offshore. As birds fly out to the ocean at dawn, and return at dusk, the radar data is used to estimate the number of birds per hectare of suitable nesting habitat. Sampling areas focus...

Black Oystercatcher breeding success is estimated by visually surveying known breeding habitat in key areas of Gwaii Haanas. Surveys are conducted twice a year during breeding season. Black Oysercatchers are very vulnerable to disturbances, predation of eggs and young, predators, oil spills and...

The subalpine zone of Haida Gwaii occurs between an elevation of 600 to 800m. Permanent plots are monitored every 5 years to detect any changes to the structure and composition of the vegetation community on Yatza Mountain. Metrics include: canopy closure, debris classes, tree species, organic...

Gwaii Haanas evaluates changes to forest breeding songbird occupancy and diversity annually. Point counts are conducted using Acoustic Recording Units (ARUs) at permanent sampling sites.

The EPT index measures the proportion of freshwater organisms belonging to the taxa Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera (or EPT for short). These species are considered to be highly sensitive to pollution and are a measure of good environmental conditions. Any significant declines to these...