Recommendations

Project	Type	Outcome	Report	Year
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	Northward movement is easier for more mobile openwater species. Open water species such as polar cod, are more mobile compared to those linked to shelf regions, such as benthic species including some fishes for which suitable habitat may be unavailable if they move northward.	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Advice	Community-based monitoring networks and community relationship building: Increase the span of networks in the CBMP to include Community-based monitoring networks. Communicate information on changes and the results of monitoring between scientists and the public in both directions. This is crucial to the development of effective management strategies and human activities.	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	Current trends indicate that species reliant on sea ice for reproduction, resting or foraging will experience range reductions as sea ice retreat occurs earlier and the open water season is prolonged.	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Advice	Plankton• Follow standardized protocols for monitoring plankton, including sample collection and preservation, microscopic and genetic analyses with taxonomic harmonization.• Ensure that full data sharing occurs between scientists, and is deposited in publicly-accessible nationaldata centers. Continue to consolidate older data.• Train highly qualified personnel to perform plankton sampling and species-level analyses, including theuse of molecular techniques.• Establish long-term funded annual monitoring programmes of plankton from selected Arctic field stations or Arctic campaigns/cruises in Canada, the U.S. and Russia, which together with the ongoing monitoring in Greenland, Iceland and Norway will secure a pan-Arctic coverage. • Develop species indexes and if possible, identify indicator taxa for monitoring.	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	Increases in the frequency of contagious diseases are being observed	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Advice	Marine fishes Conduct pan-Arctic taxonomic analyses to clarify zoogeographic patterns that are important for detecting and understanding change. Establish and conduct a monitoring plan that is independent of fisheries-related programs to assess changes in fish abundance and distributions. Use information from non-commercial fish species caught in groundfish surveys to provide a first step in this direction. Use information from TK holders for monitoring marine fishes. Connect monitoring initiatives across scales. Conduct laboratory studies to examine the possible effects of abiotic and biotic changes (e.g. temperature, salinity, acidity and diseases) on fish species Ensure that data on fisheries (commercial as well as artisanal) are accurate and registered in catch databases (such as the Food Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations). Information from logbooks is also relevant as it can be used to estimate the bycatch and the effects of fisheries.	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Advice	Methods: Increased attention to methodology allows for more precise and comparable results, standardized data collection, and ability to link regional monitoring to circumpolar efforts: -- Ensure that Arctic monitoring programs are ecosystem-based and include as many CBMP FECs as possible to include functionally important taxonomic groups and improve our understanding of how the ecosystem functions, and how its components are related. Such monitoring programs can serve to underpin management of human activities in the Arctic marine environment.-- Standardize methodology, including taxonomic identification in order to allow production of comparable data and results. -- Ensure training of personnel performing sampling and analyses.	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	Some Arctic species are shifting their ranges northwards to seek more favourable conditions as the Arctic warms. These movements pose unknown consequences for Arctic species and their interactions, such as predation and competition.	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Marine Biodiversity Monitoring	Advice	Marine mammals Implement existing international monitoring plans such as those for ringed seals and polar bear, with adaptive management principles to address the eleven FEC marine mammal species. Expand marine mammal monitoring efforts to include parameters on health, passive acoustics, habitat changes, and telemetry tracking studies. Obtain more knowledge about population sizes, densities, and distributions of marine mammal populations in order to understand the relationships between sea ice loss and climate change and to manage Arctic marine mammal populations in an appropriate manner. Involve indigenous and local peoples in the design and implementation of monitoring programs so that scientific knowledge and TLK holders are working collaboratively. Pursue a multidisciplinary and multi-knowledge approach and a high degree of collaboration across borders and between researchers, local communities and Arctic governments to better understand complex spatial-temporal shifts in drivers, ecological changes and animal health.	State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2017
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	To interpret changes in population size, there is an increasing need to understand whether these are due to shifts in range, changes in reproductive success or changes in annual survival.	A Global Audit of the Status and Trends of Arctic And Northern Hemisphere Goose Populations	2018
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Advice	Methods : Increased attention to methodology facilitates more precise and comparable results, standardized data collection, and ability to link regional monitoring to circumpolar efforts. Standardize how data is collected, managed, and reported, including field and sampling protocols, data collection methods, terminology, database harmonization and management, tools for data archiving and specimen libraries, including identification and curation. Create a harmonized, accessible, and long-term taxonomic framework for Arctic monitoring. Complete baseline studies and structured inventories to improve circumpolar data across FECs. Promote multi-species studies and long-term time series data.	State of the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2021
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	Most estimates derive from total counts of all individuals, 8 populations combine some form of capture-mark-recapture approach (almost exclusively in North America) but 15 populations are based upon expert opinion, mostly in East and Central Asia. Less than half of the estimates for all populations were thought to fall within 10% of the true totals.	A Global Audit of the Status and Trends of Arctic And Northern Hemisphere Goose Populations	2018
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	Changing frequency, intensity and timing of extreme and unusual weather events due to climate change are affecting some species, with unknown effects on populations.	State of the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2021
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	There is a very clear need to establish or expand annual reporting on population size and demographic trends to make such information accessible to decision makers and stakeholders in a timely fashion.	A Global Audit of the Status and Trends of Arctic And Northern Hemisphere Goose Populations	2018
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Advice	Local Knowledge and Citizen Science: Local Knowledge exists on a spectrum from long-term, place-based experiential knowledge held by local residents, including harvesters, to knowledge of more recent residents. As such, monitoring efforts to work with Local Knowledge must interact with a wide range of diverse knowledge holders. Dedicate more time to collaboration with Local Knowledge holders in monitoring design, analysis and interpretation. Encourage and support citizen science platforms that engage Arctic residents, as well as visitors. Platforms should reflect strong scientific goals, have transparent methods for evaluating data quality, build communities of observers, engage a strong volunteer base, and devote consistent efforts to communicating results. Identify and collaborate across existing platforms to increase awareness and participation in citizen science and consider new approaches to address knowledge gaps. Invest in digital infrastructure as a prerequisite for fully accessible platforms to inform biodiversity monitoring.	State of the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2021
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	In North America, population estimates are good; trends are generally of the best quality and most populations are increasing or stable.	A Global Audit of the Status and Trends of Arctic And Northern Hemisphere Goose Populations	2018
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	Species from southern ecosystems are moving into the Arctic and are expected to push Arctic species northwards, create an “Arctic squeeze,” and change species’ interactions.	State of the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2021
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	This audit suggests that there are between 39.0 and 39.2 million wild geese in the northern hemisphere belonging to 68 populations of 15 species.	A Global Audit of the Status and Trends of Arctic And Northern Hemisphere Goose Populations	2018
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Advice	Vegetation : Monitoring of vegetation is inconsistent, with large gaps in geographical cover. Of the four FECs for monitoring vegetation, the START was able to report on all plants, species of concern, and invasive alien species. Food species were not included as data were too disparate. Investigate causality in vegetation change in the context of ecosystem components, including habitat specific drivers, particularly climate, and emphasize ecosystem-based approaches. Continue and expand in situ time series. Utilize plot-based vegetation surveys to provide insight into vegetation changes and improve the ability to predict environmental change impacts on tundra ecosystems. Better consider the expected impacts of biotic and abiotic drivers on vegetation change when developing monitoring programs and conceptual models. Use regional and global remote-sensing products with higher spatial and temporal resolution. Increase monitoring efforts for all FECs, and target efforts to address data gaps, such as for food species.	State of the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity: Key Findings and Advice for Monitoring	2021
CBMP Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring	Key finding	In Central and Eastern Asia, where the greatest declines are suspected, good population estimates and count data series over sufficient long time horizons to offer a robust basis for generating trends are generally lacking, with the notable exception of excellent count data from Korea and Japan. However, the situation is rapidly improving in China, where count networks and coordination with flyway partners are being established.	A Global Audit of the Status and Trends of Arctic And Northern Hemisphere Goose Populations	2018