Non-technical Project Summary:
Habitat use by lemmings in heterogeneous and changing environments in Quttinirpaaq
National Park. Douglas W. Morris, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario.
This project is designed to determine how lemmings, small mammals at the base of
Arctic food webs, persist in isolated islands of vegetation in the high Arctic. Lemmings
provide food for numerous Arctic mammals such as ermine, Arctic foxes, wolverines,
wolves, and for several species of Arctic birds. But we know almost nothing about their
habitats, and changes in population size, in Quttinirpaaq National Park.
Population cycles of lemmings are legendary in Norway, Sweden, Finland, northern
Russia, Alaska, and throughout Canada’s mid-Arctic. But Canada’s most northern tundra
ecosystems may not provide enough annual plant growth to support high lemming
densities. Our data from 2005 and 2006 point toward very low numbers of lemmings that
is consistent with this view. It is essential that we build a long-term data set on their
population sizes to serve as a reference against future climate change. Climate change
will influence where lemmings live, how many there are, and their role in supporting
other wildlife.
The Quttinirpaaq research is part of our long-term objective to understand how
environmental change influences Arctic wildlife, and is essential to predict how many
animals will live in the Arctic’s changing habitats. The research builds on another longterm study of lemmings living on the Kent Peninsula where lemming habitat is more
productive and much more extensive than in the high Arctic. Large brown lemmings on
the Kent Peninsula occupy moist areas and force smaller collared lemmings into poorer
habitat. We need to know whether collared lemmings occupy the same types of habitat in
the high Arctic where they are the only lemming species. We also need to learn whether
their habitat use is restricted to only the largest and best habitat patches.
During June 2007, my research team (2-4 people) will capture lemmings in Quttinirpaaq
National Park with small metal box-traps, measure their size, mark individuals with tiny
eartags, then release them unharmed. We will estimate the number of lemmings living in
different habitats, and compare those data with our results from 2005, 2006, and with
data from the Kent Peninsula. We will use these data, and counts of lemming burrows, to
determine whether the types and sizes of habitat patches occupied by lemmings in the
high Arctic are different from those they live in farther south. We will also learn whether
the number of lemmings is different and whether their populations are less stable. We
will use the results to help forecast the effects of habitat change on Arctic wildlife.
We will concentrate our research around the margins of Lake Hazen so that we can
access different research sites by snowmobile (used only on the frozen lake). While in
the Park, we will camp in temporary expedition tents, and remove all supplies, materials,
and waste when we leave. All activities will be supervised by Park officials who will
also assist in the lemming survey. We expect to repeat the census at least until 2008.