| Principal Investigator: | Wheeler, Helen (10) |
| Licence Number: | 17508 |
| Organization: | Anglia Ruskin University |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2024
2023
2022
|
| Issued: | Apr 23, 2024 |
| Project Team: | Philip Marsh, Gareth Rees, Ben deVries, Herb Nakimayak, Kiyo Campbell, Jen Lam, Georgia Hole, Callum Pierce, Melanie Rohse, Nicola Walshe |
Objective(s): 1) To establish the patterns of occupancy of beavers along the Inuvik-Tuk highway; 2) To establish the patterns of past occupancy of beavers along the Inuvik-Tuk highway; 3) To coproduce monitoring methods for ongoing beaver monitoring and research with community researchers; and, 4) To develop methods for identification of beaver populations using remote sensing imagery which can be applied across wider areas of the ISR and beyond.
Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5910. This project will contribute to the BARIN (Beavers And Socio-ecological Resilience in Inuit Nunangat) research program which addresses changing beaver population and the impacts on lakes and streams, fish and communities and wellbeing. This permitting application is for the beaver population change component of the study. The objectives are: To establish the patterns of occupancy of beavers along the Inuvik-Tuk highway. To establish the patterns of past occupancy of beavers along the Inuvik-Tuk highway. To coproduce monitoring methods for ongoing beaver monitoring and research with community researchers. To develop methods for identification of beaver populations using remote sensing imagery which can be applied across wider areas of the ISR and beyond. Study sites (lakes and stream reaches) along the Inuvik-Tuk highway will be surveyed using visual surveys to map dams and lodges, signs of beaver presence will be recorded (feedpiles, beaver present etc). At each location where lodges or dams are present, shrub samples will be collected of both beaver-cut shrubs in the vegetation stand and uncut shrubs (the uncut shrubs will provide a 'reference chronology' against which will be compared to the beaver-cut shrubs to estimate which year they have been cut). These dendrochronological methods (shrub rings) are being tested, to try to estimate when beavers were present at a site in the past. The team may work with local drone operators or obtain a SFOC to examine beaver surveys to include line of sight surveys and will update permitting, if this approach is added to field protocols. These ground surveys and data from shrub ring analysis will be combined with analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery (60cm resolution) to assemble available data on current and past occupancy of beavers. Occupancy modelling will be used to estimate past occupancy trends across the sites and identify permanent and transient beaver colonies. Through a formal collaboration with the Fisheries Joint Management Committee, the research team will be in regular communication over the research direction and research plan and the FJMC have been co-investigations since the start of project development. The team will also offer to provide regular updates and IGC and HTC meetings. A newsletter will be produced to share research findings and a facebook site will be developed to share information across the BARIN project. Community members will be involved in the research as community researchers. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: July 10 - August 15, 2024, August 25 - September 05, 2024
