Specific Research Programs of the Hudson Bay Project

The broad research plans and goals of the Hudson Bay Project are to examine and understand the interactions of herbivores such as lesser snow geese with the plants and animals that share the coastal arctic tundra of the Hudson and James Bay coast. Since climatic and geologic factors such as global warming and isostatic uplift can influence those ecological interactions, their study is also an integral part of our work. Our research operates at two levels. Intensive projects are focussed on the detailed examination of patterns and processes at specific, often long-term, sites such as La Pérouse Bay and Akimiski Island. Extensive projects are involved with monitoring habitat quality and change across the wider geographic regions that are now being occupied by dispersing snow geese.

The following specific projects are representative of those already in progress. Click on an item in the list to obtain additional details. Where preliminary data are given, they should not to be cited without permission. Questions and comments are welcome and can be directed to individuals indicated in the text or to RF Rockwell ( [email protected]) who will forward them to the appropriate parties.

• Use of LANDSAT imagery to detect vegetational change in coastal ecosystems

• Use of LANDSAT imagery to classify coastal vegetation and area coverage

• Standing crop in inter-tidal salt marsh zones dominated by Puccinellia phryganodes and Carex subspathacea

• Recovery potential of the vegetation following destructive foraging

• Faecal densities as an index of goose use of an area

• Vegetational diet composition of Canada and snow geese

• Correlation between climatic variables in recent decades and demographic events in snow geese

• Size and condition of lesser snow geese

• Digestive physiology, growth and nutrition of snow and Canada Geese

• Population ecology of sympatric snow and Canada geese on Akimiski Island

• Incidence of renal coccidiosis in lesser snow and Canada geese

• Dispersal and survival of snow geese

• Aerial surveys of lesser snow and Canada geese

• Soil and aquatic invertebrate populations in the inter-tidal zone

• Impact on shorebirds, ducks and other bird species

• Population and community projection model

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comments to the webmaster - revised 12/10/98