Program - CCRN (Changing Cold Regions Network)

Section 1: Project Information

Project Name

Led by

	Lead 1	Lead 2	Lead 3	Lead 4
Name	Howard Wheater
Institution	University of Saskatchewan
Role	PI
Contact Information	howard.wheater@usask.ca

Classification (e.g., "GWF Pillar 3", "CCRN", etc.)

Legacy

Project Websites

Restoration site:
https://gwfnet.net/sites/ccrn/

Original site (slated for decommission in June 2021): www.usask.ca/ccrn

Project Description

Special Issue of Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS)
Understanding and predicting Earth system and hydrological change in cold regions
(edited by S. Carey, C. DeBeer, J. Hanesiak, Y. Li, J. Pomeroy, B. Schaefli, M. Weiler, and H. Wheater):
https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/special_issue919.html

Short description: CCRN observes, diagnoses, and predicts environmental change in the Saskatchewan and Mackenzie River Basins.

To integrate existing and new sources of data with improved predictive and observational tools to understand, diagnose and predict interactions amongst the cryospheric, ecological, hydrological, and climatic components of the changing Earth system at multiple scales, with a geographic focus on Western Canada’s rapidly changing cold interior.

The cold interior of Western Canada east of the Continental Divide has one of the world's most extreme and variable climates and is experiencing rapid environmental change. In a region which includes a multiplicity of globally-important natural resources and sustains 80% of Canada's agricultural production, changing climate is changing the land, its vegetation and its water. There is an urgent need to understand the nature of these changes, and to develop the improved modelling tools needed to manage uncertain futures. The CCRN brings together the unique expertise of a team of 50 university and government scientists and international collaborators from multiple disciplines to address these challenging and globally-important issues.

CCRN integrates existing and new experimental data with modelling and remote sensing products to understand, diagnose and predict changing land, water and climate, and their interactions and feedbacks, for this important region. CCRN uses a network of world class Water, Ecosystem, Cryosphere, and Climate (WECC) observatories to study the detailed connections among changing climate, ecosystems and water in the permafrost regions of the Sub-arctic, the Boreal Forest, the Western Cordillera, and the Prairies. CCRN integrates these and other data to understand the changing regional climate and its effects on large-scale Earth system change and the region's major rivers - the Saskatchewan, Mackenzie and Peace-Athabasca.

Current ability to model these effects is limited, yet models are essential to understand and manage change. CCRN works with government, industry, water managers, First Nations communities and other stakeholders to deliver the improved hydrological, ecological and climate modelling tools needed to understand, predict and manage uncertain climate and water futures. CCRN addresses issues of importance not only to Canada, but also the world, and continues to contribute to the work of Canada's Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, and the World Climate Research Programme.

Project Participants

Name	Role	Position, Institution, and Contact Information
Howard Wheater	PI	see above
Jennifer Baltzer	Co-PI	Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Forests and Global Change, Department of Biology, Wilfrid Laurier University
Aaron Berg	Collaborator	Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Guelph
Andy Black	Collaborator	Professor, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia
Sean Carey	Collaborator	Professor, School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University
John Hanesiak	Collaborator	Professor, Department of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba
Masaki Hayashi	Collaborator	Professor and Canada Research Chair in Physical Hydrology, Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary,
Warren Helgason	Collaborator	Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Geological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan
Andrew Ireson	Collaborator	Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability and the Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan
Edward Johnson	Collaborator	Professor and Director of Biogeoscience Institute, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary
Jill Johnstone	Collaborator	Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan
Yanping Li	Collaborator	Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability and the Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan
Phil Marsh	Collaborator	Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cold Regions Water Science, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
Shawn Marshall	Collaborator	Professor and Canada Research Chair in Climate Change, Department of Geography, University of Calgary
Jeff McDonnell	Collaborator	Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability and the Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan
John Pomeroy	Co-PI	Distinguished Professor and Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change, Department of Geography and Planning and Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan
William Quinton	Collaborator	Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cold Regions Hydrology, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
Saman Razavi	Collaborator	Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability and the Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan,
Ronald Stewart	Collaborator	Professor, Department of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba
Julie Thériault	Collaborator	Assistant Professor, Département des sciences de la Terre et de l'atmosphère, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal
Merritt Turetsky	Collaborator	ssociate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Integrative Ecology, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph

Current Status of this Project

○ Planned

○ In Progress

○ Abandoned

◉ Complete