• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Baffin Island; Canada; Northwest Passage; Stephenson; Baffin; Northwest passage; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.657.5806; http://arctic.synergiesprairies.ca/arctic/index.php/arctic/article/download/4439/4488/

The Arctic region is currently undergoing envi-ronmental change at an unprecedented rate (IPCC, 2007). Changing climatic conditions, a growing tourism industry, increasing levels of development and the associated marine shipping, and a growing human popula-tion are a few of the accumulating challenges the circum-polar Arctic is now facing (ACIA, 2004). The Canadian Arctic is no exception. Recent warming trends in Arctic Canada have led to reduced summer sea ice extent, as well as changes in snow line elevation and snowmelt (Wang and Overland, 2012; Miller et al., 2013). With the development of the tourism industry and the natural resource sector in northern Canada, ship traffic is predicted to increase, par-ticularly around Baffin Island and the Northwest Passage (Smith and Stephenson, 2013; Dawson et al., 2014). In a time of rapid change, studies that examine how changes are affecting both the people and the environment are needed