Arctic charr and water chemistry data from the Qaanaaq, Greenland area (2000-2001)

Selected biological data from arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) and water chemistry data from Taserssuit (77°41.769'North, 69°24.212'West), Greenland (Qaanaaq area) are presented for use by interested researchers. The data has not been published in any manner or form. This data were collected as part of a larger project (Life History Trait Plasticity and Adaptions to Stochastic Environmental Divergences: High Arctic Charr, U.S. National Science Foundation Award Number: 9813708, lead by Richard L. Radtke, deceased, formerly of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI, USA).
The project was an interdisciplinary study to test the hypothesis that stochastic climate and habitat variation play a decisive role in the development of life history traits, adaptation mechanisms and population composition in arctic charr in high Arctic freshwater systems. The study combines geophysical observations with ecological, retrospective and genetic studies. The circumpolar arctic charr is ideal for the study of how environmental factors affect life history, population structure and diversity in fishes. Charr populations demonstrate a tremendous ecological plasticity and adaptations to harsh environments. Arctic charr is the only freshwater fish in the high Arctic and, as elsewhere, has a broad range of life-history strategies including anadromous, resident and landlocked populations. In lake systems with migrating charr, the population may consist of a mixture of parr, post-smolt and adult migratory individuals, as well as small-sized resident, large-sized resident and large formerly resident individuals transformed to anadromy. Determination of the effect of the environment upon phenotype, genotype and life history relies upon detailed information about environmental conditions, developmental rates, genetic information, migration rates and mortality in extreme conditions. In this study charr populations from lake systems from selected areas of Greenland and Ellesmere Island, Canada areas were to be compared.
Arctic charr in all systems experience highly stochastic environments. Whereas adaptive, genetic and behavioral mechanisms associated with migration are well known for salmonid fish at lower latitudes, knowledge about such mechanisms in anadromous charr inhabiting high latitude environments are still fragmentary. In general, mechanisms associated with seasonal events must be pre-adaptive. How such pre-adaptive mechanisms are timed with, and influenced by, the unpredictable physical conditions allowing for charr migration in high Arctic systems will be the main topic of this project.
Field work (collection of arctic charr with experimental gillnets and from the local subsistence fishery and water samples collected by hand) was conducted in northwest Greenland (Qaanaaq area) in 2000 and 2001. Field work for similar collections from Ellesmere Island, Canada had been conducted prior to this project commencing. Further data collection and analyses were conducted at laboratories at Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and University of Hawaii, Manoa, Hawaii, USA from 2000 - 2003. This involved age estimation from otolith sections, otolith microchemical analyses using several micro-beams and techniques and genetic analyses of tissue samples.