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Shrubs are projected to move upslope and expand into the alpine tundra with a warming climate in the Kluane region of Yukon. Shrub expansion will create habitat for some species, such as moose, but cause habitat loss for species such as hoary marmot, collared pika and ptarmigan. Parks Canada monitors plant species richness using a similarity index, comparing repeat measurements with the landscape average measured in 2011. Field sampling is done on 21 permanent plots in seven different alpine tundra sites in late July/early August every 5 years

Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) protects one of the last tracts of native fescue prairie habitat in the Parks Canada system. Native Fescue grasslands are an important element of biodiversity in the park, as well as an endangered ecosystem in Canada. It is not just aspen encroachment that is a concern, but also the increasing density of existing aspen stands. Aspen sprouts (aspen < 2.5m height) and shrubs adjacent to grasslands will be removed through prescribed burning of grassland areas, with the goal of increasing the area of fescue grasslands in the project area's prescribed burn units by 2019 through removal of 5% of 2014 shrub and aspen sprout cover.

Parks Canada monitors vegetation composition in Kluane National Park and Reserve forests to determine resilience following a spruce bark beetle outbreak of unprecedented severity that occurred in the mid 1990’s. Understanding stand development after this landscape-level disturbance will be critical to assessing its effect on wildlife habitat and the impacts of beetle salvage logging outside of the park. Sampling is done every 5 years in 50 randomly located permanent sample plots in white spruce dominated mature forests. Three sub-measures are assessed: 1) Relative dominance of deciduous basal area, 2) percent cover of berry-bearing shrubs, and 3) ratio of willow clumps to tall spruce regeneration.

Grassland and Shrub-steppe Habitat coverage for the South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program Area of Interest.

This dataset contains the percent land cover of woody shrubs in shrub-dominated ecotypes within Torngat Mountains National Park from 1985 to 2014. This is a remote sensing measure that uses Landsat imagery collected on an annual basis during peak phenology in the summer. The increase in percent cover of shrubs is an important indicator of climate change in northern ecosystems. Changes in regional climate affect the growing season length, permafrost, and soil temperature and moisture, which ultimately affect land cover.

This dataset contains the percent land cover of woody shrubs in shrub-dominated ecotypes within Ukkusiksalik National Park from 1998 to 2013. This is a remote sensing measure that uses Landsat imagery collected on an annual basis during peak phenology in the summer. The increase in percent cover of shrubs is an important indicator of climate change in northern ecosystems. Changes in regional climate affect the growing season length, permafrost, and soil temperature and moisture, which ultimately affect land cover.

Most songbirds in Kluane National Park and Reserve are medium-distance migrants and could be threatened by habitat degradation along migration routes. Songbirds could also indicate whether Kluane’s forests have recovered essential components of habitat after the extensive spruce bark beetle outbreak in the late 1990s. Point counts for songbirds are conducted twice annually in June in a white spruce dominated forest according to the Alaska Landbird Monitoring Strategy protocol. Birds are identified to species and enumerated by sight and sound

Mountain goats are a key species in the alpine tundra in Kluane National Park and Reserve. The potential impacts of climate change on snow depth, the frequency of rain-on-snow-events and the position of altitudinal treeline may influence goat foraging, predator dynamics and thus the survival rates of goats. Aerial survey counts of total goats (all adults and young of year) within a defined survey area on Goatherd Mountain have occurred approximately every two years since 1977. Surveys are performed in mid to late-July from a helicopter.

Lyme disease is spread by the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. These ticks are often found in and near areas with trees, shrubs, tall grass or piles of leaves.

Amphibians worldwide are facing declines and possible extinction. Wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) are the only amphibian in Kluane National Park and Reserve. They are considered an important component of wetlands and are highly valued by Southern Tutchone peoples. Threats to wood frogs in Kluane are primarily the loss of habitat due to climate change and infection by diseases such as chytrid fungus.