With its vast territory, Québec has a mosaic of habitats and climates, ranging from maple stands to tundra. Its nature is rich and diversified: there are 844 vertebrate species, 6,300 plant species and nearly 30,000 invertebrate species. This biodiversity, which is sometimes overlooked, is a guarantee of resilience in the face of climate change and all the other environmental issues that lie in wait for us.

The Réseau de suivi de la biodiversité du Québec provides tools to monitor the rapid evolution of ecosystems, their biodiversity and their ecological services. It pursues the following objectives:

Better understand changes in selected ecosystems and plant and animal communities;

Foster collaboration among different partners to better monitor climate change;

Improve the dissemination of information on biodiversity to raise awareness.

To assess changes in biodiversity, bioindicators are used: these are plant or animal organisms that allow detection of changes in ecosystems. Their presence or reactions provide valuable information on the evolution of biodiversity. They have been chosen because they are sensitive to climate change.

The bioindicators of the Réseau de suivi de la biodiversité were selected by expert tables for different environments: wetlands (peatland and marsh), terrestrial (forest and tundra) and aquatic (lake and river). Large-scale indicators were selected to monitor protected areas and threats related to human activities for Québec as a whole.

Among the bioindicators identified, some were derived from existing data or remote sensing, but several involved field inventories. For each of the field bioindicators, questions and methodologies were defined, and a relevance analysis was conducted. The list of those bioindicators this presented in Table 1 and data for some years of sampling are already presented in the Biodiversité Québec portal, others are still to come.

Table 1. List of inventoried bioindicators of the Réseau de suivi de la biodiversité associated with different environments and collected between 2016 and 2022.

The Réseau de suivi de la biodiversité aims to conduct field monitoring in 300 regional units, including 250 units in southern Québec (territory accessible by vehicles) and 50 units in the north, in partnership with local institutions and communities (Figure 1). For regions that are more difficult to access, the analysis of satellite images will make it possible to characterize 150 additional units.

The spatial distribution of these regional units was designed to maximize linkage with existing monitoring, represent different landscape types and bioclimatic gradients, facilitate access, and integrate protected areas.

Each regional unit is comprised of sampling sites in each environment type, selected to represent local habitat characteristics (Figure 1). In all, over 1000 sites are monitored.

Field inventories began with a pilot project in 2016 and 2017 and then increased with the integration of teams from the MELCCFP's Wildlife Management Regional Directorates and several partners (e.g. Sépaq, Nunavik Park of Kativik, Nunavik Research Centre of Makivik Corporation).

Based on current capabilities, field inventories are conducted in approximately 30 regional units per year, which represents approximately 100 sampling sites (Table 2). Ultimately, we desire to visit 50-60 units each year, which would involve returning to the same units every five years. The production of these inventories depends on funding, collaboration possibilities and logistical capacities of partners and the Québec government.

Table 2. Number of sites inventoried in the biodiversity monitoring network in each administrative region and the number of cells (regional units)

Sampling is done in the field from the time the snow melts in the spring until the end of the growing season in the fall. Sampling involves three to eight visits over about 20 days, depending on the number of sites or their location. There are more visits in accessible locations and fewer visits in northern areas.

As soon as the snow melts, acoustic stations are installed in forest and wetland environments. Trap cameras are used for mammals in the forest, plant phenology cameras are used in wetlands and a well is installed to measure the water level variation in wetlands.

One month later, in the forest, pitfall traps for soil insects are installed. They will be harvested twice at an interval of four weeks. The installation of tea bags in the soil to measure the rate of decomposition is done at the same time as the first soil insect harvest.

At the beginning of July, inventories of odonates (dragonflies and damselflies), butterflies and wetland vegetation are conducted. During the same period, a vegetation inventory of is carried out in forest areas.

At the beginning of September, benthic macroinvertebrate inventories are conducted in rivers. A trip to a lake allows us to collect eDNA, zooplankton and other aquatic indicators. In the forest, we remove the tea bags, the acoustic devices and the cameras for the mammals.

In early November, phenology cameras and acoustic devices are removed from wetlands.

The collection of biodiversity inventory data is a long process. Once the inventories have been carried out, a great deal of effort is required to identify species (insects, birds, chiropterans, environmental DNA, zooplankton, benthic macroinvertebrates), to format the data, to integrate them into the database and to display them on the Biodiversité Québec portal.