The project, is entitled "Ecological structure of northern 
arthropods: Adaptation to a changing environment".  The Arctic is among the most fragile ecosystems on Earth; it is also under immense environmental pressure as the effects of global warming are felt most acutely at northern latitudes. With their diversity and potential for rapid population growth, arthropods can serve as barometers of environmental change. This proposal aims to document changes in 
Canada's arthropod fauna by capitalizing on the vast but underused collections derived from the half century old Northern Insect Survey (NIS) - an unprecedented initiative that sampled diversity at 72 arctic, subarctic and northern boreal localities at a time when climate change was not yet a global concern.