EMAN — Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network

EMAN is an Environment Canada initiative. Its aim is to help Canadian researchers, communities and volunteers to work together on ecological issues, and thereby create an early warning system for the environment. EMAN assists networks to grow, spread and work together effectively.

Creating links

Organisations that EMAN links together are those carrying out long-term, multidisciplinary environmental studies. These include government agencies, colleges and universities, research institutes and industry.

Some of the Canadian field stations and research sites linked by EMAN are:

• a sub-arctic research station in northern Quebec
• the St Andrews Biological Station in New Brunswick
• the University of Saskatchewan's native prairie research site
• the Experimental Lakes Area in north-western Ontario.

The first research site to officially join EMAN was Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia.

Director Hague Vaughan calls EMAN a 'grease and glue operation'. It connects Canadian researchers and helps them to work together. That's the glue. It also acts as an advocate, promoting long-term research and encouraging the use of standard methodologies and established information management systems. That's the grease.

Hague Vaughan says the EMAN networks are invaluable tools in understanding global concerns like climate change and ozone depletion.

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