James Bay and its coastal areas are home to nine mostly Cree communities and unique ecosystems. With rapid postglacial uplift, long-term environmental change is nothing new for the region. However, climate change coupled with the effects of economic development within the watershed may bring new challenges to those who live there, and also potentially provide important feedbacks to, for example, the global carbon budget. Full understanding of the system will require bridging traditional and western knowledge systems and researching across the land-sea continuum in this critical yet often overlooked region of Canada. The purpose of this session is to bring together researchers of all types, across disciplines and spanning both terrestrial and marine domains to share knowledge of the James Bay region, the status of its ecosystems and environmental change.

Zou Zou Kuzyk, CJ Mundy, Sarah Finkelstein, Vern Cheechoo, Chantal Tetreault