Synthesis of Key Findings

Biomes

Topic	Status and Trends	Confidence in Finding
Forests
Grasslands
Wetlands
Lakes and rivers
Coastal
Marine
Ice across biomes

Human/Ecosystem Interactions

Topic	Status and Trends	Confidence in Finding
Protected areas
Stewardship
Invasive non-native species
Contaminants
Nutrient loading and algal blooms
Acid deposition
Climate change
Ecosystem services

Habitat, Wildlife, and Ecosystem Processes

Topic	Status and Trends	Confidence in Finding
Agricultural landscapes as habitat
Species of special interest: economic, cultural or ecological
Primary productivity
Natural disturbances
Food webs

Science/Policy Interface

Topic	Status and Trends	Confidence in Finding
Biodiversity monitoring, research, information management, and reporting		not relevant
Rapid changes and thresholds	not relevant	not relevant

These tables present the status and trends of the key findings, as well as confidence in the conclusions drawn. The key findings are grouped into four themes and are interrelated.

The first two tables are aspects of the ecosystems themselves – biomes, habitat, wildlife, and ecosystem processes. The last two are human activities – alteration of ecosystems and actions taken to understand and conserve ecosystems.

By necessity, the time frames over which the ratings of status and trends are made vary – both because time frames that are meaningful for these diverse aspects of ecosystems vary and because the assessment is based on the best available information, which is over a range of time periods.

Beside each topic is a coloured circle indicating the status associated with the key finding. Within each circle is an arrow that shows both the direction and the rate of change. Beside some topics there are two circle/arrow combinations to represent a range or a dichotomy of status and trends.

The height of the stack of papers beside each key finding represents confidence in the finding, based on an evaluation of the adequacy of the supporting evidence. Confidence is lowered when the ecosystem aspect is not well understood or when data are inadequate in spatial or temporal coverage.

In the body of the main report at the beginning of each key finding section, these symbols are repeated along with short phrases summarizing the basis for the ratings.

Red flags in some key finding sections in the main report are used to highlight aspects of the findings that may be early warning signs of significant ecological change.

LEGEND

Status

	Ecosystem Aspects (top two tables)	Human Activities (bottom two tables)
Healthy	likely to persist and likely able to recover from disturbances	actions adequate for conservation or showing good progress, or stressor not causing major impacts
Concern	showing signs of stress	showing signs of insufficient actions, or signs of major impacts from stressor
Impaired	outside of range of natural variation, unstable, or likely not recovering	poor progress or insufficient actions, or stressors causing major impacts

Trend

	IMPROVING at a rapid rate
	IMPROVING at a slow to moderate rate
	LITTLE CHANGE
	GETTING WORSE at a slow to moderate rate
	GETTING WORSE at a rapid rate
	UNKNOWN rate of change

Confidence in Finding

	LOW: limits in temporal and/or spatial extent of data, or gaps in understanding of the topic, making interpretation difficult
	MEDIUM: data coverage only fair and/or understanding of the topic poor
	HIGH: sufficient evidence and adequate understanding of the topic