| regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern world heritage site. | unprecedented rates of resource development and climate change at northern latitudes coupled with a lack of baseline information limits our ability to set ecologically meaningful criteria needed to protect these inherently sensitive ecosystems. we surveyed water and sediment chemistry, community composition of benthic algae and invertebrates and fish, and condition of a sentinel fish species, slimy sculpin (cottus cognatus), in 2 rivers adjacent to metal mines and in 20 reference rivers in the h ... | 2010 | 19558198 |