SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Biologists are seeing the flora and fauna of the North change, and see the new species as signs of climate change.

One person who's seen a growing trend of invasive species of plants, animals and birds in the Yellowknife area is Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley, a member of the naturalist association, run by Ecology North and a former biologist for the GNWT.

"We are seeing new birds now we don't normally see because of a shorter cold season, probably due to climate change," Bromley said. "We keep track of migratory birds in the spring, and the arrival dates are two weeks earlier."

At Christmas a group of people made a count of bird species in the Yellowknife area. Species Bromley saw that he considered unusual are evening grosbeaks, glaucous gulls and robins.

"Because of the warmer winters, for one reason or another, they don't migrate and are sighted at the Christmas bird count. It's probable they don't survive."

One example of an established invasive species is the scavenger bird the black-billed magpie.

"With a warmer climate and food abundance because of a larger human population, the result is an increase in magpie population," Bromley said.

He also mentioned that cougars, coyotes and whitetail deer are invading animal species that have been seen in the Yellowknife area in recent years.

Suzanne Carriere, a wildlife biologist studying bio-diversity with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, explained how invasive plants have become established in the Yellowknife area.

"Over decades and decades there has been new species arriving. As the humans are coming in, they can import new species by accident. Also, as the climate is warming up, the envelope for survival for the new species is getting bigger. They are getting a better chance of surviving."

One example of this are white and yellow sweet clovers. These plants rapidly invade roadsides, streets, waste areas and any well-drained soils, including some natural habitats. They were originally imported as cattle feed.

Claude Villeneuve, a climate change activist and academic from the Universite du Quebec a Chicoutami, who was invited to Yellowknife for Earth Week to make a presentation, said the prognosis for the North is not good.

"You have the worst warming trend in the world," he said. "It's going to heat up an average of seven degrees Celsius over the next thirty to fifty years."

The State of the Environment Report, written in 2009 by the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, also comments that the temperatures in the past 15 years are generally warmer than previous years. It goes on to say the observed changes in both temperature and precipitation in the Arctic have been larger than what is expected for natural climate variations.

So as Northerners yearn for spring and for the seemingly everlasting snow to melt, they should look on the sunny side of things - even though all the evidence points towards warmer temperatures, which in turn creates a welcome environment for invasive species, we can, for the moment, still be under the guise that all is well in our Northern climate.

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