Throughout the Arctic there is substantial concern about climate change and the effects upon the arctic ecosystem, which is the basis for most of the people and societies in the arctic. The arctic council has initiated multiple initiatives to monitor and investigate the environmental effects in the Arctic. Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM) is one of the contributions from the Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland. GEM consist of five sub-programmes and a number of strategic cross cutting initiatives that also includes collaboration with other complimentary operational monitoring and research activities.
Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM) is an integrated monitoring and long-term research programme on ecosystems and climate change effects and feedbacks in the Arctic. Since 1994 the programme has established a coherent and integrated understanding of the functioning of ecosystems in a highly variable climate, which is based upon a comprehensive, long-term inter-disciplinary data collection carried out by Danish and Greenlandic monitoring and research institutions, primarily at the two main field stations: Nuuk in low arctic West Greenland and Zackenberg in high arctic Northeast Greenland.