Eskers are one of the most singular ecosystems in the World with important implications at the ecological and economical level providing crucial natural resources for Quebec. However, those ecosystems are vulnerable to human pressure such as mining and logging being thus a priority to conserve and manage this important ecosystem. This is a big challenge because of the huge knowledge gap about the biodiversity and functioning of eskers. This project aims to study waterbirds and their invertebrate resources, as they are both excellent biological indicators to evaluate the health of aquatic ecosystems because of their sensitivity to disturbances. We will evaluate the aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity on eskers with the sampling of 50 lakes (esker lakes and typical boreal lakes) from the MRC-Abitibi. This project will permit to characterize for the first time the unique biodiversity associated to esker lakes and evaluate the state of health of those ecosystems.