Petroleum hydrocarbons in sediments and invertebrates at the base of marine food webs in Baffin Bay; Climate change, industrial development and source apportionment.

在加拿大的北极，目前正在发生的海冰覆盖变化以及对新资源的市场压力，导致计划或预期的自然资源开发大幅增加。特别是，石油和天然气公司对勘探和开发许可的兴趣重新抬头。此外，预计通过加拿大北极的航运运输量将随着冰层条件的减少而增加。关于冰盖水域石油泄漏的环境问题；然而，这仍然是所有利益攸关方的主要关切。 加拿大最大的潜在海底石油储量位于巴芬湾(包括北水波利尼亚海峡、戴维斯海峡、兰开斯特海峡和琼斯海湾)，其石油储量可能高达100亿桶。这种资源的开发在勘探和生产的所有阶段都有泄漏的风险。北极海洋生态系统原油污染的其他可能来源包括自然漏油，以及从其他地区运输石油的船只漏油。了解冰层及周围海水和生物群中油类的来源和去向，对于开展环境风险评估、制定溢油对策、分摊责任以及监测发生溢油时的栖息地恢复情况至关重要。缺乏制定健全政策和法规的科学知识可能会阻碍加拿大北极石油和天然气行业的发展。相反，建立关于北极环境中碳氢化合物的分布、行为和持久性的详细科学知识库将有助于在加拿大人中建立信心，相信增加的航运活动和北极近海石油储备的勘探/开采可以安全地进行，即有适当程度的科学准备。 为了解决这些担忧，我们建议：1)使用新一代多维气相色谱/飞行时间质谱仪(GCxGC-TOFMS)来识别和表征从巴芬湾和兰开斯特海湾不同地区采集的海底沉积物中独特的石油生物标志物和诊断比率；2)使用新一代GCxGC-TOFMS结合标准的GC-MS分析从渗漏区收集的浮游动物和底栖无脊椎动物样本，以检验区域独特的石油生物标志物及其诊断比率可以用作“探测器”，以确定它们与当地石油来源的接触，或在发生泄漏的情况下，新的外国成岩来源；以及3)确定巴芬湾地区微生物群落的特征，并评估它们生物降解碳氢化合物混合物的能力，从而在催化自然生物修复和显著缓解与漏油有关的某些负面影响方面发挥“第一反应者”的作用。微生物降解碳氢化合物的能力是众所周知的，也是微生物群落潜在地为加拿大社会和加拿大生产和运输碳氢化合物资源(如原油和沥青)的行业提供“生态系统服务”的一个例子。 这些研究所需的许多样本已经在2008年、2009年和2013年在CCGS阿蒙森附近进行的探险中“掌握”。在随后的阿蒙森探险中，将根据需要收集更多样本。该项目还将大大促进HQP的培训(1名PDF、1名技术员、5名理科学生(每年学习1名)、1名硕士和3名博士生)。

In Canada’s Arctic, the changes currently underway in sea ice cover, and market pressures for new resources, have resulted in a significant increase in planned or prospective natural resource development. In particular, there has been a resurgence of interest from oil and natural gas companies in exploration and development licensing. Additionally, shipping traffic through the Canadian Arctic is predicted to increase with decreasing ice conditions. The environmental issues surrounding oil spills in ice-covered waters; however, remain a key concern of all stakeholders. The largest prospective under-sea oil reserves in Canada occur beneath Baffin Bay (including the North Water Polynya, Davis Strait, Lancaster Sound, and Jones Sound) which possibly contains as much as 10 billion barrels of oil. Development of this resource carries the risks of spills at all stages of exploration and production. Other possible sources of crude oil contamination in Arctic marine ecosystems include natural oil seeps, and oil spills from ships transporting oil sourced from other regions. Understanding the sources and fate of oil in ice and in the surrounding seawaters and biota are essential for the conduct of environmental risk assessments, the development of oil spill countermeasures, apportioning responsibility, and the monitoring of habitat recovery in the event of a spill. A lack of scientific knowledge for the development of sound policies and regulations could potentially temper the development of Canada’s Arctic oil and gas industry. Conversely, development of a detailed scientific knowledge base about the distribution, behaviour and persistence of hydrocarbons in the Arctic environment will help build confidence among Canadians that increased shipping activities and exploration/exploitation of Arctic offshore oil reserves can safely proceed, i.e., that there is an appropriate degree of science-based preparedness. To address these concerns we propose to; 1) Employ next generation multi-dimenstional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-TOFMS) to identify and characterize unique petroleum biomarkers and diagnostic ratios in bottom sediments collected from various regions within Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound; 2) Employ next generation GCxGC-TOFMS in conjunction with standard GC-MS analysis to analyse zooplankton and benthic invertebrate samples collected from seep areas to test the hypothesis that regionally unique petroleum biomarkers and their diagnostic ratios can be used as a “detector” to ascertain their exposure to local sources of petroleum or, in the case of a spill, new foreign petrogenic sources; and 3) Characterize the microbial communities within the Baffin Bay region and assess their ability to biodegrade hydrocarbon mixtures and thus act as ‘first responders’ in catalyzing natural bioremediation and significant mitigation of certain negative impacts associated with the spilled oil. The ability of microbes to degrade hydrocarbons is well known and is an example of the ‘ecosystem services’ that microbial communities can potentially provide to Canadian society and Canadian industries that produce and transport hydrocarbon resources such as crude oil and bitumen. Many samples required for these studies are already "in-hand" as a result of expeditions conducted off the CCGS Amundsen in 2008, 2009 and 2013. Additional samples will be collected as required in subsequent Amundsen expeditions. This project will also contribute significantly to the training of HQP (1 PDF, 1 Technician, 5 BSc (1 per year of study), 1 MSc and 3 PhD students).