Response and recovery in boreal wetlands from contaminants: New and culturally appropriate tools for ecological risk assessment

北方湿地污染物的响应和恢复：用于生态风险评估的新的、文化上合适的工具

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06734
• 负责人: Hanson, Mark
• 金额: $ 3.42万
• 依托单位: University of Manitoba
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=689563
• 关键词: Response; recovery; boreal; wetlands; contaminants

The boreal ecosystem is a shared environmental heritage and responsibility for all Canadians. It finds itself under increasing development pressure, especially around the extraction of natural resources and installation of related infrastructure (e.g., mining, forestry, hydroelectricity, pipelines). These are in addition to the many other challenges (e.g., climate change, invasive species) and general population growth that can threaten the vital ecosystem services the boreal provides. Layered on top is the need guard the irreplaceable ecologically derived socio-cultural elements for First Nations people who call this region home. My overall research program objective is to understand the impacts and processes of ecosystem change and recovery in freshwater ecosystems from contaminants to inform ecological risk assessment. Our primary goal in this Discovery is to create culturally appropriate bioassays to predict response and recovery in boreal wetlands, while expanding our basic ecological knowledge. In this 5-year cycle, my team will create a unique array of boreal wetland mesocosms in Northwestern Ontario at the International Institute for Sustainable Development-Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA). The experimental systems (3,500L volume, land-based, sediment-containing, open to the elements, with introduced native communities of macrophytes, microbes, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and macrobenthos, and accessible to aerial insect colonization) will model' functioning ecosystems amenable to manipulation, replication, and continuous year-round monitoring to test our hypotheses. Northern wild rice (Zizania palustris) is the ideal candidate test species to commence this phase of my research program. This plant has cultural, economic, and social importance throughout the boreal region for First Nations people, as well as ecological significance and known sensitivity to a variety of stressors. There has been previous work examining the response of Z. palustris to growth conditions, but no studies have linked the laboratory to the field in a full life-cycle toxicity assessment with linkages to wider ecosystem responses as we propose. In addition, the proposed work will result in new knowledge around how these plants can recover from population declines and the role of ecological engineers in this process. A widely accepted assay that protects such a valued ecosystem component will carry significant weight in risk assessments and local understanding and perception of toxicity data and development proposals. My program will train at least 10 HQP (2 PhD and 8 Honours undergraduates) with a core mission of training First Nations scientists. Overall, my NSERC Discovery will help everyone better understand and mitigate risks when accessing resources in the boreal, as well as to restore, if needed, wetlands in an ecologically and culturally appropriate manner.

北方生态系统是所有加拿大人共同的环境遗产和责任。它发现自己面临着越来越大的发展压力，特别是在自然资源的开采和相关基础设施的安装（例如采矿、林业、水力发电、管道）方面。除此之外，还有许多其他挑战（例如气候变化、入侵物种）和总体人口增长，这些挑战可能威胁到北方地区提供的重要生态系统服务。最重要的是，需要保护以该地区为家的原住民不可替代的生态衍生的社会文化元素。我的总体研究计划目标是了解生态系统变化和淡水生态系统从污染物中恢复的影响和过程，为生态风险评估提供信息。我们在这一发现中的主要目标是创建适合文化的生物测定法来预测北方湿地的反应和恢复，同时扩展我们的基本生态知识。在这个 5 年周期中，我的团队将在安大略省西北部的国际可持续发展研究所实验湖区 (IISD-ELA) 创建一系列独特的北方湿地中生态系统。实验系统（体积为 3,500 升、陆基、含沉积物、对各种元素开放，引入了大型植物、微生物、浮游植物、浮游动物和大型底栖动物的本地群落，并且可供空中昆虫定殖）将模拟功能生态系统，易于操作、复制和全年连续监测，以检验我们的假设。北方野生稻（Zizania palustris）是开始我的研究计划这一阶段的理想候选测试物种。这种植物对整个北方地区的原住民具有文化、经济和社会重要性，也具有生态意义和对各种压力源的已知敏感性。之前已经有工作检查沼泽沼泽菌对生长条件的反应，但没有研究将实验室与现场联系起来进行完整的生命周期毒性评估，并按照我们的建议与更广泛的生态系统反应联系起来。此外，拟议的工作还将带来关于这些植物如何从种群数量下降中恢复以及生态工程师在这一过程中的作用的新知识。保护如此重要的生态系统组成部分的广泛接受的测定将在风险评估以及当地对毒性数据和开发建议的理解和看法中发挥重要作用。我的项目将培训至少 10 名 HQP（2 名博士生和 8 名荣誉本科生），其核心任务是培训原住民科学家。总体而言，我的 NSERC 发现将帮助每个人更好地了解和减轻获取北方资源时的风险，并在需要时以生态和文化适当的方式恢复湿地。