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

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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.