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

北方生态系统是所有加拿大人共同的环境遗产和责任。它发现自己面临越来越大的发展压力，特别是在开采自然资源和安装有关基础设施（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（如气候变化、入侵物种）和人口增长，这些挑战可能威胁到北方针叶林提供的重要生态系统服务。最重要的是保护原住民不可替代的生态衍生的社会文化元素，他们把这个地区称为家园。我的总体研究计划目标是了解淡水生态系统中生态系统变化和从污染物中恢复的影响和过程，为生态风险评估提供信息。我们在这项发现中的主要目标是创建适合文化的生物测定方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年的周期中，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生态系统。实验系统（容积为3500升，陆基，含沉积物，向元素开放，引入大型植物，微生物，浮游植物，浮游动物和大型底栖动物的本地群落，并可用于空中昆虫的定居）将“模拟”功能生态系统，可用于操作，复制和连续的全年监测，以验证我们的假设。北方野生稻（Zizania palustris）是开始我这一阶段研究计划的理想候选试验物种。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，以及生态意义和已知的对各种压力源的敏感性。之前已经有研究研究了古卷草对生长条件的反应，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，并与我们提出的更广泛的生态系统反应联系起来。此外，拟议的工作将产生关于这些植物如何从种群下降中恢复以及生态工程师在这一过程中所起作用的新知识。一种被广泛接受的、能够保护如此有价值的生态系统组成部分的检测方法，将在风险评估以及当地对毒性数据和开发建议的理解和认知方面发挥重要作用。我的项目将培养至少10名HQP（2名博士和8名荣誉本科生），其核心任务是培养原住民科学家。总的来说，我的NSERC发现将帮助每个人更好地了解和减轻在获取北方资源时的风险，以及在需要时以生态和文化上适当的方式恢复湿地。

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.