Clyde River Research Articles

Disinfection and removal of human pathogenic bacteria in arctic waste stabilization ponds.

Wastewater stabilization ponds (WSPs) are commonly used to treat municipal wastewater in Arctic Canada. The biological treatment in the WSPs is strongly influenced by climatic conditions. Currently, there is limited information about the removal of fecal and pathogenic bacteria during the short cool summer treatment season. With relevance to public health, the objectives of this paper were to determine if treatment in arctic WSPs resulted in the disinfection (i.e., removal of fecal indicator bacteria, Escherichia coli) and removal of selected human bacterial pathogens from the treated effluent. The treatment performance, with focus on microbial removal, was assessed for the one-cell WSP in Pond Inlet (Nunavut [NU]) and two-cell WSP in Clyde River (NU) over three consecutive (2012-2014) summer treatment seasons (late June-early September). The WSPs provided a primary disinfection treatment of the wastewater with a 2-3Log removal of generic indicator E. coli. The bacterial pathogens Salmonella spp., pathogenic E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes, but not Campylobacter spp. and Helicobacter pylori, were detected in the untreated and treated wastewater, indicating that human pathogens were not reliably removed. Seasonal and annual variations in temperature significantly (p<0.05) affected the disinfection efficiency. Improved disinfection and pathogen removal was observed for the two-cell system in Clyde River as compared to the one-cell system in Pond Inlet. A quantitative microbial risk assessment should be performed to determine if the release of low levels of human pathogens into the arctic environment poses a human health risk.

An initial exploration of whether ‘female flight’ is a demographic problem in Eastern Canadian Arctic Inuit communities

ABSTRACTEmigration of indigenous women from small, isolated communities in Alaska and Greenland is seen as a pattern of female flight that results from modernization. As women see more options for a satisfying life, many are leaving remote northern communities. Female flight can result in social, cultural and economic problems for small communities and decrease the sustainability of such locales. We conducted an initial review of census data and found little evidence of female flight across the Canadian Territorial North, in Nunavut specifically, nor in any Nunavut communities. Two study communities in Nunavut, Clyde River and Qikiqtarjuaq were surveyed in an attempt to better understand the factors that affect movement decisions of Canadian Inuit women. Two explanations for the apparent lack of female flight were examined. First, that Nunavut is in an early phase of the demographic transition and thus could expect high migration as it modernizes. The second is that Nunavut communities are modernizing in such a way that young women are choosing to remain at home, and thus the territory is experiencing a unique path to modernity that does not fit the demographic transition model. The evidence more strongly supports the second explanation, although further research is recommended.

Characterizing phosphorus removal in passive waste stabilization ponds in Arctic communities

A majority of communities in the Canadian territory of Nunavut rely on passive waste stabilization ponds (WSPs) for domestic wastewater treatment. Little research has been conducted on the treatment performance of these systems. Therefore, in response to impending federal wastewater regulations, a research program was conducted in order to characterize contaminant removal, with phosphorus a contaminant of particular concern. The performance of WSPs in the Arctic communities of Kugaaruk, Pond Inlet, Grise Fiord, and Clyde River was evaluated from 2011 to 2014. Removal of total phosphorus was highly variable, ranging from 24% (Pond Inlet, 2014) to 76% (Grise Fiord, 2011). The average removal efficiency was 44%. Effluent total phosphorus concentrations generally exceeded 7 mg P/L, partly due to elevated raw wastewater concentrations. Over the course of the treatment season (defined as June to September, when the WSP is thawed), limited additional total phosphorus removal was observed. A fractionation analysis of WSP sediments showed that organic phosphorus and phosphorus bound to aluminum and iron were the predominant forms, which provided insight into primary treatment mechanisms. Further studies on these mechanisms are needed in order to optimize Arctic WSP treatment.

Struan John Tannahill Robertson

Born into a medical family, Struan John Tannahill Robertson was born at Hartwood, where his father was the assistant medical superintendent in the local psychiatric hospital. After attending school in...

The Duty to Consult &amp; the Elusive Crown: An Inquiry into Confusion, Conflation and the Diminished Presence of the Crown in Appellate Court Jurisprudence after Rio Tinto

The project of reconciliation, heralded by the inclusion of section 35 in the Constitution Act, 1982, has made important strides as Canadian courts have expanded and elaborated the rights of Aboriginal peoples and the duties of the Crown. One of the key contributions to the s. 35 jurisprudence came with the Supreme Court of Canada’s development of the duty to consult in Haida in 2004. Haida was subsequently reaffirmed and expanded in the 2010 decision, Rio Tinto. However, since 2010, as First Nations groups continue to assert their rights, both superior and appellate courts have faced novel and uncontemplated invocations of the duty. The outcome of numerous appellate level decisions has seen both confusion and conflation of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence in Haida and Rio Tinto. This has resulted in competing, and contradictory developments of the case law that jointly and paradoxically have the effect of diminishing the Crown’s duty to engage in consultation altogether. This paper principally examines two appellate level decisions, Neskonlith at the BC Court of Appeal, and Clyde River at the Federal Court of Appeal, in order to expose emerging problems in the duty to consult jurisprudence and to highlight the problem of the Crown’s withdrawal from what is, at its core, a quintessentially political process.

English

In August 2010, a 253 km2 ice island calved from the floating glacial tongue of Petermann Glacier in Northwest Greenland. Petermann Ice Island (PII)-B, a large fragment of this original ice island, is the most intensively observed ice island in recent decades. We chronicle PII-B’s deterioration over four years while it drifted more than 2,400 km south along Canada’s eastern Arctic coast, investigate the ice island’s interactions with surrounding ocean waters, and report on its substantial seafloor scour. Three-dimensional sidewall scans of PII-B taken while it was grounded 130 km southeast of Clyde River, Nunavut, show that prolonged wave erosion at the waterline during sea ice-free conditions created a large underwater protrusion. The resulting buoyancy forces caused a 100 m × 1 km calving event, which was recorded by two GPS units. A field team observed surface waters to be warmer and fresher on the side of PII-B where the calving occurred, which perhaps led to the accelerated growth of the protrusion. PII-B produced up to 3.8 gigatonnes (3.8 × 1012 kg) of ice fragments, known hazards to the shipping and resource extraction industries, monitored over 22 months. Ice island seafloor scour, such as a 850 m long, 3 m deep trench at PII-B’s grounding location, also puts subseafloor installations (e.g., pipelines) at risk. This long-term and interdisciplinary assessment of PII-B is the first such study in the eastern Canadian Arctic and captures the multiple implications and risks that ice islands impose on the natural environment and offshore industries.

The Spirit of the Sea by R. Hainnu

Hainnu, Rebecca. The Spirit of the Sea. Illus. Hwei Lim. Iqualuit, NU: Inhabit Media, Inc., 2014. Print.This volume is another of Inhabit Media’s fine productions of Inuit legends. It tells an old story, which exists in many variations. This version comes from Rebecca Hainnu, who lives in Clyde River, Nunavut. While Hainnu’s previous works have been non-fiction including children’s books on mathematics and tundra plants, she does a fine job of storytelling, as well. Arnaq is a beautiful young woman who is tricked into marrying a fulmar (a kind of bird) when he appears in human form. When her father tries to rescue her, he ends up sacrificing her to the fulmars to save his own life. She sinks to the bottom and becomes the Spirit of the Sea. As Nuliajuq, she controls the sea animals and hunters must appease her to have good hunting and calm seas.Throughout the volume, text appears on one page and an image on the facing page. The text, which is appropriate for upper elementary readers and above, is meant to be read aloud and generally has the sound of a traditional storyteller’s voice. However, there are occasional modern phrases that are incongruous and break the flow. “Eventually, Arnaq succumbed to complete depression”. The text contains some Inuktitut words, which are italicized and listed in the pronunciation guide at the end of the volume.The watercolours by Hwei Lim are beautiful and ethereal. The colours are mainly blues and browns, reflecting the marine environment. The underwater image of Arnaq looking up at the bottom of a boat is particularly effective.The Spirit of the Sea is highly recommended for elementary school libraries, public libraries and libraries specializing in Canadian Indigenous materials. Highly Recommended: 4 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

Performance of municipal waste stabilization ponds in the Canadian Arctic

Abstract The majority of small remote communities in the Canadian arctic territory of Nunavut utilize waste stabilization ponds (WSPs) for municipal wastewater treatment because of their relatively low capital and operational costs, and minimal complexity. New national effluent quality regulations have been implemented in Canada, but not yet applied to Canada's Arctic due to uncertainty related to the performance of current wastewater treatment systems. Waste stabilization pond (WSP) treatment performance is impacted by community water use, pond design, and climate. The greatest challenge arctic communities experience when using passive wastewater treatment technologies is the constraints imposed by the extreme climate, which is characterized as having long cold winters with short cool summers that can be solar intense. The removal of carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD 5 ), total suspended solids (TSS), and ammonia-nitrogen were measured during the summer treatment period (late June until early September) from 2011 to 2014 in the WSP systems of four Nunavut communities; Pond Inlet, Clyde River, Grise Fiord and Kugaaruk. Monitoring results showed that WSPs in their current single cell design can achieve greater than 80% removal of CBOD 5 and TSS but were challenged to produce effluent quality that meets secondary wastewater treatment standards ( 5 and TSS). This study points to the need for revisions of design guidelines for facultative WSPs in the Arctic, as current systems are anaerobic and do not contain sufficient dissolved oxygen required to consistently support aerobic biological treatment processes.

After the flood: changing dissolved organic carbon bioavailability and bacterial growth following inflows to estuaries

Freshwater inflows play an important role in delivering dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to estuaries. Although considerable DOC can be delivered to estuaries during episodic inflow events, such as floods, little information exists on how the bioavailability of DOC may change during these periods. In this study we used in vitro bioassay incubation experiments to examine how bioavailability changed following inflow events in two temperate south east Australian estuaries; the agricultural Bega River and the forested Clyde River. We measured short-term (2 days) and long-term (28 days) bioavailable DOC (BDOC) and determined percentage bioavailability, bacterial doubling times (BTd), all with and without excess nitrogen and phosphorus to control for nutrient limitation. Our results showed BDOC varied between 0.13 and 3.62 mg C L−1, equivalent to 2.5–31 % of initial concentrations. BTd were significantly shorter at the peak of flow and reduced as discharge returned to base flow conditions. Multiple-regression analysis showed discharge and specific ultraviolet light absorbance were the best factors for explaining variance in BDOC whilst discharge was the best factor for explaining BTd. The addition of nutrients led to significantly higher measurements of BDOC and bacteria doubling times on the Clyde River when initial phosphorus concentrations were low. These results highlight the importance of freshwater inflow events as intense moments of biogeochemical transformation in estuaries.

Highs and lows: The effect of differently sized freshwater inflows on estuarine carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and chlorophyll a dynamics

Freshwater inflows play a key role in the delivery of organic carbon to estuaries. However, our understanding of the dynamics between discharge and carbon globally is limited. In this study we performed a 30-month monitoring study on the Bega and Clyde River estuaries, Australia, to understand the influence that discharge had on carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and chlorophyll a dynamics. We hypothesised that 1) discharge would be the most important factor influencing carbon and nutrient concentrations, though during low flows chlorophyll a would also be positively related to carbon, 2) bacteria would be related to dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and chlorophyll a to temperature, nitrogen and phosphorus, and 3) that concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacterial biomass and chlorophyll a would be significantly different between large ‘flood flows’, smaller ‘fresh flows’ and base flow conditions. We found that discharge was always the most important factor influencing carbon and nutrient concentrations, and that primary production appeared to have little influence on the variation in DOC concentration even during base flow conditions. We suggest this relationship is likely due to highly episodic discharge that occurred during the study period. Bacteria were related to DOC in the lower estuary sites, but phosphorus in the upper estuary. We suggest this is likely due to the input of bioavailable carbon in the upper estuary leading bacteria to be P limited, which changes downstream to carbon limitation as DOC becomes more refractory. Chlorophyll a was positively related to temperature but not nutrients, which we suggest may be due to competition with bacteria for phosphorus in the upper estuary. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were different under flood, fresh and base flow conditions, though these differences sometimes varied between estuary locations for different resources. Overall, the results demonstrate that discharge plays an important structuring role for carbon, nutrient and bacteria dynamics on the Bega and Clyde Rivers, and that the differences observed between flood and fresh inflows suggest that further study into the influence of differently sized inflow events is important.

Seasonal and diurnal variations of PolarDARN F region echo occurrence in the polar cap and their causes

AbstractF region echo occurrence rates for the Polar Dual Auroral Radar Network (PolarDARN) HF radars at Inuvik (INV), Rankin Inlet (RKN), and Clyde River (CLY) are compared for observations in 2013. The CLY radar shows somewhat smaller echo occurrence rates consistent with its more poleward geographic and geomagnetic location. For all three radars, the winter occurrence rates are roughly twice that of the corresponding summer rates. For observations in the midnight sector, strong equinoctial maxima are evident. In terms of season and local time, echo occurrence patterns are found to be roughly the same for all radars: seasonally, clear maxima are found near noon during both winter and summer, while, diurnally, enhancements are found during equinoctial dusk. A comparison of data from roughly the same scattering area shows that having strong electron density in the scattering volume is not sufficient for getting an HF echo: propagation conditions along the propagation path are also important. Diurnal variations in the F region electron density and electric field (both measured by Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde) are compared to those of RKN echo occurrence rates for observations over Resolute Bay (RB) located at a geomagnetic latitude of 83°N. These results show a reasonable correlation between occurrence and electron density for both winter and summer periods and correlation between occurrence and electric field during summer periods.

Different resource limitation by carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus between base flow and high flow conditions for estuarine bacteria and phytoplankton

Freshwater inflows can deliver substantial inputs of allochthonous organic carbon to estuaries. The role that allochthonous DOC has on structuring bacterial and phytoplankton communities is still not well understood. We performed a series of 1.25 L bioassay limitation experiments on the Bega and Clyde River estuaries in NSW, Australia, examining what resources limit bacteria and phytoplankton growth. We hypothesized that during base flow conditions bacteria would be carbon limited, and after high flow conditions they would be nutrient limited. A full factorial design was used with additions of carbon (glucose), nitrogen (KNO3) and phosphorus (KH2PO4). During the experiments that took place during base flow conditions bacteria were always primarily C-limited. After high flow conditions, bacteria were P-limited on the Clyde River, and remained C-limited on the Bega River. Phytoplankton growth was limited at all times in each estuary, tending toward N-limitation on the Bega River and P-limitation on the Clyde river. During high flow conditions on the Clyde River, when bacteria and phytoplankton were both primarily P-limited, it appeared that bacteria was able to outcompete phytoplankton for nutrients. These results suggest that freshwater inflows and allochthonous DOC maybe important in structuring estuarine microbial ecosystems and individual estuaries may behave differently in terms of their limiting resources.

'Healing the Land' in the Canadian Arctic

Beginning in 2006, an evangelical movement called ‘Healing the Land’ was introduced to a number of Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic. Healing the Land (HTL), which promoted an ethic of environmental stewardship through prayer and repentance of sin, also helped Inuit make sense of rapid environmental change. Rather than linking shifts in weather and plant and animal distributions to climate change, HTL leaders argued that they resulted from communal processes of prayer and repentance that miraculously restored the environment to an Edenic state of plenty. In this article, I explore the appeal of HTL’s theology and ritual practice to Inuit residents of Clyde River, Nunavut. I argue that residents found HTL’s explanations of environmental change compelling because HTL offered a vision of integrated action through which individuals and communities could address social and environmental issues simultaneously.

Inuit Subsistence, Social Economy and Food Security in Clyde River, Nunavut

This paper examines the flow of money and country food resources within an Inuit extended family (ilagiit) in Clyde River, Nunavut, to understand the effects of a mixed wage-income and hunting economy on customary resource sharing and food security. Over a 12-week period in 2009, data were gathered through participant observation and bi-weekly recall interviews with 10 ilagiit households in the community. The findings are compared to data on sharing collected in 1999 from the same family group. Results indicate that resource sharing, especially for country food, continues to follow traditional kinship patterns and retains considerable importance in the group’s aggregated “income.” Further, imported foods are shared, but on what appears to be an ad hoc basis, while control of money appears to rest with individuals. Overall, differences between households in cash income, seen in terms of hunting and fishing equipment, are more apparent in 2009 than in 1999, but this inequality is moderated by shared use among close kin of large items like freighter canoes and outboard motors. At this time, social relations critically buffer subsistence disparities between lower- and higher-income households in culturally prescribed ways. Our study of the socioeconomic dynamics within an Arctic community is particularly valuable for informing a culturally relevant understanding of Arctic food security, given significant recent interest in this research area.

Monitoring the melt season length of the Barnes Ice Cap over the 1979–2010 period using active and passive microwave remote sensing data

AbstractThe Barnes Ice Cap (BIC) located on Baffin Island (Nunavut, Canada) is one of the most southern ice caps of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Observational data provide evidence of increased melting, thinning and contour recession due to recent climate warming in the Arctic. The duration of the summer melt season for the BIC, over the period 1979–2010, was derived using a threshold algorithm for 19 GHz horizontal polarization brightness temperature data; the passive microwave satellite measurements included data from the quasi‐daily Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager. Our results show the melt season lengthened by 33% from 65.6 ± 6 days at the beginning of the period (1979–1987) to 87.1 ± 7.8 days towards the end (2002–2010). The interannual variations of the number of melt days were in agreement with those derived from active microwave backscatter data from the QuikSCAT scatterometer for the overlapping 2000–2009 period. In addition, elevation change data from the ICESat altimeter confirmed the thinning of the BIC at a mean rate of −0.75 m/year for the 2003–2009 period. For the 32‐year period that we analysed, correlations with summer and annual air temperature and annual sum of positive days were examined for both the North American Regional Reanalysis and the Clyde River Automatic Weather Station data. Correlations with land surface temperature data from MODIS were also examined over the last decade. The results of these investigations showed that these climate indicators did not adequately explain the observed melt variations for the BIC. Ground‐based snow and ice measurements collected near the BIC summit during a 10‐day field campaign in March 2011 provided insights onto the surface properties and confirm the relevance of the remote sensing invariant threshold algorithm used for melt detection. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Integrating Traditional and Scientific Knowledge through Collaborative Natural Science Field Research: Identifying Elements for Success

We discuss two recent projects to examine the role of collaborative environmental fieldwork both in research and in the interactions between academically trained researchers and experienced local residents. The Bidarki Project studied black leather chitons (Katharina tunicata) in the lower Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Its conclusion that chiton declines are part of a serial decline of intertidal invertebrates drew on collaborative fieldwork, archaeological data, historical records, and interviews with local residents. The Siku-Inuit-Hila Project studied sea ice in Barrow, Alaska; Clyde River, Nunavut; and Qaanaaq, Greenland. Quantitative data from locally maintained observation sites were supplemented by knowledge exchanges among hunters from the communities and by discussion in local working groups to develop an understanding of the physical dynamics and human uses of sea ice at each locale. We conclude that careful planning and preparation, along with the effort to build strong personal relationships, can increase the likelihood that collaborative fieldwork will be productive, enjoyable, and rewarding.

Surface Wind Speed Prediction in the Canadian Arctic using Non-Linear Machine Learning Methods

Two non-linear, machine-learning/statistical methods, i.e., Bayesian neural network (BNN) and support vector regression (SVR), plus multiple linear regression (MLR), were used to forecast surface wind speeds at lead times of 12, 24, 48 and 72 h. Three different schemes, a statistical downscaling model (Scheme 1) using daily reforecast data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecasting System (GFS), an autoregressive model (Scheme 2) based on past wind observations, and a full model (Scheme 3) combining the two, were investigated in this study for the October–March winds from two meteorological stations in the Canadian Arctic (Clyde River and Paulatuk). At very short lead times, Scheme 2 provides better wind speed prediction than Scheme 1, but its forecast scores decrease rapidly with lead time. Scheme 3 generally performs best, especially at shorter lead times. All the linear and non-linear downscaling methods have significantly higher forecast scores at the two stations than the GFS reforecast. The non-linear methods tended to have slightly better forecast scores than linear methods (MLR and the linear version of SVR). There is particular interest in high-wind events, defined as having wind speeds over 22 knots (11.3 m s−1). After rescaling, the continuous wind predictions from Scheme 3 were classified into two types — high-wind event or non-event. For high-wind event forecasting, the non-linear methods have marginally better binary forecast scores than the linear methods for Clyde River but not for Paulatuk. The alternative approach of using support vector classification (SVC) did not perform better, but weighting the high-wind events more heavily than the non-events during model training improved the binary forecast scores.

Should we turn the tent? Inuit women and climate change

Most of the climate change literature for Arctic Canada in the social sciences has focused on men’s knowledge and experiences. Drawing on research from Qikiqtarjuaq and Clyde River, Nunavut, we explore Inuit women’s perspectives on recent environmental changes, many of which are often attributed to climate change by Inuit or others. We divide issues resulting from environmental change into primary and secondary effects. Primary effects are changes in environmental features that affect, for example, hunting, fishing, and travelling. Secondary effects occur in the community as a result of environmental change. These include changes in the use and condition of country products like seal skins, and the psychological and social impact of environmental changes, such as going out on the land less often due to fear of dangerous conditions. We also offer a preliminary discussion on women’s role in responses to climate change, through their often dominant economic and political roles in their communities, the territory, and various wider global governance fora. Our research indicates that gender helps shape Inuit knowledge of environmental change, as well as social responses to perceptions of change. By examining women’s perceptions of environmental change, we draw attention to the social aspects and also highlight how women can contribute to adaptation, not only to physical changes but also to the resulting social changes.

Polar bear management, sport hunting and Inuit subsistence at Clyde River, Nunavut

This paper begins by reviewing the structure and evolution of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) management in Canada and in the Territory of Nunavut since the inception of the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears in the 1970s. This is followed by the paper's main focus, the examination of the socio-economic and cultural importance of polar bears for Inuit and the success of the Agreement in supporting contemporary Inuit subsistence relations in Nunavut.

3D geological models and their hydrogeological applications: supporting urban development a case study in Glasgow-Clyde, UK

Urban planners and developers in some parts of the United Kingdom can now access geodata in an easy-to-retrieve and understandable format. 3D attributed geological framework models and associated GIS outputs, developed by the British Geological Survey (BGS), provide a predictive tool for planning site investigations for some of the UK's largest regeneration projects in the Thames and Clyde River catchments. Using the 3D models, planners can get a 3D preview of properties of the subsurface using virtual cross-section and borehole tools in visualisation software, allowing critical decisions to be made before any expensive site investigation takes place, and potentially saving time and money. 3D models can integrate artificial and superficial deposits and bedrock geology, and can be used for recognition of major resources (such as water, thermal and sand and gravel), for example in buried valleys, groundwater modelling and assessing impacts of underground mining. A preliminary groundwater recharge and flow model for a pilot area in Glasgow has been developed using the 3D geological models as a framework. This paper focuses on the River Clyde and the Glasgow conurbation, and the BGS's Clyde Urban Super-Project (CUSP) in particular, which supports major regeneration projects in and around the City of Glasgow in the West of Scotland.