Niagara Peninsula Research Articles

Marketing Icewine to Japanese Tourists in Niagara: The Case of Inniskillin Winery

Inniskillin Winery is at the forefront of an expanding wine tourism region in the Niagara Peninsula. This paper focuses on Inniskillin's efforts to adopt consumer‐led strategies to market Icewine to increasing numbers of Japanese tourists. Produced after the grapes have frozen on the vine, Icewine is an exclusive premium product. In a society where the price of the gift has become a barometer of the sender's sincerity, Icewine is well suited for the traditional Japanese custom of gift giving. This paper examines how Inniskillin's customer‐led marketing strategy matches with the psychological background of the Japanese target segment enabling the winery to sell 80–90% of all Icewine produced to its Japanese tourists.

RESISTANCE TO INSECTICIDES IN ORIENTAL FRUIT MOTH POPULATIONS (GRAPHOLITA MOLESTA) FROM THE NIAGARA PENINSULA OF ONTARIO

AbstractAfter about 20 years of wide usage in integrated pest management (IPM) programs on peach in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, populations of Oriental fruit moth, Grapholita molesta (Busck), resistant to azinphosmethyl and phosmet have been selected. Resistance, as expressed in first-instar larvae, was only two- to four-fold to azinphosmethyl or phosmet, but up to 45% fruit infestations have been documented in commercial blocks. Resistance to azinphosmethyl was not well expressed in adult Oriental fruit moths. In tests with larvae, cross-resistance occurred to most other organophosphorus insecticides except acephate and chlorpyrifos. Acephate was more toxic to resistant than to susceptible larvae. Resistance was higher (> 100-fold) to the methyl carbamates carbaryl and carbofuran but was approximately fivefold to the carbamoyl oxime methomyl. Cross-resistance to pyrethroids was not observed. Tests with field-collected material, either from crosses on mating trays in the field or from pupae collected in cardboard bands attached to trees, indicated that resistance was widespread across the Niagara production area but that the resistance was not uniformly expressed at all locations. Resistance was expressed in F1 larvae from crosses of susceptible females with field-collected males, indicating that the genetic change in resistant larvae was unlikely the effect of a single recessive gene. Field tests in replicated two-tree plots and in larger (0.25–0.6 ha) plots treated with up to five applications as a season-long control program indicated that neither chlorpyrifos nor acephate were as effective as a pyrethroid (deltamethrin). The sustainability of these IPM programs and potential resistance management strategies are discussed.

Lay Theories of Spring: Displacement of Common-Sense Understandings of Nature by 'Expert' Ideas

To explore the interplay between expert and common-sense ideas of nature in lay minds, a social representations approach was applied to a simple cognitive field, namely ideas about when spring begins, and why. Results from content analysis confirmed that an explanation derived from science is displacing common-sense theories of spring in samples of high school students resident in the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. However, the 'expert' theory has no real explanatory value for those who hold it, whereas some of the common-sense theories do. These findings may have implications for environmental education and planning when the object is not transmission of knowledge about science for its own sake but a person's competence in thinking about nature as an ordinary citizen.

Freeze—desiccation survival in wild yeasts in the bloom of icewine grapes

To determine the response of different wild yeasts and yeast-like molds of importance to icewine producers, to freezing and desiccation at −25 °C, a modified AOAC hard surface carrier test was performed on the 12 most commonly found wild yeast species on grapes grown in the Niagara Peninsula. The initial concentration was ~10 5 cfu ml −1 and after 20 days exposure, six species had no log reduction, three had a one log reduction and three had a 2-log reduction. After 40 days, only two species ( Candida stellata and Cryptococcus laurentii) exhibited a 5-log reduction (i.e. no survivors). Candida steatolytica, Metchnikovia pulcherrima, Pichia kluyveri and Saccharomycopsis crataegensis were particularly resistant with log reductions of 2, 2, 3, 4, respectively, after 104 days. Given a frequency of ~1.0 days per winter at −25 °C in the Niagara grape growing region, it is unlikely that freeze—desiccation alone is responsible for fluctuations in species frequency of wild yeasts of icewine grapes. There was no correlation between the species frequency at the fall harvest time and ability to survive freeze—desiccation.

Rockbed Wear At A Flow Convergence Zone in Fifteen Mile Creek, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Sculpted bedforms developed in rock channels must be considered within the context of temporally and spatially persistent flow dynamics. A shallow meandering channel (14 m long, 30‐50 cm wide, 3‐4 cm deep) with raised margins has been eroded into resistant Irondequoit Limestone, forming the streambed of Fifteen Mile Creek; Ontario. Potholes (<18 cm deep, <25 cm wide, <35 cm long) within the channel increase in size downstream. Subaerial solution of the limestone and fracture patterns within the Irondequoit Limestone are not responsible for this. Large dolostone blocks within the channel stabilize patterns of vorticity that form in the lee of the blocks during highflows when flow is about 1.3 m deep. Vortices migrating downstream along a major flow junction have eroded the distinctive channel. Small irregularities in the bed may enlarge to potholes by attracting vortices and undergoing erosional wear as they pass. The feature may have developed within several hundred to several thousand years, but likely d...

12 600 years of lake level changes, changing sills, ephemeral lakes and Niagara Gorge erosion in the Niagara Peninsula and Eastern Lake Erie basin

Over the last 12 600 years, lake levels in the eastern Lake Erie basin have fluctuated dramatically, causing major changes in drainage patterns, flooding and draining ephemeral Lake Wainfleet several times and widening and narrowing the Niagara Gorge as the erosive effects of Niagara Falls waxed and waned. The control sill for Lake Erie levels was at first the Fort Erie/Buffalo sill, before the Lyell/Johnson sill in Niagara Falls took over due to isostatic rebound. This sill, in time, was eventually eroded by the recession of Niagara Falls and the Fort Erie/Buffalo sill regained control. The environmental picture is complicated by catastrophic outbursts from glacial Lake Agassiz and Lake Barlow-Ojibway, changes in outlet routes, isostatic rebound and climatic changes over the Great Lakes basins. Today, the flow of water into Lake Erie from the streams and rivers surrounding it only accounts for about 13% of the flow out of it, therefore, the importance of flow from the Upper Great Lakes, specifically the flow from Lake Huron, has a great effect on Lake Erie levels. While the changing control sills, Lyell/Johnson and Buffalo/Fort Erie would affect Lake Erie levels, overall they are mostly input driven by the amount of waters received from the Upper Great Lakes. Since Lake Erie's water level changes are so closely tied to Lake Huron's water level changes we have decided to use names assigned to Lake Huron such as the two Mattawa highstands and three Stanley lowstands rather than inflict a whole new set of names on the public. While the duration of each high and lowstand in Erie and Huron may not always be the same, they always happen within the same time frame. The datum elevations used for Lake Huron (175.8 m) and Lake Erie (173.3 m) are historically recorded averages. The Lake Erie levels proposed in this paper reflect Lake Hurons effects on Lake Erie and the levels occuring at the eastern end of the Erie Basin throughout the last 12 600 years. All dates in this paper are uncorrected 14 C dates unless the date was obtained from shells, then the date has been corrected for hard-water effects. Also, all heights are given as modern day elevations and are not adjusted for isostatic rebound.

Childhood Foraging as a Means of Acquiring Competent Human Cognition about Biodiversity

With informants from metropolitan Ottawa and the Niagara Peninsula, Canada, tests were made of the hypothesis that broad foraging for natural things in childhood develops personal competence in assessing the biodiversity of local habitats. Responses from initial groups of informants were used to compile region-specific checklists of natural kinds of things foraged. These checklists then became the basis for questionnaires administered to samples of teenage informants, who were also asked to complete a quiz indexing sense of biodiversity by comparing local habitats. Mean breadth of foraging proves to be around 30 natural kinds, and the hypothesis linking breadth of childhood foraging with sense of biodiversity, tested by analysis of variance, is accepted at modest to fairly high confidence levels. Persons who forage more natural kinds in childhood have a better sense of biodiversity as adults.

The portrait of Robert Kerr (d. 1824).

The importance of Dr. Robert Kerr in Canadian history is not large, but he played a significant role in the early years of what is now Ontario. Though his Canadian years were spent largely in active military service and, after his discharge, at Kingston and in the Niagara peninsula, nevertheless, in the compact and sparse settlements and posts of the times he was widely known and influential. Moreover, Kerr had a significant connection with one of the founders of Toronto. As this discussion will show, a fateful conjunction of art and medicine lies behind a portrait of Robert Kerr.

CONTROL OF ORIENTAL FRUIT MOTH BY MATING DISRUPTION USING SEX PHEROMONE IN THE NIAGARA PENINSULA, ONTARIO

AbstractDisruption of mating for control of Oriental fruit moth [Grapholita molesta (Busck) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)] using Isomate M pheromone dispensers was tested from 1987 to 1990 in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario. The effectiveness of pheromone was evaluated using virgin female-baited traps, synthetic pheromone-baited traps, and by inspecting samples of twigs and fruit for evidence of G. molesta damage. No males were caught in virgin female-baited traps placed in pheromone-treated plots. Synthetic pheromone-baited trap catches of male moths were reduced by 85–100%. Pheromone provided commercially acceptable control over two consecutive growing seasons at a commercial farm with a relatively low density G. molesta population. Pheromone did not provide commercially acceptable control at an experimental farm with a relatively high density G. molesta population. The incidence of capture of males in virgin female-baited traps, in synthetic pheromone-baited traps, and the incidence of damage to peach twigs by first- and second-generation G. molesta larvae could not be used to predict the incidence of damage to fruit at harvest. The results suggest that pheromone-mediated mating disruption may have potential as a method for controlling the Oriental fruit moth in orchards with relatively low density populations.

Protalus ramparts and related features along the niagara escarpment, niagara peninsula, ontario

AbstractTalus foot ridges interpreted as protalus ramparts have been identified along 17 out of 42 km of the Niagara Escarpment within the Niagara Peninsula. They are distinguished from various types of slope form (rotational slumps, debris slides, quarries, dumps, moraines, raised shorelines and bedrock ledges) by their regular linear nature and their restriction to slopes facing between north‐east and north‐west. Morphologies range from a simple terrace with a flat top and a steep rocky outer slope, to compound ridges with closed depressions between. Maximum widths from rampart crest to main talus foot average 25 metres. Ramparts are characteristically extremely bouldery and include angular blocks of Thorold and Grimsby Sandstones weathered from the Escarpment slope, Ironde‐quoit Limestone and Lockport Dolomite blocks with metre dimensions transported to the outer slopes of the ramparts from the upper edge of the Escarpment, and clay from the weathering of Escarpment shales and from Wisconsinan diamictons. Associated firn field dimensions probably fluctuated dramatically in size during the year, and the palaeoclimatic implication is that there existed substantial late‐lying to perennial firn fields following local deglaciation at 12.5 ka BP. Independent confirmation of an early postglacial tundra climate is provided by the basal portions of pollen stratigraphies obtained nearby. The latest period when the firn fields might have existed is during the Younger Dryas chronozone (11 ka to 10.0 ka BP) when regional climatic cooling may have allowed the re‐establishment of a tundra‐like climate, especially in areas with severe microclimates.

Organochlorine contaminants in a terrestrial foodweb on the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada 1987?89

During 1987–89, organochlorine contaminant levels were measured in American kestrel (Falco sparverius) eggs and in other components of the terrestrial ecosystem in Ontario, Canada. The extent to which these samples were contaminated with DDE varied geographically. Wet weight levels of DDE were greater in eggs from American kestrels (10.8 mg/kg), American robins (Turdus migratorius) (17.3 mg/kg), European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) (8.8 mg/kg), and eastern bluebirds (Sailia sailis) (7.6 mg/kg) and in samples of earthworms (Lumbricus sp.) (0.6 mg/kg), soil (0.3 mg/kg) and vegetation (8.7 μg/kg) originating from the northern portion of the Niagara Peninsula than elsewhere in southern Ontario. This area is an intensive fruit growing region which received heavy applications of DDT in the past. DDT and its metabolites persist in the soil of this area and are transferred to the biotic community via trophic interactions. DDE may continue to pose a regional hazard to wildlife as a result of these toxic “hot-spots.” In 1987 and 1988, kestrel reproductive success was lower on the northern Niagara Peninsula than at a site in southwestern Ontario. However, it was not possible to attribute this reduced reproductive success to environmental contaminants.

B.A. Griffith (Biographies)

I was born on November 16,1908, in Hamilton, Ontario. I was only three years old when, for the betterment of my father’s health, my parents sold their home in Hamilton and bought a small farm in the Niagara Peninsula, near the tiny village of Fruitland, some 10 miles east of Hamilton.

Fluvially sculpted rock bedforms in Twenty Mile Creek, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Sculpted rock bedforms (s-forms) on Whirlpool Sandstone are described from the bed of Twenty Mile Creek. The morphologies identified (undulating surfaces, rises, furrows, comma forms, spindles, potholes, and transverse troughs) are those described for sculpted bedrock forms (p-forms, s-forms) developed in subglacial environments. Additional morphologies identified are undercut downsteps and quarried surfaces in the lee of bedrock rises. Morphological differences between the subglacial and fluvial forms are attributed to the difference between confined conduit flow in the subglacial case and open-channel flow in the fluvial examples. In fluvial systems the descending bedrock surface presents rock differently to oncoming flows and favours certain s-forms (quarried lee faces and undulating surfaces). In a strong-flow fluvial environment s-forms develop by wear. Dominant sediment-transport modes are large clasts (up to metre dimensions) and suspended silt–clay with a small (&lt; 7%) hard or heavy-mineral component. Hydraulic quarrying, which removes fracture-delimited blocks from the bed, interrupts the process. Although fluvial s-forms are similar to subglacial s-forms, large stable vortices may not exist in the fluvial context over the range of effective stages. Upper regime flow is common over bedrock reaches, and flow acceleration at small downsteps (knickpoints) magnifies the duration and spatial extent of wear effective velocities.

EFFICACY OF MATING DISRUPTION FOR CONTROLLING THE GRAPE BERRY MOTH, ENDOPIZA VITEANA (CLEMENS) (LEPIDOPTERA: TORTRICIDAE), A CASE STUDY OVER THREE CONSECUTIVE GROWING SEASONS

AbstractSex pheromone-mediated mating disruption was used to control the grape berry moth, Endopiza viteana (Clemens) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), at two farms in the Niagara peninsula, Ontario, during three consecutive growing seasons, 1989 through 1991, to determine if earlier observed between-generation increases in the percentage of infested grape clusters would continue between growing seasons. The relative performance of the pheromone treatment was assessed by comparing the percentage of infested clusters in the pheromone-treated plot with the percentage of infested clusters in an adjacent, insecticide-treated plot. Although the percentage of infested clusters increased from 1.7- to 56.5-fold between successive generations in the pheromone-treated plots, there was no indication that the level of infestation at harvest affected the level of infestation the following spring. At one farm, the percentage of infested clusters was greater in the pheromone-treated than in the insecticide-treated plot during 1989, but during 1990 and 1991, the level of infestation was similar in the two plots. At the other farm, the level of infestation was from 2- to 3-fold greater in the insecticide-treated than in the pheromone-treated plot.

Evidence for high water levels in the Erie basin during the Younger Dryas chronozone

A high water phase in the Lake Erie basin is identified from a variety of evidence for the period 11.0 ka to 10.5 ka. It is believed to correspond to the first Agassiz inflow to the upper Great Lakes (Main Lake Algonquin phase) when Agassiz waters discharged in both catastrophic and equilibrium modes to Lake Superior. After allowing for differential isostatic rebound, a computational model is used to estimate the lake levels in the Erie basin needed to generate Agassiz-equivalent discharges out of the basin into Lake Ontario. Computations suggest that Lake Tonawanda spillways would be re-activated by the high lake levels needed to sustain Agassiz-equivalent discharges. Existing published evidence from the Erie basin, Niagara River, and western New York (including 14C dates), is consistent with this interpretation. Additional evidence from the Niagara Peninsula (pollen spectra and geomorphology) supports the inference that extensive flooding of the southern Niagara Peninsula (Lake Wainfleet) occurred due to high water levels in the Erie basin. In the Niagara Peninsula, very shallow ‘washover’ spillways would only operate when standard hydrologic variations of lake level in the Erie basin coincided with short term high levels driven by catastrophic inflows to the Great Lakes from Lake Agassiz. We support the view of Lewis & Anderson (1992) that a meltwater flux from Agassiz inflows reached Lake Erie.

Depositional setting of gypsum deposits, southwestern Ontario, Canada

This paper details the stratigraphy and facies changes of the mined gypsum bed and enclosing strata of the Upper Silurian Salina Group A unit at the Westroc Industries Ltd. mine at Drumbo (Westroc), located on the Algonquin arch, of southwestern Ontario, Canada; and compares them with equivalent strata at the Domtar Ltd. mine at Caledonia (Domtar) situated in the Niagara Peninsula, 55 km to the southeast, on the northwestern flank of the Appalachian basin. At both localities, the Salina A unit comprises three sedimentary cycles, each terminating with gypsum. Although the three cycles at Domtar constitute essentially identical sequences of lagoonal muds capped by subaqueous gypsiferous lagoonal sediments, the same three cycles at Westroc undergo a significant change from: subaqueous deposition in a coastal salina, in the first cycle; to erosion, followed by mixed freshwater/hypersaline-water deposition in a coastal or lacustrine salina in the second cycle; to desiccation, followed by intertidal to subaerial deposition in a sabkha, in the third cycle. The sequence at Westroc indicates that the Algonquin arch became an emergent feature during late SalinaA-2 time. The mined gypsum bed (Main Gypsum bed) at Westroc forms the top of cycle 1 and marks the first appearance of gypsum beds in the Salina Group, above the contact with the underlying Upper Silurian Guelph Formation. Stratigraphically, the Main Gypsum bed correlates with the base of the Salina A-2unit. At Westroc, the two overlying gypsum beds in the Salina A-2 are uneconomic. Incontrast, the economic gypsum bed at Domtar marks the base of the overlying Salina B anhydrite (top of cycle 4) and is underlain by three uneconomic gypsum beds (stratigraphic equivalents of the three Salina A-2 gypsum beds at Westroc). A modern analogue which explains the difference in Salina Afacies sequences between Westroc and Domtar (55 km apart), is the semi-arid coast of northern Egypt, adjacent to the Nile delta, where gypsum is depositing in both sabkha-fringed coastal salinas and large lagoons/coastal lakes within distances equivalent to that across the eastern flank of the Algonquin arch. The implications of a gypsum exploration model, based on the modern evaporitic facies of northern Egypt, are that economic coastal salina/lagoon deposits of the Salina A and B-anhydrite units should be restricted to the ancient shoreline of the Appalachian basin which probably paralleled the Algonquin arch. However, the model also predicts the possibility of continental salina or playa deposits along the axis, or northwest, of the Algonquin arch during early Salina Group time.

POTENTIAL OF MATING DISRUPTION USING SEX PHEROMONE FOR CONTROLLING THE GRAPE BERRY MOTH, ENDOPIZA VITEANA (CLEMENS) (LEPIDOPTERA: TORTRICIDAE), IN NIAGARA PENINSULA, ONTARIO VINEYARDS

AbstractThe efficacy of mating disruption for controlling the grape berry moth, Endopiza viteana (Clemens) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), was evaluated from 1987 to 1989 in the Niagara peninsula, Ont. Mating disruption was tested in commercial vineyards with high-, moderate-, and low-density grape berry moth populations using the Biocontrol Ltd. tape-type and wire-type pheromone dispensers. Pheromone-baited trap catches were reduced by 92% or more in plots treated with pheromone. Treatment with pheromone significantly reduced damage (percentage infested clusters) compared with an untreated control in each of two tests, and provided control as good as or better than an insecticide control programme in two of four tests. Damage increased from 1.3- to 12.8-fold between successive generations in plots treated with pheromone, and was greater on the borders of some plots treated with pheromone or insecticide. It is concluded that mating disruption may have potential as a control method for use in the integrated management of E. viteana.

Volatile Metabolites Produced in a Riesling Must by Wild Yeast Isolates

The fusel oil production of a selected commercial wine yeast, and five yeasts indigenous to musts of the Niagara peninsula was analyzed. An indigenous Saccharomyces cerevisiae produced similar concentrations to the selected commercial strain for each of the four major higher alcohols. An unknown species of Candida produced 240mg of 2-methyl-l-propanol per litre of wine which is 20% higher than the published concentration range in wines and well over the sensory threshold. The higher alcohol production of all other wild strains was less than that of the commercial strain of wine yeast.

Occurrence of Pyrethroid Resistance in Pear Psylla (Homoptera: Psyllidae) Populations from Southern Ontario

Adult pear psylla, Cacopsylla pyricola Foerster, from the Niagara peninsula of Ontario were tested for susceptibility to pyrethroid insecticides from 1980 to 1989. A Potter spray tower was used. Results of tests at IS, 22, and 30°C indicated a negative temperature-toxicity relationship for permethrin and fen vale rate. Resistance to pyrethroids (first discovered in 1986 at levels of approximately 50-fold for permethrin at the LC50) has become widespread in the Niagara region. Resistance extends to all types of pyrethroids but is highest to fenvalerate (approximately 140-fold). Combinations of permethrin and potential synergists piper only but oxide or DEF did not increase the toxicity to resistant populations, suggesting that resistance was due to an insensitive target site or kdr-like mechanism. In one resistant population studied over 4 yr without further selection with pyrethroids, resistance declined from 54-fold to approximately 3D-fold after 1 yr and stabilized at 20-30-fold.

The Yeasts in a Riesling Must From the Niagara Grape-Growing Region of Ontario

The yeasts in the must from grapes grown in the Niagara Peninsula have been identified and enumerated. The persistence of these indigenous or wild yeasts throughout the fermentation was examined. The number and diversity of yeast species are similar to those reported in other wine districts of the world. The most numerous indigenous species in fresh must were an unknown species of Candida, Hanseniaspora uvarum, Candida diversa and Aureobasidium pullulans.Saccharomyces cerevisiae was not found in the initial 5,000 colony forming units analysed. The first S. cerevisiae was isolated when the alcohol concentration reached 10g/L. S.cerevisiae then increased in numbers throughout the fermentation. At the end of the fermentation only S.cerevisiae was isolated.