Canada US Research Articles

Wildfire-Induced Shifts in PM2.5 Speciation Across the Contiguous US and Southern Canada

Wildfire-Induced Shifts in PM2.5 Speciation Across the Contiguous US and Southern Canada

Public participation in the conservation and management of canal cultural heritage worldwide: a case study of the Rideau Canal and Erie Canal

To shed light on the conservation and management of canal cultural heritage worldwide, this paper examines the relevant experience and implications acquired from the US Erie Canal and Canadian Rideau Canal from the perspective of public participation in terms of four dimensions: subject, concept, content, and horizon. The study findings are fourfold: first, the factors such as residents of the Heritage Corridor, non-governmental organizations, non-profit enterprises, private forces, tourists, and individual volunteers constitute the subject of public participation. Second, both sides concur that extensive public involvement is the driving force behind the success of cultural heritage conservation and management. This wide involvement is conducive to promoting education and shaping national identity. Third, for both sides, public participation is integral to the Heritage Corridor project management plan, spanning the entire process of drafting, revising, implementing, and evaluating. Finally, both sides have been leveraging modern information technology and social media, such as web home pages, databases, virtual discussions, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to promote public participation, and achieving double the results with half the effort. The implications of the findings lie in four aspects: first, the canal community committees assume leadership responsibilities with relevant laws and regulations in place as legal backup; second, both the US and Canadian sides take effective measures to organize, recognize, and appreciate participants; third, they demonstrate the spirit of democratic participation and exemplary deliberation throughout the cultural heritage canal conservation and management process; and finally, both sides maximize the use of modern information technologies for efficient conservation and management of their respective Canal Cultural Heritage Corridors.

An Integrative Institutional Framework of the Canada–US Business Performance Gap

Le Canada se classe régulièrement parmi les meilleurs endroits où vivre. Cependant, son potentiel de prospérité durable pourrait dépendre de l'efficacité à laquelle le secteur des affaires manœuvre dans un monde en constante évolution. Les entreprises canadiennes innovent et exportent moins que leurs homologues américaines et produisent de moins bons rendements. Des études antérieures ont fourni des aperçus de divers aspects de ce rendement insatisfaisant. Il est toutefois possible de dégager des aperçus plus utiles par la synthèse de leurs divers points de vue. Le présent article expose un point de vue institutionnel du développement économique comparatif entre le Canada et les États-Unis. L'auteur avance que les différences initiales entre les institutions, découlant de divers profils de séparation par rapport à la domination coloniale britannique, ont donné lieu à des dépendances de parcours distinctes dans les économies canadiennes et américaines. Une prémisse essentielle provient du fait que, par, le passé, les États-Unis ont adopté des institutions mercantilistes plus libérales au sens classique qu'au Canada. Cet écart institutionnel initial est associé aux solides motivations nationalistes et lucratives des entreprises américaines, couplées à leurs tentatives précoces d'organiser et de diriger les chaînes de valeur mondiales (CVM). Au bout du compte, le présent article expose un cadre institutionnel intégratif qui relie l’écart de rendement commercial entre le Canada et les États-Unis à une interaction complexe entre un trio d’écarts provoqués par les institutions dans les entreprises et les CVM et chez les leaders du monde des affaires.

Natural allies: environment, energy, and the history of US–Canada relations

Natural allies: environment, energy, and the history of US–Canada relations

Nuanced futures: Canadian and US defence in the North American Arctic

ABSTRACT Canada and the United States have a shared interest in North American defence, and both have committed to spending on Arctic defence capabilities. Defence interactions with China and Russia, and the development of new weapons systems, have put a spotlight on Arctic defence. Much of the resulting activity is preparation for potential, future competition rather than concerns about confrontation in the short term. Nevertheless, preparation discrepancies between Canadian and US approaches to Arctic defence become apparent. In particular, the United States takes a more forward-leaning military approach to Arctic security than does Canada, with a defence-centric military posture. These differences are not insurmountable, and shared understanding of the most significant defence threats related to the North American Arctic, in addition to the long-standing NORAD connection, represent solid foundations. Nevertheless, differences represent areas of friction that could be exploited by adversaries and Canada–US dialogue to minimize the effect of this non-alignment in approaches will be critical.

North Atlantic right whale density surface model for the US Atlantic evaluated with passive acoustic monitoring

The Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis entered a population decline around 2011. To save this species without closing the ocean to human activities requires detailed information about its intra-annual density patterns that can be used to assess and mitigate human-caused risks. Using 2.9 million km of visual line-transect survey effort from the US Atlantic and Canadian Maritimes conducted in 2003-2020 by 11 institutions, we modeled the absolute density (ind. km-2) of the species using spatial, temporal, and environmental covariates at a monthly time step. We accounted for detectability differences between survey platforms, teams, and conditions, and corrected all data for perception and availability biases, accounting for platform differences, whale dive behavior, group composition, and group size. We produced maps of predicted density and evaluated our results using independently collected passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) data. Densities correlated positively (r = 0.46, ρ = 0.58, τ = 0.46) with acoustic detection rates obtained at 492 stationary PAM recorders deployed across the study area (mean recorder duration = 138 d). This is the first study to quantify the concurrence of visual and acoustic observations of the species in US waters. We summarized predictions into mean monthly density and uncertainty maps for the 2003-2009 and 2010-2020 eras, based on the significant changes in the species’ spatial distribution that began around 2010. The results quantify the striking distribution shifts and provide effort- and bias-corrected density surfaces to inform risk assessments, estimations of take, and marine spatial planning.

Identification and Genomic Characterization of Bovine Boosepivirus A in the United States and Canada.

Boosepivirus is a new genus in the Picornaviridae family. Boosepiviruses (BooVs) are genetically classified into three species: A, B, and C. Initially, Boosepivirus A and B were identified in cattle, whereas Boosepivirus C was detected in sheep. Recent evidence showed that Boosepivirus B was detected in sheep and Boosepivirus C was identified in goats, suggesting that Boosepvirus might cross the species barrier to infect different hosts. Different from BooV B, BooV A is less studied. In the present study, we reported identification of two North American BooV A strains from cattle. Genomic characterization revealed that US IL33712 (GenBank accession #PP035161) and Canada 1087562 (GenBank accession #PP035162) BooV A strains are distantly related to each other, and US IL33712 is more closely correlated to two Asian BooV A strains. US-strain-specific insertions, NorthAmerican-strain-specific insertions, and species A-specific insertions are observed and could contribute to viral pathogenicity and host adaptation. Our findings highlight the importance of continued surveillance of BooV A in animals.

The Species at Risk Act (2002) and Transboundary Species Listings along the US–Canada Border

This paper is a collaborative interdisciplinary examination of the scientific, political, and cultural determinants of the conservation status of mammal species that occur in both Canada and the USA. We read Canada’s Species at Risk Act as a document of bio-cultural nationalism circumscribed by the weak federalism and Crown–Indigenous relations of the nation’s constitution. We also provide a numerical comparison of at-risk species listings either side of the US–Canada border and examples of provincial/state listings in comparison with those at a federal level. We find 17 mammal species listed as at-risk in Canada as distinct from the USA, and only 6 transboundary species that have comparable levels of protection in both countries, and we consider several explanations for this asymmetry. We evaluate the concept of ‘jurisdictional rarity’, in which species are endangered only because a geopolitical boundary isolates a small population. The paper begins and ends with reflections on interdisciplinary collaboration, and our findings highlight the importance of considering and explicitly acknowledging political influences on science and conservation-decision making, including in the context of at-risk-species protection.

Genomic and phenotypic characterization of multidrug-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Reading isolates involved in a turkey-associated foodborne outbreak.

Salmonella is a global bacterial foodborne pathogen associated with a variety of contaminated food products. Poultry products are a common source of Salmonella-associated foodborne illness, and an estimated 7% of human illnesses in the United States are attributed to turkey products. From November 2017 to March 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a turkey-associated outbreak of multidrug-resistant (MDR; resistant to ≥3 antimicrobial classes) Salmonella enterica serovar Reading (S. Reading) linked to 358 human infections in 42 US states and Canada. Since S. Reading was seldom linked to human illness prior to this outbreak, the current study compared genomic sequences of S. Reading isolates prior to the outbreak (pre-outbreak) to isolates identified during the outbreak period, focusing on genes that were different between the two groups but common within a group. Following whole-genome sequence analysis of five pre-outbreak and five outbreak-associated turkey/turkey product isolates of S. Reading, 37 genes located within two distinct chromosomal regions were identified only in the pre-outbreak isolates: (1) an ~5 kb region containing four protein-coding genes including uidA which encodes beta-glucuronidase, pgdA encoding peptidoglycan deacetylase, and two hypothetical proteins and (2) an ~28 kb region comprised of 32 phage-like genes and the xerC gene, which encodes tyrosine recombinase (frequently associated with phage genes). The five outbreak isolates also had a deletional event within the cirA gene, introducing a translational frame shift and premature stop codon. The cirA gene encodes a protein with dual receptor functions: a siderophore receptor for transport of dihydroxybenzoylserine as well as a colicin Ia/b receptor. Significant differences for the identified genetic variations were also detected in 75 S. Reading human isolates. Of the 41 S. Reading isolates collected before or in 2017, 81 and 90% of the isolates contained the uidA and pgdA genes, respectively, but only 24% of the isolates collected after 2017 harbored the uidA and pgdA genes. The truncation event within the cirA gene was also significantly higher in isolates collected after 2017 (74%) compared to before or in 2017 (5%). Phenotypic analysis of the S. Reading isolates for colicin and cefiderocol sensitivities (CirA) and β-methyl-D-glucuronic acid utilization (UidA and accessory proteins) supported the genomic data. Overall, a similar genome reduction pattern was generally observed in both the turkey and human isolates of S. Reading during the outbreak period, and the genetic differences were present in genes that could potentially promote pathogen dissemination due to variation in Salmonella colonization, fitness, and/or virulence.

Lymphoproliferative Disease Virus and Reticuloendotheliosis Virus Detection and Disease in Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo).

Lymphoproliferative disease virus (LPDV) and reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) are oncogenic retroviruses that can cause disease in wild and domestic fowl. Lymphoproliferative disease virus infections are common and widespread in Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in the US and east-central Canada, while REV has been detected worldwide in numerous avian host species. We tested tissues (spleen, liver, and/or bone marrow, plus neoplastic tissue, if present) from 172 Wild Turkeys that underwent necropsy from December 2018 through October 2021 for both viruses using PCR. We evaluated demographic, geographic, temporal, and seasonal data by chi-square test of independence and logistic regression for turkeys infected with LPDV and/or REV. At least one of these retroviruses was detected in 80.8% (139/172) of Wild Turkeys from 15 US states, with significantly more turkeys being positive for LPDV (72.1%, 124/172) versus REV (43.6%, 75/172; P<0.001). Both viruses (coinfections) were detected in 34.9% (60/172) of turkeys. Among LPDV-infected turkeys (including coinfections), bone marrow had the highest detection rate (38/58, 65.5%), significantly higher than spleen (30/58, 51.7%) and liver (20/58, 34.5%; P<0.001). In REV-infected turkeys, bone marrow had the highest detection rate (24/58, 41.4%). All three tissues (spleen, liver, bone marrow) concurrently tested positive in most (15/25, 60%) REV-infected turkeys. These results suggest LPDV tissue tropism for bone marrow, whereas REV may have broader tissue tropism. Histopathology consistent with lymphoid proliferation and/or neoplasia characteristic of lymphoproliferative disease was evident in 29/172 (16.9%) turkeys assessed, including two REV-only-infected turkeys. Season was significantly associated with LPDV prevalence (highest in winter); year and season were both significantly associated with REV prevalence (highest in 2020 and winter). These data contribute to optimizing diagnostic strategies that may aid in pathogen monitoring and improve detections to increase our understanding of the potential impacts of these viruses on Wild Turkey populations.

A chromosome-level genome assembly for the smoky rubyspot damselfly (Hetaerina titia).

Smoky rubyspot damselflies (Hetaerina titia Drury, 1773) are one of the most commonly encountered odonates along streams and rivers on both slopes of Central America and the Atlantic drainages in the United States and southern Canada. Owing to their highly variable wing pigmentation, they have become a model system for studying sexual selection and interspecific behavioral interference. Here, we sequence and assemble the genome of a female smoky rubyspot. Of the primary assembly (i.e. the principle pseudohaplotype), 98.8% is made up of 12 chromosomal pseudomolecules (2N = 22A + X). There are 75 scaffolds in total, an N50 of 120 Mb, a contig-N50 of 0.64 Mb, and a high arthropod BUSCO score [C: 97.6% (S: 97.3%, D: 0.3%), F: 0.8%, M: 1.6%]. We then compare our assembly to that of the blue-tailed damselfly genome (Ischnura elegans), the most complete damselfly assembly to date, and a recently published assembly for an American rubyspot damselfly (Hetaerina americana). Collectively, these resources make Hetaerina a genome-enabled genus for further studies of the ecological and evolutionary forces shaping biological diversity.

The Michigan–Ontario Ozone Source Experiment (MOOSE): An Overview

The Michigan–Ontario Ozone Source Experiment (MOOSE) is an international air quality field study that took place at the US–Canada Border region in the ozone seasons of 2021 and 2022. MOOSE addressed binational air quality issues stemming from lake breeze phenomena and transboundary transport, as well as local emissions in southeast Michigan and southern Ontario. State-of-the-art scientific techniques applied during MOOSE included the use of multiple advanced mobile laboratories equipped with real-time instrumentation; high-resolution meteorological and air quality models at regional, urban, and neighborhood scales; daily real-time meteorological and air quality forecasts; ground-based and airborne remote sensing; instrumented Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs); isotopic measurements of reactive nitrogen species; chemical fingerprinting; and fine-scale inverse modeling of emission sources. Major results include characterization of southeast Michigan as VOC-limited for local ozone formation; discovery of significant and unaccounted formaldehyde emissions from industrial sources; quantification of methane emissions from landfills and leaking natural gas pipelines; evaluation of solvent emission impacts on local and regional ozone; characterization of the sources of reactive nitrogen and PM2.5; and improvements to modeling practices for meteorological, receptor, and chemical transport models.

SPECIES IN THE FECES: DNA METABARCODING TO DETECT POTENTIAL GASTROPOD HOSTS OF PARELAPHOSTRONGYLUS TENUIS Consumed By Moose (Alces Alces).

Our understanding of wildlife multihost pathogen transmission systems is often incomplete due to the difficulty of observing contact between hosts. Understanding these interactions can be critical for preventing disease-induced wildlife declines. The proliferation of high-throughput sequencing technologies provides new opportunities to better explore these cryptic interactions. Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, a multihost parasite, is a leading cause of death in some moose (Alces alces) populations threatened by local extinction in the midwestern and northeastern US and southeastern Canada. Moose contract P. tenuis by consuming infected gastropod intermediate hosts, but little is known about which gastropod species moose consume. To gain more insight, we used a genetic metabarcoding approach on 258 georeferenced and temporally stratified moose fecal samples collected May-October 2017-20 from a declining population in the north-central US. We detected moose consumption of three species of gastropods across five positive samples. Two of these (Punctum minutissimum and Helisoma sp.) have been minimally investigated for the ability to host P. tenuis, while one (Zonitoides arboreus) is a well-documented host. Moose consumption of gastropods documented herein occurred in June and September. Our findings prove that moose consume gastropod species known to become infected by P. tenuis and demonstrate that fecal metabarcoding can provide novel insight on interactions between hosts of a multispecies pathogen transmission system. After determining and improving test sensitivity, these methods may also be extended to document important interactions in other multihost disease systems.

The Effect of Open Letters on the Perceptions of Electoral Accountability and National Sovereignty - A Study of Adichie’s &amp; Oke’s Post-Election Letters to the American Governments

Reactions in Nigeria to Adichie’s letter to the US President after the election were mixed, particularly leading to a reactive letter from Oke to the US President and Canadian Prime Minister. The complexity and diversity of Nigerian politics, as well as the challenges of striking a healthy balance between the demands for openness and accountability and the worries about national sovereignty and outside interference, is illuminated by an in-depth analysis of the perspectives and perceptions held by Nigerians with regard to the 2023 presidential elections outcome that prompted the letters. Hence, the study on reconciling the conflicting perceptions of electoral accountability versus national sovereignty in Adichie’s and Oke’s post-election letters to the American governments aims to present a variety of Nigerians’ perspectives in regards to the outcome of the presidential election, to consider the alleged electoral malpractices in the Election and how these prompted the letters to the American governments and to reconcile the conflicting perspectives of openness/accountability (Adichie’s Letter) and national sovereignty/interference (Oke’s Letter). The study is built on the frame of the agenda-setting theory. The paradigmatic analysis method is employed and the study’s discourse is further divided into four paradigms. The study concludes that all matters must be handled on the basis of deliberate patriotism and without any sentiment of ethnic biases as was perceived by Nigerians in order to resolve the tension between Adichie and Oke’s letters, which present opposing views on the importance of openness and accountability and the value of independence and national sovereignty, respectively.

Predicting favourable streams for anadromous salmon spawning and natal rearing under climate change

Successful management of imperilled anadromous salmon stocks requires understanding how salmon will respond to a changing climate across their extensive ranges. Though largely unused for anadromous salmon to date, environmental niche models (ENMs) can provide a strong foundation for estimating where and how much habitat will likely remain favourable. We applied a comprehensive suite of ENM statistical approaches to five Pacific salmon species, focusing on freshwater spawning and natal rearing habitat as not only critical for population survival, but also highly susceptible to a changing climate. We developed ENMs for spawning ranges across British Columbia (BC), Canada, and western US, and projected future scenarios for BC. Projections indicated net expansion of favourable spawning habitat across species in BC, with the most change occurring by 2060. However, shifts in favourable habitat varied greatly geographically and by species, with notable reductions in coastal and southern interior streams. Our results provide a basis for identifying important changes in spawning and natal rearing habitat conditions to help inform priorities for restoration and protection actions.

Erasing the Line: Mapping Indigenous Community across the US–Canada Border

North American settler colonialism is not a historical event, but an ongoing process that strives to silence the continued presence of the original Indigenous inhabitants in the United States and Canada. The map, Erasing the Line, attempts to challenge the primacy of existing sovereign states by showing contiguous Indigenous community across the US–Canada border. This subversive visualization is inspired by nationalist maps and uses official census data to challenge the settler state narrative from within.

Palaearctic leaf beetle Chrysolinafastuosa (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Chrysomelinae) new to North America.

The univoltine leaf beetle Chrysolinafastuosa (Scopoli, 1763) is native to in the Palearctic Region from eastern Siberia to western Europe. First North American records are presented for C.fastuosa (Scopoli, 1763) (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Chrysomelinae), as confirmed by vouchered specimens from Canada: Nova Scotia. Additional citizen science records from USA: Vermont are also discussed. Diagnostic information is presented to distinguish C.fastuosa from other North American Chrysomelidae and a species distribution model to assess its potential spread in North America is presented. This insect is expected to cause some feeding damage to above-ground parts of ornamental and invasive Lamiaceae, especially species of Galeopsis L. The species distribution model and the range of its host plant Galeopsistetrahit, suggest the north-eastern US and south-eastern Canada, from the Atlantic coast to the west end of Lake Superior provide the most suitable conditions for this species. The United States of America and Canada are now known to be home to 70 or more species of adventive Chrysomelidae.

The generation of the first chromosome-level de-novo genome assembly and the development and validation of a 50 K SNP array for the St John River aquaculture strain of North American Atlantic salmon.

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in Northeastern US and Eastern Canada has high economic value for the sport fishing and aquaculture industries. Large differences exist between the genomes of Atlantic salmon of European origin and North American (N.A.) origin. Given the genetic and genomic differences between the two lineages, it is crucial to develop unique genomic resources for N.A. Atlantic salmon. Here we describe the resources that we recently developed for genomic and genetic research in N.A. Atlantic salmon aquaculture. Firstly, a new single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) database for N.A. Atlantic salmon consisting of 3.1 million putative SNPs was generated using data from whole genome resequencing of 80 N.A. Atlantic salmon individuals. Secondly, a high density 50 K SNP array enriched for the genic regions of the genome and containing three sex determination and 61 putative continent of origin markers was developed and validated. Thirdly, a genetic map composed of 27 linkage groups with 36 K SNP markers, was generated from 2,512 individuals in 141 full-sib families. Finally, a chromosome level de-novo genome assembly from a male N.A. Atlantic salmon from the St John River aquaculture strain was generated using PacBio long-reads. Information from Hi-C proximity ligation sequences and Bionano optical mapping was used to concatenate the contigs into scaffolds. The assembly contains 1,755 scaffolds and only 1,253 gaps, with a total length of 2.83 Gb and N50 of 17.2 Mb. A BUSCO analysis detected 96.2% of conserved Actinopterygii genes in the assembly and the genetic linkage information was used to guide the formation of 27 chromosome sequences. Comparative analysis with the reference genome assembly of the European Atlantic salmon confirmed that the karyotype differences between the two lineages are caused by a fission in chromosome Ssa01 and three chromosome fusions including the p arm of chromosome Ssa01 with Ssa23, Ssa08 with Ssa29 and Ssa26 with Ssa28. The genomic resources we have generated for Atlantic salmon provide a crucial boost for genetic research and for management of farmed and wild populations in this highly valued species.

Reviews: Ghost Walkers: Southern and Eastern Europeans at the US–Canada Border in the Interwar Period

Reviews: Ghost Walkers: Southern and Eastern Europeans at the US–Canada Border in the Interwar Period

Microhabitat of Myotis leibii summer roosts at the southwestern periphery of their range

Understanding microhabitat use is needed to make sound conservation decisions for at-risk, patchy-habitat specialists, such as rock-habitat specialists. Rock habitats offer unique microclimatic refugia for reptiles and mammals. Eastern small-footed bats ( Myotis leibii (Audubon and Bachman, 1842)) use rock roosts during the summer, but data on these summer roosts are lacking for this species classified as (critically) imperiled in several US states and Canadian provinces and globally endangered. Our goal was to characterize the structure and microclimate of Myotis leibii roosts at the southwestern periphery of their range. We predicted that Myotis leibii roost temperatures would be warmer and less variable than ambient temperatures and that solitary bats would use horizontal roosts cooler at night, whereas maternity group roosts would be vertical and warmer at night. During summers of 2019 and 2020, we recorded physical (e.g., width) and temperature attributes of 58 Myotis leibii roosts at 16 sites in the Ouachita Mountains. Crevice roosts of Myotis leibii had narrow dimensions like elsewhere in their range and roost temperatures (measured with iButtons) were warmer and more variable than ambient temperatures. Group roosts were larger and had more stable temperatures than solitary roosts. These findings may be useful for assessing population threats, monitoring roost suitability, identifying roost-rich areas that need protection, and even planning artificial roost structures where natural roosts are limited.