UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA DECEMBER 2020 The Record The 2020 newsletter for the Blais lab; Issue 4 An unforgettable year The SARS CoV-2 (Corona virus) pandemic interrupted all aspects of our lives in 2020, but this year also showed the extent of people’s resilience. No summary of 2020 can overlook the impacts that the Corona virus had on society and our daily lives, but people also showed how they can overcome adversity in dark times. Cities came to a halt in 2020, as illustrated in this top image of Ottawa’s Heart and Crown in the Byward Market colourfully boarded up with messages of hope for a rapid return to normal. The University of Ottawa campus went into lockdown for a period of time and most of our lab’s field plans were temporarily shelved, including 2020 in photos: Top image of the Byward a return to the Arctic that was arranged for July Market is by Jules Blais, Bottom left image is by Edwin Hooper, and right image is a 2020 but not realized. Nevertheless, life went on! We depiction of the Corona virus provided by continued our work with a flurry of new research the Centres of Disease Control (USA). projects and new publications, and many from our group defended theses and moved on to new jobs and new locations. We continued our research, moved our courses and meetings online, kept in contact virtually via computer screens, and made things work as best we could despite the difficult circumstances. As of this writing in December 2020, new Corona virus vaccines developed within the last year are already being distributed to health care workers and residents of long term care homes, two of the most affected groups during this past year’s pandemic. Thanks to science and its universal methods of gathering evidence, a devastating and deadly global pandemic is already being fought back in 2020 and, RESEARCH FIELD SITES MISCELLANEOUS with luck, will be defeated VIGNETTES in the near future. The Northern Ontario and Doing research message? Science works! Cultus Lake, British Pacific salmon lakes through a global Columbia and radioisotopes in pandemic northern Canada 1 THE RECORD DECEMBER, 2020 Who we are in 2020: Jules Blais, Professor Sawyer Stoyanovich, PhD Candidate Linda Kimpe, Lab Madison Bell, PhD Manager Candidate David Eickmeyer, Jennifer Keir, PhD Lab Analyst Candidate Braden Gregory, Jennifer Kissinger, Postdoctoral Fellow PhD Candidate Leslie Saunders, Postdoctoral Fellow Daniel Dagodzo, PhD Candidate Philippe Thomas, Jonathan Seguin, MSc PhD Candidate Candidate Lauren Gallant, PhD Kirsten Smythe, MSc Candidate Candidate Mija Azdajic, PhD Adriana Ratz, MSc Candidate Candidate Cynthia Cheney, PhD Stephanie Walsh, MSc Candidate Candidate 2 THE RECORD DECEMBER, 2020 Studying radioisotopes in soils and plants in Canada’s north Stephanie Walsh is starting a partnership between our lab and Chalk River Nuclear laboratories to better understand how radioisotopes reach remote northern environments. Radioactive elements are found in all reaches of the globe. Although some are naturally October 2020: Stephanie Walsh doing field work in Northern Ontario occurring, like radon-222, which is part of the uranium decay series, others are released from human activities such as nuclear weapons water chemistry on radionuclide transfer to testing, uranium mines, or from nuclear plants from soil. Her first field season involved reactors. three trips to northern Ontario and Quebec, where she collected soils, plankton, surface Soil type and surface water chemistry can have water, vegetation and food web samples. These a major impact on how contaminants move in samples will be analyzed for a variety of terrestrial and aquatic environments. However, radionuclides, trace metals, stable isotopes and little is known about the behaviour and physiochemical properties. transport of radionuclides in northern and Arctic regions of Canada to to their remoteness In the laboratory, Stephanie focused on and distinctiveness. optimizing a rapid method for polonium-210 (210Po) in environmental samples. 210Po is a Recently, northern environments are seeing a naturally occurring alpha emitting radionuclide sharp increase of uranium mining and the with a high specific activity per unit mass and a deployment of small nuclear power stations, relatively short half-life, making it one of the known as small modular reactors (SMRs). It is most toxic nuclides found in the environment. therefore essential to better understand and Despite its potential hazards, it is one of the anticipate the key factors that determine least studied radionuclides. Its chemistry still radionuclide transport and accumulation in the remains unclear and knowledge gaps exist environment and the potential effects to human regarding how it interacts and moves in and non-human biota in these regions. dynamic ecosystems. With her optimized method in place, Stephanie plans to track this Stephanie Walsh, a new MSc student in our lab elusive radionuclide to determine its ultimate working with Dr. David Rowan at the Chalk behaviour and fate in different northern River Nuclear Laboratories, is studying the environments and food webs. influence of geology, land cover, and surface 3 THE RECORD DECEMBER, 2020 A FAREWELL DINNER March 2020: A celebratory dinner for Lauren Gallant’s successful PhD thesis defence at Johnnie Farina’s in Ottawa on March 11, 2020. A lockdown spanning all of North America would come within days after this photo was taken. This occasion would be the last for this cohort to gather together because many would move on to other locales in the coming months. From left, Cynthia Cheney, Linda Kimpe, Madison Bell, Gabriel Brunet, Lauren Gallant, Ann Tran, Julie Bilodeau, Brayden Gregory, Sawyer Stoyanovich, Jonathan Séguin, Leslie Saunders, Kirsten Smythe, Jennifer Kissinger, Joe Bruyère, Jennifer Keir (Bruyère), Kyle Helm, Jules Blais, Davin Salo. 4 THE RECORD DECEMBER, 2020 OUR TRADITION TO TAKE HOME PRIZES CONTINUED IN 2020, ALBEIT IN VIRTUAL SETTINGS As in previous years, the recognitions for lab members kept coming. For example, The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs named Jennifer Keir their “Fire Researcher of the Year” in 2020. The image below shows Jennifer accepting this recognition in an online ceremony. Sawyer Stoyanovich received First Place in the Virtual Student Presentation Competition at the Canadian Ecotoxicity Workshop on October 10, 2020. Stephanie Walsh participated in a “Three Minute to Impact” challenge at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories in Chalk River, where 12 participants in the Science and Technology field had 3 minutes and up to 3 slides to convey the importance of their work. Stephanie was awarded first place for the most impactful presentation on the behaviour and ultimate fate of polonium-210 in freshwater environments of Canada. 5 THE RECORD DECEMBER, 2020 IN 2020, WE EXPANDED OUR PUBLIC OUTREACH TO A BROADER AUDIENCE Scientists are under increasing pressure to communicate their work to the public for good reason. Improved communication of science increases public knowledge and appreciation for science, promotes sharing of recent findings, and helps to show how science can influence society and public policy, to name a few benefits. One common goal of science communication is to give people the information they need to make better decisions about their lives and society. This year, our group ramped up our science communication efforts in several ways. For example, Sawyer Stoyanovich co-wrote an article in The Conversation on our research involving the effects of a simulated oil spill on lakes at the IISD Experimental Lakes Area, and this article had a remarkable reception. The article entitled “Why scientists intentionally spilled oil into a Canadian lake” was listed among the 10 most accessed environmental science articles in 2020 in the SETAC Multibrief published on December 31, 2020. See: https://multibriefs.com/briefs/SETAC/SETAC123120.php The article in The Conversation can be accessed here: https://theconversation.com/why-scientists-intentionally-spilled-oil-into-a-canadian-lake-132077 (An excerpt of the article in The Conversation.) 6 THE RECORD DECEMBER, 2020 EXPLORING NEW WAYS TO COMMUNICATE OUR RESEARCH TO THE PUBLIC Jennifer Kissinger co-wrote an article in Lakeline in summer 2020 on how she participated in a community science project to study the environmental consequences of mink farms on watersheds in Nova Scotia. Lakeline is the official publication of the North American Lake Management Society. (An excerpt of the article in Lakeline) Jennifer Kissinger also contributed photos to “Images of Arctic Science”, a book intended to provide a visual impression of Arctic Science in pictures. The book featured one of Jennifer’s photos, seen here. 7 THE RECORD DECEMBER, 2020 Tracking Pacific with added nutrients from the watershed, these salmon and water factors contribute to increased algal production, leading to periods of low dissolved oxygen in quality in British the deep water layers due to increased Columbia lakes. decomposition of algae and other organic We are starting new collaborations materials by microbes. This ‘seasonal anoxia’ can be toxic to Cultus Lake’s Coast range with fisheries scientists in British Sculpin and Sockeye Salmon populations, both Columbia to better understand why of which are listed as Species At Risk. Pacific salmon are in decline. While anoxia poses a direct threat to both species, we are now looking at how seasonal Pacific salmon are an integral part of the Pacific oxygen depletion near the bottom sediments Northwest region of North America. These sediment may lead to internal loading of iconic animals make up part of the ecological, contaminants like heavy metals. With the help cultural, and economic landscape of the region, of DFO’s Lake Research Program, we began yet are vulnerable to the effects of exploitation, water and sediment sampling this fall. A better climate variability, habitat degradation, and understanding of contaminant dynamics could myriad other factors. Scientists increasingly inform decisions on nutrient abatement and recognize the importance of climate variability, contaminant exposure by salmon and other habitat destruction, and pollution on Pacific species at risk in the region.