Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The Arctic sea ice environment has been undergoing dramatic changes in recent decades. Associated with these changes is improved accessibility to the Arctic region for industrial and socioeconomic development, as well as increased ecological and human health risk posed by chemical contaminants. My research program pursues fundamental and original studies on freezing-temperature (<0C) chemical reactions, or cryo-reactions, occurring in the Arctic marine cryosphere and their climatic, environmental and engineering implications. Over the next five years, my team and I (including two B.Sc., four M.Sc. and four Ph.D. students, and two technicians) will characterize and parameterize chemical reactions occurring at temperature, salinity, and light conditions resembling those of the Arctic marine cryosphere including sea ice, the overlying snow and underlying seawater. The focus will be on cryo-reactions involving carbon dioxide, mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, because of their respective importance as a greenhouse gas, and as legacy and emerging contaminants of concern in the Arctic marine ecosystem. Most experimental studies will be carried out at a dedicated Arctic Cryospheric Laboratory under fully controlled conditions, whereas microcosm- and mesocosm-scale studies will be performed with experimental or natural sea ice at the internationally unique Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility and the Churchill Marine Observatory. The results will allow for the development of a chemical speciation model for cryospheric conditions, which will then be incorporated into circum-Arctic and global chemical transport models to project the fate of carbon dioxide and other contaminants under various emission and climate scenarios.* Cryo-reactions and cryospheric chemistry are new scientific frontiers, with great potentials for major scientific discoveries of new reaction pathways and mechanisms at freezing temperatures, and for technological development related to remediation and management of chemical contaminants in the Northern environment. As Northern development is strategically important to the Inuit, all Canadians and the world, this research program will provide urgently needed knowledge to inform and improve policies, practices and adaptation strategies to balance the long-term economic and socio-societal benefits of such development while protecting the Arctic environmental and ecological integrity. The highly qualified personnel trained by this program will be in high demand in industry, governments or academia as we grapple with the unprecedented opportunities and challenges associated with the opening of Canada's Third Ocean.*