Grant: Alliance Grants

The world is experiencing a biodiversity crisis, enhanced by human induced -climate change. A continued pattern of overexploitation of natural resources, environmental contamination, habitat destruction and invasive species all contribute to an increasing hostile environment. One of the most at-risk environments are the polar regions (i.e., Canadian Arctic) where climate-related changes will affect these regions disproportionately. Not only are the rates of warming greatest in these settings, but they will also be faced with a number of unique challenges associated with a rapidly changing world. The reduction in sea ice in the Arctic will open up areas to new resource exploitation, increases in shipping traffic combined with snow and permafrost melt, will cause an increased exposure to legacy and emerging contaminants with potential devastating effects. Currently, many critical minerals (e.g., Copper, Nickel, Zinc) used in green technologies are extracted from northern regions. Many metal mines are present or under development in the Arctic regions of Canada, Alaska, Iceland, Greenland, Siberia and Scandinavia. At present, Arctic ecosystems and the organisms within these habitats remain poorly characterized and understood in terms of physiology and reaction to chemical pollutants. Additionally, the unique water chemistry (e.g., low ionic concentrations and low dissolved organic carbon) and low temperatures can represent a challenge to traditional bioremediation strategies of mining wastes. Assessment of risk posed by critical minerals in northern regions is limited by our relatively poor knowledge of toxicological consequences of critical metals in arctic habitats. Thus, the goal of this research is two-fold: i) to assess the exposure and effects of critical metals to Arctic relevant organisms under current and future warming scenarios, and ii) to evaluate northern bioremediation techniques with toxicity testing using Arctic relevant organisms. This project will work directly with industry and government partnerships (i.e., Nickel Producers Environmental Research Association, International Copper Association (Copper Alliance), Cobalt Institute, International Zinc Association, Canadian High Arctic Research Station) to facilitate development and processes for cleaner extraction.