Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Over the past century, increased societal demand for metals has generated unprecedented risks for the health of aquatic ecosystems, particularly in Canada, which holds both important mineral and aquatic resources. The accurate characterization of aquatic organisms' exposure to these environmental contaminants is essential for the sound assessment of the contaminants' ecotoxicogical risk, as well as for our understanding of the fundamental processes that lead to their bioaccumulation and toxicity. In this context, this proposal is for the urgent replacement of an Inductive Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometer (ICP-AES) for the measurement of trace metals in various environmental samples (e.g. water, sediment, biota) in the Crémazy lab at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and the Canadian Rivers Institute (CRI). This equipment is central to several funded/pending research programs (NSERC, FRQNT, CFI, NBIF, industry) that generate essential knowledge on metal environmental fate and effects in the aquatic environment. In the short-term, the ICP-AES will support five research projects that include: exploring the environmental risk of trace metals under cold conditions (Polar regions and winter season); characterizing how spring remobilization of river aluminum affects the survival of Atlantic salmon at sea; and generating critical radium toxicity data for the derivation of a new Canadian water quality guideline. Ultimately, our work informs scientific approaches to better predict the ecological risk of metals and contribute to generating water quality guidelines that are both socio-economically realistic and environmentally protective. The ICP-AES will also be used by other research groups at UNB and CRI, notably in support of contaminant monitoring programs across New Brunswick. In the long-term, the equipment will consolidate our position at the forefront of environmental sciences, create new research opportunities, and provide state-of-the-art HQP training in the fields of environmental science, ecotoxicology, and risk assessment, all of which are growth areas in the Canadian job market.