The collaboration between CEOS and MMF expands on the Manitoba Métis Community-Based Water Monitoring Program and creates a Water-Weather Keeper Program to facilitate the sharing of water-, weather- and climate-related information.

“This project will allow CEOS to grow our partnership with the MMF as we collaboratively develop and implement a water-weather keeper pilot program, designed to facilitate the creation and sharing of water quality information in locations prioritized by local Indigenous people,” says Claire Herbert, field program manager for the Manitoba Great Lakes Project at CEOS.

MMF members will be trained in water sampling methods and provided with analytical support and training by CEOS. A summer student will also be hired through the university’s Indigenous training initiative to assist with the project.

A parallel initiative builds on the MMF’s community-based monitoring program, which started in 2018 to increase the number of Manitoba Métis citizen scientists involved in measuring phosphorus concentrations.

The Water-Weather Keeper Program aims to gather and update traditional and measurable knowledge on the health and nutrient loading to Lake Winnipeg. The project will foster a new partnership between MMF and CEOS, and increase the capacity for community-based water quality research and monitoring while employing and educating Manitoba Métis citizens.

Funding for the projects comes from the federal government’s $25.7-million investment in the Lake Winnipeg Basin Program, which is part of a $70.5-million investment in freshwater protection.

“Water is a shared responsibility between federal, provincial, municipal and Indigenous governments,”  Parliamentary Secretary Terry Duguid says.

“Collaboration is the key to restoring and protecting Lake Winnipeg’s water quality and preserving the ecological health of this vital resource.”

LAKE WINNIPEG BASIN PROGRAM FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENT

More than 150 middle-and-high school learners met with climate researchers on March 5 for Arctic Science Day. Students learned how new knowledge is developed from working in Arctic conditions, and how the learning process can be a lot like playing video games.

Arctic Science Day is a partnership between FortWhyte Alive and the Centre for Earth Observation Science at the University of Manitoba. It connects students from grades 6-12 with climate scientists involved in various forms of environmental research, from physics to chemistry to playing with video game joysticks.

But first, the kids had to learn the basics.

Over 100 grade 6-8 students from three schools learned about the challenges of oil spill clean-up in the Arctic. After PhD candidates introduced students to the interactions between freshwater and saltwater in the Arctic Ocean, students got engaged in an oil-spill response workshop.

Next, Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Michelle McCrystall initiated the youth with climate models with a computer simulation. “Climate modelling is the process which aims to allow us to further understand important interactions in the climate system and to project these in to the future to predict potential changes in Earth’s climate,” she says.

“The predictions are based on a number of factors such as future energy sources, population size, projected socio-economic growth and land use change of varying degrees to give a range of possible future climate scenarios,” Dr. McCrystall adds.

More than 60 high school students from 15 schools spent the day visiting research stations on FortWhyte’s Lake Cargill, learning about sunlight reflection and absorption through sea ice, remote sensing of ice thickness, and how to take ice core samples.

Students also learned how to age a narwhal by counting the growth lines on its tusk, and about technology used in marine mammal research. Other topics included impacts of ocean acidification and contaminants like methylmercury.

Research Associate Maddie Harasyn showed how drone piloting is part of collecting climate data through remote sensing. Harasyn operates a drone like a real-life video game to collect land surface data.

“The students were really interested in the technology, and how cool and exciting drones are. And then they were even more excited to learn about how scientists apply the data to mapping vegetation or finding caribou in the forest,” Harasyn says.

Maddie Harasyn showing the sensors on a drone used in Arctic research

It’s not only drone pilots like Harasyn who get to operate joysticks for science. High-scoring gamers couldn’t help but hear PhD candidate Lisa Matthes compare the underwater navigation methods of her research to playing a video game.

“When we visit the North for field measurements, we no longer only drill small ice holes for single measurements. We want to study larger scales to understand what is happening to the Arctic sea ice under a climate change scenario. To do so we use underwater drones, called remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, that are equipped with large sensor arrays and can be driven below the ice for hundreds of meters. ROVs are connected through a long tether to a computer and a joystick, sitting in a tent on top of the ice,” Matthes explains.

“My job as a researcher is now to play a three-dimensional underwater video game by driving a very expensive ROV along sampling transects without bumping into ice chunks or getting off-course.”

Students left 2020’s Arctic Science Day with a sense of some of the career opportunities in Arctic science – and not just the ones related to gaming.  In the words of some inspired high school students:

“I learned how many different branches of science are present in Arctic research –a wide variety of careers.”

“Environmental science must be studied from different angles – biology, chemistry, physics – to gain a full understanding.”

“I realized that Arctic research is going to be forever on-going and with the research we are doing today, we can use it to determine how we should be acting or supporting actions around climate change.”

“When you ask the question about why is the water so scared, it’s not just because we need it and nothing can survive without water, it’s because for years and years our ancestors have passed on traditional oral knowledge that our water is alive, and our water has a spirit,” Peltier told the UN.

Environmentally-minded Manitoba students – many the same age as Peltier – gathered at Fort Whyte Alive on October 2 for Freshwater Ecology Day. The next generation of water quality specialists visited learning stations about water sampling, water chemistry, shoreline erosion, aquatic invasive species, invertebrates, and their interactions within the watershed.

Water quality needs to be continually monitored to gauge the health of ecosystems. Researchers measure conditions in lakes and rivers by collecting samples of water that are then analyzed with special instruments.

Aspiring ecologists had the opportunity to learn from water quality experts at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS), as well as the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

CEOS graduate students Katelyn Rodgers and Agoston Fischer gave demonstrations and facilitated workshops on how to analyze the levels of key nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus in water samples. Students also learned about testing for chlorophyll and sediments.

“The students got hands-on experience using some of the newest software for measuring nitrogen in the water,” says Rodgers. “They also learned how we are moving toward using satellite imagery for measuring algae blooms in the Manitoba Great Lakes.”

Poor water quality can be harmful to aquatic life and can affect the condition, growth, survival and reproduction of freshwater organisms. A common threat to many aquatic species is eutrophication. This occurs when a body of water becomes overly enriched with nutrients that induce the excessive growth of algae.

Some toxic algae blooms that exist in the local watershed are understood to develop due to the fact that Lake Manitoba retains 86% of the phosphorus and 31% of the nitrogen from in-flowing water.

Claire Herbert is the coordinator responsible for CEOS’s involvement at Freshwater Ecology Day. Herbert also leads the  Canadian Watershed Information Network (CanWIN). CanWIN is a web-based, open access data and information network created as part of the Lake Winnipeg Basin initiative under Canada’s Action Plan on clean water.

“Anthropogenic, or man-made eutrophication, is leading to increasing incidents of larger and longer-lasting toxic algae blooms in Lake Winnipeg,” says Hebert. “The resulting decreased water clarity has the potential to negatively impact recreational use and create economic loss for communities surrounding these lakes.”

As much as is known about water quality, there is still a lot more to learn according to Herbert.

“We still know little about the in-lake processes that determine the amount of nutrients exported into Lake Winnipeg,” she says. “Without understanding the state of nutrients in the Manitoba Great Lakes system, we will not be able to adequately inform, manage or mitigate the ongoing challenges of nutrification and climate change on Lake Winnipeg or the Hudson Bay watershed.”