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Globally, rapid urbanisation and a growing economic dependence on the coast has pushed many coastal cities to turn to land reclamation to meet the needs of their population. This paper examines the extent and state of land reclamation in Lagos, Nigeria, placing it in an international context of global land reclamation. To identify spatio-temporal changes in the coastline of Lagos as well as the state, purposes, and implications of land reclamation today, this paper uses a GIS analysis of land-water delineation maps, land use identification maps, and a literature analysis. For residential purposes, reclamation in Lagos is found to be driven by post-colonial economic development, high urbanisation, coastal protection, and the desire to increase foreign investment. Most reclamation sites already suffer from significant environmental and social impacts, including habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, increasing vulnerability to rising sea levels and storm surges, and exacerbating pre-existing social disparities.

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Historically, toxicity testing has been costly, time-consuming, and has heavily relied on animals [1]. In response, an alternative tool was developed: the EcoToxChip. EcoToxChips are quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) arrays. Each 384-well EcoToxChip focuses on pre-selected target genes that are of ecotoxicological and regulatory importance [2]. The objective of the project was to assess the performance of EcoToxChips in exploring the changes in response of Japanese quail embryos to BaP over the course of development.

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A remarkably persistent subsection of the US population continues to reject the existence of climate change. Typically, they allege that the climate crisis is a conspiracy carried out by climate scientists and political elites. Most existing research on these climate change conspiracy theorists emphasizes how pathological and irrational they are. I contend that this framing overlooks an important question: How should climate change conspiracy theories be situated in relation to more 鈥榤ainstream鈥� schools of thought? This question, I argue, can help us locate these conspiratorial explanations in larger bodies of thought, rather than dismissing them as uniquely inadequate and misguided. Specifically, I examine the affinities between climate change conspiracy theories and two major political philosophies, namely post-war Liberalism and Conservativism. I find that Liberal thinkers reject climate change conspiracy theories as a backward and politically deleterious style of thinking. Thus, there is no continuity between the two. Conservatism, on the other hand, has some surprising similarities with climate change conspiracy theories, particularly in its claim that democracies are ultimately run by elites, not the people. This emphasizes the need to further study the linkages between Conservative and conspiratorial thought.

Climate change is a global issue that touches everyone's lives, and everyday activities, such as grocery shopping, play a significant role in its impacts that concern us all. Our choices at the grocery store, from the products we select to the way they are packaged, contribute to the larger sustainability challenges we face. This research delves into the multifaceted domain of sustainability requirements and standards in the grocery sector, recognizing their pivotal role in shaping the practices of stakeholders in the Canadian grocery industry. Sustainability requirements are comprised of environmental, social, economic and quality metrics that are monitored and reported on as part of the Environmental, Social Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitments in the Canadian food retail industry.

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Over the last century, many small and large fishing industries throughout the planet have been deeply affected by immense anthropological exploitation pressure, leading to larger species being driven to near-extinction, and disappearance of large individuals of other species. Heavy harvesting that is characteristic of many capture fisheries can ultimately lead to a change in the assemblage structure of the fish community, often referred to as the fishing-down process. Lake Albert in Uganda is the third most productive lake in Uganda contributing to about 30% of the annual national fish production. This lake has a rich diversity of aquatic fauna and flora. However, its fishery and biodiversity are threatened by anthropogenic stressors such as excessive fishing effort, destruction of shoreline vegetation, and increasing water pollution. Excessive fishing has been reported for more than 20 years. The exploited species vary in size at maturity from the small Engraulicypris bredoi and Brycinus nurse that grow to only a few centimeters in length to large-bodied species like the Nile perch (Lates niloticus) that can grow to over a meter long. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of a fishing-down process and to understand how it has evolved between 2012-2013 and 2019-2020.

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Extracted peatlands are created through the process of draining a natural Sphagnum- dominated peatland by removing above ground vegetation, and then draining the peatland through the creation of ditches, channels, and settling ponds. The goal of this study is to investigate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export from these three components within an extracted peatland in Rivi猫re du Loup, Quebec. Furthermore, this analysis is conducted in the spring to understand how GHG emissions and DOC export may vary in comparison to the summer.

The indoor environment (IE) of schools is a microenvironment in which children and youth spend between 40-50% of their waking hours (1), making them an important location for potential exposure. Chronic exposure to poor IE conditions, including poor air quality, ventilation, lighting, cleanliness, and thermal conditions, can affect cognitive function and academic performance, through declines in memory, attention, alertness, and brain maturation. Children and youth are particularly at risk due to their rapid brain development. This systematic review comprehensively explores the literature on the effects of the IE, as characterized by temperature, humidity, lighting, cleanliness and/or air quality, on academic performance in elementary and high school students and provides an updated analysis of the issue.

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Fire refugia are unburned patches within wildfires that retain biodiversity and regenerate forest following fire. With increasingly intense and frequent wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, fire refugia are important for re-establishing populations sensitive to fire and maintaining resilience to disturbances. Mapping fire refugia is useful for identifying fire refugia and understanding patterns in their distribution, and increasing abundance of satellite data with the recent addition of Landsat 9 has the potential to map fire refugia in high detail. The study uses the Bayesian Updating of Land Cover (BULC-D) algorithm to map fire refugia.

Sociopolitical shocks can sometimes trigger sustainability transformations or cause social networks to adapt through structural changes without transforming. The COVID-19 pandemic could have acted as a shock towards university communities in this manner. This paper used a mixed-methods approach consisting of a social network analysis and a thematic analysis to investigate the sustainability-related social network at 看片视频 University, Canada, first identified by Winkler et al. (2021). The object of the research was to determine if and how the 看片视频 community鈥檚 experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic altered its sustainability-related social network in ways that influence the organization鈥檚 pursuit of sustainability.

With the rise in environmental litigation before the Court it is valuable to understand how the jurisprudence has evolved in terms of the interpretation of the Convention for environmental protection, the admissibility of public interest cases, and the claimants pursuing such cases. By building on existing literature and the Court's case records, this paper will examine the Court鈥檚 case law to illustrate how certain articles in the convention have been interpreted in such a way as to provide basic protection against pollution and environmental degradation, how the admissibility criteria have developed to allow collective bodies to pursue environmental protection before the Court and to admit violations with distinct collective dimensions and affecting large geographic areas. The synthesis of this information and the analysis of the Court鈥檚 jurisprudence is done in hopes of making accessible a basic understanding of the ECtHR approach to environmental protection through the human rights framework.

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Climate change disrupts global food systems, endangers public health, and increases the likelihood of natural disasters (Mukherji et al., 2023). This crisis intersects with community resiliency and security as it is tightly intertwined with social variables. Using a systems thinking approach allows the development of solutions that meet multiple priorities. Wetlands are essential in maintaining ecosystems through water purification, creating habitats allowing biodiversity, flood and drought mitigation, and carbon storage (Mitsch et al., 2013). Wetlands hold almost 30% of the world's organic carbon (OC) and have higher carbon soil content than forests and grasslands (Pasut et al., 2021). Anthropogenic pollution influences wetlands鈥� ability to maintain ecosystem functions and can make them sources of methane.

Angell Woods (AW) is a 210 hectares green space located in Beaconsfield, Quebec, containing the only old-growth forest and the largest wetland on the island of Montreal. It has been designated part of a new municipal park named the Grand Parc de l'Ouest (GPO). AW has been an unofficial garbage dump since the 1980s which has potential impacts on carbon sequestration and biodiversity. There was a gap in data on the effects of pollution on soil quality in this space. Therefore, information was needed to be made available to guide government stakeholders in conservation efforts.

With climate change and human activity exacerbating eutrophication and brownification in lakes, maintaining the health of these freshwater ecosystems requires understanding how their food webs will react to the interacting phenomena. It is natural to then focus on the response of zooplankton, as they are a crucial link between low and high trophic levels within these food webs. Previous studies have grouped zooplankton into three categories during analyses, and this does not allow for proper evaluation of response diversity, which is critical to ecosystem resilience. The main goal of this project is then to determine how browning/eutrophication-influenced abiotic parameters affect zooplankton species abundance.

Myriophyllum spicatum, commonly known as Eurasian watermilfoil, is an invasive submersed aquatic plant that is native to Europe, Asia, and North-Africa. Several characteristics found in M. spicatum provide reasoning behind its gross invasion success such as its ability to spread and grow rapidly as well as displace other surrounding native species. However, Eurasian watermilfoil鈥檚 effects on water quality variables have been seldom studied. Here, I show that Eurasian watermilfoil colonies in Lake Papineau have a direct effect on dissolved oxygen (DO) gradients.

Given that parasitism and pregnancy, respectively, have been shown to impact cognition within rodent systems, and there is growing evidence of maternal infection affecting the spatial learning of uninfected offspring, this notion that maternal conditions can affect the cognitive abilities of uninfected offspring, raises the question of whether spatial learning and memory of the infected dams are altered as well. With this research, I aim to explore the overlap of infection, pregnancy, and lactation in the context of spatial reference learning and memory. More specifically, my honours thesis addresses the following objective: to investigate the impact of maternal Heligmosomoides bakeri infection on spatial learning and short-term and long-term memory in mouse dams.

Helminth infections are extremely common globally, with over 25% of humans at risk for chronic soil-transmitted infection (Jourdan et al., 2018). Globally, over 1 billion individuals have been infected by roundworms alone. These include Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and Necator americanus (Mascarini-Serra, 2011). These infections occur with the greatest frequency in Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, China, India, and South America among children in areas of poor sanitation. The cycle of infection is often propagated by insufficient potable water, crowded dwellings, and poor sanitation (Mascarini-Serra, 2011). These infections have been known to cause a plethora of different effects, including malnutrition, anemia, and stunted growth (Brooker et al., 2006). However, helminth infections have also been implicated in what is known as the hygiene hypothesis. It describes a relationship between parasitic infections and the decreased incidence of allergies and autoimmune diseases (Yazdanbakhsh et al., 2002). In a similar vein, parasitic infections and commensal organisms have been shown to lead to changes in cognition and neurodevelopment, leading to the study of infection on offspring development (Williamson et al., 2016). Per evidence that maternal infection can impact phenotypes in the offspring, more recent attention has been paid to a maternal model of infection (Williamson et al., 2016).

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This thesis aims to offer a critical contribution to the ongoing discussions on the power dynamics and colonial legacies inherent in postcards. Analyzing a corpus of colonial postcards from the region of L脿o Cai (upland northern Vietnam) through the lens of visual studies, postcards studies, and cultural geography, I intend to demonstrate that postcards represent a significant source of knowledge on the visual and textual construction of the colonial-tourist identity of the region. By exploring the production context, pictorial and textual content, as well as the postcards鈥� circulation and reception, I provide a critical insight into the role of postcards in the construction of the colonial hegemony. Throughout my thesis, I demonstrate the role of visual culture in the construction of colonizer and colonized identities. Studying forms of transgressions in colonial imageries, I argue that the postcards of the region of L脿o Cai also constitute visual archives of resistance, and thus have a significant potential for contemporary reinterpretation and reappropriation.

Plastic pollution is a growing issue that has become emblematic of the Anthropocene. This human-made substance has now seeped into every ecological sphere (i.e. atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, cryosphere), redefining the boundaries between humans and nature. While the majority of plastic pollution research has historically focused on the impacts on wildlife, new studies are now revealing the potentially harmful effects of microplastics on human health. In the age of COVID-19, the threat of a spreading health hazard has been shown to incite rapid action. What if Canadian policymakers treated plastic pollution as much of an emergency as COVID-19? To compare plastic pollution to a disease like COVID-19, I draw on the epidemiological triad, a traditional model used to describe the spread of an infectious disease to present my own modified version of the triad. Under my framework, the pathogen of the disease of plastic pollution is plastic, the host is humans, and the environment is the culture that enables the spread of plastic pollution.

Peatlands are of primary importance in global greenhouse gas dynamics, being an overall sink of CO2, and source of CH4. Peat is used as growing media in horticulture, mainly in oxic environments. However, peat is often temporarily stored in stockpiles before and after its use, and the stockpiles could potentially be anoxic in their core. We hypothesized that anoxic conditions would reduce CO2 production below that of oxic decomposition and produce CH4. Furthermore, there may be differences in the emission rates between different blends of commercially sold peat in comparison with raw extracted peat.

opening the door for novel species to enter one another鈥檚 niches. Any time novel species interactions occur the outcome and resounding impacts are unpredictable and have historically been devastating and widespread. In recognition of these circumstances, it is important to predict if there will be significant changes in marine apex predator distributions in the near future. AquaMaps has provided current and projected distributional data for 20 shark (Selicamorpha) species. Analyzing changes in upper and lower latitudinal bounds, and areal range changes revealed that by 2050, marine apex predators will not only expand poleward in both directions (particularly North), but experience overall range expansions, and in some cases, equatorial range gaps will appear or increase. Under such changes, the future resilience of impacted ecosystems ay be greatly altered, prompting concern for the future of sustainable marine management.

One study examines nature connectedness among Canadian tree planters. Respondents filled out an optional 10-minute online survey comprised of the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) and affiliate questions regarding their opinions towards tree planting and its environmental relevance. In the study, overall CNS scores are high; these scores are higher in those who have tree planted for longer. Statistical analyses indicate that respondents feel connected to nature when they are tree planting, and that tree planting has made them rethink the naturalness of nature. The discussion focuses on the paradoxical relationship that tree planters have with nature, given the jobs鈥� proximity to resource extraction and logging.

The Sky Island Alliance, based in Tucson, AZ, runs several research projects in the re颅gion which engage citizen scientists to varying degrees. The Sky Island FotoFauna project is a camera trap wildlife monitoring initiative which combines citizen science contribu颅tions with data sourced by SIA's professional team. This thesis uses SIA's FotoFauna data to assess the impact of light pollution on wildlife habitation patterns in the state via linear regressions and predictive raster models. The aim of the analysis is to contribute to SIA's understanding of regional phenomena as well as to demonstrate the role that citizen sci颅ence can play in achieving meaningful academic results.

Nutrient availability is a strong control on productivity in natural ecosystems, and the tropics are already predominantly phosphorous (P) limited. The tropics are a crucial carbon sink and hold 20% of terrestrial carbon. Climate models assume that rising CO2 will stimulate tropical net primary productivity (carbon fertilization). However, the models do not accurately consider potential constraints of nutrient limitation, i.e., the degree to which plants can plastically increase nutrient acquisition. We must understand how plants acquire nutrients and respond (morphologically and physiologically) to changes in nutrients to understand the true effects of climate change. The research aims to determine continuous trait flexibility of nutrient acquisition traits in nitrogen (N)-fixing & non-fixing tree species, two major plant types represented in models, in response to varying levels of nutrient limitation using a P fertilization gradient.

Every year in Canada, thousands of pesticides are used (Anderson et al, 2021), and since 2009, this number has been increasing (Zhang, 2018). While most pesticides are applied directly to terrestrial environments, they can end up in aquatic environments through overspray and runoff where they can have unintended consequences (Anderson et al, 2021). Shefali et al, found that aquatic organisms can encounter pesticide in one of three ways. The pesticide can enter the organism through the skin, through breathing (i.e. through gills), or orally through the consumption of contaminated prey (Shefali et al. 2021). As a result, it is important to study the effects of pesticides on aquatic plant and animal species.

Characterized by long-term changes in weather and temperature patterns resulting from both natural and human activities, climate change is the most urgent problem of the twenty-first century. The need for climate-resilient strategies among the most vulnerable demographics in East Africa is imperative considering the future projections of climate change. This study has two objectives. First, to investigate how individuals of agricultural livelihoods across communities in Kenya and Tanzania perceive climate change; and second, to describe their adaptations to climate change.

How do environmental seeds in the city of Montreal contribute to just transformations?聽 Using three sub-questions to guide the research. Those questions are based on three dimensions of justice described in the literature review. 1) Who do the seeds serve in Montreal? (distributional justice) 2) How are the seeds incorporating justice in their work? (procedural justice) 3) What social justice concerns are included in the transformation? (recognitional justice)

This thesis examines the built environment as a determinant of health and the ways in which the distribution of the built features within this environment can result in spatial and environmental injustices. Specifically, disparities in the distribution of health-promoting and detrimental health features of the built and natural environment are identified in Montreal by assessing how built urban features impact health, where they are spatially dominant and how they vary by socioeconomic level.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the foraging ecology of a variety of marine fish and invertebrates in East Greenland using fatty acid signatures. Using this dataset, we further carried out preliminary quantitative estimates of the diets of East Greenland harp, hooded, and ringed seals using QFASA to provide insight into the potential for competition due to climate-driven invasions of southern seals into Arctic ecosystems.

Since the 1990s and the first coverage of human rights violations in clothing supply chains, it has become apparent that consumers have little to no information about how or where their clothes are made. Since then, NGOs from Greenpeace to Human Rights Watch as well as consumers have called for increased transparency within the fast fashion industry. However, despite mounting pressure on retailers to disclose information on their practices further down the supply chain, the fast fashion industry has continued to lag behind others with regards to basic elements of transparency, from providing their list of suppliers to disclosing the origin of their raw materials. Even as retailers have openly acknowledged this lack of traceability and accountability, change has been heterogenous and slow to come. This paper therefore aims to study the differences in transparency within the fast fashion industry by comparing H&M, Inditex, Gap and Fast Retailing, the four largest fast fashion retailers.

This paper will focus on a main subject, dam construction (natural resource exploitation), and a sub-subject, landfill waste facilities (modern way of life) to conduct an analysis, through time and space, of the proximity between Indigenous communities and the two components. Landfills presented in this paper include three different categories: 鈥淟icensed and operating engineered landfill sites鈥�, 鈥淟icensed and operating construction and demolition debris landfill sites鈥�, and 鈥淪oil and Industrial Waste Disposal Sites鈥� (Gouvernement du Qu茅bec - Minist猫re de l'Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, 2021).

Peat is mined in Canada for horticulture. Peat extraction is a form of land-use change that contribute to greenhouse gases (GHG) that must be accounted for due to the international agreement (IPCC). However, the harvested peat is temporality (weeks to months) stored in stockpiles along the access roads until it is transported for processing. The stockpiles contribute to the GHGs during the active harvesting process.

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In the context of the oil and gas industry, an orphan is an abandoned well, pipeline, or facility confirmed not to have any party responsible for or able to deal with its decommissioning and reclamation (Orphan Well Adoption Agency, 2017). These sites can contaminate land and waterways, as well as lead to a variety of adverse human health impacts, with remediation efforts that could last for over a decade. Oil wells become orphaned either due to financial issues faced by a company, or because the provincial energy regulator suspends the well licence. In Canada, it is often the case that a well becomes orphaned for both of these reasons. When parent companies know that a well is running dry, they often sell the almost-empty well to a smaller company, which then often goes bankrupt (Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, 2019). This thesis will investigate the ecological, economic, and legal hazards imposed by orphan wells in Western Canada.

The initial objective of this paper was to test how well the most recent harmonic version of the Bayesian Updating of Land Cover (BULC) algorithm, BULC-D, is able to perform rigorous, accurate, reliable, and reproducible analyses of burn scars relative to previous versions. This was replaced with a second, more comprehensive objective when the relative weakness of NBR12-informed BULC-D true burn detection capabilities was observed when examining burn scar imagery collected during the 2020 fire season in Colorado and Wyoming. This objective was to improve BULC-D burn scar visualization capabilities by developing a BAI-informed BULC-D alternative output that would be cross-compared with the original NBR12-informed version in these regions.

The UN decade on ecosystem restoration and conservation is a call to action for the preservation of global biodiversity, crucial for the wellbeing of people and the persistence of nature. Tree planting offers a natural solution to carbon abatement and has the potential to deliver significant benefits for biodiversity conservation. Here, we focused on the conservation of eucalypt diversity in the megadiverse and highly endemic Australian continent.

The effects of climate change and the urban heat island effect have put many urban dwellers at an increased risk of discomfort, health complications, and even mortality. Among these residents, it is often those most vulnerable in urban areas who are negatively affected the most and left with fewer options. This study looks at the boroughs that are most vulnerable to heatwaves in Montreal and evaluates potential sustainable interventions to mitigate the urban heat island effect in these areas.

Climate change is an increasingly pertinent threat to freshwater systems. To endure rapidly
changing water temperatures, freshwater fishes must either to track their thermal niche or adjust
to rising temperatures via plastic and/or heritable change. Although fish dispersal in freshwaters
can be limited by drainage configurations, range shifts associated with climate change have been
reported in freshwater fish species. Native invaders (i.e., fishes that have altered their geographic
location) pose a potential threat to resident species via competition, predation, or introduction of
parasites/disease. This study explored the effects of a northward range shift by fishes in the
Mpanga River drainage of Uganda on the composition of fish communities in the invaded range
and on the size and condition of a closely related resident fish species.

The spatial distribution of energy poverty and extreme weather events: Identifying communities at risk in Atlantic Canada and Quebec This research project aimed to determine the spatial distribution of energy poverty and extreme weather events across Atlantic Canada and Qu茅bec at the census subdivision (CSD) level. A socioeconomic analysis was conducted to compare the characteristics of at-risk CSDs and the whole study area. The proportion of households experiencing energy poverty at the CSD level was mapped, with 15% being the established threshold for energy poverty vulnerability.

This paper seeks to explore potential power dynamics in water governance of the Grand River Watershed, Ontario, and is Phase 1 of 2 of a larger work. Together, Phase 1 and 2 will explore power and hydropolitics in this watershed for their effects on residents of the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nations reserve. Potential power will be explored through literature and content reviews, mapping of overlapping jurisdictions and boundaries, and assessment of the relevant social network. A research framework will be developed to be applied in Phase 2, which will seek to identify enacted power within this social network and test preliminary findings including: (I) The GRCA is central in the observed social network; (II) Instrumental power limits Indigenous autonomy in governance and development; (III) Structural power limits Indigenous involvement, and switching to the scale of municipalities will worsen this dynamic; (IV) Discursive power is acted on through the dismissal of TEK in formal governance; (V) Intra-organizational power dynamics influence inter-organizational dynamics. Ultimately, this work fits into larger discussions of identifying challenges and opportunities to create spaces in water governance that involve Indigenous Peoples equitably.

As of April 2020, 看片视频鈥檚 investments were valued at approximately $1.6 billion, making it the 4th largest endowment in Canada. The size of the endowment has made it the target of several divestment efforts in the past. During the relevant divestment campaigns the endowment would have $10.5 million invested in South Africa,8 $4.5 million in tobacco stocks,9 and $32 million in fossil fuel.10 During each of these periods, student-led efforts pressured the university to divest these assets.

This thesis investigates the history of divestment campaigns at 看片视频 University and provides a timeline of these campaigns. It then argues that the motivations of campaigners tended to begin as interest in taking serious action addressing climate change, before evolving into an interest in working with and supporting others they met through the campaign. Further, it makes a comparison between the decision-making methods of the South Africa campaign and the fossil fuel campaign.

While there has been extensive, and somewhat circular, research on the concept of resilience, there is a need for more local and contextual contributions to resilient urban landscape design research. Given the significant threat that flooding poses to urban infrastructure, ecological systems and human well-being, this research focuses on landscape planning for flood mitigation and storm water filtration services. An important guiding principle to this work is a systematic approach to analyzing both the site-specific impacts of any design as well as larger scale community and environmental impacts. This project applies urban landscape design and planning research from literature to create design criteria for climate resilient green and blue urban infrastructure (GBUI). Subsequently, these theory-based design guidelines are used to analyse the ongoing Lower Manhattan Climate Resilience (LMCR) projects and identify the current disconnects between climate resilient GBUI theory and practice.

Urban beekeeping has risen in popularity while honey bee ( Apis mellifera) colonies across the global remain threatened by climate change, land-use change, and pollution. Understanding the local factors influencing colony health and productivity in urban hives is crucial to protecting this essential species. This study explored the relationships between urban hives and their environment in the context of three Canadian cities by working with data collected by a Montreal-based urban beekeeping company named Alv茅ole.

Climate change is already creating lost-lasting and far-reaching impacts, and arctic regions are facing the most extreme changes first. The Arctic is warming at twice the global average rate, leading to increased water security risks associated with changing cryosphere-hydrosphere interactions and an intensifying water cycle. Specifically, the main hypothesis of this research is that communities facing similar climate change impacts but use water from different sources will need to negotiate differences in water security risks and potential solutions.

The past four decades witnessed the bloom of agriculture industry as embodied by expansion of crop and livestock productions at both global and regional scales. This unprecedent growth trend triggered plenty academic discussions on the ecological devastations associated with nitrogen (N) pollutions. Chinese livestock sector, one of the key pollution entities of reactive nitrogen (Nr), has chosen an unsustainable trajectory which incurs excessive fertilizer use and low operational efficiencies. Despite pilot-scaled mitigation attempts, under the loss of domestic medium-sized farms and high nutritional demands for available N supplying daily consumption, on-farm executions continue to atrociously disconnect croplands with livestock farms. From a whole-farm perspective, I aimed to examine the rising environmental concerns for Chinese domestic-levelled cattle production.

Conservation planning is rapidly expanding to include market-based incentives that directly target industry-based drivers of biodiversity loss. Voluntary certification schemes represent one such tool, as third-party audited programmes that aim to distinguish biodiversity-friendly products from conventionally produced products. They do so through the implementation of a set of standards, which producers must meet to ensure certification. These schemes have been touted as having the potential through standardization to simultaneously address environmental issues and the realization of human rights. However, the degree to which human rights are engrained within the fabric of such programmes remains unseen. Using a rights-based approach to conservation as the underlying analytical framework and text mining as a deductive tool, this thesis investigates whether, how, and to what extent certification schemes address human rights principles in their standards. This research also considers how and why the frequency and nature of the incorporation of human rights differ across different certification schemes and sectors.

Of the many ecosystem services offered by wetlands, one is their capacity to retain excess phosphorus in runoff originating from anthropogenic activities which causes eutrophication. Many studies have examined one of the mechanisms behind this buffering capacity, P sorption. The literature review and meta-analysis here identifies research trends in P sorption, confirming correlations between soil mineral contents, particle size distributions and pH, and highlighting uncertainties surrounding the influence of organic matter (OM). Additionally, the meta-analysis examines differences in P sorption between natural, constructed, resorted and altered wetlands.

In a conservative, agricultural environment, Canadian women are marginalised and outnumbered by the mostly male population. Women's work on farms was largely overlooked until the late 1900s when studies detailing their gendered experiences and personal obstacles in the industry and their communities began to emerge. Female farmers had difficulty accessing essential farming resources such as credit, land, and knowledge. The patrilineal nature of farming was the main obstacle to women in agriculture. The study sets out to determine if the agricultural spheres in Ontario and Qu茅bec have evolved to allow female farmers to thrive.

Climate change is leading to pronounced and rapid declines in Arctic summer ice cover in the Beaufort Sea. Northward range shifts and population declines have been observed for many upper trophic level predators, possibly linked to increased foraging costs as temperature-sensitive prey disappear. For example, Mandt鈥檚 Black Guillemot rely on ice-associated Arctic Cod, switching to alternative prey when ocean temperatures exceed 3.5 degrees Celsius. As a result, we might expect increased foraging effort to compensate for the loss of Arctic Cod.

In order to assess the possibility of relocalizing production and distribution within foodshed supply chains, it is first important to understand each foodshed鈥檚 current conditions; how much does each produce in comparison to its population鈥檚 needs? This paper aims to answer this question for the population of the city of Montreal: what proportion of Montreal鈥檚 caloric needs are met through local production? Further, how can this information be useful for determining future solutions for increasing Montreal鈥檚 foodshed self-sufficiently and sustainability?

Intestinal nematodes are metazoan parasites that are able to infect humans and animals. The environment plays an essential role in the transmission of these parasites by affecting host susceptibility and pathogenesis. Pregnancy is an associated risk factor that influences host susceptibility to infection. Parasitic infections not only pose side effects to their pregnant host, but also to her fetus during and post-gestation. This study uses a mouse-nematode model, with the intestinal parasite H. bakeri, to observe the negative and positive impacts of a parasitic infection on offspring.

Scholarly research on the subject reveals that women and minority groups have long been under-represented in the sector, as mainstream environmentalism has historically been dominated by a white, male, middle-class identity. Some progress has been observed regarding gender equality in environmental NGOs, but studies still find consistent under-representation of racial minorities (Taylor, 2015). More subtly, progress on the issue of diversity is not evenly distributed throughout the sector. The representation of women and minority groups varies by the scale of operations, the goal(s), and the size of environmental NGOs (Taylor, 2015; Taylor et al., 2019). The majority of such research has focused on the United States, and it is not clear if the same patterns would be found in the Canadian context. The present study seeks to address this gap and examine diversity in Canadian environmental NGOs.

This project will contribute to the ecosystem service field by exploring the supply-demand dynamics of ecosystem services occurring at different spatial scales to highlight how supply demand dynamics 鈥� and stakeholder vulnerabilities 鈥� shift based on spatial scope. The specific ecosystem services that will be examined are wood collection at the local level, and carbon sequestration at the global level in the Miyun watershed in North East China.

It is essential to understand the effect of nutrient enrichment on ecosystem dynamics to mitigate the consequences of the rapidly worsening climate crisis. Perturbation of local ecosystems from fertilizer runoff has been intensively studied for decades. Perturbation of meta-ecosystems has been less studied. Meta-ecosystems face the added consequences of nutrient and organismal propagation through spatial and temporal mechanisms. The entanglement of an ecosystem is the connection of distant systems through natural or anthropogenic homogenization of landscapes (McCann et al. 2020). The degree of that entanglement is described here as the amount of interconnectivity present across a selection of systems. The degree of entanglement may be altered by the spatial arrangement, flow rate, or species movement. In this study, we aimed to determine experimentally what effect the degree of entanglement has on the predator-prey dynamics in phosphorus enriched meta-ecosystems.

Parrotfish species from the Scaridae family are integral to maintaining the health of coral reef ecosystems. However, the constant stress of overfishing threatens current community structure and composition. In this study, I examined data collected from 12 parrotfish species varying in size, abundance, and distribution across 348 sites along the coast of 17 countries in the Caribbean using the Atlantic Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) public database. Principal component analysis (PCA), PERMANOVA, and linear regression analyses were performed to determine how varying degrees of fishing pressure shift the dominance of parrotfish species. More specifically, the aim was to establish how fishing pressure could impact parrotfish community structures using biomass and density fish metrices.

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted municipalities across the world to restrict public transit systems and advise citizens to make only necessary trips in order to uphold physical distancing as people move about. To accommodate the increased demand for alternative聽modes of safe travel, many cities made rapid changes to cycling networks, including constructing new bike lanes, creating temporary infrastructure, and shutting down streets to motor vehicle traffic. These changes served to safely connect people to essential services, health care, and greenspace. The reallocation of urban space to accommodate cyclists brought longstanding equity and planning debates to broader attention, calling attention to historic racial and economic inequalities in the provision of active transport infrastructure in cities. Using the case of Montr茅al, this research explores the degree to which the proposed interventions serve populations most in need and connect them to greenspace.

With natural landscapes becoming more fragmented each year due to habitat loss and degradation, species become more and more divided into isolated sub-populations. This threatens their resilience by decreasing genetic diversity within the species, but also by cutting access to heterogeneous habitat as populations become 鈥渢rapped鈥� into their patches. With low genetic diversity and low access to heterogeneous habitat, populations might become less resilient to stochastic events (such as disease outbreaks or extreme climatic events), putting the species at further risk of extinction. To promote connectivity of sub-populations, work needs to be done to restore connectivity in habitats, but also to understand what factors influence the dispersal behaviour and ability of individuals to promote dispersal.

Harvesting pristine peatlands in order to sell Sphagnum peat moss as a commodity inevitably alters a peatlands carbon sink function to a carbon source. CO2 and CH4 emissions are primary greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change and are therefore important to monitor when it comes to altering ecosystem functions, such as that of peatlands. Currently, peat harvesting industries have been continuously updating industry practices in order to minimize carbon emissions from their activities. In the event of the implementation of a Carbon Tax, this would further the importance of reducing carbon emissions. However, from an environmental perspective, carbon emission dynamics have only been studied in separate stages within production sites. In the past, we鈥檝e extensively either studied CO2 and CH4 emissions from pristine peatlands, as well as unrestored and restored peatlands after they have been harvested for peat. However, it is only recently that we鈥檝e researched the carbon dynamics after the general understanding that harvesting alters peatlands from a carbon sink to source. This study aims to combine these patterns into a singular model that tracks the change in carbon emissions from a peatland in a pristine to a restored state after harvesting activities from peat industries have taken place. The guiding research question will aim to determine if we can reduce C emissions from peat extraction operations by changing the management of field operations.

There is little evidence as to whether exposure to residential greenness is associated with the incidence of breast cancer. Inactive lifestyle and obesity are two of the accepted risk factors for postmenopausal breast cancer and living near green space may contribute to increased frequency of physical activities and maintaining a normal body mass index and, consequently, residential greenness may be associated with lower incidence rates.

The objective of this study was to determine whether there was an association between past exposure to residential green space and the incidence of invasive postmenopausal breast cancer among Canadian women living in Montreal, Quebec, in the mid-2000s.

Payment for Ecological Service (PES) is a pervasively used legislation tool targeting improving the environment and alleviating poverty, because the reliance on the access to ecological service (ES) contributes livelihood of rural population at a considerable extent. However, not all PES programs are able to address both issues at the same time. Provoked by the problem, with a unique dataset of 1749 households in 15 villages from Miyun Reservoir, northern China, the project will examine whether PES environmental policies reduce or intensify socioeconomic inequality in the study communities. Based on inequality measurements, the project will generate a mathematical model to examine if there exists any relationship between ES-dependent and inequality of the households. Then, the project will propose recommendations for policy options for how to reduce poverty and inequality while allowing for adequate access to ES, providing policy-makers with an academic reference when making legislative decisions.

Ombrotrophic bog peatlands are nutrient-poor systems and large carbon sinks. These ecosystems have begun to be extensively studied as scientists realized their huge potential in helping sequester carbon from the atmosphere. This is especially important now given the ongoing climate emergency and the actions that nations are taking to stick to the guidelines of the COP21 Paris Agreement. Numerous studies have focused on understanding the role that important nutrients such as nitrogen or potassium have in such delicate ecosystems. However, very few have focused on phosphorus, a nutrient crucial for plant growth and decomposition. Understanding the cycle of phosphorus is essential in order to create general wetland conservation theory and improve modelling techniques for peatland carbon sequestration. Historically, bogs have been drained to allow for agriculture and dug up to be used as fuel. Now as politicians begin to see their potential more and more, peatlands are being restored and protected as important ecosystems. This thesis was conducted in order to find out whether available phosphorus concentrations and phosphatase enzyme activity differed at various depths in the peat soils and distances from a beaver pond.

Biological invasions have become a major concern in environmental research. In freshwater ecosystems, many invasive species of crayfish threaten the integrity of habitats because of their omnivorous diet and aggressive behaviours. In North America, F.rusticus was introduced in Southern Canada as bait by fishermen and is now responsible for the extirpation of native populations of crayfish. The interactions between invasive crayfishes and species found in the recipient system can greatly affect the outcome and rapidity of the invasion process. While most studies focus on the behaviour of native and invasive species of crayfish when exposed to a known predator, this study sought to determine the change in behaviour of different populations of crayfish coming from various environments when exposed to a known and an invasive species of predator.

For a city to improve river water quality, it is essential to evaluate the impact of remediation strategies, such as pollution sanctions. This information can help managers determine if current practices do indeed improve water quality, and whether to scale up or adjust the approach being used. In the present study, we focus on Guangzhou, a city in Southeastern China, to study the relationship between the distribution of illegal wastewater discharge regulatory fines and river water quality.

Le transport d鈥檋ydrocarbures est un enjeu qui exacerbe le clivage entre d鈥檜ne part les pr茅occupation et sp茅cificit茅s socio-environnementales locales et d鈥檃utre part 芦 l鈥檌nt茅r锚t national 禄 茅manant du palier de gouvernance f茅d茅ral. J鈥檈xamine ici cette tension entre 茅chelles de gouvernance en posant la question 芦 Quel r么les les gouvernements locaux peuvent-ils jouer dans le d茅bat sur les pipelines interprovinciaux au Canda? 禄. J鈥檡 r茅ponds 脿 travers deux 茅tudes de cas : l鈥檕pposition de la Communaut茅 M茅tropolitaine de Montr茅al (CMM) 脿 脡nergie Est ainsi que de Burnaby face 脿 Trans Mountain Expansion (TMC).

Assess the morphological diversity of fish within and among two rivers systems to determine whether human development is related to both local and regional diversity. Assess how the various human activities examined (Petrochemical industry, factories, urban centers and agriculture) impact specific abiotic or biotic factors in the river.

Understanding the factors that impose species range limits is essential to determining why species occur where they do, however, the extent to which biotic interactions, specifically mutualisms, influence species ranges is relatively understudied. Pollination is a mutualism that all plants rely on for sexual reproduction. Reduced quantity and quality of pollen can reduce reproductive output, known as pollen limitation. Pollen limitation may impose plant species range limits by decreasing reproductive output towards range edges. I use a phylogenetic meta-analysis on 109 plant species to answer the question: is pollen limitation stronger towards plant range edges? I examine this question relative to whether the nearest edge occurs on land or is imposed by an ocean, whether the nearest edge occurs nearer to the equator or the poles, and the impact of the latitude of collection point on the magnitude of pollen limitation.

Increases in greenhouse gases and surface temperature modify the atmospheric energy budget, which includes the latent heat related to precipitation. Estimates of precipitation changes from General Circulation Models (GCMs) have been decomposed using energy budgets to diagnose contributions of diabatic and transport terms. Here, a simple model based on the dry static energy budget is created to represent precipitation changes by latitude. The diabatic cooling and divergence of the dry static energy flux, including the thermodynamic and dynamic components of the mean flux as well as the eddy flux, are represented as a function of the temperature field of an idealized GCM. The resulting approximations reproduce the pattern of precipitation changes from the idealized GCM.

The objective of this research was to create a risk map where low SE and demographic status (low adaptive capacity and high sensitivity) intersect with IUHI (high exposure) to reduce inequity in UHI mitigation policy and to improve upon Chan et al.鈥檚 methodology

We offer a case study of a ten-year-old carbon reforestation project in an indigenous Ember谩 community in Panama that was designed in a participatory framework and includes reforestation with hardwood trees and agroforestry. Our project provides insight on the growth of six native hardwood species, namely Terminalia Amazonia (Amarillo), Swietenia macrophylla (Caoba), Dalbergia retusa (Cocobolo), Pachira quinata (Cedro Espino), Anacardium excelsum (Espave), and Tabebuia rosea (Roble), as well as eleven fruit tree species.

The objective of this study is to determine if the maternal infection also led to phenotypic differences in the spatial learning, navigation and spatial memory performance of the pups. Two spatial tests, the object location task (OLT) and the Barnes maze test, were performed on CD1 pups to compare pups born from H. bakeri infected dams (treatment group) with pups born from healthy dams (control group).

Freshwater ecosystems provide many significant ecological and economic benefits including housing biodiversity, employment, and food security. Despite their importance, they are severely threatened by anthropogenic activities. In particular, overexploitation can have strong impacts on fishes, driving declines in populations, and in some cases, rapid changes in life history traits. This study tests for the effects of fishing pressure on the life history traits of the small African cyprinid fish Rastrineobola argentea in a satellite lake of Lake Victoria in Uganda. R. argentea is the most important commercial species by mass in the region. We analyzed both catch data and life history traits of R. argentea over the past decade in order to test whether this species might be experiencing fisheries induced change.

The application of eDNA data in biomonitoring and biodiversity science has increased rapidly due to technological advancements; however, its integration into government environment programs is lagging far behind. In order to address this time-lag between technological advancements and incorporation into government environmental programs, we evaluate the main problems with the applicability of eDNA data into these areas.

Cities frequently quantify their sustainable development progress through the use of indicator sets. However, little work has been done to assess whether selected indicators account for environmental justice and social equity. This paper develops a just sustainability framework to assess indicators drawn from large North American cities and Western academic literature.

The importance of silica in contributing to structural support and stressor alleviation in plants has been increasingly recognized in recent years. However, existing research is largely focused on the function of silica in agricultural crops. This leaves a gap in our understanding of silica鈥檚 functions in natural systems, with a limited number of studies examining the role of silica in temperate forests.

This paper employs a feminist rights-based approach in order to illuminate the relationship between climate change and women鈥檚 human rights, and in order to consider the implications of this relationship on women鈥檚 adaptive capacity. I arrange the impacts of climate change around specific women鈥檚 human rights: the right to food, water, health, education, employment and political rights, as well as the right to life.

The objective of this Honours Thesis is to synthesize the literature of narrative and framing theory and place it within the context of climate change science communication. Ample evidence within the literature already exists suggesting that scientists鈥� incorporation of narrative elements in their writing style increases the citation uptake of their articles and the public influence they embody (Nisbet, 2009; Hillier et al., 2016; Spence & Pidgeon, 2010; Dahlstrom, 2014; Lejano et al., 2013). By more closely mirroring the way humans experience and understand the world鈥攖hrough storytelling鈥攕cientists have the opportunity to render their work more notable among scholarly and public audiences. In response to this, this research will look to the top 10 most-cited climate change- and sustainability- related articles and search for common trends in theme, framing, and narrative to gather insight as to what communication devices carry the most significance in an articles鈥� success.

This paper seeks to outline three of those larger issues that in particular contribute to the reduction in transparency within the seafood supply chain: (1) bycatch; (2) illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing; and (3) mislabeling and greenwashing. The lack of transparency makes it difficult to regulate the industry efficiently, and makes it difficult for consumers to understand what the issues are and limits their ability to make responsible choices. The goal of this paper is to consolidate the existing information regarding these issues and make them more digestible for a general audience, as well as outline the potential solutions in each area. By doing this, the hope is that these issues will be more easily understood, and solutions can be developed more efficiently and with greater results to protect and ensure the longevity of the world鈥檚 wild fisheries.

The transportation sector largely contributes to air pollution worldwide. Polluted cities in China are especially in need of transit reform to ameliorate the growing crisis. Despite the ability of the transportation sector to affect change, not much is known about the direct impacts of transportation infrastructure on air quality. This thesis fills that gap by investigating the effects of the opening of a subway line on atmospheric aerosols within a 25-kilometer area of the center of the newly introduced line.

To date, few studies have explored the ecological effects of microplastics under a realistic climate change scenario. This study therefore investigated the effects of prolonged microplastic exposure on an invasive species: the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), under two temperature regimes representing the current and future mean summer maxima for large portions of its invasive range. Juvenile N. melanostomus were exposed to naturally occurring concentrations of polyethylene microbeads (63-75 渭m) for 37 days, at either ~19掳C or ~25掳C.

Lyme disease is the most common vector borne illness in the United States, affecting an estimated 300,000 people each year. Loss of biodiversity may be linked to the transmission of this disease. The objective of this study is to determine whether biodiversity loss, as measured by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), is associated with the incidence of Lyme disease in the continental United States between the years 2000-2016.

This paper will proceed by establishing what a rights-based approach is and the usefulness it offers to design effective and equitable climate policies. The basic rights requirements governments are entitled to fulfill will be outlined and three vulnerable groups that will be used in this analysis will be identified as will background as to why these vulnerabilities exist. An analysis of select climate mitigation and adaptation policies in Kenya and Tanzania will be assessed using a rights-based approach to evaluate if they are effectively satisfying rights of the three vulnerable groups. The objective is to illuminate the utility of a rights-based approach in effectively exposing vulnerabilities in society and policy to ensure future policies to combat climate change are effective.

The Louisiana Coastline is ongoing a process of net degradation. Approximately 5,000 km2 and the accompanying ecosystem services have been lost since the 1930s. Coastal communities, such as the Houma Indians, are particularly threatened by this land loss. The causes of deterioration are plentiful and often put in question. Therefore, this research involves the application of a spatial and temporal model in GIS to tease apart the potential influence of hurricanes, deltaic plains, and the direct and indirect perturbations from the petroleum industry.

The round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), a benthivorous fish native to the Black and Caspian Seas, is one of many successful invaders introduced to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin via ballast water. This generalist species currently threatens freshwater systems through negative species interactions, economic costs and contaminant transfer. Previous literature has employed comparative functional response methods to assess the per-capita impact of the round goby. However, as research on round goby functional response has incorporated variation in habitat complexity, this study aims to determine the functional responses of the round goby using amphipod prey in arenas with no substrate, or low complexity and high complexity substrate treatments. As substrate complexity tends to stabilize species interactions and reduce predator foraging efficiency at low prey densities, we predicted that a Type III (sigmoidal) functional response curve would result from increased complexity.

Climate and permafrost change have large potential impacts on Arctic land and water. These effects are often most apparent during the melt season as the soil thaws and results in changes to subsurface water flow pathways and mobilization of different sources of dissolved elements. Long-term investigations of the two main lakes at the Cape Bounty Watershed Observatory (CBAWO) indicate substantial hydrochemical changes have occurred during the past decade, but little is known about smaller water bodies on the land. Initial pond sampling in 2017 indicates considerable variation in water balance, hydrochemical and turbidity conditions. This project aims to understand the variation in water sources for ponds in the CBAWO water catchments by using data collected weekly from July 16th to August 12th, 2019.

It is widely recognized that major financial investments are required in order to enhance the resilience of vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change and equitably transition the world鈥檚 economy towards low-carbon, sustainable development. As such, the importance of climate finance in international agreements is increasing. However, the mobilization of resources has been the focus of research and international negotiations to date, rather than its allocation between countries. This research paper analyses international public climate finance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean region, and provides a breakdown of funding from the decade between 2007-2017. Overall, this study aims to answer two related research questions; why some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean receive more climate finance than others, and how can they access more public climate finance in the future.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) contaminate pristine, alpine environments through long-range transport in the atmosphere and glacier trapping. To study variation in POPs levels in western Canada, we measured levels in the prey (fish) of osprey (Pandion haliaetus) during 1999鈥�2004, and compared those to levels in eggs and chicks. Values in fish muscle (representing human consumption) correlated with whole carcasses (wildlife consumption) for all POPs, except toxaphene, allowing us to pool data.

A water balance and DOC/TDN export were calculated for an ombrotrophic bog in south-eastern Ontario, Canada. A water table depth 鈥� discharge relationship was used to estimate daily runoff values. Mean growing season P, ET, R and 螖S were 413.2 mm, 332.6 mm, 86.5 mm and -6.1 mm, respectively. Mean annual P, ET, R and 螖S were 759.4 mm, 423.1 mm, 462.6 mm and -126.2 mm, respectively. There appeared to be a shift from ET to R being the dominant form of water loss between the growing and non-growing season. Results suggest that R in the non-growing season may have been overestimated due to calculation method. Mean growing season DOC and TDN export were 4.2 g C/m2 and 0.14 g N/m2 respectively with a DOC:TDN ratio of 30. This analysis highlights the importance of maintaining pristine peatland environments in agricultural landscapes in order to help negate the downstream health consequences associated with excessive nutrient loading.

This study analyzes the variability and predictability of the Bering Strait OHT to better understand the sensitivity of Arctic Ocean SIE to Pacific Ocean heat fluxes at monthly timescales. We first assess the interannual and monthly variability of the Bering Strait OHT and then calculate the monthly, regional covariance of SIE and the Bering Strait OHT in the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas (ESS). Thirdly, we assess the spatial variability of the response of SIE across the Arctic Ocean in the context of melt season reductions in monthly maximum sea ice extents, and the marginal ice zone, where SIE is seasonally variable.

Given the prevalence of forest ecosystems in Canada, and their important link with First Nations communities, I have chosen to focus on forested lands in my analysis. In particular, I will be selecting areas from Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs), which are 鈥渦nbroken expanses of natural ecosystems within the zone of current forest extent, showing no signs of significant human activity and large enough that all native biodiversity, including viable populations of wide-ranging species, could be maintained鈥� (IFL Mapping Team 2017). However, forest landscapes still encompass multiple different forest ecosystems that may require different specialized conservation measures. I therefore decided to further specify my analysis by searching for intact forested ecoregions (IFEs) in Canada that could benefit most from having some of their land protected through new IPCAs.

Urban agriculture represents a growing opportunity for people from all walks of life to engage with, re-imagine, and re-shape a more equitable and sustainable food system. Taking full advantage of this opportunity for transformative change requires the inclusion of those who are most excluded from meaningful participation in farming and food production in the Global North, including youth. Using a systematic literature review and personal interviews with organizers and facilitators of six urban agriculture programs in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, this project seeks to identify the potential benefits of participation in urban agriculture for youth; evaluate to what extent opportunities to participate in urban agriculture exist for youth in Montreal, and uncover and address some of the barriers to participation.

Although Jane Austen wrote her novels over a century before the environmentalist movement began, the environment still plays an important role in her works. The 1970s environmental movement produced a new field known broadly as literary ecocriticism. Like the era during which this new form of criticism was created, ecocriticism assumes an environmentally conscious position: humans have brought anthropogenic change on a massive scale to our planet. This perspective was nonexistent during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Jane Austen documented the environment, including country and city landscapes, seasonality, bodies of water, gardens and property, outdoor activities (like walking), weather and climate, the wilderness, and animals in her novels long before humans perceived the environment as something that could be changed fundamentally by anthropogenic activity. Although Austen鈥檚 novels have not been seen as 鈥渆nvironmental texts,鈥� they contain hundreds of references to the environment. For that reason, ecocritical scholars have begun to look at her works with these elements of the environment in mind, which differs significantly from the literary and historical approaches to her novels. This thesis considers the ecocritical perspective, and asks how it might alter our understanding of Austen鈥檚 novels, as compared to a historical or contextual reading?

Light pollution is increasingly regarded as a major concern for human health, wildlife, energy consumption, and our ability to view the cosmos. Despite these impacts, the issue has not been addressed in any mainstream, cohesive effort. 鈥楧ark Sky Areas鈥� (DSAs), or places that are designated for their darkness, represent a promising model for achieving tangible light pollution reductions in rural, tourist-based communities. However, almost no research has been published on how and why DSAs work, a key consideration if we are to assess its potential to reduce light pollution in increasingly urban areas. We examined the stakeholder dynamics underlying the creation and management of the world鈥檚 first DSA, the Torrance Barrens Dark Sky Reserve/Preserve of Muskoka, Ontario.

Long-distance migration allows birds to exploit seasonal variations in resource availability across several sites, combining fractional niches into a single ecological niche. Throughout their migration, individuals constantly make decisions to optimize their probability of survival. These strategies often involve trade-offs between time, energy and safety. Shorebirds are thought to utilize an energy-minimizing strategy during their autumn migration, timing their departures from stopover sites to coincide with conditions that will reduce energy expenditure. The American golden-plover Pluvialis dominica undertakes an annual journey from nesting grounds across the arctic to wintering grounds in South America, making it an ideal model to study long-distance migration.

Earthquakes occur in time and space, mostly near the tectonic faults. From the statistical perspective, spatial earthquake occurrence can be seen as an inhomogeneous point process in 2-D space. As partial realizations of point processes, point patterns can be classified into three categories: completely random, regular point pattern and aggregated (Diggle, 2003; Dutilleul, 2011). The analysis of a point pattern often involves statistical inference and modelling, e.g., for testing complete spatial randomness and assessing aggregation through the interactions between events (Henrys and Brown, 2009; Guan, 2008). Common testing procedures include, quadrat methods, distance methods, kernel estimators of intensity, nearest neighbor distribution functions and K-function analyses(Cressie,1993). A detailed description of those methods be found in Ripley (1981) , Cressie (1993), Diggle (2003) and Dutilleul (2011).

The problem of microplastic pollution has become a critical issue in environmental research. In recent years, it has been found that plastic waste has an affinity for anthropogenic pollutants that already exist in aquatic environments, and multiple studies have been conducted on the association between such pollutants and plastic debris (Rochman et al., 2013a; de S谩 et al., 2018). Because of this, there has been a growing interest in the trophic transfer of plastic between organisms, which can lead to bioaccumulation and biomagnification through the aquatic food web. While most studies examine the direct consumption of microplastics as a vector of entry into the food web, this study sought to determine the viability of an alternate vector that has not yet been explored in the literature: the use of plastic material by caddisflies in case-building.

Boreal peat bogs, characterised by high water tables and peat moss accumulation, are important carbon sinks that store one third of global soil carbon (Gorham, 1991). Horticultural peat production is a growing industry in Canada and involves the lowering of peat bog water tables and the drying of the surface layer of peat (CSPMA, 2018), significantly impacting their carbon balance. This project examined the carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes at an active harvest site in Rivi猫re-du-Loup, Quebec, to evaluate the impact of peat harvest and field crowning.

Atmospheric CO2 levels have increased from ~280 ppm in pre-industrial times to present-day value exceeding 400 ppm. The oceans have absorbed up to 30% of the anthropogenic CO2 emitted to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution began (Feely et al., 2004). This has mitigated the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere and the climate change associated with it (Gattuso, Mach, & Morgan, 2013). On the other hand, oceanic uptake of CO2 has modified the surface ocean chemistry, decreasing seawater pH, the carbonate ion concentration ([CO32-], and the saturation state (惟) of waters with respect to calcium carbonate (CaCO3) minerals (Feely, Doney, & Cooley, 2009; Feely et al., 2004). The saturation state refers to the degree to which seawater is saturated with respect to calcium carbonate. These changes are collectively referred to as ocean acidification (OA) and constitute a potential threat to the health of marine ecosystems (Andersson et al., 2013; Feely et al., 2009), particularly to calcifying organisms whose ability to secrete their CaCO3 skeletons and tests may be hindered (Feely et al., 2004). According to the IPCC 鈥渂usiness-as-usual鈥� emission scenario and general circulation models, atmospheric CO2 levels may reach 800-1000 ppm by 2100 (Feely et al., 2009). This would cause pH to drop by an additional 0.3-0.4 unit, at which point most of the surface oceans will become corrosive to aragonite, the mineral precipitated by most corals.

Experiential education has always been one of the most fundamental ways in which people learn. In academic settings, all too often are students confined to a classroom where they observe rather than experience the subjects which they are there to learn. This paper investigates the Bieler School of Environment鈥檚 many learning opportunities and styles across both the MacDonald and downtown campuses, as well as across both its compulsory and complementary course offerings.

In the past few years, chikungunya and Zika joined dengue in the set of common arboviral diseases in Brazil. The Northeast of the country is a hyperendemic region; one of the capitals being our study location. The three diseases are transmitted by the same mosquitoes, which control poses a challenge to disease prevention by public health authorities. Integrated Vector Management is the approach recommended by the World Health Organization in order to optimize the use of resources. Two unavoidable questions in the decision-making process are when and where interventions would have the greatest impact.

Spatio-temporal patterns of occurrence of dengue, chikungunya and Zika in Fortaleza, Brazil were examined through the analysis of passive surveillance data on clinic-epidemiologically confirmed cases.

Zooplankton are important bio-indicators in lake ecosystems; however, relatively little is known of how zooplankton species archived in sediments vary seasonally, and if these seasonal dynamics accurately represent the water column community. To examine subfossil zooplankton seasonality, the zooplankton community of Cultus Lake, British Columbia was recorded in sediment traps, and net haul samples were collected as a reference. Seasonal variations in the community were assessed both in terms of density and relative abundance.

The natural flow regime, defined as multi-dimensional quantifications of different aspects of streamflow variability (discharge) along a point of a given river (Poff, et al. 1996), is an oft-used unit of measurement in freshwater ecology and fluvial and watershed geomorphology. Flow classes (groupings of flow regimes deemed statistically similar) are important to water resources managers and fluvial researchers. It is broadly understood that, along with regional climate, physiographic and morphometric characteristics of the watershed play a prominent role in controlling these natural flow regimes, and consequently the within-class variation. Thus, a basic data mining approach for the Canadian context was used to extract multivariate relationships between morphometric, locational, and physiographic watershed characteristics and flow regime variation in unregulated river systems in northern Ontario and Qu茅bec.

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food sectors globally and currently provides a large proportion of the world鈥檚 fish supply. However, there are many environmental concerns associated with the practice, such as eutrophication, and impact on wild fish. With production expected to increase in the future, the long-term sustainability of aquaculture warrants considerable attention. There are a wide variety of aquaculture production methods across regions, including factors such as the species involved, whether a system is 鈥榦pen鈥� or 鈥榗losed鈥�, as well as more intensive or extensive. The characteristics of a system can contribute to its productivity but also its environmental impacts 鈥� thus, different production systems can have varying degrees of sustainability. This study attempts to understand key sustainability dimensions of aquaculture by using a comparative analysis of three major production systems: carp farming in China, salmon farming in the Bay of Fundy of Canada, and catfish farming in Nigeria.

This study incorporates GIS and linear regression modeling techniques in order to elucidate the spatial distribution and determinants of community welfare in the Peruvian Amazon. In total, 906 communities comprise the research sample, while the Amazon, Napo, Pastaza, and Ucayali sub-basins represent the geographical extent of the study. To fully capture the aspects of welfare and poverty in this region, a comprehensive community welfare index served as an indicator of each community鈥檚 well-being. Accordingly, this analysis aims to glean results that could inform a geographically targeted poverty alleviation program in the study area.

African Indigenous peoples are guardians of environmental knowledge essential to developing a complete understanding of climate change. Despite their capacity to add value to the discussion, Indigenous voices are muted in state-driven climate change negotiations. Misconceptions about the nature of Indigenous knowledge and decades of marginalization of Indigenous peoples have posed barriers for knowledge sharing. While the United Nations (UN) recognizes the importance of Indigenous voices in climate dialogue, it has so far failed to operationalize a meaningful platform for Indigenous and local peoples to share their knowledge. Lack of representation at the international level has caused many Indigenous peoples to engage with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and collaborate on knowledge sharing initiatives. This report seeks to identify how grassroots participatory initiatives, namely participatory 3D mapping and Cybertracker technology, can complement the UN knowledge sharing platform and facilitate improved Indigenous-state relations.

This paper explores the relationship between education, healthcare and biodiversity in rural communities of the Peruvian Amazon. We used survey data from the Peruvian Amazon Rural Livelihoods and Poverty (PARLAP) project, a large-scale study of communities in the Ucayali and Loreto regions of Peru. We studied correlations using multiple regression to assess the community-level impacts of healthcare and education on the abundance, yields and quality of game, fish and timber species.

Wetlands contribute up to 23% of the total atmospheric methane store of about 500-600 Tg CH4 yr-1, and many studies have been conducted to better understand CH4 turnover in northern peatlands (Conrad, 2009). Acting as both a source and sink of CH4, microbial activity in the anoxic zone of peatlands is responsible for its emission, while methanotrophs in the living plant layer play a role in its sequestration (Frolking et al, 2006). Studies have measured net CH4 fluxes from peatlands, but the individual role of mosses and methanotrophs has not been isolated in these calculations. This thesis aimed to measure the contribution of methanotrophs in Sphagnum moss to CH4 uptake with manual chamber measurements of net fluxes in the field, chamber measurements of flux from the isolated Sphagnum capitulum layer, and laboratory incubations of moss cores taken from Mer Bleue Bog.

Traditional, or mainstream, forms of impact assessment tend not to address the full range of impacts associated with proposed mining activities, particularly in cases that involve new mining techniques and/or are to be located in systems that are not well understood. Attempts to address the full range of impacts are usually aided by assessment tools that enforce commensurability, translating multiple forms of data into one metric and losing value along the way. We propose a different approach to performing impact assessments, one that follows the concept of incommensurability under the framework of weak comparability in order to minimize value loss. Using a multicriteria decision aid software that accounts for uncertainty and enables comparisons of impacts across various alternatives using preference strengths, we analyzed the full range of potential impacts of the Sandpiper Project, a proposed marine phosphate mining venture off the Namibian coastline. We compared three alternatives: a) no extraction or beneficiation, b) extraction, c) extraction and beneficiation.

Senescence is a universal phenomenon in vertebrates, including in wild animals, though the underlying processes are largely unknown. Senescence is associated with physiological and behavioural changes as well as differences in survival and reproductive success. The blacklegged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a long-lived seabird and is therefore a good candidate for studying senescence. I deployed GPS-accelerometers on 37 age-known individuals during late incubation and took muscle biopsies from 24 of these individuals.

Over the next century, the diversity and composition of Quebec flora is expected to shift in response to human-induced climate change and transport. It remains uncertain as to what degree these drivers will impact regional ecosystems, and whether introduced species will pose an opportunity or threat to biodiversity in the future. This study aims to investigate the establishment potential of woody species from the Quebec horticultural trade in the 21st century, by (1) determining suitability of environmental conditions under a climate scenario and (2) assessing their ability to naturalize based on traits. Relevant candidate species were selected, followed by species distribution modelling to project their ranges into 2090.

This paper investigates the potential use of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a tool to combat two fundamental imbalances which result in socioecological unsustainability: ecological overshoot and radical inequality. The main driver of these imbalances is argued to be productivism: the belief that economic production is our moral purpose. An analysis of the range of possible UBI policies and their predicted effects suggests that a well-designed UBI with (1) generous payments, (2) a narrative of collective capital ownership, and (3) an expanded community sector, may indeed be a helpful tool to promote sustainability. Conversely, a productivistic UBI is expected further exacerbate ecological overshoot and radical inequality.

Microplastic pollution is an emergent threat to the health of aquatic systems, having demonstrated impact on aquatic organisms and the chemical state of the environment. In light of uncertain risk, recent research has been directed towards quantifying the abundance of microplastics in major water bodies. Existing literature has focused predominantly on the presence of microplastics in marine environments, but over the past few years the distribution and abundance of microplastics in freshwater systems has garnered significant interest. Still, in the absence of sufficient information about microplastic presence in freshwater systems, models predicting microplastic fate within river networks are necessary in understanding riverine microplastic abundance. The purpose of the following study is to address the question of how to estimate riverine microplastic fate based on limited information about their abundance in freshwater systems.

Pollution from microplastics (MP), defined here are synthetic polymer particles smaller than 5mm, is an emerging environmental problem that has been detected in aquatic environments around the world. MP include cosmetic microbeads, an ingredient used for exfoliation in personal care products, fragments resulting from the breakdown of larger plastic debris, and fibres shed from synthetic clothing during machine washing. Scientists have begun to document the harmful effects of MP on aquatic organisms, which has spurred corporate and government action to reduce MP contamination in waterways. In this paper, I present an analysis of the government and corporate policies that have been developed to address MP pollution; showing that among governmental responses there has been a sustained focus on banning the use of microbeads in cosmetic products.

An 18-year fertilization study at the Mer Bleue ombrotrophic bog has investigated impacts of elevated nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) inputs on ecosystem functioning. There is a dearth of knowledge regarding the response of porewater chemistry to treatment thus in 2017 I examined porewater dissolved N, P, and carbon (DOC) in response to ammonium nitrate + potassium phosphate (NPKplot), ammonium nitrate (Nplot), sodium nitrate (NO3-plot), and ammonium chloride (NH4-plot) fertilization at 6.4 g N m-2 y-1. Samples were collected in the rhizosphere (15 cm) and below the water table (45 cm) 3 times within the fertilization period (May to August) and once afterwards (October). Samples were analyzed for N (DON, NH4+, NO3-), P (DOP and PO4-), DOC, and SUVA. I anticipated an increase in nutrient concentrations, relative to the controls, as well as an increase in DOC and SUVA, in response to shifts in vegetation.

Over the last few decades, conservation initiatives in Mexico have faced various challenges. Often they have excluded local population鈥檚 needs and pressured them to integrate into the current capitalist system. Even more participatory strategies, such as those of the Man and Biosphere Program have come with various issues. The creation of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (MABR) in 1978 notably intensified agrarian conflicts. Many actors have been involved in the conservation scheme of this nature reserve. As such, an interesting question arises from such a phenomenon: How have the priorities of the different stakeholders within the MABR influenced the conservation strategy in that nature reserve? This research seeks to better understand the priorities of different stakeholders in the MABR and their implications in the MABR鈥檚 conservation scheme. It aims to analyze conservation approaches through the lens of neoliberal conservation.

In countries with high numbers of racialized migrants, representations of racialized migrant communities, and racialized communities in mainstream environmental movements and discussions are low. Definitions, framings, and priorities can vary between racialized and non-racialized communities due to varying historical, social, and geographical contexts. In consequence, these communities may be prevented from participating in decisions on environmental issues that may affect them. Few studies have investigated concerns within recent migrant communities of racialized backgrounds. This focused on one racialized migrant community in Montr茅al: the Ilankai (Ceylon/Sri Lankan) Tamil community. Guiding this project are two central questions: (1) What are the predominant 鈥榚nvironmental concerns鈥� in the community and (2) which 鈥榚nvironments鈥� are relevant for the community.

This paper aims to assess the conceptual similarities and distinctions between various forms of water grabbing, through the evaluation of six water grabs. While the definition of water grabbing concerns the acquisition of water resources 鈥渇or [powerful actors鈥橾 own benefit鈥�, this thesis more narrowly looks at the acquisition of water resources for economic gain, where water itself is the primary interest of the actor.

Six different commercial uses of water are addressed in the case studies: privatized hydropower generation, gold mining, bottled water, commercial agriculture, water as a sink for pollution, and privatized water provision. The case studies span all stages of water grabbing: from the analysis of the planning of a water grab (in the case of bottled water), to water grabs that have been ongoing for decades (in the case of agriculture and privatized water provision). By means of reviewing and systematizing these peer-reviewed case studies, the following characteristics will be assessed: the method of accumulation, the actors involved, dominant discourses about water, water rights regimes, the role of the state, responses undertaken, and the impact on local users and ecosystems.

This research conducted a narrative analysis on the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) documents concerning the 2012 permit renewal of Kayenta Mine, a coal mine located on indigenous Navajo and Hopi land in Black Mesa, Arizona. It was an experimental methodology; no literature or research has been found on narrative analyses being applied to multi-authored government texts. Extrapolating and synthesizing the narrative that emerged, which was achieved through open coding and close annotation of the texts, succeeded in understanding the frameworks, assumptions and worldviews that the government (the author) had when conducting the NEPA process

Environmental shocks in the form of natural disasters are well-known for their impact on domestic economies. Less known, however, is their impact on the global economy. The scant existing literature suggests that macro-economic impacts manifest in observed empirical decreases in international trade. The literature, however, does not distinguish between the type of natural disasters driving the observed empirical decrease in traded goods. Moreover, no existing research examines if the impact of natural disasters on trade varies for trading partners with differing levels of market integration. This paper examines if preferential liberalization, i.e. the presence of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), can serve to protect or buffer against the negative economic consequences of natural disasters.

Over the past decade, sustainability has been put at the center of the food and dining services of major North-American universities. On the same trend, 看片视频 food services (SHHS) have been multiplying sustainability-driven initiatives in its dining halls since 2009. This Honors research attempts to assess the level of knowledge of the student body eating in 看片视频 dining halls about sustainability-related food concepts and the sustainability-driven initiatives implemented by SHHS. This research also assesses if these initiatives and sustainability-related food concepts had an impact on individuals鈥� diets.

A case study conducted by the Global Water Partnership in 2012 regarding the PCW highlighted the novel issues that arise when a highly artificial watershed is managed by a 鈥渕odern, internationally-oriented public corporation in an underdeveloped country which lacks a hydraulic culture鈥� (Global Water Partnership, 2012). This report asserts two prominent issues are facing the Panama Canal Authority in managing the PCW; 1. Selecting ways to define and implement a plan 2. Creating and strengthening the coordination mechanisms for all the parties involved in Inter-institutional Commission for the Hydrographic Watershed (ICHW)

This research explores the interactions between traditional medicine and modern medicine through a descriptive study of medicinal plant use and medical care preference among indigenous and nonindigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon. Four Yagua and two mestizo communities were surveyed along the Orosa River (n=99 households).

Increasing temperatures and heat events resulting from climate change magnifies the Urban Heat Island (UHI) introducing dangerous levels of heat in cities worldwide. Recent urban planning trends are attempting to build more walkable cities to encourage physical activity within neighbourhoods. This produces high density infrastructure and larger amounts of concrete for sidewalks and roads all of which also elevate the UHI e鈫礶ct. This research thus asks if there is a heat penalty for more walkable neighbourhoods.

It is well-documented that petrochemicals, used in many consumer and industrial products, are infiltrating our bodies and the environment. These chemicals have demonstrated endocrine disrupting properties, including links to obesity, making them a source of concern for public health. Petrochemicals are also used as ingredients in cosmetics. In the U.S., the cosmetics industry for 2016 was estimated to be worth 62.46 billion dollars and 50% of U.S. women said they prefer to wear make-up. Yet, a limited amount of research has focused on how these petrochemicals may then adversely affect women or racial and ethnic minorities. The purpose of this study was to determine how urinary concentrations of cosmetic chemicals found in the body may vary by sex and race, and to determine the relationship between cosmetic chemicals and body mass.