Science Behind the Scenes - 2022

Dr. Ashu Dastoor, a research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, explains how computer models together with observations from fieldwork have helped to identify the sources of airborne mercury found in the Arctic.

Canada is home to the largest intact forest and wetland ecosystem remaining on planet Earth: the boreal forest. The people of the Essipit Innu First Nation have lived in the southern fringe of that vast forest in the province we now call Québec—part of which the Innu call Nitassinan, or “our land”—since time immemorial.

Dr. Myrle Ballard has joined Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to form the department’s first Indigenous Science division. While on a year-long work exchange from the University of Manitoba, she is leading a permanent team at the department to advance reconciliation in ECCC’s science and research activities. ECCC is the first federal government department to launch such a division, and Dr. Ballard tells us about her exciting and important work.

Many of Canada’s rivers no longer flow freely due to dams and other barriers restricting the movement of our native species. Watersheds have become degraded by human development to the point where many rivers are cut off from their floodplains, affecting many of the critical services provided by healthy ecosystems.

In the last two weeks of February, the 55th session of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-55) brought together government representatives and scientists to review and approve the summary of a report of 3675 pages.

The unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a decline in human activity during various provincial restrictions. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) researcher, Nancy Mahony collaborated with many partners on a comprehensive study led by the University of Manitoba to ask the question whether or not reduced human activity impacted birds. She talks to us about this collaboration.