UNews - principal researcher

Functional Flows gets funding boost

trevor.kenney — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:58:56 +0000

A critical study by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Water Institute for Sustainable Environments (WISE) that could shape how the province manages its water sources is being given a $1 million boost by the Alberta government.

Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment Solutions is contributing $1 million toward a proposed $2.5 million project that will take place over the next three years.

Functional Flows, headed by principal researcher Dr. Stewart Rood of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Department of Biological Sciences, will attempt to answer the question of how much water needs to be left in our rivers to sustain healthy aquatic and riparian ecosystems, all the while developing strategies to provide sufficient water to support growing human populations and industrial expansion.

"It is critical for the environmental health of our aquatic ecosystems that we understand the ecological impacts from river damming and water diversions," says Rood.

"Further, we need to create and implement strategies for environmental flow regimes that will ensure that our rivers continue to sustain high water quality, as well as the fish and floodplain forests that we value."

Alberta's rivers deliver mountain snow-melt and rainfall to the drier regions of the prairie and parkland zones, where most Albertans live and work.

Water is trapped by dams and reservoirs and diverted off-stream for agricultural irrigation, municipal and domestic use and industrial purposes.

As the human population grows and industrial expansion continues, the demand for Alberta's surface water will progressively increase.

Rood and his team support the notion of working rivers, whereby river regulation and water withdrawal continues, but in a strategic manner that both sustains environmental health and supports socio-economic uses.

Rood contends that deliberately artificial flow patterns can optimize water for environmental survival during low flow years, and capitalize on the opportunities provided in high flow years to rejuvenate the fish and floodplain forest ecosystems.

"One of the significant challenges identified in Alberta's Water for Life strategy is meeting the needs of healthy aquatic ecosystems. The work being undertaken by Dr. Rood and his team provides a scientific and evidence-based approach to improving environmental performance, even in Alberta's highly allocated river systems," says David Hill, director of Centres and Institutes and Research Advocacy at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

"This approach allows stakeholders and water managers to directly participate in building and improving environmental resilience through specific water management opportunities. The understanding gained through this research will be a critical component in ongoing integrated watershed management decision-making."

The research activities associated with Functional Flows involve substantial student training, contributing towards the next generation of environmental scientists and natural resource managers for Alberta and Canada. The research projects bring together biologists, geographers and other natural and social scientists affiliated with WISE, working in collaboration with other academic and government researchers.

The collaborations also engage regional agencies such as Alberta Environment, the Alberta Conservation Association and the public Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils.

"The U of L has a long history of research collaboration with the community. This is particularly the case in Dr. Rood's research. This program brings together the research team, with government operators and regulators and stakeholders of the community, ensuring that the science and research findings can be implemented to deliver improved environmental performance measures," says Hill.

"This project will contribute to Alberta being recognized not just for its forward looking water strategy – but for ongoing and improved watershed management operations."

Balancing environmental sensibilities with the future economic prosperity of the province was a driver of the Functional Flows project, which received an initial $250,000 contribution from ConocoPhillips Canada (CPC). Based in Calgary, CPC is part of ConocoPhillips, a leading global exploration and production company. "We see this as an opportunity to engage the research expertise at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in a manner that will benefit everyone from students and faculty members involved in the research, to industry, agriculture, municipalities, Aboriginal communities and end users of Alberta's water resources," says Lloyd Visser, VP, Environment and Sustainable Development.

Unravelling the mystery of stress

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:14:11 +0000

Plastering the pages of magazines and self-help books, stress is a hot topic for overworked North Americans – it's also a poorly understood concept, says neuroscientist Dr. Gerlinde Metz.

"It's a very timely subject these days; people think about it a lot. But it's also a misused term," says Metz, a principal researcher at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN).

Stress isn't solely an emotional condition; it's also a physiological state related to the flight-or-fight response that can be both helpful and damaging. The release of stress hormones, like adrenaline, can help an organism flee a harmful situation, but unmanaged long-term stress can increase the likelihood of certain health conditions and diseases.

"It's very complex. Stress affects so many different organs, so many different functions and the brain in so many different ways," she explains.

In the context of brain injury, stress is relevant on two dimensions. "On one hand, stress is a predisposing factor," says Metz. "On the other hand, if you have a stroke, experiencing a loss of movement and cognitive functions is also a source of stress."

Metz is systematically studying the impact of stress on normal motor system functions – including the complex interactions of hormones and their effects on the motor system – as well as how stress impacts the recovery of brain injury patients, particularly victims of 'silent' stroke, in which a stroke isn't immediately detected (these account for 70 per cent of all strokes).

Traditional rehabilitation therapy for stroke patients takes a tremendous physical toll on them. Inte

nse training, amounting to hours of exercise each day, is needed to enable patients to regain movement.

The result is an accumulation of stress – not only from the loss of normal motor control and the adjustment to a major health condition, but from the treatment itself. By understanding the cellular processes at the heart of stress, and how these relate to different types of brain damage, Metz hopes to find ways to "optimize existing stroke treatments and maybe find ones that haven't been discovered yet."

For instance, non-traditional treatments like massage therapy, known for its ability to lower stress levels, may prove to be a helpful compliment to rehabilitation.

Metz's work on stress is primarily funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) which recently renewed her status as an AHFMR Senior Scholar and provided funding of more than $1 million over the next seven years. Metz also receives funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

In addition to her work on stress and stroke, Metz is actively collaborating on a project for the Preterm Birth and Healthy Outcomes Team, a network of researchers and clinicians from across Alberta.

Working with peers from the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, Metz is studying an animal model of preterm birth in order to understand the physiological factors of the phenomenon, particularly hormones.

"Pregnancy is regulated by a complex concert of hormones," says Metz. "Sometimes, something goes wrong at some point. Once we know what's not working, we can try to repair it."

Metz explains that preterm birth is a complex occurrence, the causes of which have eluded scientists. It's a particularly relevant health concern in Alberta, where more than 9 per cent of babies are born prematurely – the highest rate in Canada.

The Preterm Birth and Healthy Outcomes Team includes 20 principal investigators, including Metz, who recently earned a team grant from AHFMR, an award of $5 million over five years, to explore the issue from three main perspectives: the health of mothers, the health of infants and the long-term health outlook for people born prematurely.

"The focus of the team grant is to bring many different people to the table and have them focus on a single topic," says Metz.

Health-care professionals working with mothers and preterm babies comprise an important part of the network, allowing the collected data to immediately benefit those affected.

"It's a great learning process for all of us and really motivating because you know where your results are going."

UNews - principal researcher

Functional Flows gets funding boost

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Unravelling the mystery of stress

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