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WISE researchers study Red Deer River spill

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 21:14:39 +0000

A recent pipeline rupture in the Red Deer River might have relatively short term environmental damage, but a larger concern is the vast number of older pipeline locations at river crossings and their vulnerability to floods, according to a leading expert in floodplain and river bank ecosystems.

Dr. Stewart Rood, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Environmental Science researcher and member of the Water Institute for Sustainable Environments, has already started on a study of the Red Deer River oil spill, looking at more than 30 km of river shoreline downstream from the spill site.

He and his colleagues are looking for opportunities to learn from this particular spill, and then turn their research findings into a set of guidelines for developing oil pipelines near, over or under waterways.

"River crossings are especially prone to pipeline breaks, since the banks are commonly eroded and stream channels shift, especially during flood events," says Rood. "While this specific pipeline break and oil spill was unfortunate, a study opportunity arises and this should be instructive relative to floodplain processes and environmental vulnerability."

The break, which occurred last week near Sundre, Alberta, northwest of Calgary, resulted in the release of up to an estimated half-million liters of light sour crude oil into the Red Deer River.

The release coincided with flood flows of the river and consequently the floating oil wove through the riparian (or streamside) vegetation, leaving what Rood describes as a 'bathtub ring' of oil deposits on the floodplain plants (photographs attached).

Despite decades of pipeline construction and occasional ruptures, Rood's team found there has been remarkably little scientific study on the environmental impacts of oil spills on river floodplains. Checking back almost 50 years the researchers found only 10 relevant journal papers.

"There have been studies on fish but very little on floodplain ecosystems," says Rood. "Since river floods can damage pipelines, we need to better understand how vulnerable floodplains are, and how quickly or slowly they'll recover.'

He added that pipeline breaks are more common than people think, and occur across the province, often in remote locations.

"In its 2010 field surveillance report, the industry-funded Energy Resources Conservation Board recorded 687 pipeline failures across the province, but most of these would have been very minor" says Rood.

Their new study sites have been positioned ('tagged' through GPS monitoring) at numerous locations within the spill zone to enable the detailed monitoring of the consequence of the oil spill on the trees and vegetation along the banks of the river (called the riparian zone).

As well, there will also be coordinated study of invertebrates in the shoreline zone, as well as investigation of impacts on fish.

The study group involves Rood and two colleagues, Dr. Alice Hontela and Dr. Joseph Rasmussen, all senior U of L researchers who have already been studying the Red Deer River and other rivers of southern Alberta for more than 25 years.

Numerous undergraduate and graduate students will also be involved in the research.

This brings world-class -- and independent -- expertise in river and floodplain ecology and aquatic toxicology to bear on the Red Deer River spill, and sets the stage for future projects.

Rood says he has communicated with pipeline owner Plains Midstream about the study project.

"Their representatives were pleased we were conducting this research independently, and have expressed a willingness to share technical data with us."

A really big fish story

trevor.kenney — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:04:30 +0000

Some people go for leisurely fishing or boating excursions on the South Saskatchewan river, but ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Master of Science candidate Christine Lacho recently spent a week on the water angling, tagging, and collecting data on Canada's largest freshwater fish, the Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens).

Her work with the massive fish species will ultimately help inform the population's recovery strategy and listing decision under the Species at Risk Act.

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Lacho, (photo, right) works with Dr. Joe Rasmussen (Biological Sciences) and is in her first year of her Masters program. She was joined by Eztiaan Groenewald (Alberta Sustainable Resource Development) and World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF-Canada)'s Mathieu Lebel, (photo, left) that organization's water management advisor.

Lebel submitted an extensive blog post to the WWF website, which is featured below. (Photos courtesy Mathieu Lebel/WWF Canada).

+++

Have you ever had one of those weeks at work you hoped would never end? I recently did. But of course it's not every week I get to join researchers on a week-long expedition angling, tagging, and collecting data on Canada's largest freshwater fish, the Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens).

In a recent blog post, (http://www.wwf.ca) Emily Giles and I briefly described why Lake Sturgeon fascinate us. So you can imagine my excitement to have the opportunity to assist a collaborative research effort lead by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development and Fisheries and Oceans Canada and in collaboration with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge on Lake Sturgeon in the Alberta portion of the South Saskatchewan River system, that will ultimately help inform the population's recovery strategy and listing decision under the Species at Risk Act.

The research project is intensive and involves deploying and retrieving multiple (~40) data receivers throughout the river system, angling and tagging Lake Sturgeon at a number of locations, and tracking the movement of the fish with the receivers as well as by boat.

I was fortunate to get to do a little bit of almost everything during the week I spent in the field with lead researcher Christine Lacho (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge) and Eztiaan Groenewald (Alberta Sustainable Resource Development).

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Christine and Eztiaan Groenewald download information from a data receiver

Not surprisingly, a very enjoyable part of the field work was the time I spent angling for Lake Sturgeon, which often make spectacular jumps out of the water and long runs. We caught several adults and juveniles, and I must admit the thrill of catching a Lake Sturgeon only grew as the week went by and unfortunately, had to end.

To better understand population dynamics and growth, all Lake Sturgeon that were caught were quickly measured, weighed, marked with floy and PIT (passive integrated transponder) tags, and clipped in a small area of a pectoral fin for ageing, before being released back into the river.

The main focus of this research though is to learn more about the fish's distribution, movement, seasonal habitat use, and potential critical habitat locations. To accomplish this, acoustic tags were surgically inserted into adults and a small number of juveniles.

The acoustic tags transmit a signal to data receivers, which allows researchers and government agencies to identify the locations of key Lake Sturgeon habitat, when and for how long it is being used, and the extent and timing of movement between habitats.

Another key component of the field work was to retrieve data receivers from the river bottom by locating them using a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit and 'fishing' them out using grappling hooks.

Although this may sound fairly straightforward, negotiating fast-moving and sediment-laden water can be challenging and it is also possible that river processes may have shifted a receiver's location from where it was deployed.

Once we were able to hook onto a receiver, the next part involves hauling it, and the 80-pound concrete block it is fastened to, into the boat which is, as you can guess, a great workout.

This process makes the retrieval very rewarding, most importantly because critical research data can be downloaded from the receiver and used to better understand and ultimately protect Lake Sturgeon.

Now, back at my desk, I am left with great admiration for the dedication of the researchers involved in and resources being put towards this project, and of course a much deeper appreciation for the fascinating Lake Sturgeon.

It was an incredible experience to work with these ancient fish and researchers and something I will always remember. Field work is still underway so it will be some time before results are available.

In the meantime, stay tuned on further efforts to recover and conserve Lake Sturgeon and the river habitats that are vital to their survival.

Learn more about WWF Canada at this website: http://wwf.ca/

Added funding promotes epigenetic research

trevor.kenney — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:48:49 +0000

A brain injury as a youth can make a person more likely to suffer from strokes, Parkinson's or other diseases of the brain later in life.

The big question might be "why?" but the answer may be found by looking at something very, very small: understanding how an individual gene can go wrong or not work properly over a person's lifetime.

The emerging research discipline that can help find that answer is called epigenetics, and thanks to a significant amount of recent funding, researchers at the U of L are poised to assume a significant leadership role in epigenetics research.

Epigenetics (which means 'beyond genetics' in Latin) is the study of how individual genes and components of individual genes can change in response to environmental conditions or other factors.

Nearly 20 U of L researchers from three academic departments (Neuroscience, Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biological Sciences) and up to 50 graduate and doctoral-level researchers will be involved in the initial phases of the research. Significant expansions are planned for future years of the research program.

In addition to $3 million in start-up funding announced last summer from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, a recent funding announcement from the Government of Alberta's Alberta Science and Research Investments Program (ASRIP) has awarded a research team from the U of L more than $2.8 million.

"This funding, along with our matching funds from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and support from the U of L and other granting agencies, will boost the U of L to a world-class level in terms of our ability to identify and work on new epigenetics projects," says Dr. Robert Sutherland, a neuroscience researcher and one of the driving forces behind the new epigenetics research program.

Along with colleagues Drs. Olga and Igor Kovalchuk in Biological Sciences and collaborators in Chemistry and Biochemistry and other departments on campus – and a huge team of graduate and undergraduate students – Sutherland said the researchers are looking forward to a lot of work now and in the future to tease solutions to a number of health issues out of the complex genetics system that makes up the human body.

"This funding will allow us to gather even more people and resources together in one place to learn about how individual genes can affect people's health and well-being," Sutherland says.

"Education and science lie at the heart of our future prosperity," adds Doug Horner, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology. "These continued research awards help attract and retain the best and brightest researchers and, in turn, help improve the competitiveness of our industries. Our researchers are paving the way to bring about new products, services and treatments that can lead to a better quality of life for Albertans."

Alberta's universities shared almost $44 million in awards for research into developing new treatments for diabetics, burn victims and lung disease patients, improving GPS accuracy and adding value to Alberta's traditional crops as well as the U of L's epigenetics research program.

For 2009, Alberta Science and Research Investments Program awards provide up to 40 per cent of total project costs to 18 initiatives in priority areas of bioindustries, energy and the environment, and health. The projects will also receive $66 million from other sources, including the federal government and private sector partners. Since 2000, the program has provided more than $169 million for over 100 projects.

Vital signs - the phenomenon of physician burnout

trevor.kenney — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:15:51 +0000

Physicians are healers. Far and wide their profession is revered, their status impeccable. It seems contradictory, even wrong, that today's doctors may be the one group of professionals most in need of urgent care. Yet that's exactly the startling finding that ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professor Dr. Bob Boudreau uncovered through his research on the subject of burnout. As it happens, doctors are more at risk for professional burnout than any of the dozens of other occupations that Boudreau and his research team have examined.

Boudreau has been studying occupational stress for more than two decades. His 1985 dissertation was a theoretical paper on the critical development and directions within the field of stress and burnout. He furthered his investigation on the subject while on exchange at Hokkai-Gakuen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Sapporo in 1988.

Dr. Bob Boudreau examines professional burnout and how doctors seem to be more at risk.

"Our early research surveys on Japanese workers led to further research opportunities on occupational health and burnout levels of workers in Canada, the United States, Belarus, New Zealand and Australia. The study of global burnout has continued to attract attention and grow in interest and importance over the years," Boudreau says.

In the last several years, Boudreau has focused his studies on stress levels and burnout in specific occupations. In 2002, he connected with Taber physician Dr. Rob Wedel to kick-start research on doctors. As fate would have it, Robin Robertson from the Alberta Medical Association overheard their conversation, and quickly thereafter it was decided that the study was something that would be conducted provincewide.

Boudreau developed a survey aimed at examining the prevalence and severity of burnout in Alberta physicians using a series of demographic questions and four measurements of burnout. More than 1,100 doctors
participated in the provincial study, and less than a year later, Boudreau was asked by the Canadian Medical Association to conduct a similar survey nationally.

What Boudreau was surprised to discover was that out of all the occupations he'd examined, doctors were by far at the highest risk for professional burnout. In fact, almost half of the physicians who participated in the study were in what Boudreau categorizes as advanced stages of the condition.

"It doesn't seem to matter whether they are specialists or GPs. Doctors as a group are worse off than other professionals when it comes to burnout. There are a lot of cracks in the health-care system and physicians are suffering in a whole host of different ways."

Boudreau believes the incidence of physician burnout in Canada can be attributed to many factors, not the least of which is the pressure that comes with being responsible for the well-being of hundreds of patients. Tie that in with an over-taxed health-care system rife with shortages, plus the day-to-day pressures of running a busy practice and you have the perfect prescription for professional exhaustion.

"We need to continue to develop a better diagnostic set of measures so we can gain a greater understanding into this complex problem," says Boudreau. "Once we figure out what it is, we will be in the best position to try to manage burnout and many of its related workplace cousins such as increased job conflict, poor performance, helplessness, higher absenteeism, lateness and poor health."

New avenues for Boudreau's research include the development of a bibliography of burnout, which will be a compilation of approximately 13,000 previously researched references on the subject put together in a user-friendly format that other researchers and students around the globe can use. With a background in industrial psychology, Boudreau aims to further his work on professional burnout in an effort to better the working environments of not only physicians, but professionals across the board.

"The strategy is to find the cracks in each occupation we study and develop the tools and strategies people need to cope with their own professional situations," he says.

Future endeavours for Boudreau include a meta-analysis on published physician burnout surveys, and a study of the effects of burnout in relation to the assessment and management of fatigue in chronic illness, conducted with an interdisciplinary team of researchers from across Alberta.

UNews - GPS

WISE researchers study Red Deer River spill

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A really big fish story

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Added funding promotes epigenetic research

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