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  • OPEN ACCESS
    Correction: A first assessment of microplastics and other anthropogenic particles in Hudson Bay and the surrounding eastern Canadian Arctic waters of Nunavut
    FACETS • Vol. 5 • No. 1 • pp. 615 - 616
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Characterization of microplastics and anthropogenic fibers in surface waters of the North Saskatchewan River, Alberta, Canada
    FACETS • Vol. 6 • pp. 26 - 43
    Microplastics are globally ubiquitous contaminants, but quantitative data on their presence in freshwater environments are sparse. This study investigates the occurrence, composition, and spatial trends of microplastic contamination in the North Saskatchewan River flowing through Edmonton, Alberta, the fifth largest city in Canada. Surface water samples were collected from seven sites throughout the city, upstream and downstream of the city, and near potential point sources (i.e., a wastewater treatment plant). Samples were spiked with fluorescent microbeads as internal standards and extracted by wet peroxide oxidation and density floatation. Microplastics were found in all samples, ranging in concentration from 4.6 to 88.3 particles·m−3 (mean = 26.2 ± 18.4 particles·m−3). Fibers were the dominant morphology recovered, and most were of anthropogenic origin and chemically identified as dyed cotton or polyester by Raman microspectroscopy. The majority of fragments were identified as polyethylene or polypropylene. No upstream to downstream differences were found in concentration, size distribution, or morphological composition suggesting nonpoint sources of microplastics to the river. This study represents one of the first investigations into the occurrence of microplastics in the freshwater environment in western Canada and will provide a baseline for future studies.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    The value of paleolimnology in reconstructing and managing ecosystem vulnerability: a systematic map
    FACETS • Vol. 6 • pp. 517 - 536
    Vulnerability can measure an ecosystem’s susceptibility to change as a result of pressure or disturbance, but can be difficult to quantify. Reconstructions of past climate using paleolimnological methods can create a baseline to calibrate future projections of vulnerability, which can improve ecosystem management and conservation plans. Here, we conduct a systematic map to analyze the range and extent that paleolimnological published studies incorporated the concept of vulnerability. Additional themes of monitoring, management, conservation, restoration, or ecological integrity were also included. A total of 52 relevant unique articles were found, a majority of which were conducted in Europe or North America since 2011. Common themes identified included management and adaptation, with the latter heavily focussed on climate change or disturbance. From this, we can infer that the use of paleolimnology to discuss the concept of vulnerability is an emerging field. We argue that paleolimnology plays a valid role in the reconstruction of ecosystem vulnerability due to its capacity to broaden the scope of long-term monitoring, as well as its potential to help establish management and restoration plans. The use of paleolimnology in vulnerability analysis will provide a clearer lens of changes over time; therefore, it should be frequently implemented as a tool for vulnerability assessment.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Understanding barriers, access, and management of marine mixed-stock fisheries in an era of reconciliation: Indigenous-led salmon monitoring in British Columbia
    FACETS • Vol. 6 • pp. 592 - 613
    Wild salmon are central to food security, cultural identity, and livelihoods of coastal Indigenous communities. Yet ongoing inequities in governance, declining fish populations, and mixed-stock ocean fisheries may pose challenges for equitable access between Indigenous fishers and other non-Indigenous fishers. We sought to understand current perceptions among Haíłzaqv (Heiltsuk) fishers towards salmon fisheries and their management. We conducted dockside surveys with both Haíłzaqv fishers and sport fishers, and in-depth interviews with Haíłzaqv fishers, community members, and natural resource managers. From these surveys and interviews we quantified satisfaction among both food, social, and ceremonial fishers and visiting recreational fishers with the current salmon fishery and associated social-ecological drivers, and characterized perceptions among Haíłzaqv people of salmon fisheries and management. Second, we synthesized community perceptions of the revitalization of terminal, communally run salmon fisheries within Haíłzaqv territory as a tool for their future salmon management. Finally, we elicited information from Haíłzaqv fishers about the barriers people in their community currently face in accessing salmon fisheries. Our findings suggest that low salmon abundance, increased fishing competition, and high costs associated with participation in marine mixed-stock fisheries currently hinder access and equity for Haíłzaqv fishers. This community-based research can help strengthen local, Indigenous-led management of salmon into the future.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Fathead minnow exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of metformin for one life cycle show no adverse effects
    FACETS • Vol. 6 • pp. 998 - 1023
    Metformin is a glucose-lowering drug taken for diabetes. It is excreted by humans in urine and detected in municipal wastewater effluents and rivers. Fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) were exposed over a life cycle to measured concentrations of metformin: 3.0, 31, and 322 μg/L. No significant changes were observed in survival, maturation, growth, condition factor, or liver size. Relative ovary size of females exposed to 322 μg/L metformin was significantly larger than controls. There was no induction of vitellogenin in plasma of minnows, and gonad maturation was not statistically different from controls. The start of breeding was delayed by 9–10 d in the mid- and high metformin treatments (statistically significant only in the mid-concentration), but numbers and quality of eggs were not statistically different from controls. There were no effects of metformin on survival or growth of offspring. Exposure to metformin at environmentally relevant concentrations (i.e., 3.0 and 31 μg/L metformin) caused no adverse effects in fathead minnows exposed for a life cycle, with the exception of a delay in time to first breeding (that did not impact overall egg production). The results of the study are important to help understand whether metformin concentrations in rivers and lakes can harm fishes.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    How do human actions affect fisheries? Differences in perceptions between fishers and scientists in the Maine lobster fishery
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 174 - 193
    The degree to which human actions affect marine fisheries has been a fundamental question shaping people’s relationship with the sea. Today, divergences in stakeholder views about the impacts of human activities such as fishing, climate change, pollution, and resource management can hinder effective co-management and adaptation. Here, we used surveys to construct mental models of the Maine lobster fishery, identifying divergent views held by two key stakeholder groups: lobster fishers and marine scientists. The two groups were differentiated by their perceptions of the relative impact of pollution, water temperature, and fishing. Notably, many fishers perceive the process of fishing to have a positive effect on fisheries through the input of bait. Scientists exhibited a statistically significantly stronger concern for climate change and identified CO2 as one of the dominant pollutants in the Gulf of Maine. However, fishers and scientists agreed that management has a positive impact, which appeared to be a change over the past two decades, possibly due to increased collaboration between the two groups. This work contributes to the goal of decreasing the distance between stakeholder perspectives in the context of a co-managed fishery as well as understanding broader perceptions of impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Reconstructing the “push” and “pull” of climate and its impacts on subsistence cultures using paleolimnology
    FACETS • Vol. 6 • pp. 2042 - 2056
    Climate variability has influenced settlement and cultural activities of human populations for millennia, and our knowledge of the context of environmental drivers of migration can be inferred using paleolimnological techniques. We present a systematic map of literature to understand the breadth of paleolimnological research that exists on environmental change and its impact on subsistence cultures. We aim to illustrate how the “push” and “pull” of climate influenced human society over the late-Holocene. A systematic search found 68 unique relevant studies that discussed topics of human settlement and migration, stressors on the environment, and (or) ecological monitoring with respect to changes in climate using paleolimnological methods. We identified three primary themes: where people live, how people live, and how people will continue to live. Most studies took place in North America, within the last decade, and had a focus on diatoms, sediment characteristics, and climate. Topics ranged from reconstructions of changes in climate, human presence, human influence on the environment, subsistence strategies, and the importance of monitoring. We demonstrate the value of paleolimnological methods in understanding the timing of events, revealing long-term ecological trends, and providing baseline conditions for effective remediation and management purposes.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Learning from Indigenous knowledge holders on the state and future of wild Pacific salmon
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 718 - 740
    In response to colonial research paradigms that have subjugated Indigenous Peoples, knowledges, lands, and waters, Indigenous research methodologies have emerged to center Indigenous visions and voices in research practice. Here, we employ such methodologies to improve collective understanding of the state and future of wild Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and fish–people–place relationships across British Columbia’s three largest salmon-producing rivers: the Fraser, Skeena, and Nass. Through partnerships with 18 communities of “Salmon People” and semi-structured interviews with 48 knowledge holders (i.e., Elders), we learned that, on average, Elders spent more than half of a century actively engaged in salmon fishing and processing. Modern salmon catches are reported to be approximately one-sixth of what they were estimated to be five to seven decades ago, and the top five threats to salmon identified by Elders included (i) aquaculture, (ii) climate change, (iii) contaminants, (iv) industrial development, and (v) infectious diseases. Threat priorities varied regionally, reflecting distinct lived experiences and regional variation in the prevalence and impact of different threats. Elders perceived threats to salmon equally as threats to aquatic health and human well-being, with evidence that the relationships between people and water, and salmon and people, are being profoundly transformed.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Why the English–Wabigoon river system is still polluted by mercury 57 years after its contamination
    FACETS • Vol. 6 • pp. 2002 - 2027
    Between 1962 and 1969, 10 tonnes of mercury were discharged from a chlor-alkali plant in Dryden, Ontario, to the English–Wabigoon River. Present-day fish mercury concentrations are amongst the highest recorded in Canada. In 2017, the Grassy Narrows Science Team found no evidence of ongoing discharges from the plant site to the river water, even though large quantities of mercury remain at the site. Instead, our data suggest that ongoing erosion of high mercury particles by the river, as it meanders through contaminated floodplains, is responsible for present-day transport of mercury to Clay Lake and to Ball Lake, located 154 km downstream. In Clay Lake, surface sediment total mercury concentrations and inflow water concentrations are still about 15 times above background (86 km downstream), and in Ball Lake mercury concentrations in sediments appeared to be still increasing. The remobilization of legacy inorganic mercury from riverbank erosion between Dryden and Clay Lake stimulates methyl mercury production there, in Clay Lake, and in Ball Lake. The large quantities of methyl mercury produced between Dryden and Clay Lake are mostly dissolved in water and are swept downstream, elevating concentrations in water and biota throughout the system. Several options for remediating the ongoing contamination are discussed.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    A century of knowledge: Kwakwaka’wakw Elders and environmental change
    FACETS • Vol. 6 • pp. 2110 - 2137
    This paper reviews a century of Kwakwaka’wakw knowledge on ecological, climate, and social change. We trace the era of Indigenous governance (about the precolonial period), especially from about 1910 to the devastation of the flood in Dzawada’enuxw First Nation territory in Kingcome, British Columbia, in 2010. This time period has been chosen as the assessment period as this is the lifetime of the 10 Elders that we collaborated with to understand and position change during this tumultuous era. We call the results of this process “a century of knowledge”. Ecological, social, and climate change are positioned with scientific literature for potential divergence/convergence. Almost all aspects of the Kwakwaka’wakw home area have undergone large-scale changes including clear-cut forestry, salmon farms, climate change affecting species ranges, cultural impositions, and colonial processes working to destroy Indigenous governance. Despite these imposed changes, the communities emerge as survivors on their own terms, including using the traditional feast system known as the Potlatch to come to terms with the devastation of the 2010 flood and beyond.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    A climate-resilient marine conservation network for Canada
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 571 - 590
    Climate change and biodiversity loss are twin crises that are driving global marine conservation efforts. However, if unaccounted for, climate change can undermine the efficacy of such efforts. Despite this, integration of climate change adaptation and resilience into spatial marine conservation and management has been limited in Canada and elsewhere. With climate change impacts becoming increasingly severe, now is the time to anticipate and reduce impacts wherever possible. We provide five recommendations for an inclusive, proactive, climate-ready approach for Canada’s growing marine conservation network: (1) integrating climate-resilience as a universal objective of the Canadian Marine Conservation Network, creating and implementing (2) national transdisciplinary working groups with representation from all knowledge holders and (3) necessary tools that integrate climate change into conservation design, (4) defining operational and climate-relevant monitoring and management objectives, and (5) strengthening communication and increasing knowledge exchange around the roles and benefits of protected areas within government and towards the public. Canada’s extensive marine and coastal areas reflect national and international responsibility to engage on this issue. Canada is well positioned to assume a leading role in climate change adaptation for marine conservation and help accelerate progress towards international commitments around mitigating ongoing biodiversity loss and climate change.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Which fish is this? Fishers know more than 100 fish species in megadiverse tropical rivers
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 988 - 1007
    Ethnobiological studies on folk, common, or popular names that fishers use to identify fish can help improve fisheries monitoring and collaborations between fishers and researchers. This study investigates fishers’ knowledge (recognition, naming, and habitat use) on 115 and 119 fish species, respectively, in the Negro and Tapajos Rivers, two megadiverse rivers in the Brazilian Amazon, and investigates the relationship between such knowledge and fish importance to fisheries, fish abundance, and fish size. We also compared fishers’ perceptions on fisheries and fish abundance with literature data on fish harvests and fish sampling. We interviewed 16 fishers in 16 communities (one fisher per community, 8 communities along each river). These fishers recognized an average of 91 ± 10.4 species in the Negro River and 115 ± 7.2 species in the Tapajos River, but all fishers recognized 114 species in Negro and all species in Tapajos. The fishers’ knowledge of fish species was positively related to fishers’ perceptions on fish abundance, size, and importance to fisheries in the Negro, but only positively related to fish size in the Tapajos. Our results highlight the usefulness of fishers’ knowledge to providing data on use and cultural relevance of fish species in high diversity aquatic ecosystems.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Long-term ocean and resource dynamics in a hotspot of climate change
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 1142 - 1184
    The abundance, distribution, and size of marine species are linked to temperature and nutrient regimes and are profoundly affected by humans through exploitation and climate change. Yet little is known about long-term historical links between ocean environmental changes and resource abundance to provide context for current and potential future trends and inform conservation and management. We synthesize >4000 years of climate and marine ecosystem dynamics in a Northwest Atlantic region currently undergoing rapid changes, the Gulf of Maine and Scotian Shelf. This period spans the late Holocene cooling and recent warming and includes both Indigenous and European influence. We compare environmental records from instrumental, sedimentary, coral, and mollusk archives with ecological records from fossils, archaeological, historical, and modern data, and integrate future model projections of environmental and ecosystem changes. This multidisciplinary synthesis provides insight into multiple reference points and shifting baselines of environmental and ecosystem conditions, and projects a near-future departure from natural climate variability in 2028 for the Scotian Shelf and 2034 for the Gulf of Maine. Our work helps advancing integrative end-to-end modeling to improve the predictive capacity of ecosystem forecasts with climate change. Our results can be used to adjust marine conservation strategies and network planning and adapt ecosystem-based management with climate change.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Recent and projected climate change–induced expansion of Atlantic halibut in the Northwest Atlantic
    FACETS • Vol. 8 • pp. 1 - 14
    With the influence of climate change on marine systems expanding, climate adaptation will be fundamental for the future of fisheries management. An exponential increase in Atlantic halibut Hippoglossus hippoglossus landings over the past decade has coincided with warming ocean temperatures. Here, we explore how historical changes in abundance have been linked to changing thermal habitat conditions and project trends with a warming climate under different emissions scenarios. From 1990 to 2018, available thermal habitat increased by 11.6 ± 7.35% and growing degree days have increased by 13.5 ± 7.86 °C·days across the region. With warming, the probability of occurrence is projected to increase up to 20.5% in Canada by 2085 under RCP 8.5 for Atlantic halibut. Our results suggest that shifting patterns of halibut distribution and abundance are linked to thermal conditions and that continued warming will likely continue to enhance habitat conditions, leading to increased abundance in the Canadian range. Collectively, these results illustrate the influence of shifting environmental conditions on population dynamics and emphasize the importance of adaptive management practices in a dynamic future climate.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    A methodology for quantifying and characterizing litter from trash capture devices (TCDs) to measure impact and inform upstream solutions
    FACETS • Vol. 8 • pp. 1 - 12
    Trash capture devices (TCDs) are a rapidly evolving tool for municipal governments, non-governmental organizations, and industries to divert litter from our waterways. Here, we introduce protocols to initiate trash trapping projects to quantify and characterize captured anthropogenic litter based on a case study using Seabins. In addition, we have introduced a network for global data collection via TCDs. Our first protocol is a visual audit of the potential site to inform the type and location for TCD deployment. Our next two protocols quantify and characterize the litter captured by TCDs: (1) a simple protocol intended for daily monitoring and (2) a detailed protocol to characterize and quantify all large debris (>3 cm) and a subset of the small debris (2 mm–3 cm) caught in the devices. Using Seabins in the Toronto Harbour to test our methodology, we found that our subsampling methodology has a 6.9% error rate. Over a 19-week period, the Seabins captured ∼85 000 pieces of small debris. Our study highlights the utility of TCDs and proposes methods to realize this utility globally. TCDs should become more widespread and utilized as a triple threat: a cleanup tool, a data collection tool, and a platform for outreach and education.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Opposing trends in fisheries portfolio diversity at harvester and community scales signal opportunities for adaptation
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 1385 - 1410
    Understanding mechanisms that promote social-ecological resilience can inform future adaptation strategies. Among seafood dependent communities, these can be illuminated by assessing change among fisheries portfolios. Here, in collaboration with a Coast Salish Nation in British Columbia, Canada, we used expert Indigenous knowledge and network analyses to chronicle differences in fisheries portfolios pre and post a social-ecological regime shift. We then evaluated key drivers of change using semi-structured interviews. We found that while portfolios decreased in diversity of seafood types harvested and consumed among individuals overtime, portfolios increased in their diversification at the community level because more similar seafoods within less diverse individual portfolios were more commonly harvested and consumed by the Nation as a whole. Thus, diversity can operate simultaneously in opposing directions at different scales of organization. Experts identified four key mechanisms driving these changes, including commercial activities controlled by a centralized governance regime, intergenerational knowledge loss, adaptive learning to new ecological and economic opportunities, and the trading of seafood with other Indigenous communities. Unexpectedly, increased predation by marine mammals was also flagged as a key driver of change. Adaptation strategies that support access to and governance of diverse fisheries, exchange of seafoods among communities, and knowledge transfer among generations would promote social-ecological resilience, food security, and community well-being.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Incorporating protected areas into global fish biomass projections under climate change
    FACETS • Vol. 8 • pp. 1 - 16
    The world has set ambitious goals to protect marine biodiversity and improve ocean health in the face of anthropogenic threats. Yet, the efficiency of spatial tools such as marine reserves to protect biodiversity is threatened as climate change shifts species distributions globally. Here, we investigate the ability of global marine reserves to protect fish biomass under future climate change scenarios. Moreover, we explore regional patterns and compare worlds with and without marine reserves. We rely on computer modeling to simulate an utopian world where all marine reserves thrive and ocean governance is effective. Results suggest that climate change will affect fish biomass in most marine reserves and their surrounding waters throughout the 21st century. The biomass change varies among regions, with tropical reserves losing biomass, temperate ones gaining, and polar reserves having mixed effects. Overall, a world with marine reserves will still be better off in terms of fish biomass than a world without marine reserves. Our study highlights the need to promote climate resilient conservation methods if we are to maintain and recover biodiversity in the ocean under a changing world.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Safety Net Ontario: Ontario’s outsized role in the “Global Safety Net” for climate and biodiversity
    FACETS • Vol. 8 • pp. 1 - 17
    Dinerstein et al. present a spatially explicit global framework for protected areas needed to reverse catastrophic biodiversity losses and stabilize climate. The Province of Ontario (Canada) stands out in this “Global Safety Net (GSN)” as a critical jurisdiction for meeting those goals, because of both the large extent of roadless lands and high carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems. Simultaneously, pressure is increasing to develop unmanaged lands in Ontario, particularly in the Far North, for resource extraction. Here, we extract data from the GSN to identify and calculate the areal extent of target regions present in Ontario and critically review the results in terms of accuracy and implications for conservation. We show that when region-specific data are incorporated, Ontario is even more significant than what is shown in the GSN, especially in terms of carbon stocks in forested and open peatlands. Additionally, the biodiversity metrics used in the GSN only partially capture opportunities for conservation in Ontario, and the officially recognized extent of Indigenous lands vastly underestimates the role of First Nations in conservation. Despite these limitations, our analyses indicate that Ontario plays an outsized role in terms of its potential to impact the trajectories both of biodiversity and climate globally.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Runoff and discharge pathways of microplastics into freshwater ecosystems: A systematic review and meta-analysis
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 1473 - 1492
    Although many studies have focused on the importance of littering and (or) illegal dumping as a source of plastic pollution to freshwater, other relevant pathways should be considered, including wastewater, stormwater runoff, industrial effluent/runoff, and agricultural runoff. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis focused on these four pathways. We quantified the number of studies, amount and characteristics of microplastics reported, and the methods used to sample and measure microplastics from each pathway. Overall, we found 121 studies relevant to our criteria, published from 2014 to 2020. Of these, 54 (45%) quantified and characterized microplastics in discharge pathways. Although most focused on wastewater treatment plant effluent (85%), microplastic concentrations were highest in stormwater runoff (0.009 to 3862 particles/L). Morphologies of particles varied among pathways and sampling methods. For example, stormwater runoff was the only pathway with rubbery particles. When assessing methods, our analysis suggested that water filtered through a finer (<200 um) mesh and of a smaller volume (e.g., 6 L) captured more particles, and with a slightly greater morphological diversity. Overall, our meta-analysis suggested that all four pathways bring microplastics into freshwater ecosystems, and further research is necessary to inform the best methods for monitoring and to better understand hydrologic patterns that can inform local mitigation.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    The reproducibility of remotely piloted aircraft systems to monitor seasonal variation in submerged seagrass and estuarine habitats
    FACETS • Vol. 8 • pp. 1 - 22
    Seasonal variation in seagrass growth and senescence affects the provision of ecosystem services and restoration efforts, requiring seasonal monitoring. Remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) enable frequent high-resolution surveys at full-meadow scales. However, the reproducibility of RPAS surveys is challenged by varying environmental conditions, which are common in temperate estuarine systems. We surveyed three eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, using an RPAS equipped with a three-color band (red, green, blue [RGB]) camera, to evaluate the seasonal reproducibility of RPAS surveys and assess the effects of flight altitude (30–115 m) on classification accuracy. Habitat percent cover was estimated using supervised image classification and compared to corresponding estimates from snorkel quadrat surveys. Our results revealed inconsistent misclassification due to environmental variability and low spectral separability between habitats. This rendered differentiating between model misclassification versus actual changes in seagrass cover infeasible. Conflicting estimates in seagrass and macroalgae percent cover compared to snorkel estimates could not be corrected by decreasing the RPAS altitude. Instead, higher altitude surveys may be worth the trade-off of lower image resolution to avoid environmental conditions shifting mid-survey. We conclude that RPAS surveys using RGB imagery alone may be insufficient to discriminate seasonal changes in estuarine subtidal vegetated habitats.