Download Project information Project number Innovation Fund Proposal

Project number 33089
Innovation Fund
Proposal
Project information
Project title
The Churchill Marine Observatory
Applicant institution
University of Manitoba
Collaborating institutions
University of Calgary, University of Victoria
Project leader
Name
David Barber
Title/position
Professor, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1), Associate Dean (Research)
Project funding
Total project cost
$31,775,435
Amount requested from the
CFI
$12,396,452
Percentage of the total project
cost requested from the CFI
(maximum 40%)
39%
Disciplines
Primary discipline
GEOPHYSICS
Primary sub-discipline
Applied Geophysics
Secondary discipline
ENVIRONMENT
Secondary sub-discipline
Bioremediation
Tertiary discipline
ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING
Tertiary sub-discipline
Digital Signal Processing
Areas of application
Primary
Development of the North
Secondary
Fossil fuels and their derivatives
Submitted on 2014-06-27
Project number 33089
Innovation Fund
Proposal
Keywords
Research or technology
development
Bioremediation, chemical dispersants, petroleum ecotoxicolgy, sea ice dynamics
and thermodynamics, ecology and ecosystem structure
Specific infrastructure
Arctic, Oil in Ice Mesocosm, Comprehensive Environmental Monitoring, Hudson
Bay
Submitted on 2014-06-27
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Canada Foundation for Innovation
Project number 33089
Plain language summary
This summary will not be used in the review process. Should the project be funded, the CFI
may use it in its communication products.
The Churchill Marine Observatory (CMO) will be a globally unique, highly innovative, multidisciplinary
research facility located in Churchill, Manitoba, adjacent to Canada’s only Arctic deep-water port. The CMO
will directly address technological, scientific, and economic issues pertaining to Arctic marine transportation
and oil and gas exploration and development throughout the Arctic.
CMO will include an Oil in Sea Ice Mesocosm (OSIM), an Environmental Observing (EO) system, and
a logistics base. OSIM will consist of two saltwater sub-pools designed to simultaneously accommodate
contaminated and control experiments on various scenarios of oil spills in sea ice. The EO system will be
located in the Churchill estuary and along the main shipping channel across Hudson Bay and Strait. The EO
system will provide a state-of-the-art monitoring system and will be used to scale process studies conducted
in OSIM to Hudson Bay and the larger Arctic environment. The logistics base will underpin all CMO research.
CMO will position Canada as a global leader of research into the detection, impacts, and mitigation of oil
spills in sea ice. Knowledge gained through CMO will strengthen Canada’s technological capacity to protect
the Arctic environment. Partnerships with indigenous organizations will ensure knowledge exchange; the
private sector will provide market-driven uptake of technology; and various levels of government will transfer
knowledge into policy and regulation.
Project summary
Proposal
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University of Manitoba
Project Summary
33089
The Churchill Marine Observatory (CMO) represents a first-of-a-kind facility for the
circumpolar Arctic. Located in Churchill, Manitoba, and adjacent to Canada’s only Arctic deepwater port, CMO will dramatically advance knowledge of oil spills in areas with sea ice, impacts
of these contaminants on the marine ecosystem, and development of environmental technologies
designed for detection and mitigation of oil in ice-covered waters. The CMO will allow the
international research team to continually strive for global leadership by conducting world-class,
transformative research and technology development in Arctic System Science. This strategic
priority is shared by University of Manitoba (UM), the University of Calgary, and the University
of Victoria, the three collaborating institutions in this proposal. In addition, CMO fully
complements existing research facilities in Churchill and contributes to the formation of a
national observing system for the Arctic in partnership with the Canadian High Arctic Research
Station (CHARS), Churchill Northern Studies Centre (CNSC), private sector partners, and
multiple government levels.
Proposed Research Infrastructure
CMO is specifically designed to investigate a
variety of contaminants under both landfast
first-year sea ice and mobile ice types. Three
mutually supporting core research and
technology elements are proposed: 1) the Oil
in Sea Ice Mesocosm (OSIM); 2) a fully
integrated Environmental Observing (EO)
system; and 3) a Logistics Base. Research
capacity enabled by CMO will include the
following:



A newly developed suite of remote
sensing and modeling tools for detecting contaminants at multiple space and time scales.
Procedures to mitigate environmental impacts from a spill using conventional techniques
such as dispersants and in situ burning, in addition to novel techniques such as cold
temperature-adapted bioremediation.
Advanced capacity to monitor for and quantify potential impacts from shipping and
development activities in the Arctic while also providing advanced information required
by operators for safe shipping, exploration and development.
The true strength of the proposed program is the full integration of OSIM research and
technology development with the state-of-the-art EO system. The EO system directly supports
OSIM by supplying in situ data on the natural range and variability of the key environmental
factors that define ocean/sea ice/atmosphere (OSA) climate states. By deploying identical
instruments in both OSIM and the EO system, equivalent observations will be made in the upper
ocean, ocean-ice interface, through the ice volume, and the ice-atmosphere interface. This level
of coordinated cross-disciplinary environmental monitoring is unprecedented in Canada’s Arctic.
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University of Manitoba
Project Summary
33089
OSIM will address research of how crude oils, distillates, fuel oils, herding agents, dispersants
and residues from in situ burning, liquefied natural gas, and other transportation-related
contaminants affect processes across the OSA interface. The OSIM science objectives are
organized under three broad categories: i) detection, ii) impacts, and iii) mitigation to develop an
understanding of what effects various contaminants have on Arctic ecosystems, and on the
thermodynamic and dynamic evolution of snow-covered sea ice.
To bridge the gap between field experiments and those conducted under simulated conditions,
OSIM will offer a unique opportunity to grow Arctic sea ice under ambient winter conditions. It
will consist of a reinforced above-ground pool, 30’ (width) x 60’ (length) x 10’ (depth) with a
permanent dividing wall to create two sub-pools. Natural seawater will be pumped from the
estuary into the sub-pools. One sub-pool will be dedicated to oil spill and other contaminant
mesocosm experiments with the second sub-pool as an uncontaminated control. This facility
will also feature a retractable roof and above- and below-water sensor systems.
By drawing water directly from the estuary, OSIM will also provide capacity for discrete daily to
weekly monitoring of standard physical-chemical attributes of water quality, spectral
fluorescence, size distribution, and environmental DNA to assess microbial abundance and
diversity and to screen for invasive species. This will contribute to scale studies.
The EO will provide a synchronized suite of instruments to study processes of OSA coupling,
biophysical monitoring, and, in particular, the effects of freshwater and extreme weather on oil
spills and other contaminants from marine transportation. This facility (approx. locations below)
will incorporate underwater moorings and atmospheric observation platforms, capable of near
real-time internet data transfer, located along the shipping corridor to/from the Port of Churchill.
One estuary, one smart-profiling, and three
shipping lane moorings are proposed. The estuary
observatory (E in map) and the smart profiling
observatory (2 in map) will be dedicated
technology-development moorings. Efforts will
focus on the development and testing of tools such
as fish biomass sensors and logic-driven profiling
“SeaCycler” technology that senses and adapts
sampling strategies to respond automatically to
prevailing conditions. In collaboration with ONC, the estuary mooring will be linked with a
direct optical cable connection to CMO. The system will be designed and equipped for real-time
observations of biogeochemical and optical water properties including monitoring of algal
biomass for major taxonomic groups, zooplankton biomass and species composition, fish
biomass and species composition, and acoustic tracking of marine mammals. By sampling water
directly from the inlet structure of OSIM, variation in chemical and biological properties will be
integrated with experiments conducted in OSIM to evaluate how shipping and oil may impact
higher trophic levels. All moorings will monitor ice thickness using ice profiling sonar.
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University of Manitoba
Project Summary
33089
In support of comprehensive ocean system observation, the shipping lane moorings (1 in map)
located in Hudson Bay and Strait will monitor ice thickness and motion, as well as salinity,
temperature, ocean fluorescence, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, and other relevant ocean-state
variables. Locations of the moorings will be selected to optimize the relevance of observations
to marine transportation and maximize the ability to detect and monitor conditions should
contamination occur along the transportation corridor. These moorings will also permit the
deployment of developmental technologies such as a contaminant-detection system.
An atmospheric observatory (E in map) will provide real-time data on extreme weather events
and atmospheric chemistry at the OSIM site. In addition to monitoring atmospheric variables,
the observatory will house a scanning X-band dual-pole Doppler weather radar and suite of realtime sensors for air quality. Parameters from these instruments are central to understanding
extreme weather impacts on coupled OSA processes, dispersion, and burn studies of oil in ice.
The logistics base is a necessary supporting component of the CMO, underpinning all aspects of
the research at the facility. This base will provide access to the Churchill River estuary and will
include field preparation labs, a data acquisition room to acquire and transmit data streams from
CMO sensors, a dedicated coastal research vessel, and a staging/storage building. Additional lab
facilities located at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre will be used to provide for processing
and stabilization of samples prior to their transfer to more advanced laboratories.
Anticipated Outcomes
The CMO is proposed as a national facility, serving national and international needs and
gathering over 170 researchers from six Canadian universities, three international universities
(Aarhus, Denmark; Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland; and University of
Washington, Seattle, Washington), 10 government departments, and 10 private sector partners.
This facility will present an exceptional opportunity to train a new generation of experts on
Arctic sustainable development.
CMO will lead direct integration of industry, government and academic interests, and ensure an
ability to forge and foster productive, value-added partnerships within and among institutions,
sectors and disciplines. Industry and government members of a CMO Board of Directors will be
able to capitalize on scientific knowledge from academic members, allowing them to
commercialize technologies and techniques first developed in CMO. Pre-competitive research
will focus around detection, impacts and mitigation of oil in ice technologies. The EO system
will be used to validate and scale studies from the OSIM facility in order to ensure Arctic-wide
relevance of CMO outputs. The three mutually supporting core research and technology
infrastructure elements will contribute to substantial research innovation, sustainable marine
transportation, and the exploration and development of Arctic resources. Through the Board,
and a commitment to sharing of results, data, technology, and methods, CMO will help ensure
that governments and industry have comprehensive information available to conduct
environmental assessments and to plan for and respond to economic development pressures
throughout the Arctic.
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