WINNIPEG
The home of Canada's leading Arctic research projects is being named after Nellie Cournoyea, chief executive officer of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.
University of Manitoba faculty and dignitaries cut the ribbon at the Nellie Cournoyea Arctic Research Facility's grand opening on March 18. Above, Dr. Clayton Riddell, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation president Nellie Cournoyea and Minister of Advanced Education and Literacy Erin Selby -
photo courtesy of Mike Latschislaw - |
The Nellie Cournoyea Arctic Research Facility had its grand opening at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg on March 18.
Frank Pokiak, chair of the Inuvialuit Game Council, said the facility's namesake is a significant choice.
"It's named for someone that's quite important to us," he said.
The facility is located on the new fifth floor of the university's Wallace Building, which houses the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources.
It encompasses 60,000 square feet and includes the latest scientific equipment, specialized labs and classrooms. It also includes an outdoor saltwater pool where scientists can grow their own sea ice and perform experiments, called the Sea Ice Environmental Research Facility, said Dr. David Barber, director of the Centre for Earth Observation Science at the university, who is one of the project's leaders.
"It's basically a big swimming pool full of salt water that we can freeze and form sea ice in and test different kinds of hypotheses about how sea ice responds to different kinds of climate inputs," he said.
Barber said the suggestion to name the facility after Cournoyea came from Dr. Clayton H. Riddell.
Riddell, chairman of Canadian energy company Paramount Resources Ltd. and a University of Manitoba graduate, donated $2.5 million toward the facility. The entire facility holds a price tag of $15 million.
Naming it for Cournoyea reflects the important role Inuvialuit play in Arctic research, Barber said.
"It's a good reflection of our relationship with Inuvialuit," he said.
He said combining traditional knowledge with Western science has long been practised in research projects.
"If we merge those two knowledge systems together, we can get more than we can by using either one of them separately," Barber said. "We've had many projects in the Western high Arctic that have used this premise and it's worked very well for many years now. We have a very close working relationship with them."
Pokiak said pairing traditional knowledge and science has proven to be beneficial to both researchers and Northerners.
He said years ago, researchers were concerned about the decline in Snow Goose populations in the Anderson River area.
Residents told them the reason for the decline.
"Shortly after they nest, the grizzly bears would go in and clean all the nesting area out, eat all the eggs," Pokiak said.
Researchers did a study and confirmed the locals' story.
Pokiak said the community suggested a way to help, which was to hire residents to guard the area during nesting season.
"The people that share the traditional knowledge with us, it's really important to us that we have that information," Pokiak said.
On the other hand, Western science is also shedding light on other topics, such as how far ringed seals can travel.
Pokiak said information gathered from sea ice research can help the Inuvialuit Game Council.
"It's quite interesting the information they're collecting on sea ice that we would never have if they weren't out there," he said.
Barber said research done at the facility will help guide choices made about the Arctic. For example, research on the effects of oil on sea ice can help Inuvialuit make informed decisions about oil and gas projects.
"We study things like what happens if you have an oil spill in the ice, where does that oil spill go to, what are the impacts of that on the system and how can we clean that kind of stuff up," said Barber.
Learning about sea ice is a large component of the facility's research, said Dr. Tim Papakyriakou, a microclimatology researcher and professor at the university. A new lab in the facility, titled the Ultra-Clean Trace Elements Laboratory, is the first of its kind in Canada.
Papakyriakou said the lab allows scientists to test for traces of contaminants in sea ice and water.
He said the research will have a global impact.
"We'll be able to contribute to the affect on climate, oceanography, how it's affecting the ocean marine biological system, chemical system and all the connections in between," said Papakyriakou.
Dr. Feiyue Wang, University of Manitoba professor and another project leader, said understanding the relationship between sea ice and mercury is an important part of Arctic research.
He said the disappearance of multi-year ice results in more open water and researchers are examining the effects sea ice has on the transfer of mercury from the atmosphere to the ocean.
Researching this process will help to learn about the impact mercury has on traditional foods, such as whales and seals.
