The American marten is a mink sized member of the weasel family. The Cape Breton Island population is believed to consist of fewer than 50 individuals. The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources (NSDNR; partner organization) have already begun efforts to augment the population in association with other partners. Individual based models (IBMs) are used to simulate population level processes (e.g. persistence, distribution) through cumulative individual life histories (e.g. reproduction, dispersal, mortality) in a virtual habitat.

The objective of this project is to assess the performance of engineered instream structures and observe changes in bed morphology that occurred on a side-channel restoration project on the Seymour River in British Columbia through field work and 2D modelling. Field work includes the collection of velocities using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), several ground surveys and collecting sediment samples.

A rural Saskatchewan resort community has contracted with Erin Consulting, Ltd, to offer environmentally friendly solutions to their wastewater treatment and management challenges. To that end, an intern from the University of Regina has been identified to help offer design options using native Prairie plants that can remove nutrients and pathogens from the water. The use of native Prairie plants is preferred so that the treatment system will operate under normal climate conditions (extreme cold and hot, as well as dry) in Saskatchewan.

Evapotranspiration is a fundamental component of the hydrologic cycle. According to Environment Canada, on average, as much as 40% of precipitation in Canada is evaporated or transpired. Since evaporation makes up a considerable portion of the water budget, its variability will therefore have proportionally larger impacts on all other related processes. For example, evaporation impacts flood prediction, irrigation, crop growth, hydroelectric production, water navigation, diseases, indigenous peoples’ health and food supply and the carbon budget (Bonan, 2002).

Contaminants can become “trapped” in soil over time because of various chemical and biological processes. Trapped contaminants do not cause toxic effects in plants and soil animals even if it is detectible by chemical methods. Therefore, soil contaminant concentration can exceed established safety standards but represent minimal risk to soil organisms if the contaminant is trapped. Growing earthworms in contaminated soil is a common method to evaluate the toxic effects of contaminants in soil; however, this process is time consuming.

Advanced mathematical techniques will be applied to optimize the design of septic tanks of Clearford Industries. Effective design of these tanks depends on several operational parameters such as flow rate, temperature and location (industrial parks, rural communities or private individual properties) of the tanks. Due to the said parameters, it becomes difficult for the companies to manufacture and install tanks without in©\depth knowledge on flow hydraulics.

This research project will focus on gathering knowledge around policy development related to sustainability and the built environment. By working with a network of organizations (the Green Building Council Network) first hand experiences can be gathered on how Green Building Councils around the world have been able to come together with their national governments and guide green building policy development. The information will be gathered using a questionnaire that will be passed around to each Green Building Council.

Ultraviolet reactors are currently used on a commercial scale to disinfect fluids such as drinking water and secondary effluent. However, current reactor designs are limited in their ability to treat optically thick fluids, due to the short penetration of the UV in these fluids. New reactor designs are required to overcome this problem. This internship will use computer modeling to simulate the behaviour of a novel reactor for treating fluids with UV radiation. The modeling will help to determine the critical design parameters for treating various fluids.

The condition of school facilities is an important, manageable determinant of teaching and learning outcomes. Recent research suggests that the effects of facility conditions on learning outcomes are mediated through “school climate”. However, for both scientific research and practical purposes, the understanding of what “school climate” means and how it is measured is unhelpfully vague.

Coal-fired and base-load natural gas power plants often continue to operate at a high capacity even when there is no demand for their electricity, because it is too expensive to reduce output only to increase it when demand picks up. This occurs primarily at night, when excess power needs to be dumped at whatever price can be obtained, even zero. Since wind and run-off-river generating facilities can reduce output most rapidly, coal and gas power will replace these renewable sources, thereby wasting renewables and causing greater emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere than need be.