Mental illnesses, particularly depression, is one of the leading causes of global disease burden. In addition to reducing the quality of life of patients and their relatives, it costs billions of dollars annually to the Canadian economy. Unfortunately, current antidepressant drugs are barely satisfactory and have numerous side-effects. The goal of this project is to discover potential new antidepressant drugs from wild mushrooms native to British Columbia.
Throughout Western North America with few exceptions all species of Pacific Salmon stocks have been in steady decline for over 50 years. On the West Coast of Vancouver Island, Chinook salmon stocks are of particular concern. These fish provide ecological, cultural and economic value to the region and current numbers are at an all-time low.
Food packaging, particularly packaging for fish, relies heavily on the use of Styrofoam (i.e. expanded polystyrene or EPS). The world’s concern for environmental sustainability has prompted a need for eco-friendly alternatives and has led governments to enact single use plastics bans in many areas, such as Montreal and New York.
The intent of the proposed research project is to measure the performance of a highly-insulated wall assembly system when an exterior air barrier system is used and air movement within and across the wall occurs. In cold climates, the movement of warm, moist air within and across an exterior wall may result in moisture accumulating on some of the surfaces within the wall if the conditions allow, causing long-term damage if it does not dry out.
Lakes and reservoirs affect regional weather but their influence on the average environmental conditions in the remote, sparsely monitored, northwest of Canada has seldom been investigated. This study examines the climatic influences of lakes and reservoir impoundment on two First Nations territories in southern Yukon and northern British Columbia, using an atmospheric model alongside a lake model. Two 10-year meteorological simulations, corresponding to pre- and post-impoundment conditions, and for landscape with and without the lakes, respectively, will be used.
The White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) population in the lower Columbia River was listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act in 2006. Natural recruitment failure has occurred since the 1970s, with regular spawning occurring but insufficient numbers of viable offspring reaching juvenile stage to sustain the population. A recovery strategy has included the establishment of a successful hatchery to supplement the population while research into recruitment failure and collection of baseline biological data continues.
The Peace River Regional District (PRRD) and the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), are collaborating on the development of a solid waste management plan (SWMP) whose foundation is based on the five “R”s as outlined in A Guide to Solid Waste Management Planning (2016) produced by the British Columbia Ministry of Environment1. The hierarchy of the five R approach is: reduce, resuse, recycle, recover, residuals. While strategies have been put in place by the PRRD to encourage the reduce and reuse initiatives, this proposal focusses on the recycle and recover aspects.
In collaboration with the Nadleh Whut'en and Stellat'en First Nations and SERNbc, researchers from university of Northern British Columbia will look at the response of vegetation communities to fire disturbance in the Northern interior of BC. We hope to determine if burn severity alters expected recovery rates and richness of vegetation. We hope to accurately document plant stress in three plants of cultural importance, and note if changes in soils affect plant health and ability to regenerate for food and medicinal use.
Agricultural wastewater and public effluents often contain elevated levels of phosphorous and nitrogen that limit its ability to be directly repurposed as crop fertilizer or irrigation spray. Removal of soluble nutrients from wastewater is difficult. Current treatment options have high investment costs and are often not well suited for smaller farm sizes common in Canada. This research intends to characterize the utility of a solid-state adsorbent material engineered by NPower Clean Tech Corporation that shows promise for removing anionic forms of phosphorous and nitrogen.
Biocoal is made from wood charcoal and a binder. Biocoal made by BC Biocarbon is made to replace coal in high temperature combustion uses. As biocoal is similar to coal, it is thought to be used to store carbon in the ground. This project hopes to demonstrate the carbon storage ability of biocoal, plastic-sealed wood, and bitumen-bound wood.
Experiment conditions for each product will include landfill, surface environment, indoor room temperature, and frozen for one year.
