Long-awaited research lab opens in Churchill to study oil spills and more

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No one wants to see an oil spill in the Canadian Arctic. But Feiyue Wang is ready to start a few in the name of science.

An environmental geochemist at the University of Manitoba, Dr. Wang is co-leader of the Churchill Marine Observatory, a newly opened facility on the province’s remote north coast that is tailor-made for studies of sea ice and the region’s unique Arctic ecosystem – and that includes oil spills.

The $45-million observatory, located on a peninsula where the Churchill River meets Hudson Bay, held its official opening on Tuesday. The event marks the culmination of a decade-long odyssey to bring the new laboratory into existence. Supporters say it will provide decision-makers with hard data in a part of the world that is poised for rapid change.

“We cannot be called a maritime province without a marine research facility,” said Dr. Wang, during the opening ceremony.

As climate change brings reduced ice cover to Hudson Bay, global shipping traffic is expected to increase, perhaps dramatically, in Canada’s only Arctic deep-water port. That potential was demonstrated last week when a freighter loaded with zinc concentrate mined in Manitoba departed from Churchill for Europe – the first such shipment in more than two decades.

But a warming Arctic also poses increased risks, including the possibility of oil spills on ice-covered waters.

“I think, as a country, we’ve been fortunate that to this day there has not been a major spill” in the Arctic, Dr. Wang said. “But that could change any time.”

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Some of the observatory’s first experiments will include producing miniature oil spills and then using genomic sequencing to track the bacterial populations that emerge to consume the oil.

To that end, the laboratory’s centrepiece is a pair of concrete pools, 10 by 10 metres across and 2.5 metres deep. These will serve as “mesocosms” – isolated marine environments that use seawater drawn directly from Hudson Bay or freshwater flowing in from the river to both mimic and manipulate processes that occur in nature.

The concept grew out of a similar experiment at the university’s Winnipeg campus, but the observatory’s presence in Churchill now means that studies can be conducted in the same conditions in which sea ice naturally forms and develops.

“It’s the first of its kind,” said Julienne Stroeve, a Canada 150 Research Chair at the university whose work is aimed at studying the effects of climate change on sea ice. “There are so many different kinds of experiments you can do.”

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The pools are enclosed but are at ambient temperature and in the winter can be used to grow ice with different properties. The top half of the enclosure is retractable, which can expose ice to the elements, including snowfall. This is important, Dr. Stroeve said, because the role of snow on sea ice is poorly understood and a source of uncertainty for forecasters using satellite data to estimate ice thickness.

For this reason, the pools are also outfitted with overhead radar masts so that measurements of different types of ice created under controlled conditions can be used to improve the accuracy of satellite observations.

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony beside the pools, Dr. Wang told those in attendance, “We have a surprise for you.” Then the top half of the enclosure slowly rolled back, revealing a panoramic view of Hudson Bay, where beluga whales could be seen breaching just beyond the rolling surf.

The sight was an effective reminder of another branch of research that will be conducted as part of the observatory, involving field studies of the marine ecosystem along the shallow coast using a repurposed crab boat with up to 20 scientists and crew.

Here the goal is to fill in knowledge gaps and go beyond data gathered in deep water where life is more sparse, said C.J. Mundy, a biological oceanographer and the observatory’s other co-lead.

“As soon as you get toward the coast, you have the dynamics of the land talking to the ocean,” he said. Those dynamics provide nutrients that can drive biological production and help sustain coastal communities.

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The Churchill Marine Observatory was the brainchild of David Barber, a University of Manitoba scientist who in 2015 secured funding for the project from the Canada Foundation for Innovation together with the province and other partners.

The construction of the facility faced several hurdles, including floods in 2017 that washed out part of a rail line and cut off Churchill for 18 months. The COVID-19 pandemic led to further delays. Last year, the observatory also had to replace its roof, which was blown off during a severe storm

Dr. Barber died in 2022. Part of the opening ceremony included the unveiling of a plaque in his memory.

Churchill’s Mayor Mike Spence – who had his initial conversation about the facility with Dr. Barber more than 16 years ago – said the project was both the fulfilment of a vision and a sign of the critical importance of scientific data in helping the region to navigate the future.

“As you develop this community you really need science and research to lead,” he said.

The observatory joins a small constellation of permanent facilities dedicated to scientific research across Canada’s vast northern reaches. Others include the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) in Eureka and the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) in Cambridge Bay, both in Nunavut. The Canadian research icebreaker Amundsen has also been a mainstay of polar science, with return trips to the Arctic each summer.

David Hik, who is chief scientist at CHARS, said in an e-mail that the new facility in Churchill is “an extremely important and complementary addition” to northern research in Canada that cannot be replicated anywhere else.

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