Ocean research worth $16M announced in Atlantic region

Ocean Frontier Institute released details on sixocean research projects worth $16 million including twowith close P.E.I. connections.

The Dalhousie University based research hubalready has17 large projects underway.

It was founded in 2016 and is linked between Dalhousie University, Memorial University, and UPEI.

One of the projects worth nearly $2 million will focus on the continental shelf surrounding P.E.I. to look at freshwater offshore aquifers.

"Our goal will be to explore freshwater resourcesoften beneath the sea floor, below the sea bed," saidVittorio Maselli, principal investigator with theEarth and environmental sciences atDalhousie University.

He said P.E.I.'sfamous red sandstone cliffs are part of a unique system that extends beneath the sea floor.

"We believe that those deposits contain, potentially, may contain freshwater reserves that can be exploited in the future," Maselli said.

P.E.I. is the only province that reliessolely on groundwater resources for all of its agriculture and domestic uses,Maselli said.Knowing the connection between the two possible sources would be important, he said, as it is essential for the Island.

"Climate change may have an impact on those resources in many ways," Maselli said. "We will study Prince Edward Island to develop conceptual models that can be applied in similar systems worldwide."

They will also be investigating how pollutioncould be carried from land to sea through the aquifers.

A second project worth roughly $1.2 million One Ocean Health will look at the connection between ocean, marine animal and human health.

"From lobster shell disease to salmon aquaculture and other fin-fish aquaculture," saidMark Fast, a principal investigator with UPEI.

"Trying to understand how shell disease would impact the lobster population and how that will potentially change with increasing water temperatures that we have been experiencing."

Some of the focus will be on environmental impacts on ocean-sourced food, how pathogens spread and antimicrobial use in ocean food-farming.

They are also looking at how byproducts like shells could be used as a polymer instead of some kinds of plastic.

"With aquaculture continuously increasing and with fisheries pretty much being on a plateau for a couple of decades now, we need to understand how better to sustainably use both of these resources for human consumption but then also byproductsfrom these resources," said Fast.

The other four projects announced were:

• $2,000,000 Sea floor mapping in the Northwest Atlantic.
• $4,000,000 Looking into climate change impacts on the Northwest Atlantic biological carbon pump.
• $4,000,000 Future ocean and coastal infrastructure.
• $4,005,194 Combining community-led knowledge in Northern Canada with traditional science.

The institute's research results from the first round of projectsare already rolling out with the majority of it expected in 2022.

The next round of results is expected by 2023.

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