Sep 9: Science in the field special

Originally published on Sept. 9, 2023

On this week's episode of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald:

Quirks and Quarks54:02Our Summer in the Field special: We catch up with Canadian scientists whove been exploring the Pacific ocean depths, adventuring in the far north and chasing butterflies on the shores of the great lakes

Reintroducing a rare butterfly to a restored ecosystem; Studying Vancouvers bats in front of a curious audience; Investigating whether Arctic methane seeps could tell us about life on Mars; Revealing the hidden worlds in Pacific ocean depths; Plan a, forget it. Plan b, oh well. Plan c study Saskatchewan ticks; Dodging wild boars while doing archeology in southern Italy; Sidewalk gardens keep harmful chemicals out of streams.

Reintroducing a rare butterfly to a restored ecosystem

The mottled duskywing is an inconspicuous butterfly, but a project to reintroduce it to the shores of Lake Huron represents an ecological success story. The insect's natural habitat is the oak savannah, which was once common in Ontario, buthad largely vanished thanks to agriculture and development. In a restored patch of oak savannah in PineryProvincial Park, biologists Michelle Polley and Jessica Linton are part of a team carefully releasing and monitoring butterflies to re-establish them in their old home.

Studying Vancouver's bats in front of a curious audience

Not all field studies take place in the field. Aaron Aguire, a masters student in UBC's Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability spent his summer walking around the city of Vancouver, studying bats. He was trying to understand how bats use urban and natural landscapes in the cityand how this impacts their diversity and abundance. He also spent a lot of time happily explaining his work to curious onlookers.

Investigating whether Arctic methane seeps could tell us about life on Mars

The search for life on Mars took astrobiologist Haley Sapers from York University in Toronto to Axel Heiberg Island in Nunavut for several weeks in July. She studied the release of methane gas from cold, salty runoff from the thawing permafrost. The signature of the methane seeps in Nunavut may compare to known methane plumes on Marsand provide evidence of microbial life on the red planet.

Revealing the hidden worlds in Pacific ocean depths

Much of the seafloor off the Canadian Pacific coast sits on the boundary of several active tectonic plates, and this unique geography creates rare biodiversity hotspots. On their two-week expedition aboard the Canadian Coast Guard oceanographic ship, the John P. Tully, Cherisse Du Preez and a team of marine researchers saw extinct and active underwater volcanoes, seamounts, cold methane seeps that form floating icebergs on the bottom of the ocean, and alien-looking marine creatures that inhabit these places. The expedition, which is a collaboration between Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the coastal First Nations, aims to help better understand and protect these fragile ecosystems.

Plan A, forget it. Plan B, oh well. Plan C:study Saskatchewan ticks

First, the melting snowpack forced the cancellation of plans to study snow geese and Arctic fox in Nunavut. Then, wildfires in the Northwest Territories resulted in the evacuation of a rodent field site there. SoEmily Jenkins, a veterinary microbiologist from the University of Saskatchewan, was happy to stay home and study ticks. From a scientific point of view, she was thrilled to find the first black-legged tick in that province after 10years of searching.

Dodging wild boars while doing archeology in southern Italy

This summer, Christine Davidson, an archaeologist from Trent University in Peterborough, took part in the Metaponto Archaeological Project in southern Italy. A treasure trove of artifacts there suggest the site was used quite differently by two different groups of people between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE. For Greek colonists, it was a sacred place; for the indigenous Oenotrians it was a settlement. But it was the current population of wild boars that the archaeologists found most challenging.

Sidewalk gardens keep harmful chemicals out of streams

Rain gardens are virtually indistinguishable from a regular city lawn, but scientists found out that these gardens can be a powerful tool to keep rainwater runoff clean from harmful chemicals. Researchers Timothy Rodgers and Sylvie Spraakman tested how well rain gardens in Vancouver help filter out one particular chemical, 6PPD-quinone which comes from car tires and is extremely toxic to salmon. Their research suggests that a small garden can soak up as much as 90 per cent of the toxic chemical.