• Energy Research
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 15. Life on land close
• 14. Life underwater close
• University of Waterloo close

Les paysages arctiques se caractérisent par la présence de nombreux lacs et étangs qui possèdent des propriétés physico-chimiques et biologiques distinctes. Depuis 2018, nous étudions les communautés zooplanctoniques de plus de 22 lacs et 13 étangs d'eau douce situés au sud de l'Île Victoria à Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (69 ° N, 105 ° O). Pour chacun des lacs et étangs échantillonnés les communautés de zooplancton ont été récoltées et les spécimens ont été identifiés jusqu'à l'espèce. Au total, plus de 77 espèces différentes ont été identifiées incluant 56 rotifères, 6 copépodes, 11 cladocères, 2 crevettes arctiques, une espèce appartenant à la famille des Mysidacea et une crevette têtard. Arctic landscapes are characterized by the presence of many lakes and ponds that exhibit distinct physico-chemical and biological properties. Since 2018, we have been studying the zooplankton communities of more than 22 lakes and 13 freshwater ponds located on southern Victoria Island, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (69°N, 105°W). For each of the lakes and ponds sampled, zooplankton communities were collected and specimens were identified to species. In total, more than 77 different species were found, including 56 rotifers, 6 copepods, 11 cladocerans, 2 fairy shrimps, a mysid and a tadpole shrimp.

Production of biodiesel from yellow grease (waste cooking oil and waste animal fats) is fast emerging as a promising alternative to address the twin challenges before the biodiesel industry today-fluctuation in prices of vegetable oil and the food versus fuel debate. Yellow grease has a high percentage of free fatty acids (FFA) and proves to be an unsuitable feedstock for biodiesel production from commercially viable alkali-catalyzed production systems due to saponification problems.“Green” methodologies based on heterogeneous solid acid catalyzed reactions have the potential to simultaneously promote esterification and transesterification reactions of yellow grease to produce biodiesel without soap formation and offer easy catalyst separation without generation of toxic streams. This paper presents kinetic studies for the conversion of model yellow grease feeds to biodiesel using a heteropolyacid supported on alumina (HSiW/Al2O3) using a batch autoclave. Three model yellow grease feeds were prepared using canola oil with added FFA such as palmitic, oleic and linoleic acid. A pseudo homogeneous kinetic model for the parallel esterification and transesterification was developed. The rate constants and activation parameters for esterification and transesterification reactions for the model yellow grease feeds were determined. The rate constants for esterification are higher than the transesterification rate constants. The kinetic model was validated using the experimental biodiesel data obtained from processing a commercial yellow grease feed. The kinetic model could be used to design novel processes to convert various low-value waste oils, fats and non-food grade oils to sustainable biodiesel. Keywords: Yellow grease, Canola oil, Free fatty acids, Heteropolyacid, Kinetics for esterification and transesterification

Abstract The residential sector accounts for most of energy-consumption in developing countries in the form of traditional energy. The use of commercial energy is nominal and confined mostly to urban areas where fuelwood is already monetized. A model, based on an end-use/process analysis approach, is developed on a spreadsheet, which is capable of simulating scenarios to address issues of increasing traditional energy-demand caused by population growth, sustainable supply capacity of the existing energy resources, potential for development of new and renewable energy resources, technology. This paper is divided into two parts: general energy issues and the modelling approach, and the application of this approach to Nepal in the context of fuelwood-supply sustainability.

Global transition towards renewable energy production has increased the demand for new and more flexible hydropower operations. Before management and stakeholders can make informed choices on potential mitigations, it is essential to understand how the hydropower reservoir ecosystems respond to water level regulation (WLR) impacts that are likely modified by the reservoirs' abiotic and biotic characteristics. Yet, most reservoir studies have been case-specific, which hampers large-scale planning, evaluation and mitigation actions across various reservoir ecosystems. Here, we investigated how the effect of the magnitude, frequency and duration of WLR on fish populations varies along environmental gradients. We used biomass, density, size, condition and maturation of brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) in Norwegian hydropower reservoirs as a measure of ecosystem response, and tested for interacting effects of WLR and lake morphometry, climatic conditions and fish community structure. Our results showed that environmental drivers modified the responses of brown trout populations to different WLR patterns. Specifically, brown trout biomass and density increased with WLR magnitude particularly in large and complex-shaped reservoirs, but the positive relationships were only evident in reservoirs with no other fish species. Moreover, increasing WLR frequency was associated with increased brown trout density but decreased condition of individuals within the populations. WLR duration had no significant impacts on brown trout, and the mean weight and maturation length of brown trout showed no significant response to any WLR metrics. Our study demonstrates that local environmental characteristics and the biotic community strongly modify the hydropower-induced WLR impacts on reservoir fishes and ecosystems, and that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to mitigate environmental impacts. This knowledge is vital for sustainable planning, management and mitigation of hydropower operations that need to meet the increasing worldwide demand for both renewable energy and ecosystem services delivered by freshwaters. Data of environmental characteristics and brown trout populations in 102 Norwegian hydropower reservoirsThe data contains field-collected data of brown trout populations in 102 Norwegian reservoirs with variable environmental characteristics. The brown trout data (i.e. response variables) include estimates of: "Biomass" (grams of fish per 100m2 net per night); "Density" (number of fish per 100m2 net per night); "Mean weight" (mean wet mass in grams); "Mean condition" (mean Fulton's condition factor); and "Mean maturity length" (mean total length of mature females in millimeters). All abbreviations for different variables (columns) are explained in the paper. Many reservoirs ("Lake") have various names, some including Norwegian letters (æ, ø & å). Hence, we recommend to use coordinate data (EPSG:4326; "decimalLongitude" and "decimalLatitude") and Norwegian national lake ID numbers ("Lake_nr"; managed by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate; www.nve.no) to locate the reservoirs. The variables "Year", "Month" and "Day" refer to times when survey fishing was conducted. Lake morphometry data ("A"=surface area, "SD"=shoreline development) is obtained from NVE database. The lake climatic and catchment data ("T"=mean July air temperature, "NDVI"= Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, and "SL"=terrain slope) is obtained and measured as described by Finstad et al. (2014; DOI: 10.1111/ele.12201). Other abbreviations include: "FC"=presence of other fish species (1=absent, 2=present); "GS"=gillnet series (1=Nordic, 2=Jensen); and "ST"=brown trout stocking (0=no stocking, 1=stocking). The water level regulation (WLR) metrics include: ): "WLR_magnitude"= maximum regulation amplitude; "WLR_frequency"=relative proportion of weeks with a sudden rise or drop in water level; and "WLR_duration"=the relative proportion of weeks with exceptionally low water levels.Data-in_doi.org-10.1016-j.scitotenv.2017.10.268.xlsx

Abstract This paper explores the results and implications of an illustrative application of a sustainability assessment framework in the design and evaluation of a major integrated power system plan. The paper examines the integrated power system plan developed by the Ontario Power Authority in 2007. The basic framework rests on a generic set of evaluation criteria reflecting basic requirements for progress towards sustainability that was adopted, reinterpreted and applied by the Authority in support of its proposed plan. In response to evident deficiencies in the Authority’s work, the authors and colleagues undertook a re-examination using a more fully elaborated sustainability assessment framework, specified for application to power system planning. The results point to a plan and plan components substantially different from those proposed by the Authority. More generally, the results highlight three advantages of applying such a sustainability assessment framework: comprehensive coverage of key requirements for progress towards sustainability while ensuring careful attention to the context and concerns of the sector; emphasis on identifying plan options that avoid major trade-offs among the sustainability criteria and recognition of interactions among the social, ecological, economic and technological realms favouring options that offer multiple, mutually reinforcing and lasting benefits.

In order for diverse species to coexist in ecological communities, they must vary in ways that reduce competition. Often, this is done by some form of spatial niche separation where small differences in environment allow for coexistence among species. However, temporal separation of resources could also be a factor in driving community diversity. Here, we ask whether inter-annual variation in growing season precipitation could provide sufficient variation in water availability to allow plant species with different intrinsic metabolism to co-occur. We hypothesized that species would differentially respond to soil water availability, and that species with a metabolic strategy to conserve water at the expense of carbon gain would grow better in dry conditions relative to species with a metabolic strategy to gain carbon at the expense of foliar water loss. We measured above-ground biomass and leaf-level metabolism using carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios for seven Asteraceae species across five experimental water treatments. Species differentially responded to variation in growing season water availability and, importantly, how they responded could be explained by differences in metabolism. Water-conservative species grew best in the dry treatments and had lower growth in wet treatments. Carbon-acquisitive species displayed the opposite pattern, with maximal growth in wet treatments and steep declines in dry treatments. Metabolic differences among co-occurring species may help explain temporal variation in growth, and could provide an underlying physiological mechanism for long-term dynamics that promote biodiversity.

Boreal wetlands play an important role in global carbon balance. However, their ecosystem function is threatened by direct anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Oil sands surface mining in the boreal regions of Western Canada denudes tracts of land of organic materials, leaves large areas in need of reclamation, and generates considerable quantities of extraction process‐affected materials. Knowledge and validation of reclamation techniques that lead to self‐sustaining wetlands has lagged behind development of protocols for reclaiming terrestrial systems. It is important to know whether wetlands reclaimed with oil sands process materials can be restored to levels equivalent to their original ecosystem function. We approached this question by assessing carbon flows and food web structure in naturally formed and oil sands‐affected wetlands constructed in 1970–2004 in the postmining landscape. We evaluated whether a prescribed reclamation strategy, involving organic matter amendment, accelerated reclaimed wetland development, leading to wetlands that were more similar to their natural marsh counterparts than wetlands that were not supplemented with organic matter. We measured compartment standing stocks for bacterioplankton, microbial biofilm, macrophytes, detritus, and zoobenthos; concentrations of dissolved organic carbon and residual naphthenic acids; and microbial production, gas fluxes, and aquatic–terrestrial exports (i.e., aquatic insect emergence). The total biomass of several biotic compartments differed significantly between oil sands and reference wetlands. Submerged macrophyte biomass, macroinvertebrate trophic diversity, and predator biomass and richness were lower in oil sands‐affected wetlands than in reference wetlands. There was insufficient evidence to conclude that wetland age and wetland amendment with peat–mineral mix mitigate effects of oil sands waste materials on the fully aquatic biota. Although high variability was observed within most compartments, our data show that 20‐year‐old wetlands containing oil sands material have not yet reached the same level of function as their reference counterparts.

The Blue Tower gasifier (BTG) is a promising and relatively new type of technology that can convert various organic materials into syngas. The process proceeds through a stage-reforming concept and uses heat carrier materials for indirect thermolysis. In addition, the modular design of this technology allows for scalability and ease of installation which can be applied to remote or off-grid communities. In addition, there is potential for the valorization of its gasification products to other useful chemicals. Knowing the potential advantages of this technology, the aim of this work is to introduce the BTG technology for potential application to remote communities and to investigate the effects of the main operational parameters on the performance of the system. In this study, we simulated a BTG system connected to a combined heat and power (CHP) plant using aspen plus with Fortran subroutines and given design specifications. The results obtained in this study were verified with reported data in the literature. The maximum electrical efficiency of the system was calculated to be about 25% for biomass with 5% moisture content, 0.5 steam to biomass ratio, and 900 °C reforming temperature. On the other hand, the highest overall system efficiency of the CHP system (sum of the electrical and the thermal efficiency) was estimated to be about 73% for biomass feedstock with 20% moisture content, 0.5 steam to biomass ratio, and 950 °C reforming temperature.

Coastal zones connect terrestrial and marine ecosystems forming a unique environment that is under increasing anthropogenic pressure. Rising sea levels, sinking coasts, and changing precipitation patterns modify hydrodynamic gradients and may enhance sea–land exchange processes in both tidal and non-tidal systems. Furthermore, the removal of flood protection structures as restoration measure contributes locally to the changing coastlines. A detailed understanding of the ecosystem functioning of coastal zones and the interactions between connected terrestrial and marine ecosystems is still lacking. Here, we propose an interdisciplinary approach to the investigation of interactions between land and sea at shallow coasts, and discuss the advantages and the first results provided by this approach as applied by the research training group Baltic TRANSCOAST. A low-lying fen peat site including the offshore shallow sea area on the southern Baltic Sea coast has been chosen as a model system to quantify hydrophysical, biogeochemical, sedimentological, and biological processes across the land–sea interface. Recently introduced rewetting measures might have enhanced submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) as indicated by distinct patterns of salinity gradients in the near shore sediments, making the coastal waters in front of the study site a mixing zone of fresh- and brackish water. High nutrient loadings, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and dissolved organic matter (DOM) originating from the degraded peat may affect micro- and macro-phytobenthos, with the impact propagating to higher trophic levels. The terrestrial part of the study site is subject to periodic brackish water intrusion caused by occasional flooding, which has altered the hydraulic and biogeochemical properties of the prevailing peat soils. The stable salinity distribution in the main part of the peatland reveals the legacy of flooding events. Generally, elevated sulfate concentrations are assumed to influence greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, mainly by inhibiting methane production, yet our investigations indicate complex interactions between the different biogeochemical element cycles (e.g., carbon and sulfur) caused by connected hydrological pathways. In conclusion, sea–land interactions are far reaching, occurring on either side of the interface, and can only be understood when both long-term and event-based patterns and different spatial scales are taken into account in interdisciplinary research that involves marine and terrestrial expertise.