James Bay-southern Hudson Bay Research Overview Summer 2023

In August 2023, University of Manitoba scientists and students collaborated and participated in multiple research initiatives in the James Bay region. This StoryMap will provide details about the work that was done during that time. Some work from our partners will also be highlighted.

Initiatives:

• James Bay Expedition 2023 aboard the R/V William Kennedy
• River and Tributary sampling program in partnership with Moose Cree First Nation
• Weenusk First Nation coastal monitoring partnership program

The overarching goal of the work this year was to continue gathering scientific samples and data to contribute to the current understandings (both scientific and local) of the ecosystem and to learn more in depth how carbon flows from land to ocean.

Many different methods were used by different teams and partners to accomplish this.

If you are interested in learning more about the R/V William Kennedy’s operations and equipment, please click the button below to read through the 2022 version of the James Bay Expedition StoryMap.

This current version will only include highlights of the work done in 2023.

This year, the first leg of the R/V William Kennedy’s route focused on southwestern Hudson Bay and western James Bay. The work done along this route will contribute to understanding the marine and coastal systems in the Mushkegowuk proposed National Marine Conservation Area.

Follow along below to see what was done this year during the first part of the expedition. The main aim this year was to learn more about the offshore estuary areas of the Winisk and Moose Rivers. 

This year, two moorings were deployed to study the estuaries of the Winisk and Moose Rivers. A mooring refers to scientific instruments that are attached to a frame or rope with weights and are left in the water for a long period of time to measure different properties. For example, these moorings were made of a buoy with a GPS device, iron plates, an anchor and a tripod frame that held different instruments. Scroll through to find out some information about the two moorings deployed and one recovered with the RV William Kennedy this summer.

Incubations are experiments conducted with water that is sampled from a specific area that help us learn more about how certain conditions (for example, light or temperature) impact how things like carbon transform in an ecosystem. This gives us an idea of what could happen to a system if the Bay warms up and or has more light with a shorter sea ice season.

Conducted by partners at Université de Sherbrooke, one of the three incubation experiments this year aboard the ship used water samples from the Winisk and Moose river estuaries to assess how microbes and light can alter the composition and concentration of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and lignin-phenols.

• Dissolved organic carbon that comes from the land was sampled for and these incubations will give us information about how it degrades in an estuary environment, how it changes and how carbon is lost and transformed in the system.

Boat visit in the Winisk Estuary.

With a sampling station located offshore of the Winisk River, there was opportunity for some community members, Wildlands League Inc. members, and others, who were visiting the camp of Sam Hunter (Weenusk First Nation member), to meet the ship in the estuary. Four local boats travelled out to the Bay and shared lunch and some great conversation with the scientists and crew on board.

Youth Visit

This year a youth visit was planned in partnership with WCS Canada at Moose Factory, however it was unfortunately cancelled for health and safety reasons.

In August 2023, University of Manitoba (U of M) team members Alessia Guzzi (research technician) and Keilan Ledger (MSc student) travelled to Moosonee, ON to conduct the summer portion of a sampling program in partnership with Moose Cree First Nation.

Water samples were collected by the University of Manitoba team to complement samples taken by Moose Cree First Nation. Samples collected by the U of M team included filtered water samples to help quantify different forms of carbon and assess what each small river or tributary of the Moose River contributes to the greater James Bay system. Other properties such as coloured dissolved organic matter, nutrients, and oxygen isotope ratio samples were also taken to help characterize each tributary.

This summer was particularly dry and the Moose River level was very low which meant most tributaries were either very difficult or impossible to access by boat. Water levels were higher in the spring and allowed for more samples to be taken.

Over the course of a week, MSc student Keilan also conducted incubations with samples taken from the sites in summer to see how much dissolved organic carbon degrades (breaks up) over time in the water. This will help us understand how much carbon from the peatlands is moving towards James Bay.

The week after the William Kennedy crew visited the Winisk estuary, University of Manitoba team members (Alessia Guzzi, Research Technician and Kaushik Gupta, PhD Candidate) travelled up to Peawanuck, ON (Weenusk First Nation), to learn about the land, the research interests of local community members, and the feasibility of conducting different types of sampling.

Sam Hunter welcomed participants to his camp located where Hudson Bay and the Winisk River meet. Sampling was done with the overall goal of looking at how the Winisk River impacts the coastal areas, and learn about how carbon flows from the river to the coast.

The coastal sampling included:

• Water sampling by boat
• Placing a small mooring in 4m deep water for 2 days
• Sediment core sampling on the mudflats
• Porewater sampling, similar to water sampling but looking at the water that is in the sediment/sand of the mudflats.

Partners from Parks Canada also participated in the camp with different research goals and methods. Youth participants recruited by Sam Hunter also participated in sampling.

Future sampling is anticipated to work closer with community priorities and continue providing opportunities for youth to participate and learn sampling skills.

Zoom in and discover the different operations and sampling that was done onboard the William Kennedy this summer during the first leg of the trip up until Sanikiluaq. Click on points to see more information.

Zoom in towards Moose Factory and Peawanuck and click on the points on the map below to see where the University of Manitoba team travelled to this spring and summer and what samples were taken for analysis.

All products produced from these initiatives including data, reports, publications, communications materials will be shared through the CanWIN data repository. This is hosted online through the University of Manitoba and products will be shared publicly. Timing of this depends on what type of data is collected what is used for and who is primarily using it. Sometimes this process can take a few years.

The University of Manitoba has signed a data sharing agreement with the Mushkegowuk Council and will be sharing all data collected in the region on their CreeGeo data hub once data is ready to be shared in a public way. Products like maps, posters, and other communications materials will also be shared on the data hub for community members to easily access information about the scientific work being done in their territory.

After the 2022 James Bay Expedition, plans were to return in 2024, however last-minute funding allowed us to come back with the William Kennedy this past summer in 2023. There is currently no plan to use the William Kennedy to continue sampling in offshore James Bay in 2024.

Community-based programs will continue in partnership with the Moose Cree First Nation. A sampling and monitoring program are in the beginning stages with the Weenusk First Nation (Peawanuck).

University of Manitoba:

• Dr. Zou Zou Kuzyk – co-principal investigator
• Dr. CJ Mundy – co-principal investigator (not on board)
• Dr. Tim Papakyriakou
• Dr. Jens Ehn (not on board)
• Dr. Eric Collins (not on board)
• Dr. Sergei Kirillov (not on board)
• Kate Yezhova – Oceanographic Technician
• Nick Decker
• Pascale Bouchard
• Grace Fedirchuk
• Xander Bjornsson
• Anam Darr

Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO):

• Dr. David Yurkowski (not on board)
• Dr. Andrea Niemi (not on board)
• Dr. Dave Capelle (not on board)
• Kallie Strong
• Natalie Vachon

Université de Sherbrooke:

• Dr. Céline Guéguen

University of Alberta

• Dr. Paul Myers (not on board)
• Hannah Louis – Student

Mushkegowuk Council - Lands and Resources Department

• Vicki Sahanatien

William Kennedy Crew (Arctic Research Foundation)

• David McIssac - Captain
• Yves Bernard – Chief Mate
• Billy Gaudet – Cook
• Kyle Hennebury – Second Mate
• Laas Parnell – Bridge Watch
• Geraldine Harris – Bridge Watch
• Matthew Rose – Bridge Watch
• Tyson Arsenault – Bridge Watch

Other collaborators – not on board:

• Dr Michel Gosselin
• Dr. Phillipe Archambault
• Moose Cree First Nation
• Weenusk First Nation
• Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
• Wildlands League Inc.

• Alessia Guzzi – University of Manitoba
• Keilan Ledger – MSc Student – University of Manitoba
• Thomas Echum – Moose Cree First Nation
• Alex Litvinov – Moose Cree First Nation (sampling coordinator based in Timmins, ON)

• Alessia Guzzi
• Kaushik Gupta
• Karen Richardson – Parks Canada
• Marlow Pellat – Parks Canada
• Adam Collingwood – Parks Canada
• Sam Hunter – Weenusk First Nation, Host
• Jade Hunter
• Matthew Gull
• Gregory
• Tara Sloss
• Hudson – Youth participant
• Aurora – Youth participant

If you have any questions about the James Bay Expeditions or community-based monitoring work, please feel free to email  ceosinfo@umanitoba.ca  and from there we may direct your questions to the best individual.