Impact of increased ship traffic in the Kivalliq Region of Hudson Bay - oil spill emergency preparedness and response (NGMP ID 16EC41)

The overall purpose is to introduce genomic approaches to deliver a new understanding of Arctic marine microbial communities - the first responders to marine oil spills in Canada's northern waters. Genomic sciences will address the pressing need to develop understanding and preparedness for oil spills in the Canadian Arctic. By investigating the microbiome and bioremediation potential in the Arctic ocean, a promising mitigation strategy which has been largely overlooked in Canada, will be enabled. As such genomics offers the potential to overhaul Canadas oil spill emergency preparedness regime through the aforementioned deliverables, it also engages end users in a new way of understanding and protecting the natural environment. Given the pressures that climate change is placing on Canadas Arctic, there is no better time or place to initiate a cutting-edge genomics-based investigation such as this. One of the challenges in the event of an accidental spill will be discriminating between natural background and contaminating hydrocarbons due to the spill. This project will build a database containing detailed hydrocarbon contaminant profiles (i.e. diagnostic ratios or 'fingerprints') and chemical concentrations in sediments. This information will be invaluable in the development of oil spill mitigation strategies, assessing the success of remediation strategies and in source attribution (i.e. to help establish ultimate responsibility for the spill).