Scholarship Fund research

Since 1988, the BQCMB has helped post-secondary students learn more about the management and conservation of barren-ground caribou and their habitat through its Caribou Management Scholarship Fund. The annual award, administered by the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies, currently carries a value of up to $1,500 and is open to anyone studying barren-ground caribou and/or their range in Canada. Preference is given to applicants from a caribou-range community and to those examining the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds. The Scholarship Fund is capitalized at $40,000 and interest is paid out in awards, so award amounts may vary from year to year depending on the prevailing interest rates.

Over the years, awards have fueled the study of topics as diverse as microsatellite DNA, heavy metal contaminants in the lichen-caribou-wolf chain, and the place of traditional ecological knowledge in wildlife management institutions. A number of award recipients have gone on to make caribou management a focal point of their careers.

Dances with wolves
In 1989, Laurentian University biology student Tracey Hillis teamed up with students from Rankin Inlet and Arviat, as well as another Laurentian University student, to dissect hundreds of wolf carcasses brought in by hunters. The goal was to help the Sudbury, Ontario student better understand how wolves interact with caribou. Wolves are the main predator of caribou. Stomach contents were analyzed to see what wolves eat in winter, liver and kidney samples were analyzed to see how traces of certain metals travel through the lichen/caribou/wolf food chain, and brain sections were scoured for signs of rabies. In all, 22 samples were collected from each wolf in order to piece together a larger picture of how caribou population levels influence changes in wolves over the years.

Common ground
That's what student/researcher Mitch Campbell of the Institute of Arctic Ecophysiology in Churchill, Manitoba probed in 1990 when he looked at the importance of the Cape Churchill Wildlife Management Area to both the Cape Churchill herd and a subpopulation of the migratory Qamanirjuaq herd. The two herds meet on common ground during winter and Campbell wanted to explore the critical winter habitat (the Cape Churchill herd had grown from almost zero in 1950 to 1,200 animals), and how it relieves pressure on the crowded Qamanirjuaq herd when its population is high. Campbell, who had graduated from both Lethbridge Community College and the University of Manitoba, was studying for his Master's degree in science, and later served as a BQCMB member while working as a biologist for the government of Nunavut.

On the prowl for radiation
The University of Saskatchewan's Pat Thomas, a PhD candidate in biology, began a two-phase study in 1990 on concentrations of the uranium decay product polonium-210 in the lichen-caribou-wolf/human food chain. Close to 50 uranium mines and refineries have operated in Saskatchewan since the 1940s, and the province remains the world's largest producer of uranium. When uranium ore decays, it releases radon gas into the atmosphere, which decays to polonium-210. Lichens soak up polonium-210 from the air like little sponges. For her study, Thomas examined lichen, caribou and wolf samples from communities on the range of the Beverly herd – Baker Lake, Nunavut, Lutselk'e, NWT and the Athabascan communities in northern Saskatchewan.

Feeding the masses
Back in 1992, the eating habits of caribou and reindeer proved more than just food for thought for Claude Morneau of the Centre d'études nordiques at Université Laval in Quebec and University of Alberta zoology student John Nishi. Morneau examined changing vegetation patterns on the range of the George River caribou herd in northern Quebec and Labrador, a herd that grew to almost 800,000 in 1993, earning it the title of world's largest herd of barren-ground caribou. As a result of the dramatic population jump, scientists later suspected that the summer range of the George River had been severely altered. By 2001, the George River herd was estimated to have fallen to 440,000. Meanwhile, Nishi probed whether reindeer imported to the Belcher Islands in southeastern Hudson Bay in 1978, following the demise of local caribou, had affected the character of the lichen-dominated range. This was part of a larger community-based initiative to manage the reindeer on the islands.

When woodland caribou meet big business
In Alberta, woodland caribou are listed as a threatened species under provincial legislation. In 1993, University of Alberta student Corey Bradshaw took a much closer look at the effects of industrial exploration and development on woodland caribou in northern Alberta. Bradshaw, who was pursuing a Master's degree in zoology, tracked caribou in areas of industrial activity using radio collars, and analyzed feces and urine samples to gauge the impact of industrial disturbance on the caribou.

What history tells us
In 1993, NWT government regional biologist Michael Ferguson studied long-term changes in the population dynamics and ecology of caribou on southern Baffin Island. He investigated the recent emigration of caribou from a major wintering area on southern Baffin Island, in addition to other factors, to comprehend long-term population demographic patterns and their ecological factors – a tool critical to better management decisions.

The role of traditional ecological knowledge
Traditional ecological knowledge has long fascinated Anne Kendrick, a former McGill University and University of Manitoba student and today a University of Manitoba post-doctoral researcher working to assist the BQCMB's caribou monitoring project. Armed with a Scholarship Fund award in 1993, she turned the microscope onto the BQCMB, examining the effectiveness of co-management and whether traditional ecological knowledge could be legitimized within the infrastructure of northern Canada's wildlife management institutions. To her BSc in biology and masters in human geography she added a PhD at the University of Manitoba, where in 2000 she again earned a Scholarship Fund award to spotlight traditional ecological knowledge. This time she worked with residents of the NWT community of Lutselk'e to develop computer-based maps, complete with sound narrative, pop-up videos and pictures, that linked residents' land use information with their environmental knowledge about land and caribou. She also quizzed residents about the caribou management process and if they felt their knowledge was being incorporated into management systems, and asked for their suggestions for future management.

Resource policy development
Some people consider Canada's Natural Resources Transfer Agreement (NRTA) of 1930 on aboriginal hunting and trapping rights in the prairie provinces and territories to be a controversial document because it conflicted with earlier signed treaties. University of Saskatchewan student Veronica Cranstonsmith was one of those who considered the NRTA suspect and in 1994, she probed the interaction between First Nations, the wildlife scientific community and government agencies involved in resource policy development, paying special attention to the NRTA. Cranstonsmith, a Métis from Alberta's Fort McMurray region, was working towards an M.A. in Native Studies, with hopes to pursue a PhD.

West Coast winners
In 1997, British Columbia students swept the awards. University of British Columbia science student Natalie Griller investigated the long-term recovery of arctic plants after heavy grazing by caribou and muskoxen. Meanwhile, resource and environmental management student Barry Kelly of Simon Fraser University was eager to learn more about predicting internal concentrations of organic contaminants in the lichen-caribou-wolf/human food chain, using samples taken from Bathurst Inlet and Umingmaktok in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut.

Enter the Dragon
In 1998, University of Alberta student Joe Dragon nabbed an award to study the commercial use of caribou in the Northwest Territories. Dragon, a South Slave Métis from Fort Smith and talented hockey player who eventually played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, profiled the Southampton Island caribou herd. A commercial harvest has successfully operated on Coates Island since 1994. It was introduced as a way to cull the herd, which was in danger of over-populating the island and destroying local habitat.

After securing a BSc from Cornell University in the United States, Dragon continued on to earn a PhD from the University of Alberta in wildlife ecology and management.

Can DNA solve caribou mysteries?
University of Alberta PhD student Keri Zittlau won awards in 2000 and 2002 to see whether miscrosatellite DNA analysis would unravel the case of genetic variation, gene flow and herd range boundaries of the Beverly, Qamanirjuaq, Bathurst and Ahiak caribou herds. Microsatellites are short DNA sequences that reveal extensive genetic differences between individuals and populations. Since caribou migrate over huge distances, it's hard to determine their range boundaries. But it's important to know where migration routes are so that resource development doesn't interfere with caribou movements, and so that caribou-dependent northerners know where the animals are. Zittlau eventually concluded that, because the continental herds are so large, some herds have not yet developed features that are distinct from their neighbours.

The sands of time
The majestic 8,000-year-old Athabasca Sand Dunes along the south shore of Athabasca Lake in northern Saskatchewan are part of the Beverly caribou herd's winter range. In 2002, University of Manitoba student Jennifer Yantz, who was pursuing a Master's degree in natural resource management, used her award to integrate traditional knowledge from Fond du Lac residents – including knowledge about caribou and their habitat – into the Athabasca Sand Dunes Management Strategy. Yantz previously worked with Fond-du-Lac and other northern Saskatchewan communities as a researcher for Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management.

Getting to the root of things
If plants could talk, what would they say? University of British Columbia PhD student Rebecca Zalatan is discovering that words aren't necessary – she's using clues from plant life on the ranges of the Bathurst and Beverly caribou herds to sketch past caribou population cycles and how climate changes affected the herds (NWT biologist and BQCMB member Deb Johnson collected the Beverly samples). The evidence could help deduce if there exists a large-scale climatic pattern related to the movement of caribou.

Caribou hoof scars dating back several hundred years on lichen-sprouting spruce roots provide an idea of the number of caribou in that area, while the number of yearly growth rings in the spruce trees provides a time frame, and the width of the ring itself indicates what the weather was like. The scars are preserved in the actual tree ring. Another clue to past caribou populations and the climate of the day is white mountain heather and the impact of caribou grazing upon it. Zalatan and another NWT biologist, Anne Gunn, hope to combine Zalatan’s findings with traditional knowledge about past caribou populations to see how the information all matches up.

When caribou get the munchies
University of British Columbia PhD in geography candidate Pamela O (her full last name) earned a $1,500 Caribou Management Scholarship Fund award in 2004 to study the balance of carbon dioxide along spring and fall migratory trails where caribou graze, comparing that to places where caribou don’t forage as often. When any living thing breathes, it gives off carbon dioxide. Plants, meanwhile, absorb carbon dioxide in order to grow. Although carbon dioxide is a natural greenhouse gas, there’s too much of it these days because carbon dioxide also results when fossil fuels are burned. The overload is contributing to global warming. O’s study, taking place around Daring Lake, NWT, will help take a reading of carbon exchange in low Arctic ecosystems -- important to understanding the area’s overall carbon balance.

Mine your manners around caribou
Keeping mining companies on their best behaviour, environmentally speaking, and making sure that they're not harming caribou is the ultimate goal of the BQCMB Scholarship Fund's 2005 winner, Aurora College Natural Resources Technology Program student Matt Fredlund of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, who hopes to become an environmental technician with a mine in Nunavut. The BQCMB award was allocated to general educational pursuits in 2005 rather than a specific research project about Canadian barren-ground caribou. The Natural Resources Technology Program, taught at the Thebacha Campus of Aurora College in Fort Smith, NWT, develops technical and managerial skills in the fields of lands, water, fisheries, forest management, wildlife and the environment.

The case of the shrinking Bathurst herd
Climate, weather, fire, the condition of caribou range, disease and predation – all are suspects in the case of the shrinking Bathurst caribou herd, whose population fell from about 349,000 in 1996 to 186,000 in 2003. Armed with traditional and scientific knowledge, including data from aerial surveys and satellite collaring on Bathurst caribou and the wolves that attack them, University of Northern British Columbia student Ingebjorg Jean Mattson headed into the field to study the links between predator, prey and environment, and earned the 2005-2006 BQCMB Scholarship Fund Award as a result. Mattson, who is completing her Masters of Science degree in the natural resources and environmental science program, plans to return north in early 2007 to share what she learned with communities. She hopes the answers will help demystify the population declines of other NWT herds, and shed light on similar circumstances shared by the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds.

Ancient clues beneath the ice
Simon Fraser University student Tyler Kuhn, a Masters Candidate for the Biological Sciences program, snared the 2007 BQCMB Caribou Management Scholarship Fund award with his plans to analyze ancient DNA from subfossil caribou remains that could be 8,000 years old. DNA from the caribou remains, which will be recovered from alpine ice patches in southwest Yukon, could reveal connections between past and present herds of woodland caribou, and perhaps aid the management of Yukon's small herds, which arecurrently battling habitat loss and climate change.

A tale of two studies: population fluctuations, and a pesky parasite
In a break from tradition, two BQCMB Caribou Management Scholarship Fund awards were handed out in 2008. One went to University of Alberta biological sciences student Liv Vors, who is zeroing in on the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds to examine the link between population fluctuations and factors like predation, disease, availability of summer food, human harvest, and the depth and hardness of snow. For the Beverly herd, she’ll study body condition, size and other traits before and after a population peak, and for the Qamanirjuaq herd, how habitat use and migration times shift during the same periods. Computer models will help her predict the influence of hunting, predation, weather, forage and disease on the health of the herds. Meanwhile, veterinary medicine and biological sciences student Bryanne Hoar of the University of Calgary is studying how climate change affects Osteragia gruehneri. The little parasite with the big name is the most common of its kind in barren-ground caribou, and can cause decreased food intake, weight loss and reduced pregnancy rates.

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