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In this paper, we highlight the centrality of process in Indigenist community-based participatory research in music education to offer new methodological insights, using a recent investigation that employed conference as research method as a case study. From our perspective as university researchers who are non-Indigenous or Indigenous but not to the land now known as Canada, we describe in detail the process of co-creating a conference grounded in local First Nations Protocols as a research method for our most recent study with Indigenous partners, also showing how the process is related to ceremony. This knowledge creation and sharing conference involved more than 200 Knowledge Keepers, School District Indigenous leaders, and music educators in British Columbia endeavouring to effectively embed Indigenous knowledge in K-12 music classes. We highlight ways we found to be relationally accountable, including providing adequate time to arrive at consensus in all decisions; developing and maintaining trust throughout pandemic lockdowns and restrictions; and locating additional sources of funding to facilitate all Protocols, which led Indigenous participants to report feeling that the conference was a culturally safe place and non-Indigenous participants to report that they found it to be a culturally immersive experience. We became more aware that the very process of discussion and decision making that took place at the many committee and subcommittee meetings leading up to the conference was part and parcel of the ceremonial aspect of this research. Indigenous participants deemed the outcomes and effects of the research/conference credible and trustworthy because they emerged from a planning process that was culturally informed and that had been deemed ethical, legitimate, and appropriate by all planning parties through consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many species of fishes around the world are soniferous. The types of sounds fishes produce vary among species and regions but consist typically of low-frequency (< 1.5 kHz) pulses and grunts. These sounds can potentially be used to monitor fishes non-intrusively and could complement traditional monitoring techniques. However, the significant time required for human analysts to manually label fish sounds in acoustic recordings does not yet allow passive acoustics to be used as a viable tool for monitoring fishes. In this paper, we compare two different approaches to automatically detect fish sounds. One is a more traditional machine learning technique based on the detection of acoustic transients in the spectrogram and the classification using Random Forest (RF). The other is using a deep learning approach and is based on the classification of overlapping segments (0.2 s) of spectrogram using a ResNet18 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Both algorithms were trained using 21,950 manually annotated fish and non-fish sounds collected from 2014 to 2019 at five different locations in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada. The performance of the detectors was tested on part of the data from the Strait of Georgia that was withheld from the training phase, data from Barkley Sound, British Columbia, and data collected in the Port of Miami, Florida, United States. The CNN performed up to 1.9 times better than the RF (F1 score: 0.82 vs. 0.43). In some cases, the CNN was able to find more faint fish sounds than the analyst and performed well in environments different from the one it was trained in (Miami F1 score: 0.88). Noise analysis in the 20--1,000 Hz frequency band shows that the CNN is still reliable in noise levels greater than 130 dB re 1 μPa in the Port of Miami but becomes less reliable in Barkley Sound past 100 dB re 1 μPa due to mooring noise. The proposed approach can efficiently monitor (unidentified) fish sounds in a variety of environments and can also facilitate the development of species-specific detectors. We provide the software FishSound Finder, an easy-to-use open-source implementation of the CNN detector with detailed documentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson, F.; Douglas, K.; Li, Z.; Meijer, A.; Stacey, C.D.; Kung, R., and Podhorodeski, A., 2024. A generalized semiautomated method for seabed geology classification using multibeam data and maximum likelihood classification. Journal of Coastal Research, 40(1), 1–16. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. This paper presents a GIS-based model to perform semiautomated seabed classification that can act as a first-pass, pseudoclassified surficial geological map. The user can then edit the output into a finalized map in less time than by manual classification. The model uses maximum likelihood classification with unsupervised classification through iterative self-organizing clusters. This model is fully contained within the ArcGIS software suite as a ModelBuilder workflow composed of geoprocessing tools and Python script tools. Model inputs tested include different combinations of multibeam echosounder–derived data: slope, backscatter, and terrain ruggedness. Furthermore, to test the assumption of Gaussian distribution of input data required for maximum likelihood classification, Box–Cox power transformations were applied to slope and backscatter data and were used as model inputs. To illustrate the performance of the model, two locations are highlighted as case studies: Milbanke Sound and Spiller Channel, located on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. Association between model outputs and ground-truth classes was generally weak to moderate when measured using Cramér's V association scores. Overall, the slope and backscatter parameter model had the highest scores of association. Results from an overlay analysis comparing model outputs with user-confirmed polygons show that the slope and backscatter model performs best in regions with distinct changes in the hardness of sediments but that in fjord regions dominated geologically by steeper bathymetric change, the slope parameter model may perform better. However, all model outputs had difficulty delineating bedrock units. The model has the flexibility to identify certain seabed habitat features as well, including glass sponge reefs—biologically active bioherms that have led to marine protected area designations in other areas of British Columbia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How fires burn across British Columbia (BC), Canada is shaped by settler coloniality, timber capitalism, state forestry regimes, criminalization of burning, and Indigenous resistance. Despite the urgency of confronting the fire suppression paradox embedded in settler colonial fire management laws and practices, approaches to studying fire in Canada that foreground Indigenous law and de-center settler colonial governance is scarce. As political ecologists and geographers working and living in the context of unceded and ancestral lək̓ʷəŋən, W̱SÁNEĆ, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səlilwətaɬ, and syilx territories, we engage with Indigenous feminist scholarship to expose how coloniality and gender intersect in attempts to erase Indigenous sovereignty to structure and naturalize provincial fire policy and its emplaced impacts on Indigenous legal orders. Our analysis contextualizes settler-colonial provincial fire management policy in the purview of Indigenous legal orders to foreground how racial-colonial and gendered politics are obscured when colonial fire and wildfire practices are naturalized. Revisiting key moments in the political development of fire suppression across so-called BC, we contend that the suppression paradox is embedded in and reproduces a colonial logic that widens existing social and economic gaps. These gaps are uniquely gendered, as settler coloniality operates upon patriarchal lines that have actively attempted to erase Indigenous women and Two-Spirit peoples, including the laws and legal authorities that they possess and practice. Considering the 1910 Fulton Commission, we highlight an example of how women and Indigenous people were excluded from the political decision-making structures that shaped colonial fire management practices in BC. These gendered and racialized exclusions bear directly on the exclusion of Indigenous women and gender-diverse folx, and Indigenous legal orders guided by matriarchal lines of fire knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the "Challenging Labour" / «Le défi du travail» conference held at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, in October 2022, two plenary sessions invited scholars to engage in a dialogue on important historical and theoretical issues in the field of labour and working-class history/studies. One of these, on the entanglement of capitalism and colonialism, featured a paper delivered by Bryan D. Palmer and a response from hagwil hayetsk (Charles Menzies). These presentations are revised for publication here along with a rejoinder from Palmer in what is Labour/Le Travail's first "Forum" section. The aim of this section is to foster conversation, with scholars meaningfully engaging with each other's work across disciplinary, methodological, theoretical, or other kinds of differences in approach and understanding. The merit of this kind of dialogue is well demonstrated here by Palmer and hayetsk, and the editors would invite more such conversations for publication in this section in future issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important, but generally overlooked source in intraspecific variability of characters used in tardigrades taxonomy is sexual dimorphism. Dioecious tardigrades species with unisexual or bisexual populations are common, but external sexual dimorphism is rarely observed. The discovery and integrative analysis of a Diploechiniscus species population with high sexual dimorphism from Calvert Island (Canada) has allowed its description as a new species. Diploechiniscus dimorphus n. sp. is characterized by a different chaetotaxy in males and females, and by enlarged cephalic sensory appendages in the males. The discovery of this new species shows that it is important to consider sexual dimorphism as a source of intraspecific variability in tardigrade taxonomy due to its implications on the use of traits commonly used to delineate species such as chaetotaxy. Lastly, the finding of individuals of Diploechiniscus horningi (Schuster and Grigarick, 1971), a species previously synonymized with Diploechiniscus oihonnae (Richters, 1903), allows us to prove that it is genetically a separate species and to reinstate it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pelagic food webs of British Columbia's (BC) coastal oceans have never had a comprehensive review of their trophic structure. In this study, we analyzed carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope ratios of pelagic food web components collected from four regions in southern BC: Juan de Fuca Strait, the Strait of Georgia, Queen Charlotte Strait, and Queen Charlotte Sound during an August 2019 survey. In addition, conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD), chlorophyll, and nutrient data were collected to assess the oceanographic basis for regionalization. Between regions, we observed differences in the isotopic baseline driven by regional oceanography. Likewise, we also observed oceanography-driven differences in regional food chain length, carbon range, and isotopic overlap. Species-specific trophic level and isotopic niche were determined. For common pelagic species, we described how trophic level varied regionally, was not always in line with previously published dietary data, and instead largely tracked regional changes in food chain length. We conclude that variable food web properties and trophic ecology can manifest across the small spatial scales of the BC coast's discrete regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed 28 Canadian volcanoes in terms of their relative threats to people, aviation, and infrastructure. The methodology we used was developed by the United States Geological Survey for the 2005 National Volcano Early Warning System. Each volcano is scored on multiple hazard and exposure factors, producing an overall threat score. The scored volcanoes are assigned to five threat categories, ranging from Very Low to Very High. We developed a knowledge uncertainty score to provide additional information about assessed threat levels; this does not affect the threat scoring. Two Canadian volcanoes are in the Very High threat category (Mt. Garibaldi and Mt. Meager). Three Canadian volcanoes are in the High threat category (Mt. Cayley, Mt. Price, and Mt. Edziza) and one volcano is in the Moderate threat category (Mt. Silverthrone). We compare the ranked Canadian volcanoes to volcanoes in the USA and assess current levels of monitoring against internationally recognized monitoring strategies. We find that even one of the best-studied volcanoes in Canada (Mt. Meager) falls significantly short of the recommended monitoring level and is currently monitored at a level commensurate with a Very Low threat edifice. All other Canadian volcanoes are unmonitored (apart from falling within a regional seismic network). This threat ranking has been used to prioritize hazard and risk assessment targets and to help select monitoring activities that will most effectively address the undermonitoring of Canadian volcanoes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Texas Creek rock avalanche is a prehistoric deposit in the Fraser River Canyon, 17 km south of Lillooet, southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Original mapping suggested that the debris consisted of two landslides: a 45 Mm3 event deposited after the Mazama tephra but before about 2 ka ago, and a 7.2 Mm3 event about 1.1 ka ago. The proposed timing of the younger landslide was correlated with a decline in the First Nations population and was proposed as an agent of cultural collapse driven by its impact on salmon returns vital to the population's sustenance. We provide six surface exposure ages using 10Be from boulder tops, with three samples from each surface that were originally posited to be older and younger debris. The six samples yielded similar ages suggesting the landslide deposit represents a single event with an average age of 2.28 ± 0.19 (2σ external error) ka before 1950 AD. Evidently, the landslide played no role in the cultural collapse. Fraser River Holocene incision rates, estimated pre- and post-landslide are between 13 and 24 mm/yr, consistent with previous estimates for the mid-Fraser River region. Landslide timing is coincident with the explosive eruption of Mount Meager, 120 km to the northwest, and with a possible landslide at Mystery Creek 85 km to the west and 65 km south of Mount Meager. The landslide may have been seismically triggered, but attribution is speculative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As wildfires are increasingly causing negative impacts to communities and their livelihoods, many communities are demanding more proactive and locally driven approaches to address wildfire risk. This marks a shift away from centralized governance models where decision-making is concentrated in government agencies that prioritize reactive wildfire suppression. In British Columbia (BC), Canada, Community Forests—a long-term, area-based tenure granted to Indigenous and/or local communities—are emerging as local leaders facilitating proactive wildfire management. To explore the factors that are enabling local governance approaches to managing wildfire risk, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 Community Forest managers across BC. Managers highlighted financial and social capacity, especially trust and relationships with both community members and government agencies, as crucial factors influencing their ability to undertake proactive management. These factors enable Community Forests to address wildfire risk not only within their own tenure area, but also at household, community, and landscape scales, while balancing diverse community values, objectives for forest management, and legal and policy obligations. Despite ongoing challenges, Community Forests emphasized the importance of scaling up their efforts to address wildfire risk and are a critical form of local wildfire governance that can help advance proactive wildfire management across BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic influences are altering fire regimes worldwide, resulting in an increase in the size and severity of wildfires. Simultaneously, throughout western North America, there is increasing recognition of the important role of Indigenous fire stewardship in shaping historical fire regimes and fire‐adapted ecosystems. However, there is limited understanding of how ecosystems are affected by or recover from contemporary "megafires," particularly in terms of understory plant communities that are critical to both biodiversity and Indigenous cultures. To address this gap, our collaborative study, in partnership with Secwépemc First Nations, examined understory community recovery following a large, mixed‐severity wildfire that burned in the dry and mesic conifer forests of British Columbia, Canada, with a focus on plants of high cultural significance to Secwépemc communities. To measure the effect of a continuous gradient of fire severity across forest types, we conducted field assessments of fire severity and sampled understory plants 4 years postfire. We found that native species richness and richness of species of high cultural significance were lowest in areas that burned at high severity, with distinct compositional differences between unburned areas and those that burned at high severity. These findings were consistent across forest types characterized by distinct historical fire regimes. In contrast, richness of exotic species increased with increasing fire severity in the dominant montane interior Douglas‐fir forests, with exotic species closely associated with areas that burned at high severity. Our study indicates that recent megafires may be pushing ecosystems outside their historical range of variability, with negative implications for ecosystem recovery and cultural use across these fire‐affected landscapes. We also found consistently higher plant diversity, and both native and cultural species richness, in subalpine forests. Collectively, our results provide strong evidence of the ecological and cultural significance of low‐ to moderate‐severity fire and subalpine forests, and the longstanding and ongoing role of Indigenous peoples in shaping these landscapes. As wildfires continue to impact ecosystems and human communities, this study offers novel insights into the recovery of important ecological and cultural values, while highlighting the need to support ethical research collaborations with Indigenous communities and Indigenous‐led revitalization of fire and plant stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and size of wildfires. Wildfire burns can influence wildlife space use, but prior to understanding the relationship between wildlife and burns, the extent of wildfires and the regrowth of burned areas must be determined. We used remotely sensed, multispectral satellite imagery to calculate differenced normalized burn ratios (NBRs) to define areas burned by wildfire and assess temporal trends in burn frequency and extent in central British Columbia. We then used NBRs as an index of vegetation regrowth to model regrowth trajectories within burns. Next, we examined spatial responses to burns by a moose (Alces alces) population that recently declined in abundance. We utilized locations used by and available to collared moose to determine spatial responses as a function of years since wildfire and vegetation regrowth. We also assessed functional responses to burns by moose, dependent upon the proportion of burned areas available to each individual. We hypothesized that (h1) wildfire burns within our study area increased from 1985 to 2017, (h2) that moose increase their use of burns in comparison with availability as burns age as a result of vegetation regrowth, and (h3) that moose demonstrate functional responses to burns (i.e., selection of burns by individual moose declines as the amount of burned areas increases). We observed that the frequency and extent of burns are increasing within our study area. In contrast to h2, moose in summer and fall decreased the selection of burns as burns aged. We, however, observed that moose responded most positively to locations with intermediate vegetation regrowth (i.e., NBR values), which according to burn regrowth trajectories were most likely to be achieved 13 or more years post‐wildfire; given that most burns within our study area were ≤13 years of age, we predict that the use of burns will likely increase as vegetation regrows. Moose only selected for burns in fall, and we did not find support for the presence of a functional response. Our research demonstrated the utility of remotely sensed imagery and NBRs to define burn locations and to reveal current and probable future spatial responses to burns by a wildlife population of concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depressive symptoms among people living with HIV (PLWH) are associated with poorer overall health outcomes. We characterized depressive symptoms and improvements in symptomology among PLWH (≥ 19 years old) in British Columbia (BC), Canada. We also examined associations between depressive symptomology and antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment interruptions. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10), within a longitudinal cohort study with three surveys administered 18-months apart. We used multivariable logistic regression to model factors associated with improvements in depressive symptoms (CES-D-10 scores from ≥ 10 to < 10). Of the 566 participants eligible for analysis 273 (48.2%) had CES-D scores indicating significant depressive symptoms (score ≥ 10) at enrollment. Improvements in symptoms at first follow-up were associated with greater HIV self-care on the Continuity of Care Scale (adjusted odds ratio: 1.17; 95% CI 1.03–1.32), and not having a previously reported mental health disorder diagnosis (aOR 2.86; 95% CI 1.01–8.13). Those reporting current cocaine use (aOR 0.33; 95% CI 0.12–0.91) and having a high school education, vs. less than, (aOR 0.25; 95% CI 0.08–0.82) had lower odds of improvement in depressive symptomatology. CES-D scores ≥ 10 were not significantly associated with ART treatment interruptions during follow-up (aOR: 1.08; 95% CI:0.65–1.8). Supporting greater self-care and consideration of mental health management strategies in relation to HIV may be useful in promoting the wellbeing of PLWH who experience depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]