Search

Plans to raise the Ross Dam on the Skagit River by the American utility, City Light, will flood a valley in Canada and have generated a conflict of resource use between conservationists and proponents of economic progress. This paper examines the variety of uses of the valley at present, and their expansion for recreational use by modest improvements. Such expanded use is compared with uses available if the valley is flooded. The comparison is expressed in economic terms. The paper then continues with a critique of economic analysis to such problems of resource allocation and develops an approach to ecological resource allocation. A schedule and analysis of alternative uses is offered. The economic and ecological conclusions are examined, and it is found that the latter method is more appropriate to practical problems of allocation, at least with regard to natural resources than the former.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Global warming is already affecting the oceans through changes in water temperature, acidification, oxygen content and sea level rise, amongst many others. These changes are having multiple effects on marine species worldwide, with subsequent impacts on marine fisheries, peoples' livelihoods and food security. This work presents a review of the recent literature on the current and projected impacts of climate change on Canada's Pacific marine ecosystem. We find that there is an increasing number of studies in British Columbia focusing on changes in ocean conditions and marine species responses under climate change, including an emerging literature on the socio-economic impacts of these changes considered to be a knowledge gap. According to the literature, it is well established that ocean temperatures are increasing over the long-term, especially, in southern areas of British Columbia. Warming trends are increasing in the spring and are strongest in summer. However, there are important uncertainties regarding other climate drivers, such as oxygen concentration and acidification, stemming mainly from the insufficiency of data. Pacific salmon, elasmobranchs, invertebrates and rockfishes are amongst the most vulnerable species groups to climate change in British Columbia. Also, shifts in stock distribution and fish abundance under climate change may have a significant impact on fish supply affecting the livelihoods and food security of some British Columbians. The magnitude of these impacts is likely to vary according to a latitudinal gradient, with southern coastal areas being more affected than northern and central areas; challenging multiple areas of governance, such as equity and fishing access amongst First Nations; and institutional arrangements for transboundary stocks between the U.S. and Canada. Highlights • Climate change is impacting marine species worldwide, affecting marine fisheries, peoples' livelihoods and food security. • There is an emerging literature on the socio-economic impacts of climate change at the local level. • This paper presents a review of the literature published on these impacts in British Columbia's marine species and fisheries. • Socio-economic impacts will vary according to a latitudinal gradient with unequal distribution of losses in marine catches. • We identify some of the risks that fisheries, communities and the economy are facing in the region due to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban centres in the US, Britain and Canada have responded to identified visible 'social problems' such addiction, mental health and homelessness by providing some supportive housing for the urban poor and marginalized. While some critics have questioned what supportive housing specifically entails in terms of the built environment, what remains under explored, though a growing area of concern, is the relationship between surveillance and supportive housing for urban residents identified as having addiction and mental health problems - a gap addressed in this paper. Drawing upon qualitative ethnographic observational data we examine some of the measures of control and coercion that are encroaching into social housing primarily established for poor and marginalized people with addiction and mental health problems in the urban centre of Vancouver, Canada. We witnessed three modes of regulation and control, that vary widely, among the residencies observed: physical surveillance technologies; site-specific modes of coercion; police presence and staff surveillance, which all together impact the everyday lives of residents living in low-income and supportive housing. We argue that supportive housing has the potential to provide its intended commitment - safe and secure affordable housing. However, owing to an (over)emphasis on 'security', the supportive housing we observed were also sites of social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel neural network (NN)–based scheme performs nonlinear model output statistics (MOS) for generating precipitation forecasts from numerical weather prediction (NWP) model output. Data records from the past few weeks are sufficient for establishing an initial MOS connection, which then adapts itself to the ongoing changes and modifications in the NWP model. The technical feasibility of the algorithm is demonstrated in three numerical experiments using the NCEP reanalysis data in the Alaskan panhandle and the coastal region of British Columbia. Its performance is compared with that of a conventional NN-based nonadaptive scheme. When the new adaptive method is employed, the degradation in the precipitation forecast skills due to changes in the NWP model is small and is much less than the degradation in the performance of the conventional nonadaptive scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increases in opioid-related mortality have contributed to declines in life expectancy at birth in the United States and British Columbia. Canadian national mortality data from 2000 to 2016 were analyzed to determine the contribution of poisoning-related mortality to changes in life expectancy at birth by age group and sex. From 2000 to 2016, life expectancy at birth increased by almost three years; however, mortality due to unintentional poisonings, including those involving opioids, curbed this increase by 0.16 years. Although a national decrease in life expectancy at birth has not been observed in Canada during this period, current trends suggest that the national opioid overdose crisis will continue to attenuate gains to life expectancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Zoology is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Coastal Giant Salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) is classified as threatened at the northern periphery of its range in British Columbia (BC), Canada, primarily due to forestry practices and habitat fragmentation. Characterising dispersal behaviour and population connectivity is therefore a priority for this region, while genetic differentiation in core versus peripheral locations remains unstudied in this wide-ranging species. We present seven new polymorphic microsatellite markers for use in population genetic analyses of D. tenebrosus. We examine locus characteristics and genetic variation in 12 streams at the species' northern range limit in BC, and within two regions representing sub-peripheral (North Cascades) and core localities (South Cascades) in Washington State, United States. In BC, the number of alleles per locus ranged from 2-5 and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.044-0.825. Genetic differentiation was highest between BC and the South Cascades, and intermediate between BC and the North Cascades. Across loci, mean allelic richness was similar across regions, while private allelic richness was highest in the core locality (corrected for sample size). These new microsatellite loci will be a valuable addition to existing markers for detailed landscape and population genetic analyses of D. tenebrosus across its range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An iterative chi-square method is applied to determine recent climate change of extremes of daily minimum temperature at two locations between an 18-year recent period and a 36-year prior period. The method determines for each of two locations in northwestern North America, Bozeman, Montana, USA and Coldstream, British Columbia, Canada, which values of the extreme daily weather elements are most significantly different between the prior years and the recent years and gives a measure of the weekly significance of that difference. Determination was made of the average percent of each recent year date (plotted weekly) that was impacted by extreme weather due to climate change as well as the percentage change in the frequency of the number of extreme days for each period of contiguous significant weeks. During the recent period at both locations, most weeks experienced a greater number of days of extreme high minimum temperature and a fewer number of days of extreme low minimum temperature. The weekly percentage changes indicate that extreme high minimum temperatures at both Bozeman and Coldstream are increasing at the rate of about 10% per decade, with a close corresponding decrease of extreme low minimum temperatures. The major changes in climate were very similar at both locations, with greatest warming occurring during the late winter and early spring and during the late July to August period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Quottoon plutonic complex (part of the great tonalite sill) was emplaced into eastern parts of the Coast shear zone along the west flank of the Coast Mountains. U–Pb crystallization ages range from 72.3 to 55.5 Ma. A regional compilation of K–Ar hornblende dates from the tonalite sill indicates a west to east decrease from ~60 Ma to ~54 Ma across the intrusive suite. Paleomagnetic samples were collected at 160 sites ( 8 samples per site) along six transects across the Quottoon complex between the Skeena River and Willard Inlet. Directions of characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) were successfully determined by principal component analysis of thermal demagnetization data for about half of the samples collected. Site-mean ChRM directions were determined for 56 sites from the Skeena River, Quottoon Inlet, Steamer Passage, and Wales Island transects, using criteria of 4 sample ChRM directions per site and 95% confidence limit (α[sub 95] ) 25°. For Filmore Island and Willard Inlet, few sites provided adequate determinations of site-mean ChRM directions, but many sample ChRM directions were well determined and consistent. The mean direction from the Skeena River – Quottoon Inlet collection is nearly concordant with the expected Eocene direction. Mean directions from other transects have clockwise-rotated declinations and inclinations that are shallower than the expected direction by up to 23°. Consistent with expectations for east-side-up tilting of crustal panels, sites from the western part of each transect have mean directions farther from the Eocene expected direction than do sites from the eastern part of the transect. The magnitude of east-side-up tilt varies along strike: the Skeena River to Quottoon Inlet segment experienced little or no tilt; Steamer Passage south of Portland Inlet records 15° tilt; north of Portland Inlet, tilts are 40° for Wales Island and 35° for Filmore Island; farther north, tilt decreases to 12° for Willard Inlet. Tilting was driven by Eocene extension of the Coast Mountains, with tilted crustal panels bounded by northwest-striking, east-side-down normal faults and northeast-striking transfer faults or shear zones. The ACCRETE seismic transect imaged east-dipping reflectors down to ~15 km depth, which likely correspond to the east-side-down normal faults. The most significant of the northeast-striking transfer structures must underlie Portland Inlet. Based on a tilting domino model, about 30% extension is required to produce the 40° tilt of crustal blocks at Wales and Filmore islands.Le complexe plutonique Quottoon (une partie du grand filon-couche de tonalite) a été mis en place dans des parties orientales de la zone de cisaillement côtière le long du flanc ouest de la chaîne Côtière. Des âges de cristallisation U–Pb vont de 72,3 à 55,5 Ma. Une compilation régionale de datations K–Ar sur des hornblendes provenant du filon-couche de tonalite indique une décroissance d'ouest en est à travers la suite intrusive de ~60 Ma à ~54 Ma. Des échantillons paléomagnétiques ont été recueillis sur 160 sites ( 8 échantillons par site) le long de six transects à travers le complexe de Quottoon, entre la rivière Skeena et l'inlet Willard. Pour environ la moitié des échantillons recueillis, les directions du magnétisme rémanent caractéristique (ChRM) ont été déterminées avec succès par une analyse des composantes principales de la démagnétisation thermique. Les moyennes des directions ChRM ont été déterminées par site pour 56 sites situés sur les transects de la rivière Skeena, de l'inlet Quottoon, du passage Steamer et de l'île de Wales, utilisant des critères de 4 directions ChRM sur des échantillons par site et une limite de confiance de 95 % (α[sub 95] ) 25º. En ce qui concerne l'île Filmore et l'inlet Willard, peu de déterminations adéquates de directions moyennes ChRM spécifiques au site ont été obtenues; cependant, plusieurs directions ChRM sur les échantillons étaient bien déterminées et cohérentes. La direction moyenne de la collecte provenant de la rivière Skeena – inlet Quottoon concorde presque avec la direction escomptée de l'Éocène. Les directions moyennes d'autres transects ont des déclinaisons et des inclinaisons à rotation de sens horaire qui sont jusqu'à 23º moins profondes que les directions escomptées. Les sites de la portion ouest de chaque transect ont des directions moyennes divergeant plus de la direction escomptée à l'Éocène que les sites de la partie est du transect, ce qui concorde avec les attentes d'un basculement du côté est vers le haut de grands blocs de la croûte. L'amplitude du basculement du côté est vers le haut varie selon la direction : le segment entre la rivière Skeena et l'inlet Quottoon n'a pas ou a peu basculé; le passage Steamer, au sud de Portland Inlet, enregistre 15º de basculement; au nord de l'inlet Portland, le basculement est de 40º pour l'île de Wales, 35º pour l'île Filmore et, plus au nord, l'inclinaison diminue à 12º pour l'inlet Willard. Le basculement provient de l'extension, à l'Éocène, de la chaîne Côtière au moyen de grands blocs inclinés de la croûte limités par des failles normales à direction nord-ouest et le côté est vers le bas et par des failles de transfert ou des zones de cisaillement à direction nord-est. Le transect sismique « ACCRETE » a interprété des réflecteurs à pendage est jusqu'à ~15 km de profond qui correspondent probablement au failles normales à côté est vers le bas. La plus importante des structures de transfert à direction nord-est doit se trouver sous l'inlet Portland. Selon une théorie de basculement de dominos, il faut une extension de 30 % pour basculer de 40º les blocs de la croûte aux îles de Wales et de Filmore.[Traduit par la Rédaction] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the conditions of two species of red bats, namely, Lasiurus blossevillii and Lasiurus borealis in British Columbia. It briefs about the DNA sequencing and assessment of a specimen collected from Skagit Valley, which is housed in Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, in order to understand the current condition of these species within the region. It also informs about the death of these species in northeastern British Columbia and reports about the sightings of these species in other parts of the U.S. and Canada. It also briefs about the seasonal distribution, migration and reproduction of these species.

The article offers world news briefs as of April 2013. Toyota argues and gives the reasons behind a car accident that took place in 2010 and settled down the sudden acceleration claims. A study focuses on supervisory neglect from a perspective of a child protection. A bus from British Columbia crashed through a guardrail and plunged down a steep embankment, and in this accident nine people passed away and more number of people were injured.

We examined spatial patterns of covariation in indices of survival rate (residuals from the best-fit stock- recruitment curve) across four decades among 43 wild pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) stocks from 14 geographical regions in Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. We found strong evidence of positive covariation among stocks within each region and between certain adjacent regions (e.g., correlations from 0.3 to 0.7) but no evidence of covariation between stocks ofdistant regions (e.g., separated by 1000 km or more). This suggests that important environmental processes affecting temporal variation in survival rates of pink salmon from spawners to recruits operate at regional spatial scales rather than at the larger ocean basin scale. Based on limited fry abundance data, we found that this covariation in spawner-to-recruit survival rates may be strongly influenced by marine processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]