Canada Foundation for Innovation Funds Crucial Equipment for Innovative Research

Climate change in BC means we are experiencing a move towards a more pronounced dry season in summer with less winter snowpack. These changes will trigger impacts to our ecosystems and create economic stressors on forestry, hydropower, salmon and more.

With this CFI funding, Jesse Hahm, a professor in geography, and his team will be able to better predict and understand the vulnerability of streamwater resources and forests in a warming climate. With the purchase of weather stations and other field equipment to monitor plant and bedrock moisture and groundwater in addition to a state-of-the-art liquid water isotope analyzer for laboratory use, this research will help inform landscape management and policy discussions involving water security, quality and sustainability.

This CFI funding will take an innovative approach Francesco Berna pioneered from current state-of-the-art, to the next-generation level to continue providing breakthrough insights into archaeological investigations.

The approach involves integrating the Fourier Transform infrared microspectroscopy (mFTIR) and petrographic analyses allowing the simultaneous optical, textural, mineralogical and molecular characterization of organic and inorganic particles in their intact original context at the microscopic level. With applications in biology, geology, and material science, this approach significantly increases the amount of information archaeologists can retrieve about past landscapes, ancient technologies and human-land interactions.  Berna’s mFTIR facility is engaged in national and international projects providing insight into pre-contact built environments (artificial islands and shell mounds) and into other facets of historical ecology of First Nations peoples of Canada.