ATW 2009 Plenary Speakers

Sunday September 27th, 2009, Opening plenary presentation

Yvan SIMARD Senior Research scientist Maurice-Lamontagne Institute Fisheries and Oceans Canada Mont-Joli (Qc), Canada Research professor Marine Sciences Institute Université du Québec à Rimouski Rimouski (Qc), Canada

Fundamental processes of St. Lawrence's whale ecosystem hot spots as revealed by an acoustical and oceanographic approach.

Abstract:

Whales are acoustic animals. They make extensive use of sounds to communicate, find preys, and sense their environment, which is mostly opaque to light. Like birds, they produce specific sounds that can be used to identify the species. In contrast to airborne sounds, underwater sounds can propagate over large distances. For example, infrasounds from blue and fin whales frequenting the St. Lawrence were shown to propagate over several tenths of km, while the ultrasound echolocation clicks from small odontocetes, like the beluga and common porpoise, can propagate over a few hundred meters.
Mimicking whales, Man has learned to exploit these properties of underwater sounds for remote bottom detection and seafloor imaging, especially with multibeam echosounding, and to scan the complex pelagic environment, three-dimensional and moving, to map currents and the distribution of fish and plankton and assess their biomass with high resolution.
This approach was combined with traditional oceanographic observations and modeling to study the intimate links of whales with their environment, aiming at elucidating the oceanographic processes making the St. Lawrence Estuary an exceptional whale feeding habitat since centuries. The head of the deep Laurentian channel was found to retain the richest krill aggregation yet documented in the Northwest Atlantic. Adult krill from the Gulf of St. Lawrence is imported by the deep flow of the two-layer estuarine circulation of the St. Lawrence, and concentrated along the slopes by strong upwelling and downwelling currents interacting with the depth-keeping behaviour of krill. This process interconnects small and large scales components of the St. Lawrence, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. Special oceanographic features, seldom found elsewhere, combine in the Marine Park to generate this persistent whale feeding ground. Acoustic observatories can be developed to continuously monitor this system and its utilisation by whales at basin scales in real-time.

Biography:

Yvan Simard obtained a Ph.D. in biological oceanography at Laval University in 1985. After a postdoctorate at the Ocean Sciences Institute in Sidney, B.C., he joined the Maurice Lamontagne Institute of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 1986 where he carries out research projects, especially in oceanography using underwater acoustics. Since 2001, he is the director of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada Research Chair in marine acoustics applied to ecosystem and marine mammals at the Marine Sciences Institute of the University of Québec at Rimouski. His research concerns oceanographic processes driving the St. Lawrence and the Arctic ecosystems. He takes advantage of active and passive acoustic methods to evidence the spatial-temporal structures of pelagic ecosystems, dynamics of trophic transfer hot spots and of habitat frequentation by whales, and to study underwater noise pollution, notably in the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park.

Monday September 28th, 2009

Jacques LOCAT Professor Département de géologie et de génie géologique Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec (Qc), Canada

The capping of Upper Saguenay Fjord contaminated sediments by the sediments from the July 1996 Saguenay flood disaster.

Abstract:

The Saguenay post-flood project has been achieved during the period from 1997 to 2003. It has assembled many researchers who had to evaluate the performance of the 1996 flood layer to act as a barrier to the movement of the underlying contaminants and to develop various tools aimed at evaluating or monitoring the performance of this catastrophic barrier. After five years of research, we can conclude that this layer is efficient and shall resist most of the natural processes who could modify it with the exception of a large earthquake but even then the effects would be local. This work has required the participation of many university and government organization and has offered to possibility to train or educate more than 42 graduate students including 17 Ph..D. The overall goal could be achieve not only from the direct funding but also from the previous knowledge acquired over the previous years by researchers which has enable us to carry out the project at a total cost of about 1.3 million dollars. Major spin-offs from Project not only consist in the data base but also in the increase knowledge that was gained of the various processes which are taking place here and moreover of the international recognition of the Saguenay Fjord as a major natural laboratory.

Biography:

Jacques Locat is born in Joliette, Québec, Canada in 1949. He has obtained is college degree in Sciences, in Joliette in 1970, his B. Sc. in Earth Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1973, his M. Sc. Degree in Earth Sciences in 1976 at the University of Waterloo (Ontario) and after 2 years of graduate studies in rock mechanics at the University of Alberta he obtained his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the University of Sherbrooke (Québec) in 1982. Since 1981 he is professor at the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering of Laval University (Québec, Canada). He has been an invited researcher at the Laboratoire des Ponts et Chaussées of Aix-en-Provence (1988-1989), at the United States Geological Survey (Menlo Park, 1994-1995), at the National University of Singapore (fall of 2001), at the Port and Airport Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport in Yokosuka (Winter 2002), and at the Université de Lausanne in 2009.
Since 19981, he has developed many research directions in engineering geology and civil engineering. Contributions are in the field of marine geotechnical engineering (understanding the development of strength in recent sediments), environmental geotechnique (use of lime and cement for soil and sediment stabilization), and in natural hazards (mass movements in particular both in the marine and terrestrial environments). Since 1981 he has trained more than 50 graduates students and publish more than 100 scientific articles. He is currently the Chairperson of the UNESCO/IUGS IGCP-511 Committee on Submarine Mass movements and Their Consequences.
During his career, Jacques Locat has been President of the Canadian Geoscience Council (1992), became Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada since 1997. In 2003 he received the Thomas Roy Award of the Canadian Geotechnical Society for his contributions in engineering geology and in 2005 the K.Y. Low Medal of the Engineering Institute of Canada for his international contributions in engineering. Since 2002, he has been invited as an international expert to review FP programs for the European Union. In 2004 he became also a part-time member of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environmment (BAPE, Québec). He also acted on the Killam Selection Committee of the Canadian Council for the Arts (2004-2006).

Wednesday September 30th, 2009

Adrien PILON Director Environmental biotechnology sector Biotechnology Research Institute National Research Council Canada Montréal (Qc), Canada

The development of new products and the need for environmental assessment.

Abstract:

With the growing problem of greenhouse gases and the emergence of many new contaminants in ecosystems, a new global trend is taking place - the use of more "green" products in place of petroleum products. New products from renewable resources and others from sources of residual biomass are emerging. These new products or bioproducts should be developed in a framework of sustainable development and will certainly be the subject of an evaluation. Which tools are available for their environmental assessment? How should these tools be integrated into the general framework of Life Cycle Assessment of these new products?

Biography: .

Mr. Pilon has a bachelor degree in Geology/biology (1978) and a masters degree in Environmental Sciences (1982). He has been working in the field of Environment and sustainable development for almost thirty (30) years. Mr. Pilon has been active in agro-environment (1978-82). He has teaching experience from 1981-84 as a college professor teaching soil sciences, environment management and impact assessments. From 1984-90, he worked as a consultant in hazardous wastes mangement and in industrial site restoration. In 1990, Mr. Pilon joined Shell Canada Products Ltd., as environmental advisor and chiefly responsible for the elaboration on an environmental site remediation program for Eastern Canada. Since November 1994, Mr. Pilon is Director of the Environmental Biotechnology Sector at the Biotechnology Research Institute of the National Research Council Canada. He heads a multidisciplinary group of over 100 scientists, engineers and technologists involved in the research and development of biotechnologies for bioremediation, biomonitoring, biomass conversion, sustainable development and nanobiotechnology. In 1997, co-founder of the Montreal Centre of Excellence for Brownfields Restoration and vice-president technology demonstration. He was also a member of the task force of the National Round Table on Environment and Economy who elaborated a National Strategy for Brownfields Redevelopment in Canada, Chair of the International Ad-Hoc Committee on contaminated lands 2001-2003, and member representative of Canada since 1996. Mr. Pilon is involved in sustainable development of new products and bioprocesses as a member of OECD committee on industrial biotechnology. He was the project coordinator of a large project funded by CBIN on Natural Fibres for Biochemicals and Biomaterials. He was a member of the National Advisory Board on Biofibres, reporting to the Composites Innovation Centre-Manitoba. Mr. Pilon is member of the NRC National working group on bioproducts and he is the lead responsible for the biomaterials, biofibres and biopolymers theme.