James Bay Expedition 2022

This StoryMap has been created by the University of Manitoba, Centre for Earth Observation Science team with input from other participants, colleagues, and collaborators, as a way to communicate a more visual, interactive, and accessible activity report of the 2022 James Bay Expedition aboard the R/V William Kennedy.

James Bay remains one of the least studied water bodies in Canada despite its vast size and importance to both animals and the many Cree Nations that live along the coast.

James Bay has a strong influence on properties within Hudson Bay, and more directly to the area around the Belcher Islands, due to large freshwater riverine inputs (more than 200 km ³ /year) that flow into James Bay and then exit to the surrounding areas.

Throughout most of James Bay, our knowledge of basic scientific ocean properties such as the saltiness of the waters and the circulation patterns date back to the early 1970s. Since then, we know James Bay has changed, with Cree community members observing first-hand changes in the plants and animals in coastal ecosystems and coastal erosion. These ecosystem changes may be caused by many different factors, however the two main reasons are local development and climate change. For example, we know that hydroelectric development in the eastern James Bay watershed has changed the location, timing, and volume of river inflow to the Bay since the 1970s. Although a comprehensive coastal habitat research program began in Eeyou Istchee (east James Bay) in 2017 to study eelgrass habitat and its use by geese, the offshore areas remain unstudied, until now.

1. Update baseline oceanographic data, with an emphasis on offshore, and add to the data that was collected during the 2021 expedition.
2. Provide new scientific knowledge to help address marine research needs of the coastal Cree communities and regional organizations. The Cree Marine Research Needs Working Group helped plan the expedition.

The Cree Marine Research Needs Working Group with representatives from key stakeholders helped plan the expedition. See the "Partners and Funding" section for a full look at all partners involved.

Data are currently being analyzed by multiple teams and results will be shared, once ready, with advisement from the Cree Marine Research Needs Working Group. See Next Steps section for more information.

Follow along as we go through the route taken by the R/V William Kennedy and highlight the station locations with many scientific operations. You can either scroll through or zoom in and out on the map to see where the locations are and click on the locations and look through multiple photos that were taken at each station.

After going through all the station locations, the Scientific Operations section will provide a deeper understanding of each team's goals and activities for the expedition.

In this section, learn about what was being studied from the ship and what type of samples were collected.

How water circulates and mixes in the Bay has changed over the last several decades. To study these changes, we measured water properties like the temperature and saltiness of the water with CTDs deployed from the ship or small boats. CTD casts, where the CTD was lowered from the surface to the bottom and brought back up right away, were done at 242 locations across James Bay and around the Belcher Islands. We combine the CTD casts with water sampling (see section below) to provide new baseline data that will help us understand how waters circulate, at the surface and the bottom.

To get a consistent long-term data set to describe how water properties change over the seasons, moorings are used. The moorings are essentially a rope attached to a heavy weight on one end and a buoy on the other. A number of different sensors and equipment (depending on location) are attached to the rope at various depths to examine the properties of the water at a specific location for a FULL year. The moorings are not visible from the surface until a release is triggered with a remote, which allows it to float to the surface.

Equipment and instruments that may be included on moorings:

• CTDs and additional sensors
  • To measure properties like those listed under the CTD section of "Ship and Equipment" above.
• Acoustic doppler current profilers (ADCPs)
  • These measure water flow, waves and ice thickness.
• Sediment Traps
  • Measures the sediment that is suspended in the water.
• Water Sampler Containers
  • Can be scheduled to close at specific times throughout the year.
• Sound Recorders
  • To monitor ship traffic and the record the sound of animals.

During this expedition, moorings that were left in summer 2021 were taken out of the water (recovered) and new strings of equipment were deployed. These new moorings will be picked up in the summer of 2023. Algae, and other things grow and cover the instruments over time, so they are not usually left for longer than 1 year at a time. See the photo (left) of what we call “biofouling”.

Many water samples were collected to assess water properties including those that allow for study of water masses. These include:

• Salinity
• Oxygen isotope ratio
• Dissolved nutrients (nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, silicate)
• Dissolved organic carbon
• Dissolved organic matter (CDOM/FDOM)

These allow us to determine where the water in the Bay is coming from and identify different freshwater sources. We know that both sea ice melt and river water make James Bay fresher and change the water properties. These samples will let us know what is freshening the water in different areas.

Water samples were also gathered to examine the suspended particles in the water and learn more about how they interact with changing light and sea ice conditions. These samples were:

• Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
• Organic carbon content
• Organic nitrogen content
• Particulate absorption

A number of these listed above needed to be filtered and preserved before measuring them in a laboratory.

Many water samples were collected in a variety of containers from the rosette and the flow-through system, and while on the small boats throughout the expedition that were to be tested for a variety of inorganic carbon associated properties. These samples don't need to be filtered but they need to be preserved so the analysis is accurate once brought back to a lab.

Studying inorganic carbon allows us to:

• Assess if the overall James Bay system is a carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) source or sink.
• Look at the greenhouse gas footprint considering CO ₂  and methane.
• Assess how susceptible the region is to ocean acidification.

Water samples were collected and will be analyzed for the following:

• Dissolved inorganic Carbon (DIC)
• Total alkalinity (TA)
• pH
• Dissolved methane

To study phytoplankton and primary production of James Bay a variety of methods were used. These included collection of water samples, incubations, an Algae Online Analyser connected to the flow through system, and the use of a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) to look at the seafloor.

The goals were to:

• Look at all aspects of production (estimate net ecosystem production, respiration, and overall primary production)
• Look at what species of phytoplankton were present
• Identify where phytoplankton were found and which stations had the most biomass
• Identify the presence of kelp and other benthic algae.

In addition to the water samples mentioned in the previous sections, samples for chlorophyll a concentration, taxonomy, and high-performance liquid chromatography were also taken to measure how much and what kind of phytoplankton are present.

This data will be combined with the water property data to give us a better idea of how environmental conditions influence production at the base of the food web.

Identifying organisms in James Bay is necessary for understanding the food web structure, carbon cycling, regional diversity, detecting invasive species, and understanding how aquatic communities may respond to the changing climate. Using many techniques with nets and small trawls, organisms, including fish, invertebrates, zooplankton, and plants were collected through the water, from surface to bottom, in specific areas. The biodiversity of invertebrates and fishes will be assessed as well as biotracers that tell us the role of certain species within the marine food web.

*Primarily a DFO initiative

As an organism moves through an environment, it sheds some of its DNA (e.g., in the form of skin cells, excreted substances, etc.), leaving it behind in the environment. This leftover DNA is what we call environmental DNA and can be used to identify species that are present in an ecosystem without ever seeing them. Each eDNA sample requires the filtering of 1 L of water.

This sampling for eDNA plus the collection sampling allows us to study the biodiversity of James Bay and identify the presence of invasive species which can change to entire food web and structure of the ecosystem.

*Primarily a DFO initiative

There is not much known about the sediments of James Bay seafloor. This expedition provides the opportunity to collect and analyze sediments which will give us information on sediment properties such as:

• Particle size:
  • When there is a lot of movement in a water body (fast currents, big storms) small particles are less likely to settle onto the seafloor. Knowing how many small particles and large particles can give us some information on how ‘energetic’ an environment is.
• Organic matter:
  • Using geochemistry, we can tell the difference between marine organic matter (phytoplankton), and land organic matter (plants with roots, tree bark, soil and more). This gives us clues as to where the organic matter comes from.
• Sedimentation rates
  • This is a measure to tell us how fast the sediments are settling onto the seafloor. If this happens continuously, the ‘younger’ sediments are found at the surface and ‘older’ at the bottom. When we look at different sections of a sediment core we can go back in history, up to decades or centuries!
• Paleo proxies:
  • Some types of phytoplankton only occur in certain environments or certain conditions. If we can identify and analyze the types of phytoplankton in sediment sections, we can use it as an approximate (proxy) idea of what the environment looks or looked like when those phytoplankton were alive.

Marine bacteria, also called marine microbes, in places like Hudson Bay and James Bay are responsible for performing important processes like transforming complex nutrients into simpler forms that other organisms can use to support the food web. These microbes can also be responsible for bioremediation, for example, they can be used to clean up accidental oil spills in the water column in a way that is less harmful to the environment. 

Using water samples from different depths in Hudson Bay and James Bay, we gather bacteria cells using a filter that is slightly smaller than the average bacteria to extract their DNA. Studying the DNA gives us an idea of what the marine microbes can do, how they interact with each other and how they will respond to climate change.

The ship made brief stops near Sanikiluaq, the Cree Nation of Wemindji, and in the Moose River estuary, nearby the communities of Moose Factory, and Moosonee. Community members who were curious about the ship were invited on board to learn what research was being done and take a look at the equipment that was used.

A youth visit was organized by Moose Cree First Nation and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, where youth and their parents were invited on board to learn about the research happening on the ship and try their hand at using some of the equipment. While the ship was anchored near Moose Factory/Moosonee, youth were welcomed to tour the ship with their parents, and 3 youth stayed on board overnight, with a chaperone.

Stella Koostachin, an elder and Indigenous educator, and her son David Koostachin were aboard the William Kennedy from the time they departed in Churchill until they arrived in their home, Moosonee. They had the opportunity to learn about and participate in all the research that was being done during the first leg of the expedition. Stella has shared some of her experience in the quotation below.

The William Kennedy didn't just stop at the 17 stations above, it also stopped multiple times to use the CTD sensors and deploy moorings that will be in the water for 1 year. The flow-through underway system was also used to sample water while the ship was moving throughout the expedition.

Explore the map below to discover more about what operations were completed and what types of samples were taken in between the full stations!

Data and Accessibility

The data gathered during both the 2021 and 2022 expeditions is being examined and used by each research group to learn more about the Bay as described in the Scientific Operations section.

The data from both 2021 and 2022 expeditions gathered by the U of M team will eventually be publicly accessible through the CanWIN data repository hosted by the University of Manitoba. Currently, teams are either awaiting results or going through the datasets to make sure they are of good quality. After results are checked for quality, they will be available to all collaborators of the program if requested. Results and raw data will be available to the public online through CanWIN once teams publish their work.

Ultimately the presentation and distribution of results will be guided by the Cree Marine Research Needs Working Group that guided the planning of the expedition.

The interpretations of the data made by scientists, in terms of the James Bay system, will contribute to feasibility studies being conducted in both Eeyou Istchee and Muskegowuk regions of the Bay, in support of the establishment of National Marine Conservation Areas (NMCAs). The work done during the expedition will help us understand in greater detail the way James Bay ecosystems work, and how they may be impacted with a changing environment.

Future Work

The work done so far provides a basis for future work in offshore James Bay and will highlight areas that may need a greater focus to better understand the system. With the success of the 2021 and 2022 Expeditions, a potential follow-up expedition on the R/V William Kennedy is being planned for the summer of 2024. Stay tuned!

The following lists the on board participants during the expedition, and collaborators involved with the expedition who may not have been on board.

University of Manitoba

• Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. C.J. Mundy - Chief Scientist on board Aug. 1-14, 2022
• Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Zou Zou Kuzyk - not on board
• Dr. Jens Ehn - Chief Scientist on board Aug.15-26, 2022
• Dr. Tim Papakyriakou - not on board
• Dr. Eric Collins - not on board
• Dr. Sergei Kirillov - not on board
• Kate Yezhova - Oceanographic Technician
• Daniel Gedig - Technician
• Devin Hammett - Technician
• Madelyn Stocking - Student
• Grace Fedirchuk - Student
• Patricia Montalvo-Rodriguez - Student
• Nicholas Decker - Student (and University of Waterloo)
• Braydon Acheson - Student
• Kallie Strong - Student
• Lauri Corlett - Student
• Kari Green - Student
• Shaylyn Pelikys - Student

Université de Sherbrooke

• Dr. Céline Guéguen
• Claudie Meilleur - Student

Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada

• Dr. Kimberly Howland
• Dr. David Capelle
• Dr. Andrea Niemi
• Elizabeth Kitching - Technician (and University of Manitoba)
• Cole Wolbaum - Technician
• Delphine Cottier - Student

Oceans North

• Brynn Devine
• Maude Durand - not on board (provided support)
• Jennie Knopp - not on board (provided support)

William Kennedy Crew

• David McIsaac – Captain
• Yves Bernard – Chief Mate
• Matthew Rose – Bridge Watch
• Karson Myers – Bridge Watch
• Cheri Herbert – Small Vessel Operator
• Billy Gaudet – Cook

Other collaborators - not on board

• Dr. Michel Gosselin – Université du Québec à Rimouski
• Dr. Philippe Archambault – Université Laval
• Natasha Louttit – Cree Trappers Association
• Claire Farrell – Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
• Jennifer Simard – Moose Cree First Nation
• Wildlands League Inc.

Cree Marine Research Needs Working Group

The main planners for the 2022 Expedition include but is not limited to:

• Dr. Jennie Knopp, Oceans North, Chair
• Vern Cheechoo and Lawrence Martin, Mushkegowuk Council Lands and Resources
• Angela Coxon and Stephanie Varty, Eeyou Marine Region Wildlife Board
• Melvin Wesley, Eeyou Marine Region Planning Commission
• Chantal Otter Tétreault and Alan Penn, Cree Nation Government
• Chantal Ouimet, Parks Canada

If you have any questions about the James Bay Expedition, please feel free to email ceosinfo@umanitoba.ca that includes the subject line "James Bay Expedition Information" so we may direct your questions to the best individual.