The Tally Ho shear zone (THSZ) is a 40-kilometre long, northwest-striking assemblage of highly-deformed rocks outcropping along the western margin of Stikinia in southern Yukon. The location of the THSZ adjacent to the boundary between the oceanic Stikine Terrane and pericratonic Nisling Assemblage of the Yukon-Tanana Terrane provides an opportunity to examine the tectonic significance of a terrane-marginal high-strain structure. Detailed geological mapping along the THSZ and adjacent rocks indicates that the shear zone is a crustal-scale thrust fault that places deep-seated arc rocks of Stikinia up-section and to the east onto a package of upper crustal volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the Upper Triassic Lewes River Group. Timing of movement along the THSZ is constrained by U-Pb zircon age determinations of a deformed section of cumulate leucogabbro in the hangingwall of the shear zone (208 ± 4.3 Ma) and by a post-kinematic cross-cutting megacrystic granite intrusion (~173 Ma). Positive Nd values of Stikine magmatic rocks (+4.5 to +6.7) indicate magmas forming the oceanic terrane were formed with little to no input of continental crust until around the time of intrusion of a megacrystic granite unit in the mid-Jurassic (Nd -4.0). The THSZ is therefore interpreted to have formed in response to the thick-skinned collision and underpinning of the Nisling Assemblage beneath western Stikinia in the Early Jurassic resulting in the imbrication of the Stikine magmatic arc along the THSZ.

The abundance of gray whales along the coast of Flores Island, BC, varies on an annual basis. This thesis searches for a relationship between gray whale abundance in this area and environmental forcing factors. Regression analysis was used to search for relationships, using gray whale abundance as the dependent variable and sea-surface temperature, salinity, wind speed, upwelling indices and hours of bright sunlight. Independent variables were also lagged against gray whale abundance to search for time lags between variables. When combine in a multiple regression model, wind speed and upwelling lagged two years explained 89.6% (p = 0.004) of the variance in gray whale abundance. A possible pathway for this relationship may exist through local kelp populations, which have the ability to affect gray whale prey abundance.

Sedimentation rates and compositions of sinking particles were investigated at three sites on the Beaufort slope and one in Canada Basin during the period 1990-1994 using moored sequential sediment traps. A method was developed to identify the terrigenous and biogenic components of the fluxes. The physical context including ice cover, ocean currents, river inputs, winds, air temperature, incident light, and nutrient availability provide essential information to the interpretation of the particle fluxes and to the understanding of shelf-basin sediment transport in this area. Eddies, internal waves, upwelling and downwelling, and the state of the ice cover all played important and overlapping roles in the pattern of observed fluxes. A peak in the flux of highly terrigenous material under complete ice cover in mid-winter to the northwest of Mackenzie Trough was associated with predominantly downwelling conditions and the passage of a series of eddies and internal waves. A prolonged spring diatom bloom occurred in the mid-slope area and was clearly associated with an early opening of the ice on the east side of the shelf. Higher fluxes at the Canada Basin site were associated with a large eddy clearly identifiable from the current-T-S record and also from the composition of the suspended material carried with it. At the base of the slope (2700 m), the composition was highly terrigenous and remarkably consistent. Higher up the slope (700 m), biogenic peaks in the summer diluted the terrigenous material briefly, but it appears that there is a constant background of highly terrigenous material. There was a high degree of variability between sites and over the slope there was not enough data to asses the inter-annual variability. In Canada Basin, the inter-annual variability was closely linked to the extent of open water in the summer period. At all sites, lateral transport is clearly indicated by the increase in flux with depth. The data robustly demonstrate the need for detailed knowledge of physical processes for informed interpretation of particle fluxes and sediment transport in this area.

Full-depth profile data reveal semidiurnal internal waves radiating from Mendocino Escarpment. Energy- and momentum-fluxes are lost between stations bracketing the first surface reflection to the north. A plausible interpretation is that wave energy is dissipated as a consequence of superposition of incident and reflected waves. Because there are no profiler data in the superposition region, a theoretical approach is used to bridge the gap. Assuming zonal independence, constant stratification and linear decay in the dissipation region, the forcing on the mean equations is evaluated with parameters consistent with Mendocino Escarpment data. Both superposition and dissipation cause momentum-flux divergence forcing. An Ekman-like balance is anticipated with predicted mean zonal flows u~O(1-2 cm/s), comparable to surface wind-forced Ekman currents.

Swan Lake watershed, a sub-catchment of the salmonid bearing Colquitz Creek watershed located in the municipality of Saanich, on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, was studied to characterise the linkages between urbanisation and ecological health and resilience. Although rarely applied in watershed ecology, resilience (the ability to absorb disturbances without the loss of ecosystem identity) offers a useful construct in this case study to understand the effects of urban development over the past 150 years, and to outline some principles for integrated, watershed-scale management. Baseline landscape characteristics and processes of historical land-use were determined using paleoecology (pollen analysis) and historical records. Watershed health was assessed using: a Proper Functioning Condition assessment of riparian-wetland and stream channels; vegetation community mapping; vegetation plots; surface flow hydrology; and water quality analyses. Vegetation and lake hydrographs were compared with less disturbed reference ecosystems. Findings are discussed in terms of alternative stable state models and energy dissipation at the site and landscape scale. Analysis of the data revealed that over the past 150 years, forest clearing, agriculture, transportation infrastructure, and non-point source pollution have transformed the landscape and substantially altered the water and energy balance. Impervious surfaces and cleared land (covering 25% and 35% of the watershed, respectively) are inferred to have reduced latent heat dissipation of solar energy, an important landscape-scale process affecting resilience to climate change. Degraded stream channels represent reduced ecosystem services and lost social/economic value. The stream/lake hydrographs revealed a typical, urban flashy profile that exacerbates channel erosion and non-point source pollution, while excessive lake stage drawdown is also evident. Water quality is characterized by historic and ongoing excessive nutrient loading and associated cultural eutrophication, heavy metal pollution, and ecosystem “ageing” due to dissolved solids runoff. At the site level, invasive species, particularly reed canarygrass, dominate Swan Lake wetlands, whereas the pollen record shows abundant woody shrubs and associated species (some of which are now extirpated from the site) and an absence of grass; this helps to establish a rationale for vegetation management. Based on the findings of the above studies and according to a proposed conceptual model with assessment criteria in five categories (water, vegetation, energy, soil and nutrients), Swan Lake watershed has impaired ecological health and is not resilient to disturbances such as extreme climate/weather events. Future watershed management should therefore mimic the hydrological function and energy balance of the pre-development conditions.

Snow surface energy balance was studied along an elevational gradient and under varying forest cover types during the ablation season of 2007 in the Coldstream Basin, Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada. During the snowmelt period, 1-4% of the peak annual snow-water equivalent (SWE) was lost to sublimation in open sites – averaging 0.4 mm d-1. Melt and sublimation rates increased significantly with elevation, and were higher and more variable in the open sites than under forest canopies. Melt rates were driven almost entirely by sensible heat fluxes and exceeded 30 mm d-1 during large-scale advection events. The melt and sublimation processes observed at the snow surface were significantly linked to conditions in the atmospheric boundary layer. From these linkages, a proxy record of historical ablation season energy fluxes for the period 1972-2007 was created. Significant trends towards earlier dates of snowmelt and freshet onset were detected, as was a trend towards increasing ablation-season temperatures at the 850 mb height. Significant correlations between estimated historical ablation-season melt and sublimation and the regionally dominant teleconnection indices were also found. This study significantly advances the understanding of ablation season snow-surface energy exchanges, and the links to the driving atmospheric conditions in the Okanagan Basin.

Timber harvest and prescribed burning in the Rocky Mountain Trench in southeastern British Columbia are part of long-term ecological restoration in the forest and grassland ecosystems of the region. Conducted in the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa Nation, this restoration work has the potential to impact Ktunaxa precontact archaeological sites around kettle lakes in the Trench. The focus of this research project is the integration of cultural information into ecosystem restoration decision-making processes. Detailed inventory of archaeological sites was completed using standard archaeological site inventory procedures; this inventory information served as the baseline data prior to monitoring of timber harvest activities around the cultural sites, carried out under prescribed winter conditions of frozen ground and snow cover. Surface soil disturbance surveys were completed around the sites following the timber harvest activities, to assess impacts to Ktunaxa archaeological sites. Management recommendations are advanced pertaining to reduction of impacts of timber harvest equipment and prescribed fire on cultural sites. These include timber harvest only under prescribed winter conditions, use of low impact harvest equipment, exclusion of equipment from ecologically and culturally sensitive sites, and training of field staff in identification and protection of cultural sites. Ktunaxa Nation natural resources staff must be involved in all aspects of ecological restoration planning — including initial archaeological impact assessments, determining what restoration activities take place around cultural sites, monitoring of timber thinning and prescribed burning processes and post-harvest and post-fire impact assessments — to fully protect cultural resource values. Ecological restoration activities will be complemented by the successful integration of Ktunaxa cultural information and values into restoration practices.

This dissertation presents results from a complex seismic study using Ocean Bot¬tom Seismometers (OBS) conducted at a site of deep sea gas hydrate occurrence. The site is located on the accretionary margin of the northern Cascadia subduction zone offshore Vancouver Island. Canada. The major objectives for this study were the construction of a 3-D velocity model around the Bullseye vent zone by the means of travel time inversion tomography and the analysis of the amplitude data for reflections from the water-sediment interface and the bottom simulating reflector (BSR). Secondary objectives included the integration of the results from this study with previous knowledge about the vent zone for further clarification of its structure and evolution. The OBS seismic data set consisted of 22 parallel lines at 200 in spacing with three perpendicular crossing lines recorded on five OBS stations. Multichannel and single channel conventional seismic data along these lines were also acquired. The OBS experiment geometry required corrections for the coordinates of sources and receivers initially obtained in the field. A new comprehensive source and receiver localization technique was developed for the case of stationary hydrophones and multiple seismic lines. The horizontal size of the created 3-D velocity model is 3 km x 2.7 km. The modelled volume is limited by the seafloor at the top and by the BSR at the bottom. The size of a grid cell is 50 m x 50 m x 20 m. The uncertainty for the velocity value of individual cells was as low as 20 m/s. although the resolution of the model was reduced by the sparse receiver geometry. The inversion results indicate a fairly uniform velocity field around and inside the vent zone. Velocities are nearly equal to values expected for sediments containing no hydrate, which supports the idea that the bulk concentrations of gas hydrates are low at the site. The largest velocity anomaly with an amplitude of +25 m/s is spatially associated with the limits of the blank zone. The anomaly suggests greater gas hydrate concentrations inside the vent zone than outside. Low vertical resolution of the model did not provide information on the depth distribution of the hydrate. However, the combination of the information from the velocity inversion with previous studies suggests that the zone of high hydrate concentration (15-20% of the pore space) associated with a hydrate lens, located at the top of the sediment section. The vent site is characterized by a negative anomaly of the seafloor reflection coefficient, outlined by a high amplitude rim. The low reflection coefficient is believed to be the result of the processes taking place above the hydrate lens, methane venting in particular. and the high amplitude rim to be the effect of carbonate formation. The seafloor reflection coefficient zonation appears to be correlated with the distribution of low magnetic susceptibility zone in the first 8 in of the sediment section. Both phenomena can be related to the distribution of upward fluid flow at the vent site. The cause of the blanking phenomena is likely different for different frequencies of the seismic signal. The blanking at high frequencies is an effect of near-surface disturbed sediments due to active venting and, possibly. free gas presence at the top of the vent zone. The blanking for the middle range of seismic frequencies is mostly the effect of reduced impedance contrast between the sediment layers inside the blank zone due to local presence of gas hydrates in small concentrations (2-3%). It is concluded that. the Bullseye vent zone, which shows very low activity presently, was probably much more active in the past (similar to a mud volcano). The past ac¬tivity may have led to the formation of the bathymetric expression of the vent site (a mound), together with the hydrate lens and authigenic carbonates.

Volatile heavy metals are liberated from magmas during eruptive and passively degassing volcanic activity. Volcanic emanations have been estimated to contribute 20-40% of volatile elements such as Bi, Pb, As or Sb, and up to 40-50 % of Cd and Hg annually (Nriagu, 1989). Some workers, however, believe these ranges are too high (Hinkley, 1999) or too low (Zreda-Gostynska and Kyle, 1997) leading to considerable differences in global inventory budgets of these metals and the degree to which they load the atmosphere. The objective of this work is to investigate the behavior of volatile heavy metals such as Au, Tl, As, Pb etc. in subaerially erupted magmas and experimentally in silicate melts. Analysis of natural pumice samples confirm the futile, sporadic nature of Hg and associated heavy metals, suggesting these metals are fully degassed prior to deposition. Diffusion experiments were conducted in natural basalt, dacite and synthetic rhyolite (Ab-Or-Qz minimum eutectic) over a range of temperatures (1200 – 1430 °C) at 0.1 MPa. Starting compositions were doped with a heavy metal cocktail (Bi, Pb, Tl, Au, Re, Sb, Sn, Cd, Mo, As, Cu) and loaded into open top Pt capsules. One set of experiments examined the effect of melt composition (polymerization) on element diffusion, and the second investigated the effects of ligands on diffusion by adding known concentrations of Cl and S. During experiments of varying duration, concentration gradients arose in the volatile trace metals due to their varying volatility, as measured (normal to the melt/gas interface) by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in quenched glasses. Diffusion profiles followed an Arrhenius relationship from which diffusion coefficients (D) and activation energies (Ea) were obtained for Au, Tl, As, Cd, Re, Pb and Bi (in decreasing order of volatility). Results show Au and Tl are the most volatile in dacite and rhyolite yielding LogDDac Au = -10.7 ± 0.1 m2/s and LogDDac Tl = -10.9 ± 0.1 m2/s in dacite, and LogDRhy Au = -10.9 ± 0.1 m2/s and LogDRhy Tl = -11.3 ± 0.3 m2/s in rhyolite respectively. The D for Au could not be measured in basalt but Tl was the fastest diffusing species LogDBas Tl = -10.8 ± 0.2 m2/s. Ligands Cl and S were shown to increase the volatilities of all metals, with S having a more profound effect. Diffusivities were applied to a simple 1D bubble growth model (Smith 1955). Model results indicate diffusion coefficients play a major role in metal fractionation processes occurring at depths that ultimately dictate what metal ratios are measured at the surface of volcanoes.

To study the ecology of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts, the changes in species composition, diversity, and seasonal variations of cyst flux in the sediment trap deployed in the Strait of Georgia (BC, Canada) were examined. The cyst production rate varied from ~600 to 336,200 cysts m-2 day-1, with an average of 20,000 cysts m-2 day-1. Throughout the study period (March, 1996 - January, 1999), cyst assemblages were mostly dominated by cysts produced by heterotrophic dinoflagellates, such as Protoperidineaceae (Brigantedinium spp., Quinquequspis concreta, and cysts of Protoperidinium americanum). Cysts produced by heterotrophic dinoflagellates peaked in June each year, whereas cysts produced by autotrophic taxa were most abundant during August-September. The total annual dinoflagellate cyst flux was higher in 1996 than in 1997 and 1998, being enhanced by the bloom of Alexandrium spp. The warmer sea-surface temperature in 1998 had a positive effect on the production of both autotrophic and heterotrophic dinoflagellates, as inferred from the cyst fluxes.