This research involves conducting a resilience assessment on the Town of Caledon in southern Ontario, Canada, through the use of the Resilience Assessment Workbook authored by the Resilience Alliance. The purpose of the research is to develop a comprehensive understanding of Caledon, and identify ways to enhance its resilience as a linked social-ecological system in the context of urban growth. Urban growth pressures have brought multiple challenges to Caledon in land use, infrastructure maintenance, farmland preservation and watersheds conservation. Urban growth management in Caledon is situated in the provincial growth strategy for the Greater Golden Horseshoe areas in Ontario. Provincial legislation including the Places to Grow Act (2005), the Greenbelt Act (2005), the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act (2001) and the Provincial Policy Statement (2005) aim to reconcile the needs for population increase, economic growth and environmental protection. The results of the resilience assessment of Caledon consist mainly of a cross-scalar study and interviews with twenty-six community members. The cross-scalar study examines Caledon in its social, ecological and economic domains on the provincial, regional and municipal levels. The study also identifies potential resilience threats and assets of Caledon in the context of urban growth. Interviews have been conducted to verify and complement findings of the cross-scalar study. Interviewees include Caledon municipal staff, residents, environmental group leaders, politicians, an aggregates industry representative, a social services representative and a local property developer. The results of this research reveal resilience threats and assets in Caledon, and identify ways for the town to enhance resilience against urban growth pressures. Threats to resilience are found to be associated with urbanization, agricultural land loss, aggregates mining and a lack of affordable housing. Assets of resilience in Caledon are found to be related to civic engagement, participatory planning and agricultural diversification. Based on the cross-scalar study and interview results, emerging themes of resilience and recommendations are developed. Recommendations for Caledon to enhance its resilience include: promoting continual learning and adaptive governance; diversifying agriculture; providing affordable housing; treating urbanization as an opportunity; and developing trade-off principles for the implementation of an integrated plan for resilience.

Public transit provides an important community service by reducing pollution, traffic congestion, and by providing transportation for those who do not or cannot drive. Yet since the 1950s, real investment levels in transit have declined in many North American cities which has resulted in diminished service levels and ridership. In order for transit agencies to attract more riders, transit service must be competitive with alternative modes of transport, particularly private automobiles. However, since funding is limited, planning staff must ensure that the service changes that are implemented result in the greatest benefits to the system. This thesis presents an iterative approach to evaluating service changes in a transit network that combines the output from sophisticated transportation models, demographic data, and software analysis with local knowledge and expertise. The thesis focuses specifically on three common challenges in transit planning: quantifying costs of transfers between destinations within a system, examining access distances to transit as a measure of transit supportiveness, and estimating ridership changes resulting from small route adjustments. Three GIS-based tools, referred to as the Transfer, Access and Route Planning Tools, were developed to address these challenges and were demonstrated using transit system data from the Region of Waterloo in Southwestern Ontario. The Transfer Tool was used to highlight trips with high transfer costs to determine which changes in the route structure would result in the greatest reduction of the generalized cost of a trip attributed to transfers. Results from the Access Tool and Route Planning Tools demonstrated how changes to the streets along which transit routes operate influence access distances to transit, and further, transit ridership. The Access Tool also demonstrated how the design of the street network and the presence of pedestrian paths may affect access distances. Finally, this thesis concludes by recommending areas of future research.

There are three distinct motivating factors behind this research: 1) ecosystems are threatened across Canada and require locations within which to establish or re-establish natural features to support native species; 2) agricultural livelihoods for small and medium farmers in Canada are insufficient; 3) there are increasing societal demands on farmers to ascribe to “environmentally friendly” agricultural practices. In Canada there is no comprehensive or integrated agricultural-environmental policy agenda that deals with these interrelated issues. This research explores the interaction of the issues within a cross-scalar framework that explores a relatively new concept, novel ecosystems, in order to provide a targeted approach to agri-environmental programming for the Canadian setting. Market forces and technological changes have driven Canadian agricultural policy and have shaped contemporary agriculture-ecological interactions on farmlands across Canada. The concept of novel ecosystems is expanded to focus on maintaining farm communities and protecting and rehabilitating rural ecosystems and ecosystem services as a response to the drivers of landscape decision-making. The outcome is a framework that integrates the literature pertaining to ecosystem management and transformation and sustainable transitions to guide the usage of novel ecosystems for agricultural programming. A case study in the Niagara Region that examined the program content of different relevant agri-environmental initiatives and engaged the local farming community revealed that landowners would be interested in programs that are based on the principle of maximum net gains (sensu Gibson et al. 2005). In this study, maximum net gains requires designing an agri-environmental program that ensures that, financially, farmers can continue farming while at the same time improving social, cultural, ecological and financial environment in which they are embedded. A pilot case example of the technical implementation of novel agro-ecosystem component using two irrigation ponds and and three species (Scirpus atrovriens, Carex lacustris, and Sagittaria latifolia) and as of 2011 repeated measures ANOVA indicated that singular plantings of S. latifolia at densities of as little as 1 ramet/50 cm2 is an effective strategy in establishing a dominant plant community in semi-naturalized irrigation ponds. However, for restoration of irrigation ponds on agricultural lands devoid of facultative wetland species planting S. atrovirens at densities of 3 ramets/50 cm2 is an effective strategy in establishing a dominant emergent vegetation community. A synthesis demonstrates how the findings interact in reality and forms the basis for a multi-scaled approach for an agroecological policy agenda. This is accomplished using research called Wild LifeLines™ by Fields et al. (2010) and a spatially explicit asset inventory to create an approach that triages agricultural landscapes and determines how to incorporate novel ecosytems into individual farms and particularly, outlines the significance of a cross-scalar approach for agri-environmentalism in Canada.

A gas hydrate refers to the state in which hydrogen-bonded water molecules form a rigid lattice structure of so-called "cages", wherein "guest" molecules of natural gas are entrapped. Not unlike ice, gas hydrates are prone to form at low temperatures and high pressures; however, their crystalline structure allows them to remain stable at temperatures and pressures under which the phase limits of ice would otherwise be exceeded. To date, a number of instances of gas hydrates forming in the subsurface of Arctic climates below layers of permafrost have been identified, however the challenge of identifying past occurrences of methane hydrates during episodes of global cooling and glacial advance remains relatively unmet. During these periods of glacial/permafrost cover, the presence of hydrates could have a significant impact on the groundwater flow system due to the significant reduction of the porosity and permeability of hydrate saturated sediments. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is evidence to suggest that methane hydrates could have formed in the sedimentary units of the Michigan Basin at the Bruce nuclear site near Kincardine, Ontario, particularly when subjected to the impacts of glacial ice sheet loading. This study aims to provide insight into whether the potential impact of gas hydrates should be considered in the design of the proposed deep-geologic repository (DGR) for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste. This study presents a framework employing regional-scale numerical modelling to estimate the evolution of temperature, pressure and salinity profiles across the study area, combined with thermodynamic predictive modelling to identify potential paleo-methane hydrate stability zones in the subsurface at the Bruce nuclear site. This study represents the first step to ultimately assess the extent of paleo-methane hydrates and their impact on subsurface conditions at the site. Transient subsurface conditions at the Bruce nuclear site were modelled over a period of 120,000 years (120 ka), encompassing episodes of glacial advance and retreat during the Pleistocene epoch. The spatial and transient outputs from numerical modelling of the study area were then used as inputs to thermodynamic predictive modelling of methane hydrate stability. The results of this study show that, based upon the subsurface temperature, pressure and salinity histories determined using a three-dimensional regional-scale numerical modelling approach, paleo-conditions at the Bruce nuclear site become conducive with methane hydrate stability during the study period. Two separate episodes of methane hydrate stability were identified - lasting from 62.5 to 56 thousand years before present (kaBP) and from 23 to 13.5 kaBP, respectively - which were found to correspond to periods of glacial advance across the study area. The vertical extent of the estimated hydrate stability zones varied across the site, however it generally followed the limits of the Upper Silurian units, penetrating to deeper elevations towards the south west end of the study area.

Koi Herpesvirus (KHV), a species-specific DNA virus of the family Herpesviridae, is responsible for mass mortalities of common carp (Cyprinus carpio carpio L.) throughout the world. KHV’s broad geographical distribution and relatively high mortality rate among infected fish, creates significant disposal issues when die-offs occur, especially taking into account the body burden of contaminants in the fish. In locales where adequate disposal facilities are unavailable, or are unable to accommodate additional loadings of contaminated fish carcasses, concerns regarding human and environmental health are raised. During the summer of 2008, residents of the Lake Simcoe Region of southern Ontario, Canada, were faced with a massive die-off of carp, infected with KHV. Carp within the Great Lakes and much of the world are known to bioaccumulate (and biomagnify) contaminants, such as, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides (e.g., dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, DDT, and toxic metals (e.g., mercury). These contaminants have been associated with numerous adverse effects on both human and environmental health, and are thus of important considerations when planning for large-scale carcass disposal, following fish die-offs. Although suites of microbiological tests and water quality assessments are frequently conducted to identify causative factors during extensive fish-kills - assessments of relative contaminant burdens in the carcasses, which should dictate the most appropriate method of carcass disposal - are rarely performed. A case study on Snake Island, Lake Simcoe, Ontario was conducted to further examine the implications of this policy. Soil samples from two known disposal sites and three presumed control locations were sampled on Snake Island and sent to the Analytical Services Unit of Queen’s University for chemical analysis. Although none of the soil samples exceeded any legal guidelines in the present study, there is still concern as future die-offs of other fish species or piscivorous birds and the disposal of large numbers of carcasses may be an issue.

In order for conservation managers to preserve species within an area, an in-depth knowledge of the distributional patterns of focal species within a landscape is required. This is especially true when the species of concern is Threatened or Endangered and conservation of habitat is essential for species preservation. The yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens virens) is one such species that is listed as Special Concern under the Species at Risk Act of Canada; the virens subspecies meets the criteria for Endangered. Populations within Canada are limited due the bird’s natural range, which extends north into the extreme southern part of Ontario. Point Pelee National Park is one of two strongholds for this species. However, populations within the park have been declining greatly over the past few years with a 70% rate of decline between 1982 and 2008 (n =10, n=3). This decline is likely due to the lack of natural disturbance such as fire, as well as land use change to agriculture and urbanization that has resulted in a decrease of suitable habitat, outside the park. To examine these hypotheses, habitat suitability modelling is a useful tool. It offers conservation managers insight into current distributions of species, especially species of concern. The purpose of this research was to examine environmental variables relating to three bird species and use these variables to model suitable habitat within the study site (Anders Field Complex). In my study, ArcMap 10 was used to model and map suitable habitat within the Anders Field Complex of Point Pelee National Park, as this is the last known nesting grounds for the yellow-breasted chat within the park. The willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii) and the white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus) were also studied as they fill a similar niche and therefore strengthen the results of the study. Environmental variables were modeled to predict suitable habitat and therefore predict potential species distribution. The model used predictors such as vegetation composition of breeding territories and nest patch vegetation composition to identify potential suitable habitat within the study site. Results of the models show that there is likely no suitable habitat (0.04 ha) available for the yellow-breasted chat within the complex. Some suitable habitat was available for the willow flycatcher but seemed limited within the study site (4.1 ha), while an absence of available data on nest scale vegetation characteristics rendered modelling of the white-eyed vireo’s habitat moot. Conditions within the Anders Field Complex have succumbed to succession resulting in mature conditions in vegetation structure and composition, as low dense shrub with high herbaceous cover is being replaced with tall thicket with very little ground cover. Height of vegetation has succeeded the requirements of the yellow-breasted chat. These results show that habitat succession and therefore the loss of suitable habitat is a likely factor influencing chat populations within the Anders Field Complex. There are also factors outside the park likely affecting chat distribution including habitat loss and fragmentation at the landscape scale. Management practices, such as the re-introduction of lost mechanisms or processes within the park should focus on a broad-scale ecological approach that considers novel thinking to restoring ecological integrity. Human induced influences including land use change and introduction of exotic species have forever changed conditions within and surrounding the park, therefore restoration should be mindful to new ecosystems, as restoring to past conditions is likely unproductive. Implementing a disturbance regime such as prescribed burnings, is recommended in order to restore a lost mechanism for the renewal of early-successional habitat. Concentrating on restoration of ecosystems and the re-establishment of a shifting mosaic will provide habitat for a plethora of species including the chat, which is legally mandated by law. However, restoring habitat for the chat will likely not result in the increase of chat abundance within the park until factors outside of the park, including habitat loss and fragmentation are rectified.

Urbanization, which is ever increasing on a global scale, can negatively affect wildlife and habitat as well as biotic realms including air, soil, and water. One of the impacts of urbanization is urban runoff. A method commonly employed to mitigate runoff is the construction of stormwater management ponds (SWMPs). These ponds have created new habitat for urban wildlife, especially waterfowl such as Canada geese and mallard ducks. In some municipalities, increased numbers and densities of waterfowl near SWMPs are considered a nuisance due to their large numbers, considerable amount of fecal matter and because they may create health hazards. This research specifically examines the influence of species composition and height of vegetation around SWMPs on waterfowl use and whether changes in Escherichia coli counts are attributed to waterfowl use. Ponds were visited 140 times between April 2005 and June 2006. At each site, the number of Canada geese, mallard ducks, and other waterfowl species was recorded. Geese significantly preferred ponds with short vegetation (F = 53.45, p < 0.0001) and ducks exhibited no preference (F= 2.17, p = 0.347). The time (day) that observations were made was a factor indicating that there were temporal variations among seasons; geese were slightly more affected by time (F = 16.08, p < 0.0001) than ducks (F = 11.18, p < 0.001). This was not surprising given that waterfowl generally migrate locally across seasons. This result also supported the hypothesis that geese respond to changes in vegetation height. The influence of time coincides with the development of vegetation between spring and summer. Geese moved to the ponds with short vegetation as the growing season progressed, whereas they tended to avoid ponds with more naturalized vegetation due to the increased height. From a management perspective, municipalities can discourage nuisance geese at SWMPs through the naturalization of ponds and decreasing the level of maintenance via less mowing. There was no significant correlation between waterfowl use of ponds and E. coli counts. The Pearson’s correlation ranged from -0.152 to 0.990, associated p values ranged from 0.07 to 0.981. While further study is required, it appears that waterfowl do not offer any noticeable addition of E. coli to stormwater management ponds beyond what is already in the water column from other sources. Therefore, waterfowl may not present a health threat, at least within the pond itself.

Concerns regarding the persistence, bioaccumulation, long-range transport, and adverse health effects of polybrominated dipheyl ethers (PBDEs) have recently come to light. PBDEs are quickly becoming a ubiquitous pollutant and have been found globally in sediment, aquatic mammals, fish, bird eggs, human milk, serum, and adipose tissue. Due to their persistence and lipophilicity, PBDEs may biomagnify through the food chain and could pose a danger to those who consume these contaminated animals. Many First Nation communities in the James Bay region rely in part on a subsistence diet; therefore, these communities have the potential to carry high levels of PBDEs. Additionally, PBDEs have been shown to be preferentially deposited in the sub-Arctic, making this contaminant of particular interest to the James Bay region of northern Ontario and Quebec, Canada. By analyzing PBDE body burden (plasma), this contaminant was characterized with regards to its latitudinal variation and concentration. The study established a baseline PBDE level in the communities of the James Bay region and determined concentrations in the traditional foods of the First Nation communities located in the Mushkegowuk Territory of sub-Arctic Canada, to examine potential routes of exposure. The PBDE body burden was found to be low in the Mushkegowuk communities when compared to more northern communities in Canada. Similarly, PBDE body burden in the US and southern Canada is higher than those of the James Bay region. The body burdens of the James Bay Cree are similar to Japanese and Swedish levels. Analysis of traditional foods shows relatively elevated levels of PBDEs in certain game species such as whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos), and moose (Alces alces) compared to other traditional foods from the same area. Data in this thesis can be used for human biomonitoring purposes and the animal data can be combined with consumption data in order to assess the contribution of PBDEs to body burden from a First Nation diet as well as provide guidance when developing safety guidelines for the consumption of traditional foods. While the sub-arctic has been identified as an environmental sink for PBDEs, the levels found in this study indicate that long-range transportation and dietary biomagnification of the contaminant may not be the primary exposure pathway. This may be due to low bioavailability of the contaminant, rapid metabolism, or alternate sources of exposure and should be investigated in future studies.

Increasing globalization of the food system has led to a loss of food sovereignty and security in communities throughout the world. This globalized system has adopted industrial techniques of standardization and specialization as the solution to producing an abundant cheap food supply. Over time this system has become concentrated in the hands of a few transnational corporations that increasingly control every step of production from farm inputs, to distributing and processing. As a result, we have experienced the emergence of a counter movement to the corporate controlled and globally sourced dominant food system we have today. The rise of local food systems in industrialized countries developed to help solve the issues created by the current food system. This study provides insight into the barriers and opportunities to the development of local food systems, as well as the universality of these barriers. To achieve this, a multi-case study was conducted in Nelson, British Columbia; Lethbridge, Alberta; and Waterloo, Ontario. In each of these locations information was consolidated from food 'experts' or key informants, consumers, farmers, and supermarket owners/managers. Research methods included semi-structured interviews, a consumer survey, interpretation of government documents, and study site observation. Results from this study add to the empirical work on local food systems in Canada and offer a multi-stakeholder perspective of the barriers and opportunities to localization efforts. Findings suggest that the barriers to the development of local food systems are largely universal and are supportive of other empirical and theoretical works. Barriers included issues such as federal agricultural policy, health and safety regulations, consolidation of food retailing, and a demand for cheap food. The opportunities for a local food system, although more diverse and different between regions, can all for the most part be universally applied. While many opportunities exist for municipalities to enhance local food in their region, barriers created by government and industry will ultimately limit any notable movement toward a more localized food system without more significant policy changes from above. This study supports the idea that local food systems will require government assistance in order for changes from the grassroots to make significant strides in becoming less dependent on food imports.

This research focuses on recreation impacts and management options for the eastern coast of Georgian Bay, a popular destination for summer tourism. Georgian Bay has a rugged coastline of barren rock islands and wind sept trees - a wilderness setting that attracts cottagers, campers and boaters alike. Franklin Island, close to the Town of Parry Sound, represents a microcosm of recreation management problems on the coast of Georgian Bay, including concerns about the ecological capacity for island recreation, social concerns about impacts, and some ongoing governance and management challenges for Crown Lands. This study uses Franklin Island as the site to assess the types and severity of recreation impacts at five different campsites. Vegetation surveys found that vegetation communities at the campsite scale and slightly beyond the campsite do not appear to be significantly altered or affected by the current intensity and types of recreation use. Since the most visible impacts (e.g., campfires, cut wood, and trampling) found in this study were not at a scale to alter the vegetation patterns and coverage of the area, within the campsite or outside of campsite boundaries, the discussion then distinguishes between various scales and types of impact (ecosystemic, ecological, and aesthetic) to determine whether measured impacts affect broader ecosystem functioning. Overall this study would suggest that these localized impacts are not having a significant impact to the functioning of the Franklin Island ecosystem. However, the mosaic structure of ecosystems in eastern Georgian Bay, with their high level of patchiness and inter-patch diversity, including large areas of barren rock, pose some unique challenges for an ecological assessment of recreation impacts. Some modifications to the sampling approach may assist future assessments of recreation impacts and long-term monitoring. Recreation on Franklin Island poses a challenge for environmental management because, while it is in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Natural Resources as a formal Conservation Reserve, there are a number of factors that have contributed to a management vacuum, including limited resources for management, monitoring and enforcement by traditional authorities. As a result, governance for Franklin Island has shifted from formal government-led approaches to informal partnerships and community based collaborative approaches. However, it is unclear whether the collaborative governance approach for Franklin Island that undertakes specific management actions (e.g., a volunteer fire ban, latrine construction, site clean-up, etc.) are successfully reducing the potential risks from recreation to Franklin Island's ecosystems. This research concludes with a number of recommendations for managing recreation on Franklin Island and in eastern Georgian Bay.