Understanding Earth systems

Continuing a tradition of ambitious and innovative approaches to investigating our world, UVic researchers extend the reach of human knowledge, uncovering secrets of the seas, examining changes in our climate, and creating new ways of caring for the planet we call home.

WIRING THE OCEAN FOR SCIENCE

The UVic-led NEPTUNE Canada Project, part of an ambitious undersea observatory that will revolutionize ocean science research, got the go-ahead this year with $62 million in
funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the BC Knowledge Development Fund. NEPTUNE (North-East Pacific Time-Series Undersea Networked Experiments) will lay 3,000 km of networked fibre-optic cable across 200,000 sq km of ocean floor off the west coast of North America, enabling land-based scientists to remotely control sampling instruments, video cameras, sensors and underwater vehicles as they collect data from the ocean surface to beneath the seafloor, and transmitting continuous, real-time data from the ocean to the rest of the world via the Internet. Dr. Chris Barnes leads Canada's involvement in the joint U.S.-Canada venture, which is expected to be operational by 2008 and cost about $250 million.

MARINE ECOSYSTEMS

UVic's recognized strength in ocean sciences will be further
enhanced by a new endowed chair in marine ecosystems and global change. Supported by a generous private donation of $2.6 million, the chair was approved in principle and partly funded by the BC Leading Edge Endowment Fund, which matches funds raised by the private sector to attract top researchers to BC universities.

COMPUTING CLIMATE CHANGE

Climatologist Dr. Andrew Weaver (Earth & Ocean Sciences) is creating a supercomputer facility for advanced research on climate change using $4.8 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the BC Knowledge Development Fund and a $7.5 million in-kind contribution from NEC Corporation. In addition to conducting research on climate change, Weaver's Climate Modelling Group will study how climate changes over the last 135,000 years may have influenced human evolution.

ADVANCING HYDROGEN POWER

UVic's Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, at
the forefront of hydrogen fuel cell research, has enhanced its fuel cell testing program, improved hydrogen storage and assisted industrial partners in fuel cell development with new equipment purchased this year with $522,000 from Western Economic Diversification Canada. The university also received approval in principle from the BC Leading Edge Endowment Fund for an endowed chair in integrated energy systems to help lay the foundation for the hydrogen economy. Hydrogen fuel cells are an alternative and sustainable energy source that does not require the use of greenhouse-gas emitting fuels and is a key component in plans to meet Canada's climate change and clean air objectives.