News

Grand opening set for new cycling path near Brock

Tuesday, July 25, 2017 | By Amanda Smits

MONDAY, JULY 17, 2017 | by Maryanne Firth

A cyclist is picture on the new Decew and Merrittville multi-use pathway that recently opened near Brock.

Travelling to Brock by bike or on foot just got a bit easier — and a lot safer.

Work on the new Decew and Merrittville multi-use pathway has been completed, providing a safe route to get to the University from one of the most popular off-campus residential neighbourhoods.

Last year, the Government of Ontario, City of Thorold, Niagara Region and Brock University announced a partnership to build a network of bike lanes and paths that would stretch from the Confederation Heights neighbourhood to the Brock campus.

The announcement followed lobbying efforts by the Brock University Students’ Union for improved cycling infrastructure near campus.

The first phase of the project began in 2016 with Decew Road reconstructed from Richmond Street to Merrittville Highway. Work continued this past April with a multi-use path and improved lighting installed on the highway between Decew Road and Sir Isaac Brock Way.

An officially opening for the new pathway will be held Wednesday, July 19 at 3 p.m. outside of Niagara Region headquarters — on the southeast corner of Sir Isaac Brock Way and Merrittville Highway. The ceremony will be followed by a bike ride for cyclists of all ages. All are welcome to attend.

Active transportation, such as walking or cycling, is a healthy way for the large population of Brock students and employees living in Thorold to commute to campus, said Elizabeth Yates, a liaison librarian at Brock, who is also a member of the Thorold Active Transportation Advisory Committee that advocated for the path project.

“Before this pathway was built, walking or riding along Decew and Merrittville felt unsafe due to large volumes of traffic, with vehicles sometimes travelling over the speed limits,” she said. “Poor nighttime lighting was another concern.”

As a cyclist and advocate for active transportation in the community, Yates was impressed to see so many partners come together to show their support for an initiative that “promotes healthy commuting and makes our area safer for everyone.”

Story from The Brock News
Cheung’s hot study hits the big time

Sunday, July 16, 2017 | By Amanda Smits

By: Lydia Collas

A study by researchers at Brock University which found motivational self-talk to improve physical and cognitive performance was recently featured on time.com, receiving more than 6 million views in 24 hours.

Dr. Stephen Cheung, Professor of Kinesiology and member of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) at Brock University, and his colleagues wanted to see if athletes could improve their endurance in the heat simply by changing their thoughts. The long-held view is that hard physical limits underlie an athlete’s performance in the heat. But Cheung wanted to investigate how mental, rather than physical, factors affect endurance.

The study, recently published in the January 2017 edition of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, took a group of trained cyclists and had them ride in 40ºC heat until they reached the point of exhaustion. Following their initial attempt, half the group underwent a course in self-talk training. This is a sport psychology technique that involves replacing the negative messages going through your head as you cycle to exhaustion in a very hot room with positive ones of “I am focused” and “Keep pushing, you’re doing well.”

The average cycling time in the initial ride was eight minutes before exhaustion was reached. The cyclists were then divided into two equal groups, one received self-talk training while the other did not. Cyclists who received the self-talk training extended their cycle for an average of three minutes. The time for the untrained group remained unchanged.

These results challenge the view that hard physical limits underlie performance in the heat. Cheung says of the work “A novel part of the study’s finding that, even in very well trained athletes, their perception of discomfort can still be further trained and improved.”

But it wasn’t just physical performance that improved. the cyclists were also asked to perform a cognitive task that involved finding and remembering the way out of a maze. Cheung found that the self-talk training also improved performance on this task, “It has also never been studied before whether sports psychology impacts mental performance during intense exercise in addition to the physical changes themselves. The combination of both cognitive and physical performance tasks was a novel aspect of the study.”

This research clearly has relevance to athletes wishing to improve their performance. Indeed, Cheung is involved in the training of some high-profile cyclists, “I recently had the privilege of helping top US cyclist Amber Neben develop an individualized heat adaptation protocol prior to the 2016 World Championships held in Qatar. I think I was almost as excited as Amber was when she won gold in the Women’s Time Trial!”

And it’s not only athletes that should take note either, Cheung says “What this demonstrates is that refocusing perception of discomfort can improve anyone’s tolerance to exercise and heat stress. This is of relevance to workers in the heat, such as firefighters, hazardous waste disposal, and ultra-deep miners.”

It cannot go unmentioned that Cheung’s study received a huge amount of attention in the media. Published at multiple new outlets, it was also, to Cheung’s surprise, picked up by time.com: “It still constantly amazes me how broadly my work gets picked up sometimes, through both traditional media channels and also newer media venues.”

As it often is with science, this study not only provided answers to some questions, but also gave rise to a whole host of new questions. Cheung has plans to explore the mechanisms that underlie the effect observed here, “I have colleagues in Belgium who have been seeing that altering the level of dopamine in the brain can also improve an individual’s tolerance to exercise and heat stress. The next step that I am exploring now with a PhD student is to merge these findings and themes of research together, ideally looking at how these sport psychology interventions may or may not affect the neurochemistry of the brain.”

Link to full paper: Effects of Motivational Self-Talk on Endurance and Cognitive Performance in the Heat.
Brock Professor, Gary Pickering, recently featured on the CBC

Sunday, July 16, 2017 | By Amanda Smits
Global warming threatens some of the world’s favourite wines — for surprising reasons

By Brandie Weikle, CBC News

A worker cuts grapes off the vine at a vineyard in Keratea, Greece. Researchers have linked climate change related heat exhaustion to decreased productivity among workers who harvest grapes for the wine industry. (John Kolesidis/Reuters)

In the wine industry, it’s not just the grapes that are affected by climate change, but the people picking them.

Scorching work conditions for the farm labourers who do the largely manual grape harvest could result in productivity and economic losses for the wine industry, according to a study published in the journal Temperature.

The study is the first of its kind in Europe to assess the impact of heat on agriculture workers.

Researchers from Greece’s University of Thessaly studied workers in the vineyards of Cyprus, where grape pickers often endure temperatures up to 36 C.

The authors used time-motion analysis to monitor study volunteers during every second of their work throughout four shifts. Additionally, the team measured environmental temperature against average skin temperatures of their subjects.

Unscheduled work breaks increased up to 2.1 per cent for every additional degree of temperature.

During the whole study period, 12.4 per cent of total work shift time was lost to unscheduled breaks.

The study concluded that grape pickers experienced increased workplace heat, leading to “significant labour loss.”

The authors pointed out that workplace heat stress has hefty financial implications across many industries. In Germany in 2004, for example, financial costs linked to heat-related work absenteeism and reduced productivity were estimated between $1 billion to $4.5 billion, while similar findings for Australia between 2013-14 indicated total losses around $8 billion.

A delicate crop

Earlier studies have established climate change as a major factor in wine production, even before the impact on workers is taken into account.

A 2016 report in the Journal of Wine Economics, for instance, said that climate has a greater effect on the development of the vines and the composition of fruit than the soil conditions and the variety of grape.
- Climate change and the wine industry
Temperature affects when the grape vines bud and fruit ripens, as well as the balance of sugars and acidity. Water deficits make for smaller berries and higher tannis, that study found.

Grapes are a delicate crop, both in terms of the narrow temperature range in which they can grow, and the quality of the final product, says Prof. Gary Pickering, a biologist and viticulture researcher from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.

In 2014, dry conditions made these grapes in Davis, Calif., ripen early, just one of many places in the world where climate change is making it more difficult for wineries to produce consistent products. (Robert Galbraith/Reuter)

“We’re seeing both in traditional wine-growing regions in Europe and the emerging wine-growing regions, lots of direct impact from climate change already,” he says, adding there will be “very severe impacts over the next couple of decades.”

While the issues vary in different parts of the world, the most severe impacts are from longer dry periods and drought episodes during the growing season, says Pickering. This affects not only the growers’ ability to keep the vines alive but the process of ripening the grapes.

“Increased frequency of extreme weather events are the other big one,” he says. Around the world wine regions are experiencing not only droughts but severe storms, and very cold or hot temperatures.

“These have implications in terms of the consistency of grape quality that the consumer looks for when they buy their bottle … from one year to the next,” says Pickering.

At first blush, the warming climate seems advantageous for Canada’s relatively young wine industry, because higher temperatures have allowed new wine regions to emerge here while old world wine regions have contended with problems like drought.
- Time to buy more Canadian wine? Climate change driving up prices from other wine regions
“There’s certainly opportunities for the Canadian industry as well as threats from climate change,” says Pickering, who points to the wildfires in B.C. as an example of extreme weather events that are occurring here more often.

“Smoke from the wildfires can taint the grape and taint the wine that follows,” he says. “They definitely taste smoky.”

Asked if climate change is driving up the price of wine, Pickering points to a classic high-end wine as an example: red Bordeaux. “Bordeaux has struggled over the last few years to produce that top-end product.”
A greener Brock taking shape

Sunday, July 09, 2017 | By Amanda Smits

THURSDAY, JULY 06, 2017 | by Maryanne Firth

Brock has introduced two electric Smart cars into its Facilities Management fleet.

You may have noticed them buzzing about campus over the past few months.

Two new Brock-branded electric Smart cars have been added to the Facilities Management fleet, contributing to the University’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Brock has a number of initiatives on the go as work continues to achieve a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20 per cent between 2013 and 2023.

Scott Johnstone, Interim Associate Vice-President of Facilities Management, stands in front of Brock’s cooling system.

The Smart cars replaced supervisor vehicles — one van and one SUV — previously driven around campus. The two-year-old electric cars, each with minimal kilometres, were purchased for $10,000 each. In comparison, vans previously added to the fleet were each more than double that cost.

“We get about a week and a half on one charge just moving around campus, avoiding fill-ups at the gas pumps,” said Scott Johnstone, Interim Associate Vice-President of Facilities Management.

“It means significant carbon savings.”

The University sought out green options when replacing the fleet vehicles and the cars have proven to be a benefit since their introduction two months ago.

“Our goal is to work toward carbon neutrality over time,” Johnstone said, calling the Smart vehicles a step in the right direction. “We’re trying to cut down on burning fossil fuels as much as we can.”

The University is also midway through its $10.8-million District Energy Efficiency Project (DEEP), which is scheduled for completion by the end of April 2018.

The project is funded by the federal and provincial governments, through the Strategic Investment Fund and Facilities Renewal Program respectively.

The DEEP project includes an upgrade to Brock’s co-generation plant and satellite utility areas that will allow the University to reduce its carbon emissions by 15 per cent. The plant produces electricity, heating and cooling for main campus research laboratories, teaching spaces and supporting infrastructure.

That reduction is a “huge step” toward Brock’s 20 per cent reduction goal, Johnstone said.

The DEEP project will replace more than 50 per cent of the natural gas power co-generation engines and controls with state-of-the-art, high efficiency, electronically controlled units.

Also replaced with a high-efficiency model will be the University’s 25-year-old absorption chiller, which will increase cooling capacity and save more energy.

The new technology will significantly reduce Brock’s greenhouse gas emissions, while saving utility costs and reducing maintenance costs.

It’s also expected to free up funds that can be put toward other energy saving initiatives and deferred maintenance projects.

Brock is currently exploring solar and wind power options for the future.
Media Release: Brock launches new minor in environmental sustainability

Friday, July 07, 2017 | By Amanda Smits

Brodie Hague is a graduate of Brock University’s Sustainability Science and Society graduate program, which launched in 2014. Now, the University is offering a minor in environmental sustainability through its Environmental Sustainability Research Centre.

With ice shelves cracking, green energy options expanding and the international political debate over climate change heating up, the environment is making headlines more than ever before. Coupled with that is the discussion around environmental sustainability, which impacts nearly all aspects of life.

Starting this fall, Brock University undergraduate students will have the option of minoring in environmental sustainability through a new offering by the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ERSC).

Combining economics with social and environmental sciences, environmental sustainability explores how to protect the natural environment and ecological health while maintaining or improving the quality of human life.

The transdisciplinary ESRC at Brock has been home to a graduate program in Sustainability Science and Society since 2014, the new minor will give Brock undergraduates their first opportunity to take dedicated courses in the field.

The minor is open to Brock students in any program and will focus on the problem-solving skills needed as businesses and governments adhere to new environmental legislation and society adapts to a changing world.

Two new online courses will be offered this September: Introduction to Environmental Sustainability (ENSU 2P01) and Environmental Sustainability in Practice (ENSU 2P02). Third year classes will be added to the calendar in the coming years. While the ENSU courses are open to everyone, non-environmental sustainability minors will have to wait until July 20 to register.

To complete the minor, students will be required to take 1.5 ENSU credits, and 2.5 additional credits from a list of approved courses from 15 departments and centres across campus.

“Searching through the undergraduate calendar, we realized that many departments and centres integrate environmental sustainability concepts into their courses,” said ESRC Director Ryan Plummer. “As environmental sustainability is a transdisciplinary field of study, it was obvious that we should collaborate with these units across campus.”

“We’re hoping to continue adding courses from our own research centre and other units across Brock,” Plummer said.

The creation of the minor coincides with the fifth anniversary of the ESRC this year.
Job Alert: Coordinator, Projects & Programs

Thursday, July 06, 2017 | By Amanda Smits

The ESRC is currently looking to fill the job of Coordinator, Projects & Programs.

Job posting AP 54/2017 for the Coordinator, Projects & Programs position is currently posted on the Brock University Career Opportunities page. The application process closes on July 19, 2017.
Congratulations to Marcie Jacklin on her retirement

Thursday, June 29, 2017 | By Amanda Smits

By: Samantha Morris

The Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) is delighted and saddened to say farewell to Marcie Jacklin as she retires from Brock today. Marcie has worked in Brock’s James A. Gibson Library for 25 years, and has been a member of the ESRC since it’s establishment.

“Marcie joined the ESRC as a Core Member in 2011 and has been extensively involved, serving on numerous committees and actively contributing to our activities. She played an essential role in developing our Sustainability Science and Society graduate program (Master of Sustainability) and has cultivated important connections with the Library,” says Ryan Plummer, Director of the ESRC.

Throughout her years of involvement with the ESRC, Marcie has always served with an abundance of passion, joy, and positivity. From presenting seminar talks to graduate students, to speaking at or attending research cafes, to working on ESRC research projects, Marcie has been an active member of the ESRC from day one.

A common theme across all of her involvement in the ESRC: birds, of course.

Marcie is an internationally recognized birder. Her interest in studying nature, and specifically birds, started in the 1980s. Since then she has been a strong advocate for the environment, participated and coordinated several bird surveys and counts, volunteered as a birding guide, contributed to birding scholarship, and shares her knowledge about birds with everyone she meets.

“Marcie has the rare ability to combine her personal passion for nature, especially birding, with her professional drive to engage people in meaningful ways with information about science and the environment. Marcie’s commitment to bettering our relationship with nature is extraordinary. She is a wonderful person who has greatly enriched the ESRC – I can’t thank her enough for all of her contributions,” adds Plummer.

We wish Marcie all the best in her retirement and look forward to seeing her at future ESRC events!
Brock experts want you to ‘leave no trace’ when exploring Canada’s national parks

Wednesday, June 28, 2017 | By Amanda Smits
MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2017 | by Colleen Patterson
Brock experts are encouraging people to read up on Leave No Trace principles as they ready to explore Canada Parks sites this summer.
While Canadians are visiting national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas for free this summer, Brock experts want them to be mindful of their potential impact on these protected areas.

As part of Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations, Parks Canada has opened its sites at no cost through use of a Discovery Pass. The gesture is expected to increase traffic at the national sites, and Brock experts are encouraging visitors to be mindful of leaving no environmental trace during their trip.

“Healthy parks help to create healthy people and communities and can continue to do so for generations through actions of care,” says Recreation and Leisure Studies Associate Professor Garrett Hutson.

Visiting Canada’s National Parks is a wonderful way to promote sustainable relationships with the natural world. By using Leave No Trace principles, Hutson believes Canadians can practise ways of recognizing and minimizing recreational impacts to natural areas.

“Many visitors don’t realize the impacts they cause, which is why all park visitors should familiarize themselves with the seven Leave No Trace principles,” says Hutson, who has done considerable research on the topics of outdoor recreation management, outdoor leadership and person-place relationships.

These principles include:

Plan ahead and prepare: Park visitors should do research about a site before visiting to find out what they’ll need for a safe and enjoyable experience. Considerations include but are not limited to planning for food, water, first aid, proper footwear such as hiking boots, and clothing such as rain gear, as well as maps that might be needed.

Travel and camp on durable surfaces: Visitors should stay on trails and not trample fragile vegetation. Additionally, camping at established campsites concentrates impacts as opposed to camping in pristine settings.

Dispose of waste properly: Whatever is packed in to a park should get packed out. This includes all trash and garbage.

Leave what you find: Artifacts discovered should be left for other people to enjoy. These could include archeological items, antlers, fossils and wildflowers. This principle also stresses the importance of not bringing non-native species into areas visited. Leave only footprints, take only pictures.

Minimize campfire impacts: Campfires are a privilege and should be enjoyed at established fire rings where permitted. Many people don’t realize that fire rings damage soils that may never fully recover. Instead of cooking over a fire, cook over a camp stove. Enjoy the glow of a small candle lantern instead of a fire.

Respect wildlife: Observe wildlife from a distance. Do not startle, harass or disturb wildlife in any way. Never feed animals. Feeding wildlife damages their health, alters natural behaviours and exposes them to predators and other dangers. Respect wildlife by storing food in a secure way away from tenting areas.

Be considerate of other visitors: Be nice to other visitors and respect their experience. Be courteous and help others in need.

Students enrolled in Brock’s Outdoor Recreation courses often explore a variety of Ontario’s most stunning landscapes such as Algonquin, Killarney and Frontenac parks, where they practise and learn outdoor leadership while ensuring they leave a minimal impact on the environment.

“We regularly use the Niagara Glen and other escarpment areas as outdoor classrooms,” says Hutson. “As part of our commitment to recreation management, our students earn a Leave No Trace trainer certification, which prepares them to teach minimum impact practices to others.”

Integrating these basic Leave No Trace ideas into outdoor recreation programs has become commonplace, as more and more people are active outside, explains Recreation and Leisure Studies Professor Tim O’Connell.

“This has led to heightened awareness of the need to educate outdoor recreationists about the magnitude and variety of impacts they create,” he says.

Watch this video to learn more from Tim O’Connell about how to leave no trace this summer when visiting Parks Canada sites.

Story from The Brock News
Stockholm Resilience Centre: Is adaptive co-management delivering?

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 | By Amanda Smits

The following was recently posted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre website, which you can visit for the full article and links to additional publications.

The answer: Possibly. Assessment of four UNESCO biosphere reserves reveals “myriad” of positive results.

Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve is a cultural landscape in the southern part of Sweden. It stretches some 105,000 hectares within a densely populated area of the Skåne region. So much for the facts. As for value, it is hailed by the UN as an outstanding example of how biodiversity conservation and sustainable development can go hand in hand. That is why UNESCO in 2005 included it their ”Man and Biosphere Programme”, recognizing it as one of the world’s best examples of how relationships between people and nature can work.

It doesn’t stop there.

Kristianstads Vattenrike is also praised for its collaborative management approach and has consequently become a point of reference for a number of researchers studying adaptive co-management.

Could there be more of these places?

According to a study recent study published in Ecological Economics, the answer is yes, and they are thriving. Senior research fellow Ryan Plummer has together with centre colleagues Örjan Bodin, Lisen Schultz and other colleagues from University of Waterloo and Brock University analysed four UNESCO biosphere reserves in Sweden and Canada and whether their focus on adaptive co-management has led to positive results.

“We identified a myriad of positive results both from an ecological perspective as well as from a livelihood perspective” Ryan Plummer, lead author

The research team analysed feedback from 52 individuals involved in the management of the four biosphere reserves. The result of the analysis showed that a majority of them reported an increase in new collaborative undertakings with partners connected to the reserves.

The analysis also revealed that this had led to a more sustainable resource use within the reserves.

Visit the Stockholm Resilience Centre for the full story and links to additional publications.
Congratulations to the Master of Sustainability Class of 2017

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 | By Amanda Smits

Pictured from left to right: Amanda Palumbo, Rebecca White, Kelly Gibson, Katie Perrin, Natalie Gillis, Kelsey Scarfone. Absent from the photo: Katrina Kreivins and Brittany Friesman.

On Monday, June 5, 2017, the Sustainability Science and Society (SSAS) graduate program celebrated the graduation of eight students.

The Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) would like to extend congratulations to our newest Master of Sustainability graduates. The 2017 graduating class included: Brittany Friesman, Kelly Gibson, Natalie Gillis, Katrina Kreivins, Amanda Palumbo, Katie Perrin, Kelsey Scarfone, and Rebecca White.

The ESRC would also like to congratulate Katrina Krievins, who was named the 2017 recipient of the Distinguished Graduate Student Award – Sustainability Science and Society for achieving the highest overall average in the program.

“Graduating is the culmination of years of hard work and acknowledges that these students have successfully fulfilled the expectations associated with conferring the degree Master of Sustainability,” says Ryan Plummer, Director of the ESRC and Graduate Program Director of SSAS.

“This is an important achievement and I very proud of each of them. I am confident these vibrant individuals will go forward to positively influence our society and the relationship with the environment.”

We wish you all the best in your future endeavours!