McGill University
Candidat M.Sc.
superviseur(e): Melissa McKinney
Cortney Watt, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Début: 2025-08-27

Projet

Tendances spatiales et temporelles des polluants anciens et émergents chez les narvals récoltés dans les communautés du Nunavut
Narwhal hunting is both a traditional part of Inuit culture and an essential source of nutrition in many northern communities where imported food is costly and scarce. However, narwhal have shown high levels of biomagnifying environmental contaminants, including lipophilic contaminants in the blubber, which is consumed as muktuk by Nunavut communities. There has been no study of contaminants in Nunavut narwhal for nearly a quarter century. Recently sampled narwhal from the European Arctic demonstrated high levels of legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs) banned under the UN Stockholm Convention and detectable levels of contaminants of emerging Arctic concern (CEACs), indicating the need for updated information on legacy POPs and CEACs in Nunavut narwhal. Further, climate change may impact contaminant concentrations in Arctic food webs, and the potential for impacting contaminant trends in narwhal requires investigation. The objectives of this Master’s project are to determine the spatial and temporal trends of legacy POPs in narwhal blubber and to perform non-target screening on blubber for CEACs, including plastic-related contaminants (PRCs). Samples from 125 narwhal have been collected by local hunters from 2016 to 2025 in five Nunavut communities. Using an established method, blubber will undergo a QuEChERS extraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Non-target screening for PRCs and other CEACs will be conducted on the same blubber extracts using high-resolution GC-MS and LC-MS. The data will then be analyzed for temporal and spatial trends using the new Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) HARSAT package in R. This will be the largest-scale study of contaminants in Nunavut narwhal conducted to date. Findings will be communicated to Nunavut communities to support safe and healthy decisions about nutrition, bolstering food security, supporting AMAP and serving to evaluate the efficacy of the Stockholm Convention in lowering Arctic contaminant levels of legacy POPs.

Publications

1- Selectivity of Ru and Fe PR2NR’2 Catalysts Toward Acceptorless Dehydrogenation of Benzylamine
Nanuwa, Amrit S., Matthew D. Hoffman, Kiran Nandi, Johanna M. Blacquiere
2024 Organometallics