Dr. Gary Stern is someone I had spoken to many times by phone before actually meeting him in Inuvik on the way to the Amundsen. My experience of Gary is that he is a very bright scientist and leader, has a good sense of humour and very approachable. He is also extremely committed to his work.
He is one of the many reasons our journey onboard the Amundsen has been both enjoyable and rewarding.
We’ve asked him to give us a brief overview of what he does and his background. I think you’ll find what Dr. Stern has to say interesting as you apply it to the big picture of Global Warming and Climate Change.
Dr. Gary Stern…
“Contaminants pose a potential hazard to Arctic fish and marine mammal health, and ultimately to northerners that consume their tissues as part of their traditional diets. It is therefore imperative that we strive to understand how climate variability in physical forcing and the biogeochemical response to this primary forcing will affect among others 1) contaminant transport processes and cycling; 2) biomagnification through Arctic marine food webs; 3) foraging behaviour of marine mammals (e.g. in response to changing sea ice regimes); 4) changes to hunting patterns and diets of northerners to reflect availability of traditional foods (e.g. less ice may lead to reduced reproductive success of ringed seals forcing northerners to consume more beluga tissues which typically have 10-fold higher contaminant concentrations). Overall, results from his research will help assess the vulnerability of coastal Inuit communities to climate change, document and project impacts of climate change on traditional food security and community health and provide the information required by communities, scientists and policy makers to help develop adaptation strategies. Our findings will help to test and shape the policy for the future management of contaminants emissions and long range transport to the Arctic and will support integrated ocean management programs such as Marine Protected and Large Ocean Management Areas.”
Dr. Gary Stern is a senior scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Winnipeg, Canada and a professor at the University of Manitoba, Department of Environment and Geography, Centre for Earth Observation Science, University of Manitoba. Dr. Stern’s research involves the study of environmental pathways of contaminants including their delivery, transport, and elimination from Arctic marine and freshwater aquatic ecosystems. In particular, it is directed toward linking contaminant levels in Arctic marine food webs to oceanographic provinces, inputs from land and the atmosphere and ultimately, climate variation which has been shown to alter for example, hydrology, organic carbon, sea ice dynamics, primary productivity, foodweb structure and foraging of top trophic level feeders such as beluga and ringed seals. Most of the major contaminant groups are being studied and include organohalogen compounds (chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, brominated flame retardants and fluorinated organic compounds), mercury and other trace metals and hydrocarbons. In ArcticNet Phase 1, Dr. Stern is a co-PI of the Theme 3 sub-project 1.3 and 3.4 and was an NI in the Theme 2 sub-project 2.6. Currently, Dr. Stern is the co-project leader for CFL, the largest IPY project in the world, and is also the lead of the Team 8 (contaminants). He also He was also a co-applicant of the recently funded CFI LEF and as such received funding to build a Portable In-situ Laboratory for Mercury Speciation (PILMS) and purchase the associated analytical equipment (LC/MS/MS, Tekrans etc.) This facility is unique in the world, is currently on board the Amundsen, and will continue to be used in ArcticNet Phase II, to propel our Arctic mercury speciation and process studies to the next level. In collaboration with colleagues from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, other government departments and universities, Dr. Stern, either as lead or co-author, has contributed to over 100 publications in the open literature and has on going projects worth over 4 million dollars. Collectively, these multi-disciplinary projects total over 69 million dollars.
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