UVicSpace | Institutional Repository
UVicSpace is the University of Victoria’s open access scholarship and learning repository. It preserves and provides access to the digital scholarly works of UVic faculty, students, staff, and partners. Items in UVicSpace are organized into collections, each belonging to a community.
For more information about depositing items, see the Submission Guidelines.
Recent Submissions
Improving equity in Canada’s low-carbon energy workforce: Report for the Trellis Fund
(2026) Landers, Stephanie; Black, Rebecca
Contributions & Implications: This research project offers actionable insights for policymakers, educators, employers, and industry associations seeking to design inclusive workforce strategies. The findings demonstrate that equity-deserving groups are not disengaged from Canada’s low-carbon energy transition; they are actively seeking to lead it. However, without intentional reforms in funding models, education pathways, hiring practices, and workplace cultures, the sector risks reproducing historical inequities—undermining both social legitimacy and labour-force resilience.
Low-cost sensor networks for indoor wildfire smoke exposure: Design lessons and fine particulate (PM2.5) monitoring across residential buildings in Victoria, BC and Edmonton, AB
(2026) Saira, Tanatswa; Minet, Laura
Indoor air quality during wildfire smoke is an emerging public-health concern, yet there is limited data on how homes perform during smoke episodes and on how to design such large campaigns. This thesis addresses both gaps using a network of low-cost Scentroid CTmini sensors deployed across residential and infrastructure buildings in Victoria, BC and Edmonton, AB. Chapter 2 documents the design, calibration, and deployment of a network of low-cost Scentroid CTmini sensors and reference instruments across residential and infrastructure buildings. The design work covers sensor selection, laboratory and field collocation with regulatory monitors, data-logging and networking strategies, participant recruitment, and quality-control procedures, highlighting the importance of calibration, clear file-naming and close coordination with building operators and participants.
Chapter 3 uses calibrated CTmini PM2.5 data from a subset of residential homes to quantify how indoor concentrations respond to outdoor levels during the 2024 wildfire season. Minute-level data are aggregated, distinguishing between “typical” conditions and smoke-impacted hours (outdoor PM2.5 ≥ 35 µg/m3). In Edmonton, homes show diverse behaviour under typical conditions but more consistent attenuation during smoke events and bedrooms tend to act as the most protective rooms. In Victoria, a relatively low-smoke year, most homes already maintain indoor PM2.5 at or below outdoor levels, and the impact of portable air purifiers is difficult to separate from mild variations in outdoor smoke. Chapter 4 extends this framework to infrastructure buildings, comparing building types and room uses as potential cleaner-air spaces.
Overall, the thesis demonstrates how building characteristics and occupant activities jointly shape indoor exposure during wildfire smoke season and provides practical guidance for future large-scale indoor air-quality monitoring and cleaner-air interventions.
A comparison of drought tolerance in two conifers with contrasting mycorrhizal associations
(2023) Robson, Bethany
Drought events are increasing in frequency, severity, and distribution as a result of climate change. Plants have a variety of adaptations to water stress, including symbioses with mycorrhizal fungi. Little is known about how the type of mycorrhizae (arbuscular or ecto-) may affect drought tolerance, especially in conifers that are restricted in what association they can make. Research suggests that there may be an effect of mycorrhizal type on drought tolerance, and that mechanisms for this may be different in arbuscular and ecto- mycorrhizae. The objective of this study was to determine how the type of mycorrhizae may affect drought tolerance in Pinus contorta and Thuja plicata, species that make contrasting mycorrhizal associations. Three experiments were performed using both aeroponics and traditional soil culture to explore the effects of mycorrhizal association on drought tolerance. P. contorta performed consistently better in all experiments when compared to two populations of T. plicata from different ecozones in British Columbia. Quantum yield declined linearly with increasing drought stress in both treatments with mycorrhizal colonization, and non-linearly in the treatment with no colonization. These trends were consistently shown across all seedling populations, which suggests that both types of mycorrhizal symbioses are important in the drought tolerance of these species. Further investigation is needed to determine how mycorrhizae may influence recovery after drought in these species, as well as the mechanisms mycorrhizae may use to improve drought tolerance in host plants like P. contorta and T. plicata.
Calabindin and channelrhodopsin-2 expression in the dopaminergic SNC and VTA of DAT-CRE
(2023) Waller, Olivia
The DAT-Cre::ChR2-EYFP mouse model has recently emerged as a useful tool to investigate the function of the dopaminergic (DA) system, which is known to be involved in motor behaviour, motivation and reward, memory, and cognition. This is accomplished through selective expression of channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), a blue light-activated cation channel, in DA neurons. DA neurons that express calbindin (Calb), a calcium-binding protein, make up a discrete subpopulation with unique functional characteristics. Functional and physiological heterogeneity between the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) has been well documented, and past research conducted by the Nashmi lab has observed physiological heterogeneity between DA neurons along the mediolateral axis of the SNc itself. Therefore, there may be potential for Calb to act as a marker for distinct physiological cell phenotypes. Here, we evaluate the DAT-Cre::ChR2-EYFP model’s efficiency in expressing ChR2 within DA neurons and characterize the colocalization of Calb in DA neurons within the VTA and along the mediolateral axis of the SNc. We used confocal fluorescence microscopy of DAT-Cre::ChR2-EYFP brains and quantified tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), ChR2, and Calb expression within regions of interest. No significant difference in Calb colocalization in DA neurons was found between the medial and lateral SNc, although a large difference was observed between the SNc and VTA. We also report a that the DAT-Cre::ChR2-EYFP mouse model is extremely efficient in expressing ChR2 in DA neurons of the midbrain.
What stress sequence kills: different sequences of cold and freshening stress with varying latency periods and mortality of Tigriopus californicus copepodids
(2023) Krohman, Rebecca
Anthropogenic activities are increasing the number of extreme events in nature prompting researchers to study how multiple stressors impact animals. Currently, few studies have researched sequential stressors. However, in nature, stressors generally act one after another making sequential stressor studies increasingly more important to properly inform management practices. Responses of animals can change when stressors are applied in different sequences and with different amounts of time in benign conditions (latency time) between stressors. I test how mortality changes with different sequences of 12-hour cold (-15 °C change) and freshening (34% salinity of seawater) stress with three latency periods of 0, 12, and 24 hours. I use a model organism without laboratory rearing for physiology, Tigriopus californicus, which is an abundant harpacticoid copepod found in high intertidal splash pools. I find that hypo-salinity has a more severe effect than cooling disturbance and that stress sequence changes the mortality of T. californicus. In particular, there was high fatality in stress sequences that included freshening while individuals survived better in sequences that only had cold stress. The low recovery in hyposaline water shows that T. californicus had a poor capacity to osmo-regulate in 12 ppt hypoosmotic surroundings while the low mortality observed following cold stress indicates individuals were adapted for temperatures below freezing. Furthermore, there was a positive relationship between survival and latency time when hypoosmotic conditions were applied before low temperature stress showing that exposure to hypoosmotic extremes increases the ability of T. californicus to withstand cold. My results support the hypothesis that the sequence of extreme events and timing between stressors may change whether an organism lives or dies. This research adds to studies of multiple stressors and can be important for reference to future studies investigating sequence effects.