From The University of Toronto – Mississauga (CA)
5.8.24
Sharon Aschaiek
Researchers estimated that 40 to 195 species would disappear in Toronto, while 159 to 360 new species could emerge.
Coyotes are among the urban animals expected to be most negatively affected by climate change (photo by Thomas Shockey via Pexels)
Animal populations living in North American cities are likely to undergo a significant shift as changes to the Earth’s climate intensify – and that, in turn, is likely to have an impact on us.
That is among the key findings of a University of Toronto study led by Alessandro Filazzola, who was recently a post-doctoral researcher in U of T Mississauga’s Centre for Urban Environments (CUE), a transdisciplinary research centre focused on promoting healthy urban environments.
Filazzola used computer modelling to project the impact of global warming on more than 2,000 terrestrial animal species in the 60 most populated cities in Canada and the United States. He made predictions according to three different scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions and urban land use.
Published recently in the journal PLOS One, the study shows that across all three scenarios each of the 60 cities will experience both substantial gains and losses of urban species by the end of this century. In Toronto, for example, 40 to 195 species that currently live in Canada’s largest city are predicted to disappear, while 159 to 360 new species could emerge.
“Most Canadians live in cities, and the nature we interact with every day is in our backyard or local park,” says Filazzola, who has a PhD in biology and works as a data scientist focused on conserving biodiversity.
“The whole sea change in the assemblage of animals that live in our cities will have a large impact on how we behave in our day-to-day activities and what we value.”
Filazzola conducted the research with Marc Johnson, a professor of biology at U of T Mississauga and former director of CUE. His work was also supervised by Scott MacIvor, an associate professor of biological sciences.
To gather data on animal species, the researchers – who engaged leaders from Credit Valley Conservation, Conservation Halton and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to understand their top concerns in managing biodiversity – turned to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, a free public resource featuring data about all types of life on Earth.
They modelled the historic and future distributions of 2,019 land-based animals in highly developed cities – 13 in Canada and 47 in the U.S. – with more than 400,000 residents. The computer modelling projections were shaped in part by bioclimactically relevant historical variables for each city, including average monthly minimum and maximum temperatures, and monthly precipitation.
The results predicted the highest introduction of new species in temperate cities – Quebec City and Ottawa in Canada, and Omaha and Kansas City in the U.S. Midwest. The largest declines in species are projected to take place in the subtropical parts of the U.S. and coastal California. Cities in arid parts of the U.S. – including Las Vegas, and Mesa and Tucson in Arizona – are expected to experience the fewest changes in species richness.
Meanwhile, cities that have historically experienced colder temperatures are predicted to have significantly higher gains in novel species and fewer losses in resident species. Urban areas with historically high precipitation were projected to have the highest species turnover – both the greatest gains and the largest losses. In the scenario with more intense development and greenhouse gas emissions, cities would experience significantly more species lost and gained.
The urban animals expected to be most negatively affected by climate change are amphibians, canines and loons.
“When the modelling predicts a big spike in temperature or a big drop in precipitation, you get a unique climate, and some species can endure it and some cannot – these are the ones that are probably going to be the most impacted and most likely to be lost,” Filazzola says.
The study notes that as urban ecosystems continue to transform due to global warming, shifts in our urban wildlife will have implications for our cultural identity and heritage – given how much animals figure into our national symbols and sports teams, the researchers say – and even our mental health.
“We know that having more green space and natural areas around us is very important for our well-being,” Johnson says. “If we lose nature, and the animals associated with it, it can negatively affect our psychological health.”
See the full article here .
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The University of Toronto- Mississauga is one of the three campuses that make up the tri-campus system of the University of Toronto. Located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, the campus opened in 1967 as Erindale College, set upon the valley of the Credit River, approximately 33 km west of Downtown Toronto. It is the second-largest of the three University of Toronto campuses, the other two of which are the St. George campus in Downtown Toronto and the Scarborough campus in Scarborough, Ontario.
U of T-Mississauga campus offers 155 programs, among 95 areas of study. Its most popular programs include Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, Commerce, CCIT (Communications, Culture Information and Technology), Computer Science, Criminology & Socio-Legal Studies, Earth Science, English, Environmental Studies, History, Management, Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology.
There are also joint-degree programs with Sheridan College in CCIT, Art and Art History, or Theatre and Drama, leading to both a university degree from U of T and a college diploma from Sheridan. The CCIT Major and Digital Enterprise Management Specialist programs allow students the opportunity to earn Honors Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Toronto, as well as a Certificate in Digital Communications from Sheridan College.
Other undergraduate programs offered at U of T-Mississauga include Professional Writing and Communication, Economics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Languages, Physics, Environmental Sciences, Geography, and Earth Sciences (ex. Geology).
U of T-Mississauga also hosts one of the few paleomagnetism laboratories in Canada. This lab investigated the palaeomagnetic properties of rocks collected from the Apollo missions in the 1970s and was run by now professor emeritus Dr. Henry Halls. U of T-Mississauga’s best-known president was Dr. J. Tuzo Wilson, a geologist and pioneer in plate tectonics. A research wing in the William G. Davis building of U of T-Mississauga is named after him.
The University of Toronto (CA) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen’s Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King’s College, the oldest university in the province of Ontario.
Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed its present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution.
As a collegiate university, it comprises eleven colleges each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs and significant differences in character and history. The university also operates two satellite campuses located in Scarborough and Mississauga.
The University of Toronto has evolved into Canada’s leading institution of learning, discovery and knowledge creation. We are proud to be one of the world’s top research-intensive universities, driven to invent and innovate.
Our students have the opportunity to learn from and work with preeminent thought leaders through our multidisciplinary network of teaching and research faculty, alumni and partners.
The ideas, innovations and actions of more than 600,000 graduates continue to have a positive impact on the world.
Academically, The University of Toronto is noted for movements and curricula in literary criticism and communication theory, known collectively as the “Toronto School”.
The university was the birthplace of insulin and stem cell research, and was the site of the first electron microscope in North America; the identification of the first black hole Cygnus X-1; multi-touch technology, and the development of the theory of NP-completeness.
The university was one of several universities involved in early research of deep learning. It receives the most annual scientific research funding of any Canadian university and is one of two members of the Association of American Universities outside the United States, the other being McGill University [Université McGill] (CA) .
The Varsity Blues are the athletic teams that represent the university in intercollegiate league matches, with ties to gridiron football, rowing and ice hockey. The earliest recorded instance of gridiron football occurred at University of Toronto’s University College in November 1861.
The university’s Hart House is an early example of the North American student centre, simultaneously serving cultural, intellectual, and recreational interests within its large Gothic-revival complex.
The University of Toronto has educated Governors General of Canada, Prime Ministers of Canada, foreign leaders, and Justices of the Supreme Court. Nobel laureates, Turing Award winners, Rhodes Scholars, and Fields Medalists have been affiliated with the university.
Early history
The founding of a colonial college had long been the desire of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada and founder of York, the colonial capital. As a University of Oxford (UK)-educated military commander who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, Simcoe believed a college was needed to counter the spread of republicanism from the United States. The Upper Canada Executive Committee recommended in 1798 that a college be established in York.
On March 15, 1827, a royal charter was formally issued by King George IV, proclaiming “from this time one College, with the style and privileges of a university … for the education of youth in the principles of the Christian Religion, and for their instruction in the various branches of Science and Literature … to continue forever, to be called King’s College.” The granting of the charter was largely the result of intense lobbying by John Strachan, the influential Anglican Bishop of Toronto who took office as the college’s first president. The original three-story Greek Revival school building was built on the present site of Queen’s Park.
Under Strachan’s stewardship, King’s College was a religious institution closely aligned with the Church of England and the British colonial elite, known as the “Family Compact”. Reformist politicians opposed the clergy’s control over colonial institutions and fought to have the college secularized. In 1849, after a lengthy and heated debate, the newly elected responsible government of the Province of Canada voted to rename King’s College as the University of Toronto and severed the school’s ties with the church. Having anticipated this decision, the enraged Strachan had resigned a year earlier to open Trinity College as a private Anglican seminary. University College was created as the nondenominational teaching branch of the University of Toronto. During the American Civil War, the threat of Union blockade on British North America prompted the creation of the University Rifle Corps which saw battle in resisting the Fenian raids on the Niagara border in 1866. The Corps was part of the Reserve Militia lead by Professor Henry Croft.
Established in 1878, the School of Practical Science was the precursor to the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering which has been nicknamed “Skule” since its earliest days. While the Faculty of Medicine opened in 1843 medical teaching was conducted by proprietary schools from 1853 until 1887 when the faculty absorbed the Toronto School of Medicine. Meanwhile the university continued to set examinations and confer medical degrees. The university opened the Faculty of Law in 1887, followed by the Faculty of Dentistry in 1888 when the Royal College of Dental Surgeons became an affiliate. Women were first admitted to the university in 1884.
A devastating fire in 1890 gutted the interior of University College and destroyed 33,000 volumes from the library but the university restored the building and replenished its library within two years. Over the next two decades a collegiate system took shape as the university arranged federation with several ecclesiastical colleges including Strachan’s Trinity College in 1904. The university operated the Royal Conservatory of Music from 1896 to 1991 and the Royal Ontario Museum from 1912 to 1968; both still retain close ties with the university as independent institutions. The University of Toronto Press was founded in 1901 as Canada’s first academic publishing house. The Faculty of Forestry founded in 1907 with Bernhard Fernow as dean was Canada’s first university faculty devoted to forest science. In 1910, the Faculty of Education opened its laboratory school, the University of Toronto Schools.
World wars and post-war years
The First and Second World Wars curtailed some university activities as undergraduate and graduate men eagerly enlisted. Intercollegiate athletic competitions and the Hart House Debates were suspended although exhibition and interfaculty games were still held. The David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill opened in 1935 followed by the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies in 1949. The university opened satellite campuses in Scarborough in 1964 and in Mississauga in 1967. The university’s former affiliated schools at the Ontario Agricultural College and Glendon Hall became fully independent of the University of Toronto and became part of University of Guelph (CA) in 1964 and York University (CA) in 1965 respectively. Beginning in the 1980s reductions in government funding prompted more rigorous fundraising efforts.
Since 2000
In 2000 Kin-Yip Chun was reinstated as a professor of the university after he launched an unsuccessful lawsuit against the university alleging racial discrimination. In 2017 a human rights application was filed against the University by one of its students for allegedly delaying the investigation of sexual assault and being dismissive of their concerns. In 2018 the university cleared one of its professors of allegations of discrimination and antisemitism in an internal investigation after a complaint was filed by one of its students.
The University of Toronto was the first Canadian university to amass a financial endowment greater than C$1 billion in 2007. On September 24, 2020 the university announced a C$250 million gift to the Faculty of Medicine from businessman and philanthropist James C. Temerty- the largest single philanthropic donation in Canadian history. This broke the previous record for the school set in 2019 when Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman jointly donated C$100 million for the creation of a 750,000-square foot innovation and artificial intelligence centre.
Research
Since 1926 the University of Toronto has been a member of the Association of American Universities a consortium of the leading North American research universities. The university manages by far the largest annual research budget of any university in Canada with sponsored direct-cost expenditures of over C$900 million. The University of Toronto has been named the top research university in Canada by Research Infosource with annual sponsored research income (external sources of funding) of C$1.2 billion. The university’s faculty averaged a sponsored research income of C$500,000 while graduate students averaged a sponsored research income of C$64,000. The federal government was the largest source of funding with grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council amounting to about one-third of the research budget. About eight percent of research funding came from corporations- mostly in the healthcare industry.
The first practical electron microscope was built by the physics department in 1938. During World War II the university developed the G-suit- a life-saving garment worn by Allied fighter plane pilots later adopted for use by astronauts. Development of the infrared chemiluminescence technique improved analyses of energy behaviors in chemical reactions. In 1963 the asteroid 2104 Toronto was discovered in the David Dunlap Observatory (CA) in Richmond Hill and is named after the university. In 1972 studies on Cygnus X-1 led to the publication of the first observational evidence proving the existence of black holes. Toronto astronomers have also discovered the Uranian moons of Caliban and Sycorax; the dwarf galaxies of Andromeda I, II and III; and the supernova SN 1987A. A pioneer in computing technology the university designed and built UTEC- one of the world’s first operational computers- and later purchased Ferut- the second commercial computer after UNIVAC I. Multi-touch technology was developed at Toronto with applications ranging from handheld devices to collaboration walls. The AeroVelo Atlas which won the Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition in 2013 was developed by the university’s team of students and graduates and was tested in Vaughan.
The discovery of insulin at The University of Toronto in 1921 is considered among the most significant events in the history of medicine. The stem cell was discovered at the university in 1963 forming the basis for bone marrow transplantation and all subsequent research on adult and embryonic stem cells. This was the first of many findings at Toronto relating to stem cells including the identification of pancreatic and retinal stem cells. The cancer stem cell was first identified in 1997 by Toronto researchers who have since found stem cell associations in leukemia, brain tumors, and colorectal cancer. Medical inventions developed at Toronto include the glycaemic index, the infant cereal Pablum, the use of protective hypothermia in open heart surgery and the first artificial cardiac pacemaker. The first successful single-lung transplant was performed at Toronto in 1981 followed by the first nerve transplant in 1988 and the first double-lung transplant in 1989. Researchers identified the maturation promoting factor that regulates cell division and discovered the T-cell receptor which triggers responses of the immune system. The university is credited with isolating the genes that cause Fanconi anemia, cystic fibrosis and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease among numerous other diseases. Between 1914 and 1972 the university operated the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories- now part of the pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi-Aventis. Among the research conducted at the laboratory was the development of gel electrophoresis.
The University of Toronto is the primary research presence that supports one of the world’s largest concentrations of biotechnology firms. More than 5,000 principal investigators reside within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the university grounds in Toronto’s Discovery District conducting C$1 billion of medical research annually. MaRS Discovery District is a research park that serves commercial enterprises and the university’s technology transfer ventures. The university has patented many inventions and has been involved with many active start-up companies. Its SciNet Consortium operates the most powerful supercomputer in Canada.