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Freely-available satellite data streams and the ability to process these data on cloud-computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine have made frequent, large-scale landcover mapping at high resolution a real possibility. In this paper we apply these technologies, along with machine learning, to the mapping of peatlands–a landcover class that is critical for preserving biodiversity, helping to address climate change impacts, and providing ecosystem services, e.g., carbon storage–in the Boreal Forest Natural Region of Alberta, Canada. We outline a data-driven, scientific framework that: compiles large amounts of Earth observation data sets (radar, optical, and LiDAR); examines the extracted variables for suitability in peatland modelling; optimizes model parameterization; and finally, predicts peatland occurrence across a large boreal area (397, 958 km2) of Alberta at 10 m spatial resolution (equalling 3.9 billion pixels across Alberta). The resulting peatland occurrence model shows an accuracy of 87% and a kappa statistic of 0.57 when compared to our validation data set. Differentiating peatlands from mineral wetlands achieved an accuracy of 69% and kappa statistic of 0.37. This data-driven approach is applicable at large geopolitical scales (e.g., provincial, national) for wetland and landcover inventories that support long-term, responsible resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the sociology of vital statistics by examining the understandings of infant mortality which circulated in Alberta in the early 20th century. In those years, infant mortality came to be represented as an unnatural and unacceptable diminishment of Alberta's population and an appropriate object of political concern. This paper deals with the ways in which infant mortality became saturated with symbolism, even before the full emergence of policies and programs for reducing it. Using a database of 73 digitized Alberta newspapers, I identify the dominant metaphors for infant mortality as economic inefficiency and military defeat. I also set this concern for lost infant life within the context of other population anxieties, including xenophobic fears about "unnatural increase" through immigration and fears about "population quality" which culminated in calls for eugenic sterilization. I argue that infant mortality is a unique form of population process in that it temporally fuses birth and death, creating, in the collective imagination, a spectral collection of those who might have lived, had they not been deprived of life unnaturally soon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The geometry of a foreland basin is mainly a product of a complex dynamic balance between the orogenic loading, erosion and sedimentation, and lithospheric flexural response. To improve our understanding of the relationships between these processes and the foreland basin stratigraphy, a detailed stratigraphic and sedimentologic study of the Middle–Late Cenomanian Belle Fourche Formation in the subsurface of southern Alberta is presented in this paper. The Middle Cenomanian lower Belle Fourche Formation and the Late Cenomanian upper Belle Fourche Formation were deposited in underfilled conditions, showing prominent forebulge zones. It is demonstrated that during the Late Cenomanian with the cratonward migration of the uplifting forebulge zones, the axes of backbulge zones also migrated cratonwards and a wide uplifted forebulge zone was formed. During the last stage of the underfilled condition, the foreland basin had a relatively flat topography and fine sands were deposited along the flank of the uplifting forebulge. A qualitative model for the migration and stratigraphic fill of an underfilled foreland basin is proposed. This model provides a qualitative pattern of the cratonward migration of the forebulge zone and backbulge zone within a several-million-year tectonically-driven cycle. It is suggested that during the early underfilled period, the basin geometry is mainly controlled by the orogenic loading, and a prominent forebulge zone with an approximately fixed location is formed. During the late underfilled period, the basin geometry is mainly controlled by the sediment loading, and the forebulge zone move very fast along with the rapid cratonward shift of the sediment loading center. Over a longer time period and between different tectonically-driven cycles, along with the cratonward propagation of the thrusting wedge, the orogenic loading plays a more important role than the sediment loading for the migration of the forebulge zone. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: These have been growing concerns over the environmental impacts of the coal-fired power plants in the western Canadian province of Alberta, which collectively comprise one of the largest point sources of Hg and other trace elements nationally. The overall cumulative impact of the power plants since the beginning of their activities several decades ago has been a critical question for industry, government agencies, and the research community. This paper aims to delineate the cumulative geographic extent of impact by investigating the spatial distribution of mercury and other trace elements of environmental concern in nine freshwater lakes, which cover the large area surrounding the coal-fired power plants in central Alberta, Canada. 210-Lead dating was used in conjunction with physical evidence of deposited fly ash to determine the sediments'' age and hence the depths corresponding to the onset of coal-fired power generation in 1956. Total mean concentrations and fluxes of elements of environmental concern with integrated values since 1956 were then determined. The concentration values do not reflect the catastrophic oil spill at Lake Wabamun in 2005. The post-1956 flux rates of As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, V, W, and Zn were generally highest in sediment cores obtained from two lakes adjacent to power plants. However, the variable prevailing wind directions played an important role in determining the aerial distribution of Hg and other trace elements to the southeast and to the west of the power plants. Post-1956 fluxes of most elements declined downwind (westward), consistent with strong easterly winds transporting metal pollution further to the west of the power plants. However, spatial interpolation of the data suggested a major southern extension to the area of maximum metal deposition, which has not been sampled by this or previous studies in the region. An atmospheric model estimate of total Hg flux in 2007 near the Genesee power plant was substantially lower than indicated by the most impacted lake sediments, which have integrated Hg fluxes since 1956. The most likely explanations for the model-sediment difference are either that a sharp spatial gradient of deposition exists in the region, and/or recent technology improvements by the power plants have substantially reduced Hg emissions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Calgary Stampede is one of Canada's most popular annual festivals. Its long history and its mission to preserve Western values might suggest that its principle character, the cowboy, would be relatively uncomplicated. Yet recent scholarship on popular culture and public celebrations, as well as that on gender and masculinity, encourages a re-examination of the cowboy at the Calgary Stampede. This article examines how the Calgary Stampede constituted cowboy masculinities during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Focusing on the era when the flamboyant Guy Weadick was the Stampede's manager (1912, 1923–32), it first explores how the idea that the West could recuperate masculinity was expressed through a definition of the cowboy that was, in Weadick's words, ‘open to all.’ As rodeo became a sport, a new normative cowboy emerged, as local men, both settler and Aboriginal, took centre stage, excluding women and performers. This paper argues that the Calgary Stampede helped foster the development of new rodeo masculinities for both settler and Aboriginal men, ones grounded in the respectability of sport, and in the economic, social, and political challenges of early-twentieth-century Western Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]