Tonya DelSontro

Tonya DelSontro is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She is a limnologist with expertise in aquatic biogeochemistry, particularly greenhouse gas and carbon cycling. Her AquaGHG Lab is currently focused on investigating the role of managed and/or manmade waterbodies across Canada in the global carbon cycle and greenhouse gas budgets. Her team integrates fieldwork, experimental laboratory work and upscaling to constrain and predict how aquatic greenhouse gas dynamics respond to anthropogenic (human-caused) impacts from local to regional scales.

DelSontro’s research interests lie in understanding how anthropogenic impacts, such as eutrophication, influence carbon cycles and integrated greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) budgets in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and wetlands/ponds. She aims to define the drivers of budget shifts and use them to better assess the vulnerability of other regions to human-induced changes in aquatic carbon dynamics. As the global warming potential of greenhouse gases varies, shifts in their emissions could lead to an exacerbation, or an easing, of climate change. Understanding our role in the climatic impact of inland waters will guide us in creating climate-friendly policies when managing our waterways.

By studying the anthropogenic impacts on freshwater ecosystems, DelSontro’s work demonstrates that these systems are intimately connected to the global carbon cycle. Her work advances our understanding of how water quality influences climate processes and how climate affects freshwater environments. She identifies ways to mitigate human impacts, so these waters remain high quality and avoid becoming a negative feedback loop on climate change.

• Greenhouse gas dynamics of inland waters

• Quantification of methane ebullition (bubbling)

• Upscaling aquatic greenhouse gas and carbon emissions

• Anthropogenic impacts on climatic feedback of inland waters

• Hydropower reservoirs in the global carbon cycle

• Lake sediment greenhouse gas dynamic

• Climate change and geosciences

• Increasingly complex water challenges

• 2011, Ph.D., Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

• 2006, M.Sc. Marine Science, Department of Earth Science, University of California Santa Barbara

• 2003, B.Sc. Marine Science, Stockton University, NJ

• 2024, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Sustaining Fellow

• 2019, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, European Commission

• 2019, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence, European Commission

• 2019, Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing, American Geophysical Union

• 2014, Advanced Postdoctoral Mobility Fellowship, Swiss National Science Foundation

• 2012, Outstanding Poster Award, European Geophysical Union

• 2005, Preston Cloud Award, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara

• 2003, Valedictorian of Class of 2003, Stockton University, NJ

• 2003, Dean of Students Service Award, Stockton University, NJ

• 2001, ECCO Marine Science Scholarship, Stockton University, NJ

• 2024 – 2026, Guest Associate Editor, Limnology & Oceanography Letters

• 2022 – 2024, Associate Editor, Journal of Hydrology

• 2021 – 2022, Guest Associate Editor, Frontiers in Environmental Science

• 2020, Working Group Moderator, Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) 21.5 Meeting

• 2019, Organizing Committee, GLEON 21 Meeting

• 2016 – 2019, Meetings Committee, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)

• 2017 – 2018, Scientific Organizing Committee, ASLO 2018 Aquatic Science meeting

• 2018, Organizing Committee, Physical Processes in Natural Waters (PPNW) 2018 meeting

• Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)

• Society of Canadian Aquatic Sciences (SCAS)

• Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON)

• Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU)

• Water Institute, University of Waterloo (Member)

• Cross-appointed to the Department of Biology

• Waterloo Climate Institute (Member)

• EARTH 221 - Introductory Geochemistry
  • Taught in 2023, 2024, 2026
• EARTH 642 - Geoliminology
  • Taught in 2023, 2024, 2025
• SCI 250 - Environmental Geology
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• For the full list of Tonya DelSontro's publications, please see Google Scholar.

• Beaulieu, J.J., DelSontro, T. & Downing, J.A. Eutrophication will increase methane emissions from lakes and impoundments during the 21st century. Nat Commun 10, 1375 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09100-5

• DelSontro T, Beaulieu JJ, Downing JA. Greenhouse gas emissions from lakes and impoundments: upscaling in the face of global change. Limnol Oceanogr Lett. 2019 Mar 26;3(3):64-75. https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10073

• DelSontro, T., McGinnis, D.F., Sobek, S., Ostrovsky, I., & Wehrli, B. (2010). Extreme methane emissions from a Swiss hydropower reservoir: contribution from bubbling sediments. Environmental science & technology, 44 7, 2419-25 https://doi.org/10.1021/es9031369

• DelSontro, T., del Giorgio, P.A. & Prairie, Y.T. No Longer a Paradox: The Interaction Between Physical Transport and Biological Processes Explains the Spatial Distribution of Surface Water Methane Within and Across Lakes. Ecosystems 21, 1073–1087 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-017-0205-1

• Ordóñez, C., DelSontro, T., Langenegger, T. et al. Evaluation of the methane paradox in four adjacent pre-alpine lakes across a trophic gradient. Nat Commun 14, 2165 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37861-7

• 26 March 2018 – Green lakes could accelerate global warming
• 26 March 2018 – Fertilization drives global lake emissions of greenhouse gases
• 14 October 2010 – Reservoirs: A neglected source of methane emissions
• 12 October 2010 - Reservoirs could be secret climate sinners (in German)