Integrating Environmental Water Research Across Multi Scales and Disciplines
Water is our most precious natural resource. All human activities, from agriculture and industrial processes to domestic uses, depend on water of sufficient quantity and quality. This is also true for natural ecosystems. In contrast to highly visible water quantity stressors, such as flash floods and prolonged droughts, changes in water quality are often more gradual and more difficult to detect, and their cumulative impacts more difficult to predict and manage. Water quality deterioration, however, poses more pervasive and chronic risks to the economy, human health and the ecological life-support systems of the planet.
Water quality degradation is a global phenomenon. In Canada, for example, harmful and nuisance algal blooms are a persistent problem for many freshwater bodies, including the iconic Laurentian Great Lakes, while many of our First Nations communities still live under drinking water advisories. Globally, awareness is also growing that climate change adaptation must be an integral part of planning and implementing effective water management policies and practices.
For general inquires about the Ecohydrology Research Group, please email ecohydrology@uwaterloo.ca.
News
Philippe presents at the 9th International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research
This year’s theme of the 9th International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research (ICWRER) is Bridging the Gaps of Interdisciplinary Sustainability for Complex Water and Environmental Systems. The Conference was held virtually on April25 to 27. Philippe gave an invited talk in the session on Eco-water Security and Smart Water Management in Large River Basins, chaired by Profs. Jun Xia and Gangsheng Wang. The topic of the talk was Biogeochemical Impacts of River Damming: Lessons Learned and Implications for Watershed Management.
New paper examines agricultural phosphorus surpluses in Ontario
A new paper reconstructs the agricultural phosphorus (P) inputs across the province of Ontario since the 1960s. The first author of the paper, entitled Agricultural phosphorus surplus trajectories for Ontario, Canada (1961-2916), and erosional export risk, is former ERG MSc student Tamara Van Staden. Co-authors include the ERG members Chris Parsons, Zahra Akbarzadeh, and Philippe Van Cappellen, as well as their colleagues Kim Van Meter and Nandita Basu.
New paper analyzes the effects of flavins and siderophores on the oxidation of ferrous iron by molecular oxygen
The oxidation of Fe(II) plays an important role in the biogeochemical cycling of redox-sensitive elements and the fate and transport of pollutants in subsurface environments. In a joint study by researchers from ERG and China University of Geosciences, the kinetics of aqueous Fe(II) oxidation by O2 were measured at variable pH in the presence of riboflavin and desferrioxamine B as representative flavins and siderophores, respectively. The study closes important gaps in our understanding of the reaction mechanisms involved.