Our 12th annual World Wetlands Day a success!
The Ecohydrology Research Group, in collaboration with the Wetland Soils & Greenhouse Gas Exchange Lab and the Waterloo Wetland Laboratory, hosted another successful World Wetlands Day Research Symposium at the University of Waterloo on Friday February 2nd, 2024. This was the 12th year that the University of Waterloo celebrated World Wetlands Day.
World Wetlands Day is held annually to mark the day when the United Nations Convention on Wetlands was adopted in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran. The Convention is an international agreement acknowledging the importance of wetlands and plays a central role in the wise use and conservation of these critical ecosystems.
The Waterloo symposium included a poster session featuring 36 posters covering a wide range of research topics related to wetlands (see here for the full list). Seven ERG graduate students and early career researchers presented their research at the poster session. In the evening, Dr. Andrea Kirkwood, a professor with the Faculty of Science at Ontario Tech University gave a distinguished lecture on “The Value of Urban Wetlands” to over 100 attendees in person and online.
The following ERG members presented their research at the poster session:
- Amir Reshadi: Modeling of microplastic emission, transport, and retention in urban stormwater ponds
- Danielle Green: Quantifying and characterizing the biodegradability of dissolved organic carbon in freshwater systems: A method evaluation study.
- Erin Griffiths: Enzymatic degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using Hic Cutinase
- Katie Hettinga: Comparing seasonal fluxes of carbon dioxide in Canadian peatlands: Emphasizing the importance of reporting in the non-growing season.
- Md Abdus Sabur: Poster 1: Carbon budget of an urban stormwater pond: Importance of riparian vegetation and Poster 2: Constructing a hydrological model of streams in the greater Toronto area and calculating nutrient (P and N) loads for these streams
- Serghei Bocaniov: Re-eutrophication of Lake Erie and its possible drivers: An insight from a phosphorus mass-balance model
- Xiaochuang Bu: Spatiotemporal dynamics of hydrogen peroxide in the hydrological-biogeochemical framework of riparian zones
Many thanks to Philippe Van Cappellen, Maria Strack, Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Rebecca Rooney, Steph Slowinski, Victoria Van Cappellen, Bhaleka Persaud, and Kayla Martin for their help in organizing the day's events. We also offer special thanks to Science Outreach and the Water Institute for promoting the event.
World Wetlands Day 2024 poster session held in the foyer of the EIT building.
Rachel McNamee and Philippe Van Cappellen discussing Rachel's poster.
Emma Wegener and Rachel McNamee standing in front of Emma's poster.
Jordan Thakar explaining his poster to an attendee at the poster session.
Two participants at the poster session.
Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Kattie Hettinga, and Andrea Kirkwood at the poster session.
Emma Wegener receiving her best poster award from Philippe Van Cappellen.
Jordan Thakar receiving his best poster award from Philippe Van Cappellen.
Andrea Kirkwood giving her lecture on "The Value of Urban Wetlands."
World Wetlands Day 2024 group photo of poster and lecture participants.
Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Philippe Van Cappellen, best poster winners Jordan Thakar and Emma Wegener, and Distinguished Speaker Andrea Kirkwood.
