News

The Ecohydrology Research Group (ERG) and the China University of Geosciences (CUG) in Wuhan are developing long-term collaborations on the geochemistry of black earth soils in northeast China and water quality issues in the central Yangtze River basin. Discussions on August 24 also included the possible establishment of a joint CUG-University of Waterloo technology centre in Wuhan. On August 25, Philippe and Shuhuan joined a group of CUG researchers in Yueyang City to plan future joint field work on Dongting Lake.

The 34^th International Society of Limnology Congress (SIL) took place on August 19-24 in Nanjing China. The SIL congress is the major international meeting covering all aspects of inland waters. The theme for SIL 2018 was "Limnology, a Science for the Preservation and Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems". Much of the program dealt with the pressures on, and management and restoration of, freshwater lakes and reservoirs. Philippe gave one of the 10 plenary lectures at the congress.

The Ecohydrology Research Group and Dajiang Environment Corporation are collaborating on strengthening the water quality management of the Eco-Hi-Tech Island in Nanjing, China (see Wednesday June 13 news item). Philippe and Shuhuan visited the joint Dajiang-Waterloo Research Centre in Nanjing on August 21-23 to discuss progress and plan upcoming activities, including the 3^rd International Summit on Water Environmental Management to be held in Nanjing in October.

Group members Christina Smeaton, Bingjie Shi, and Kunfu Pi recently attended the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference which was held August 12-17 in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to attending talks, networking, and presenting their research, they were also able to catch up with ERG alumni Taylor Maavara (PDF at Berkeley Lab), Ekaterina Markelova (consultant at Amphos 21, Barcelona, Spain), and Gianna Marschmann (PhD student at University of Hohenheim and future PDF at Berkeley Lab). 

This morning, Dr. Anniet Laverman, from the Université de Rennes, presented a talk titled "Assessment of isotopic fractionation associated to nitrate reduction by benthic microbial communities" as part of the Ecohydrology Seminar Series. Thank you to Dr. Laverman for the excellent talk!

The Baltic TRANSCOAST Research Training Group in Rostock, Germany, is seeking applications for thirteen PhD positions in biology, ecology, geochemistry, biogeochemistry, hydro(geo)logy, and engineering. The program will start on January 1st, 2019.

For more information, see the announcement post on the University of Rostock website, and the list of PhD topics.

On June 17-20, the 1^stInternational Conference on Water Security took place in Toronto. The conference brought together water experts from around the world to discuss new platforms and tools to move scientific knowledge and data into solutions that mitigate the impacts of human activities on the availability and quality of freshwater resources.

From June 10th to 14th, the 2018 Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU), Canadian Soil Science Society (CSSS), and Computational Infrastructure in Geodynamics (CIG) Joint Annual Meeting was held in Niagara Falls. The multidisciplinary conference featured presentations, lectures, and posters on topics from hydrology to geodynamics. More information about the conference can be found on the conference website.

Ecohydrology group members were involved in the following sessions presented at the conference: