News

In a new paper published in the journal Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, ERG members Serghei Bocaniov and Philippe Van Cappellen, and Don Scavia from the University of Michigan use their recent re-assessments of Lake Erie’s water and phosphorus budgets to relate the average water column phosphorus concentrations to the external phosphorus loads via the water and phosphorus residence times. 

From May 26^th to 29^th, Ecohydrology Research Group members attended the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU) in Richcraft Hall at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. The multidisciplinary conference featured public and plenary lectures and oral and poster presentations on hydrology, biogeosciences, geodesy, and solid earth. Learn more about the sessions and presentations.

A new paper published in Environment International presents data on the co-production of volatile carbon (CO₂and CH₄) and selenium (Se) species in incubation experiments with organic-rich soils from NE China. The paper entitled “Soil respiration induces co-emission of greenhouse gases and methylated selenium from cold-region Mollisols: Significance for selenium deficiency”. 

The International Association of Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) hosted the 67^th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research on May 24-27 in Windsor, Ontario. The conference’s theme was Shared Lakes: One Water, One Health.

The first annual meeting of the “Adaptive management of green stormwater infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from urban watersheds” project was held on Friday May 10, 2024, at the CIGI campus in uptown Waterloo. The aim of the annual meeting was to review the progress of the work completed over the last year, and exchange ideas about further integration among the different work packages, while deepening collaborations with the external partners.

Members of a University of Waterloo delegation, including Stephanie Slowinski, Research Biogeochemist in ERG, attended the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-4) in Ottawa from April 23 to 29. 

In a new paper published in Environmental Science: Advances, a team of ERG researchers unravels the biogeochemical processes responsible for the efficient removal of dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) in a stormwater management pond in the Greater Toronto Area. 

A new paper published in the journal Remote Sensing presents a thorough comparison of the performance of semi-empirical methods aimed at retrieving spatial and temporal distributions of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations in both the nearshore and offshore waters of the western part of Lake Ontario. 

Philippe Van Cappellen, professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department and Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate in Ecohydrology, has been appointed a  University Professor  by the University of Waterloo. This designation recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence. Van Cappellen is the first Earth and Environmental Sciences professor to receive this honour.

The Global Futures Observatories (GWFO) was launched officially today. The launch event included welcoming remarks from GWFO Director John Pomeroy and Terry Duguid, MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister. Representatives of the four core universities (Saskatchewan, Waterloo, Laurier, McMaster) and the Real-Time Aquatic Ecosystem Observation Network (RAEON) gave overviews of their observatories and associated research facilities. Philippe Van Cappellen presented on behalf of the Waterloo GWFO team.