News

A new paper in Frontiers in Environmental Science, co-authored by Ecohydrology Research Group member Fereidoun Rezanezhad assessed the impact of biobased residues and fertilizer on greenhouse gas emissions during spring freeze-thaw events. The results showed that the greenhouse gas fluxes were significantly different among the soil amended with different biobased residues and the freeze-thaw events due to intense microbial activity and anaerobic conditions.

Abstract submissions are open for session B068 - Wetlands and Peatlands in a Changing Climate: Science and Management at the 2022 AGU Fall Meeting (Dec 12 – 16, Chicago, IL)!

Submit your abstract by 3 August 2022: https://www.agu.org/Fall-Meeting

This year again, the University of Waterloo’s Water Institute and Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change co-hosted the 2022 summer school on “Climate Change and Water Security in Urbanized Watersheds”. The summer school ran over three weeks, from May 31 to June 17 and targeted graduate students and practitioners who are passionate about learning more about applying interdisciplinary approaches to climate change and associated water security challenges in urbanizing watersheds.

The yearly overview of the major advances in water quality modeling in the Global Water Futures (GWF) program was presented by Philippe Van Cappellen. After a general overview of the various activities in the water quality core modeling group by Philippe, some of the core modelers gave short presentations on their work. They included presentations by Befekadu Woldegiorgis, Julie Terry, and Pouya Sabokruhie from University of Saskatchewan, and Mahyar and Sarah Kaykhosravi from ERG.

Check out the new review on DNA-based biosensors for water quality monitoring by researchers from Prof. Juewen Liu’s group in the Department of Chemistry and ERG members Philippe Van Cappellen and Kunfu Pi (now a faculty member at China University of Geosciences, Wuhan). While functional DNA molecules have been used for the detection of environmental contaminants in water, their practical applications have remained limited. To address this challenge, the review paper highlights recent efforts to develop field-deployable water quality biosensors.

Members of Ecohydrology Research Group attended the Global Water Futures 2022 Annual Open Science Meeting (GWF ASM) virtual conference on May 16^th – 18^th 2022! 

Day 2 Parallel Scientific Sessions:

Water quality – General

Presentation from:

Tia Jenkins: Where are the Microplastics Data to Support Water Quality Management and Environmental Policy?

Featuring a lightning talk from Serghei Bocaniov

Water Quality – Nutrients

Presentations from:

To accelerate the output from the urban ecohydrology research activities in ERG, we are holding a three-day writing bootcamp at St. Paul’s University College on May 11-13. The participants include Philippe, Fereidoun, Mahyar, Steph, Sarah, Sabur, Yuba, Bowen, Jovana, and Ari. A total of 9 manuscripts are being assembled. While most of the time is devoted to writing, we also critically review each other’s work. Day 1 was devoted to abstracts and conclusions of the manuscripts, Day 2 to the discussion sections and Day 3 to results and introductions.

Today, we held our first in-person research seminar since the start of the pandemic. About 40 people gathered to hear Dr. Lewis Alcott present his seminar entitled “Phosphorus and climate through time and sampling uncertainties in the past and present”. Dr. Alcott is currently a Hutchinson Environmental Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University working on the characterization and implications of the spatial and temporal variability of GHG sources. He holds a PhD degree from the University of Leeds.

This year’s theme of the 9^th 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.