News

This morning, the Ecohydrology Research Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Dajiang Environment Corporation (DEC), China. This MOU will facilitate research activities that are expected to support sustainable watershed management strategies for two watersheds in China (Nanjing Eco Hi-Tech Island and Luoyang Town, Wujin District).

Kim Van Meter, and Mahyar Shafii, both postdoctoral fellows working with the Ecohydrology Research Group, won the first and second place awards, respectively, for the best presentations given by postdoctoral students at the Global Water Futures 2018 Annual Science Meeting at McMaster University.

Kim, who is working on the Lake Futures project, gave a talk titled "Biogeochemical Asynchrony", which was presented as part of the Watershed Management and Disturbance session.

From June 3rd to 6th, over 400 researchers from across the globe met at McMaster University, in partnership with the Six Nations of the Grand River, for the 2018 Global Water Futures (GWF) Annual Science Meeting, with the goal of sharing information and collaborating with fellow scientists. More information about the meeting can be found on the conference website.

At the conference, Philippe Van Cappellen and Nandita Basu presented a plenary talk about water quality issues in the Great Lakes.

Vice-President, Academic and Provost George Dixon announced the winners of the 2017 Outstanding Performance Awards, among them Philippe Van Cappellen.

This afternoon, Dr. Claudia Wagner-Riddle from the University of Guelph presented a talk titled "Linking Surface N2O Flux to Soil Processes in Cold Climates" as part of the Ecohydrology Seminar Series. Thank you to Dr. Wagner-Riddle for the excellent talk! We all had a great time.

For more information about the seminar, see our event listing.

Linden Fairbairn, a Master's student working with the Ecohydrology Research Group, was recently awarded the Canadian Water Resources Association Scholarship Award for 2018. The scholarship is awarded annually to five graduate students across Canada whose research centers around water research. Congratulations, Linden!

For more information about the scholarship, please visit the Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA) website.

A delegation of the Water Institute (WI) comprising Roy Brouwer, Neil Thomson and Philippe Van Cappellen visited São Paulo State on May 7-10, hosted by the Secretariat of the Environment of the São Paulo State government. The Secretariat integrates several agencies and institutes within the Environmental System of São Paulo (SAP), including the São Paulo State Environmental Agency (CETESB), the Forestry Foundation and the Geological Institute. The visit was facilitated by the Canadian Consulate in São Paulo, in particular thanks to the efforts of Mr. Patrick Courcelles.

Last Thursday, the recipients of the Winter 2018 Water Institute Seed Grants were announced. The winners of the grants include two projects led by Ecohydrology group members:

• Homa Kheyrollah Pour, Earth and Environmental Sciences; Philippe Van Cappellen, Earth and Environmental Sciences; Roland Hall, Biology; Andrea Scott, Systems Design Engineering; Georgiy Kitillin, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries

  Seasonal patterns of chlorophyll and temperature in lakes: Detection and attribution of climate change signal

Linden Fairbairn, a Master's Student working with the Ecohydrology Research Group, was recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST). The scholarship is a merit-based scholarship for graduate students registered in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) field. Congratulations, Linden!

For more information about the scholarship, visit the University of Waterloo's Graduate Studies website.

A paper published this week in Nature Communications by researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute presents new findings on the distribution of microplastics in Arctic sea ice. The paper is featured in an article in the magazine Popular Science and includes comments by Dr. Philippe Van Cappellen.

The full article, titled "Good job: Arctic sea ice is full of our junk plastic", is available on Popular Science's website.