News

A chapter written by Ecohydrology Research Group members Helen Powley and Philippe Van Cappellen and their colleague Michael Krom, from the University of Haifa and University of Leeds, reviews the unique biogeochemistry of the Mediterranean Sea. In particular, the authors address why the Mediterranean Sea, a nearly entirely landlocked marine basin, has remained oligotrophic despite large anthropogenic inputs of the nutrient elements phosphorus and nitrogen.

Elaine Secord has successfully defended her MSc thesis titled “Assessing Microbial Viability and Biodegradation Capabilities in Sandstone”. She completed her MSc with the Ecohydrology Research Group, at the University of Waterloo. 

Based on the strength of her academic accomplishments, Taylor Maavara is the recipient of a 2017 University of Waterloo “Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies” honour. A total of nine awards – five at the Doctoral level and four at the Master’s level – are presented this year. She will receive the award at Fall convocation on October 20^th. CONGRATULATIONS, Taylor!

To guide strategic investments by municipalities to adopt more effective urban stormwater management options, it is required that water managers get insight into the usefulness of a range of solutions in the presence of climate change.

Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Ecohydrology Assistant Professor, attended the “Subsurface and Coastal Water Dynamics and Peatland Ecology” Summer School organized by the Baltic TRANSCOAST research training group in Rostock, Germany. Fereidoun is a Mercator Fellow in the Baltic TRANSCOAST program and during this Summer School he gave 3 lectures on peat biogeochemical processes and presented the importance of peat structure on water storage, flow and solute transport using experimental and modeling approaches.

The International Society of Environmental Biogeochemistry is organizing its 23^rd biannual Symposium on Environmental Biogeochemistry (ISEB23) in northern Queensland. This is the first time the Symposium is being held in Australia. Philippe Van Cappellen is presenting a talk on anthropogenic perturbations of nutrient cycles in river systems. This coming January, Philippe is taking over as President of the Society.  

Water researchers from Baden-Württemberg, Germany and from various Ontario universities (University of Waterloo, University of Guelph, and University of Toronto), were at the University of Waterloo on September 18th -19th to take part in the Joint Ontario and Baden-Württemberg Water Workshop. 

The Water Institute hosted the Sino-Canada Water Environment Workshop at the University of Waterloo (UW), from September 18th to 20th. The workshop featured a series of research presentations, including one by Ecohydrology Research Group member, Dr. Fereidoun Rezanezhad, who gave a presentation titled Nutrient dynamics, transfer and retention across scales: Integration of hydrological and biogeochemical processes. 

Nutrient pollution has contributed to degraded water quality across many lakes in Canada, and billions of dollars have been invested in helping address this problem. In this critical review, we examined the recycling of phosphorus from sediment to water, known as internal phosphorus loading  – a within-lake process that can delay ecosystem recovery from nutrient pollution.

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) announced this year's new Fellows. We are very pleased that our colleague, Dr. David Blowes, is among them. Here is RSC's citation:

"BLOWES, David – Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo