World Wetlands Day 2019

On Monday, February 4^th, the Ecohydrology Research Group hosted the 7^th annual World Wetlands Day Research Symposium at the University of Waterloo.

The 2019 program featured:

• Research Talks 

• Poster Session & Reception 

• Evening Public Lecture

Research Talks

This year the research talks were presented by academic researchers and graduate students from the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, McMaster University, and the University of Toronto. The presenter names and presentation titles are listed in the program.

New this year, were the Lightning Talks. These 5-minute presentations, were given by environmental practitioners and researchers from the University of Waterloo, the Credit Valley Conservation (https://cvc.ca/), and the rare Chartiable Research Reserve (https://raresites.org/).

Poster Session & Reception 

A total of 28 posters were presented at the poster session & reception, which was sponsored by the Global Water Futures Young Professionals program. The session included a Best Student Poster competition.

The Best Student Poster presentation award in the undergraduate category went to Meghan McLeod, a student in Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. The award in the graduate category went to two students this year. Janey Hu and Suyuan Yang (both from the University of Waterloo's Faculty of Environment) tied for the Best Student Poster award in the graduate category.

Each student will recieve $250 as a prize, sponsored by the Ecohydrology Research Group. The complete list of the posters presented this year is listed below:

Poster Presentations

1. Nicole Balliston: Characterizing Patterned Peatlands in the James Bay Lowlands and the Potential Feedbacks to Anthropocentric  
2. Sevil Berenji: The Role of Values and Beliefs throughout the Production of Dried Fish: A Focus on the Well-Being of Producers
3. Patrick Deane: Investigating the effectiveness of peatland fuel modification treatments in reducing peat ignition potential
4. Élise Devoie: The beginning of thaw: isolated and connected talik development in active layer modelling
5. Gabriel Dubé: Unsaturated flow in a constructed fen upland and its effects on Na+ flushing
6. Iroshani Galappaththi: Governing fisheries value chains towards sustainability: The case of dried fish sector in India and Sri Lanka
7. Tyler Hampton: Quantifying post-forest-fire hydrologic response using the Budyko framework and a “backwards” paired-catchment approach
8. Dylan Hrach: Quantifying seasonal evapotranspiration of a sub-alpine wetland, Kananaskis, AB
9. Janet Hu: Hydrological Function of a Disturbed Swamp-Fen Peatland Complex
10. Philippe Van Cappellen: How geophysics informs biogeochemistry
11. Kimberly Kleinke: Methane fluxes from Thuja occidentalis and Larix laricina stems in an Ontario fen
12. Meghan McLeod: Modelling Phosphorus in Watersheds Affecting Lake Erie
13. Sisir Kanta Pradhan: Social-ecological perspective of dried fish value chain
14. Tyler Prentice: Quantifying the use of soil prescriptions on moisture regimes in a post-oil sands landscape
15. Emily Prystupa: Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentration and Composition in a Reclaimed Fen
16. Olivia Trudeau: Impact of linear disturbances on soil characteristics in Northern Alberta
17. Suyuan Yang: Hydrodynamics and Salinity in Unsaturated Zone of Constructed Fen
18. Nataša Popović: What the Flux? Carbon and Water Dynamics During the Early Development of a Reclaimed, Post-Oilsands Landscape in Northern Alberta, Canada
19. Md Abdus Sabur: Internal phosphorus loading: role of dissolved silicate under oxic and anoxic conditions
20. Ryan Kangro: Methane Flux Comparison Over Three Growing Seasons
21. Teresa Tran: Wasted Water*
22. Jason McMillan: Unsettling Ground: Arctic Urbanism on Fluid Ground*
23. Santosh Neupane: Future projections of rain-on-snow events and their spatiotemporal distribution across the Fraser River basin, British Columbia, Canada*
24. Shengde Yu: Modeling the Water Qualities in Fanshawe Lake*
25. Sarah Indris: Application and Environmental Sustainability of  Water Recycling for Irrigation in Southern Ontario*
26. Senguttuvan Annamalai: Importance of lateral thinking in research
27. Eosense
28. Emily Champion: Hydrologic implications of sediment infill within the East Recharge Basin of the constructed Nikanotee Watershed

* Students of the University of Waterloo’s Collaborative Water Program

Evening Public Lecture

The Distinguished Public Lecture was presented by Dianna Kopansky, a UN Environment expert on landscapes & biodiversity and the Global peatlands Initiative Coordinator. Her presentation was titled "Peatlands: Why they matter for the climate, people, and the planet". A recording of the lecture has been posterd on the Ecohydrology Research Group's YouTube channel.