Environment 1 (EV1), room 311
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Room EV1-223, ext. 49174
rpetrone@uwaterloo.ca
Rich’s research is focused on developing a further understanding of soil – vegetation – atmosphere interactions, especially as influenced by hydrologic and climatic conditions. Specific questions of interest to him include trace gas exchange in wetland and forested systems, interactions between vegetation and hydrology and climate (weather), and modeling the impacts of climatic and land-use stresses on these linkages. Rich’s research currently focuses on high latitude systems, specifically the Western Boreal Forest, where he is actively involved with these research questions and their applicability to landscape reclamation. However, he is also a lead-PI and node leader in the Southern Ontario Water Consortium where he is examining the effects of agriculture and landuse change on water quantity and quality in Southern Ontario. Rich is also one of the core faculty members in the Master’s of Climate Change Program. Visit my research website.
Key Areas of Graduate Supervision
Ecohydrology, hydrometeorology, climatology, micrometeorology, climate change, biogeochemistry, greenhouse gases, reclamation, landuse change, forest hydrology
Recent Courses Taught
GEM 641: Physical Dimensions of Climate Change
GEM642: Introductory Micrometeorology
Research Interests
My present research focuses on catchment ecohydrological processes and their influence on wetland permanence, wetland reclamation and forest hydroclimatological and biogeochemical processes in stressed northern ecosystems (Western Boreal Forest, Subarctic Wetland-Tundra). This involves combining theoretical, laboratory and fieldwork examining micrometeorological, hydrological and trace gas exchange in heterogeneous vegetated systems. My research philosophy is grounded in the belief that the development of theory and experimentation must progress in conjunction with one another. My long-term objectives involve issues of scaling in the development of fully coupled biogeochemical-hydrological models of climate change while developing realistic sound strategies for adapting to potential climate and landuse change scenarios, with specific applications post-industrial disturbance reclamation.
Current research projects include examining and linking hydrology, ecology and disturbance in the Western Boreal Forest; restoration/reclamation of wetland ecosystems impacted by oil and gas, and soil sands development; carbon and water exchange in the Boreal-Subarctic transition zone; the role of ice in high latitude wetland ecohydrological processes; and carbon-nutrient cycling in temperate multiple landuse agricultural basins.
Recent Publications
Sensitivity of modelled actual evapotranspiration to canopy characteristics within the Western Boreal Plain, Alberta” Chasmer, L., Petrone, R.M., Brown, S.M., Hopkinson, C., Mendoza, C., Diiwu, J., Quinton, W. & Devito, K.J. (Proceedings of the Remote Sensing Hydrology symposium, September 2010. , Jackson, Wyoming, USA: International Association of Hydrological Sciences. Redbook publication, 2011, 352:337-340)
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The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Indigenous Initiatives Office.