Maria Strack (She/Her)

Maria Strack doesn't mind having soggy feet and loves spending the day in a wetland. She completed her BSc at McMaster University where she studied submergent plant communities in Great Lakes marshes for her undergraduate research project. She moved from canoes to mosses for her PhD, also completed at McMaster University. Her doctoral research explored the potential effects of climate change on peatland carbon storage and greenhouse gas exchange using a ecosystem water table drawdown experiment. She started her academic career at University of Calgary where she worked from 2007-2014. In 2014, she joined the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at University of Waterloo and is currently the Canada Research Chair in Wetland Climate Solutions.

Dr. Strack leads the Wetland Soils and Greenhouse Gas Exchange Lab and is the principal investigator on the Can-Peat project. Her research aims to improve our understanding of wetland carbon cycling and greenhouse gas exchange, with a particular focus on ecosystem responses to disturbance and restoration.

• climate change

• ecological restoration

• wetland

• peatland

• methane

• carbon cycle

• natural climate solutions

Maria’s research investigates the interactions between ecology, hydrology, biogeochemistry and soil properties in wetland ecosystems. In particular, her research focuses on feedbacks between wetlands and climate by investigating controls on peatland greenhouse gas exchange in natural, disturbed and restored ecosystems. Maria collaborates on several peatland restoration projects across Canada involving restoration of sites used for horticultural peat extraction, former well-pads and roads related to oil extraction and forestry, and peatland construction in oil sands mining regions. Her interest in these projects is evaluating the conditions that help to return a carbon accumulation function post-restoration. She also investigates the potential impact of climate change on peatlands through plot to ecosystem scale manipulation of temperature and water table and process-based modelling and evaluating the subsequent changes in soil properties, plant community and greenhouse gas fluxes.

Maria is also particularly interested in methane dynamics including both fluxes and subsurface storage. As part of this research she uses a variety of geophysical techniques to monitor gas accumulation and release while also investigating the physical soil properties and hydrochemical and microbiological conditions that are related to spatial patterns of gas accumulation. In addition to wetlands, this research has investigated stormwater management ponds and landfills.

• 2006, PhD, Hydrology, McMaster University, Canada

• 2002, BSc, Ecology, McMaster University, Canada

• 2026, Mid-career Scientist Award, Canadian Geophysical Union

• 2025, Tier I Canada Research Chair

• 2022, IN-TECH Reclamation Award (Group), as member of Peatland Ecology Research Group, Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA)

• 2022, Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

• 2020, Member, College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada

• 2019, Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

• 2019, Tier II Canada Research Chair (renewal)

• 2016, Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

• 2014, Tier II Canada Research Chair

• 2025, Group Chair, Geoscience Evaluation Group, NSERC Discovery Grants

• 2023-2025, Associate Chair Graduate Studies, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo

• Canadian Geophysical Union

• European Geophysical Union

• Society for Ecological Restoration

• International Peatland Society

• GEOG 294 - Approaches to Research in Physical Geography
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• GEOG 304 - Carbon in the Biosphere
  • Taught in 2021, 2022
• GEOG 675 - Selected Topics in Geography
  • Taught in 2023, 2024
• GEOG 700A - Geographic Scholarship and Practice 1 - Master's
  • Taught in 2025
• GEOG 700B - Geographic Scholarship and Practice 2 - Master's
  • Taught in 2026
• GEOG 800A - Geographic Scholarship and Practice 1 - Doctoral
  • Taught in 2025
• GEOG 800B - Geographic Scholarship and Practice 2 - Doctoral
  • Taught in 2026

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Bayatvarkeshi, M., Ketcheson, S., Korsah, P., Schmidt, M., Tabassum, N., Strack, M. 2025. Seismic lines are associated with enhanced ground layer evapotranspiration in peatlands. Ecohydrology, 18, e70102. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.70102

• Bayatvarkeshi, M., Ketcheson, S., Dickie, M., Serrouya, R., Quinton, W., Strack, M. 2026. Seismic line disturbances affect spatial and temporal patterns of snow accumulation in boreal forests. Journal of Hydrology, 669, 135125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.135125

• Davidson, S.J., Davies, M.A., Wegener, E., Claussen, S., Schmidt, M., Peacock, M., Strack, M. 2024. Carbon stocks and fluxes from a boreal conifer swamp: Filling a knowledge gap from understanding the boreal C cycle. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 129, e2024JG008005. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JG008005

• Davies, M.A., Balliston, N., Bona, K.A., Strack, M. 2026. Substrate addition alters carbon dioxide and methane exchange in incubation experiments of Canadian peatland soils. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 40, e2025GB008896. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GB008896

• Hettinga, E.K., Rezanezhad, F., Reza Shahvaran, A., Reshadi, M.A.M., Strack, M., Arndt, K.A., Strachan, I.B., Skeeter, J., Wu, J., Morison, M.Q., Alcock, H., Sonnetage, O., Knox, S.H., Howard, R., van Cappellen, P. 2026. Evaluating modeling approaches for estimating net ecosystem exchange in Canadian peatlands. Scientific Reports. In press.

• Hunter, M.L., Strachan, I.B., Moore, P., Knox, S., Strack, M. 2026. Water table depth and vapour pressure deficit interaction drives bare peat evaporation at actively extracted peatlands in Canada. Hydrological Processes, 40, e707521. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70521

• Korsah, P., Davidson, S.J., Strack, M. 2026. Increased methane emissions from boreal peatlands following linear disturbances. Communications Earth and Environment, 7, 360. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03273-w

• Schmidt, M.A., Santia, V., Price, S., Khumbani, H.A.W., Strack, M. 2025. Quantifying carbon fluxes and pools in Southern Ontario temperate swamps. Mires and Peat, 32, Article 31. https://doi.org/10.19189/001c.151276

• Strack, M., Bona, K.A., Liang, C. 2025. A first assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural peatlands in Canada: Evaluation of climate change mitigation potential. WIREs Climate Change, 16, e925. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.925

• Webster, K., Strack, M., Balliston, N., Davies, M.A., Hettinga, E.K., Hunter, M., Kleinke, K., Schmidt, M., Barreto, C., Bird, M., Blann, K., Bona, K., Cassidy, A., Connolly, J., Davidson, S., Fedorchuk, L., Garneau, M., Harris, L., He, H., Howie, S., Kirkwood, A., Pontone, N., Richardson, K., Sanderson, N., Seutin, G., Xu, B., Yin, X. 2025. Data and knowledge needs for improving science and policy for peatland in Canada in a changing world: insights from Global Peatlands Initiative Workshop, June 2023. Facets, 10, 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/facets-2024-0142

• Damage to boreal peatlands fast-tracks climate change
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• New research chair empowers wetland climate solutions