News

The 2023 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) took place on 23-28 April in Vienna, Austria. It brought together nearly 19,000 researchers in Vienna and online from all across the world for a week of scientific discoveries, discussions and new connections. ERG member Mahyar Shafii gave an oral presentation in session HS2.3.1 on Water quality at the catchment scale: measuring and modeling of nutrients, sediment and eutrophication impacts.

The Ecohydrology Research Group (ERG) is thrilled to announce the successful funding of $1,348,540 for a new Collaborative research project on “Adaptive management of green stormwater infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from urban watersheds”. The project is awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through the Alliance Missions Grant for 3 years (2023-2026). 

Current Ecohydrology Research Group student Christina Lam has been awarded NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship for her masters research. Christina is in the first year of her masters in the Ecohydrology Research Group and her thesis explores methane oxidation in landfill cover soils under variable moisture and temperature conditions.

Congratulations to Christina on this accomplishment!

This past weekend, ERG students Danielle Green, Christina Lam, Hang Nguyen, and Asal Jaberansari attended GAN 2023, an environmental sciences and engineering student conference in Gananoque. Hang Nguyen was awarded the Poster Presentation award for her presentation titled “Investigating the controls on microplastic accumulation in stormwater pond sediments”.

The 2023 federal budget includes $650 million over 10 years to support monitoring, assessment, and restoration activities in the watersheds of the Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, Lake of the Woods, St. Lawrence River, Fraser River, Saint John River, Mackenzie River, and Lake Simcoe. Philippe was interviewed by 13 CBC radio stations (see list below) on his views on the importance of this funding initiative.

Current Ecohydrology Research Group student Danielle Green has been awarded NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship for her masters research. Danielle is in the first year of her masters in the Ecohydrology Research Group and will focus on characterizing dissolved organic carbon and measuring its bioavailability in Canada’s browning lakes.

Congratulations to Danielle on this accomplishment!

An article co-authored by ERG group members Bhaleka Persaud and Philippe Van Cappellen, titled “Ten best practices to strengthen stewardship and sharing of water science data in Canada” published in the Hydrological Process  in 2021 received enough downloads during its first 12 months of publication to be a top downloaded article in this journal.

Philippe attended a side event at the UN Water Conference on Committing to Action for Global Freshwater Lakes was held at the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations. The event focused on actions that accelerate positive change for large, global, transboundary freshwater lakes. Speakers from the African and North American Great Lakes organizations shared their experiences and plans for advancing the integrated management of their large lakes.

A delegation from the Water Institute, headed by Roy Brouwer, Executive Director of the Water Institute, is attending the 2023 United Nations Water Conference taking place at the UN Headquarters in New York, 22-24 March. Philippe Van Cappellen is part of the delegation.

Cold regions are warming much faster than the global average, resulting in more frequent and intense freeze thaw cycles (FTCs) in soils. A new paper published in the journal Chemosphere investigated the effects of FTCs on toluene biodegradation using a combined experimental and model approach. The paper is authored by Mehdi Ramezanzadeh, a recent Masters graduate and current research assistant in the Ecohydrology Research Group.