From http://english.itpcas.cas.cn/rh/rf/fs The Tibetan Observation and Research Platform (TORP) is engaged in the monitoring of these three aspects, 1) interaction between geological processes and climate, 2) high-resolution records and modern environmental processes, and 3) land surface processes and alpine atmospheric processes. Nam Co Monitoring and Research Station for Multisphere Interactions,CAS (NAMORS): The NAMORS (30°46'N, 90°59'E, 4730 m a.s.l), located in the southeast shore of the Nam Co, northern slope of the Nyainqentanglha Mts, was established by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS in 2005. Research in the station focuses on multisphere interactions in the geo-system. Since 2005, research projects include meteorological and hydrological monitoring, atmospheric boundary layer observation, modern lake processes and environmental change, monitoring of glacier, snow and permafrost, atmospheric environment observation, monitoring of vegetation and soils and o ...

The Wolf Creek Research Basin (drainage area about 195 km2) lies in southern mountainous headwaters of the Yukon River Basin in the subarctic region of northwestern Canada. The sub-arctic continental climate is characterized by a large seasonal variation in temperature, low relative humidity and relatively low precipitation. Mean annual temperature is in the order of -3°C with summer and winter monthly ranges of 5°C-15°C, and -100°C- -20°C, respectively. Summer and winter extremes of 25°C and -40°C are not uncommon. Mean annual precipitation is 300 to 400 mm per year with approximately 40 percent falling as snow. With a general northeasterly aspect, elevations range from 800 to 2250 m with the median elevation at 1325 m. Wolf Creek is situated within the Boreal Cordillera ecozone (Environment Canada, 1995) [occupying the southern Yukon and northern half of British Columbia, bordered by the Coast Mountains to the west and extends north from the Montane Cordillera to the Mackenzie and S ...

The purpose of this research project is to develop new biosensor for metal ions for water samples and to understand the effect of dissolved organic matters (DOM) on the biosensor. In particular, the biosensors are based on catalytically active DNA molecules (DNAzymes) that require specific metal ions for activity. This work will test a DNAzyme, that is 17E, for its use as a general metal sensor for common transition metal ions and the DOM effect. In addition, we are selecting new DNAzymes that are specific to important metals such as Ni2+. This work is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Scott Smith from Wilfrid Laurier University. This data set is collected for the project titled "Sensors and Sensing Systems for Water Quality Monitoring", which is a Pillar 2 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The dataset is from a high resolution climate change simulation that permits convection and resolves mesoscale orography at 4 km grid spacing over much of North America using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The project aims to provide new insights into the future occurrence of precipitation-related extremes including drought, intense precipitation events and hazardous winter precipitation. Such extremes impact many sectors across Canada including agriculture, electrical utilities, engineering design, health, and insurance.

This project focuses on the evaluation of a DNA-based biosensor for aqueous mercury(II) under variable pH, temperature and competing ligand compositions. In particular, this study shows that the DNA-functionalized hydrogel sensor could be a better choice than the simple DNA solution for measuring mercury(II) concentrations in complex solutions and in natural waters.

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GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/caa25857-949b-43d5-8465-268302e609e9 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-2

Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-2 Sample Collection Intestinal samples were collected from fathead minnows. Fish collected from the field were collected in minnow traps set overnight. All samples were collected with sterile dissection tools, and samples were immediately placed on ice prior to being transferred to a -80C freezer for long-term storage. 16s amplicon sequencing Total genomic DNA was extracted from guts using the DNeasy PowerSoil Kit (Qiagen Inc., Mississauga, ON). Concentrations were measured using a Qubit 4 Fluorometer and dsDNA HS assay kit (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA). The V3-V4 variable region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified using the Bact-0341 forward primer (CCTACGGGNGGCWGCAG) (Klindworth et al., 2013) and the Bact-806 reverse primer (GGACTACNVGGGTWTCTAAT) (Apprill et al., 2015). Samples were dual indexed to increase throughput of sequencing (Fadrosh et al., 2014). Samples were amplified with a 50 ?L PCR reaction including P ...

The aim of this research project is to develop an in situ method to measure hydrological processes in frozen soils through the characterization of coaxial impedance dielectric reflectometry probe response to soil freeze-thaw events. Details on the collection process are outlined in the README file ‘LabInSituPermittivityTemperature.txt’ and in the publication https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-787-2019. This dataset will also support the project titled Transformative sensor Technologies and Smart Watershed (TTWS), which is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

This dataset provides field data from boreal forests in the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, that were burned by wildfires in 2014. During fieldwork in 2015, 211 burned plots were established. From these plots, thirty-two forest plots were selected that were dominated by black spruce and were representative of the full moisture gradient across the landscape, ranging from xeric to sub-hygric. Plot observations included slope, aspect, and moisture. At each plot, one intact organic soil profile associated with a specific burn depth was selected and analyzed for carbon content and radiocarbon (14C) values at specific profile depth increments to assess legacy carbon presence and combustion. Vegetation observations included tree density. Stand age at the time of the fire was determined from tree-ring counts. Estimates of pre-fire below and aboveground carbon pools were derived. The percent of total NWT wildfire burned area comprising of "young" stands (less than 60 years old at time of f ...

This dataset provides estimates of wildfire carbon emissions and uncertainties at 30-m resolution, and measurements collected at burned and unburned field plots from the 2014 wildfire sites near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. Field data were collected at 211 burned plots in 2015 and include site characteristics, tree cover and species, basal area, delta normalized burn ratio (dNBR), plot characteristics, soil carbon, and carbon combusted. Data were collected at 36 unburned plots with characteristics similar to the burned plots in 2016. The emission estimates were derived from a statistical modeling approach based on measurements of carbon consumption at the 211 burned field plots located in seven independent burn scars. Estimates include uncertainty of field observations of aboveground and belowground combustion, as well as prediction uncertainty from a multiplicative regression model. To apply the model across all 2014 NWT fire perimeters, the final model covariates ...

The ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model from NASA, 1 second (30 m) were downloaded from National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory website (https://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gdem.asp). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model was developed jointly by the NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. This global product has a 30 m resolution. The region of interest (Great Lakes) is cropped and data converted into formats ASCII and NetCDF. Data are then made available to the project collaborators on a private GitHub. Researchers interested in data can email Juliane Mai (University of Waterloo; juliane.mai@uwaterloo.ca)

The purpose of this research is to develop sensitive endpoints to detect impacts of wastewater effluent on fish health. We are examining the age and growth of rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) in the Grand River watershed to understand potential impacts of wastewater effluent. Aging fish helps us determine the potential time of exposure, and this can be used to link age and intersex, which is then used to for modelling. This data set is collected to support the project titled “Linking multiple stressors to adverse ecological response". This is a Pillar 1-2 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund

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The main goal of this research in Agricultural Water Futures is to investigate farmers’ current Best Management Practices (BMPs) adoption status and elicit their demand for monetary compensation to take certain measures. We pay particular attention to the factors and conditions that incentivize farmers’ adoption. The core part of the project is to design a discrete choice experiment which specifies a couple of hypothetical BMP options for pre-identified attributes. Choice experiment, as a stated preference method, along with other socio-demographic characteristics of the farmer and farm operation data, can recover estimates of farmers’ willingness-to-accept for taking up BMPs. This dataset is collected to support the objectives of Agricultural Water Futures in Canada: Stressors and Solutions: Work Package 3". Agricultural Water Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Data Use Policy: AmeriFlux Legacy Policy (https://ameriflux.lbl.gov/data/data-policy/#ameriflux-legacy)

Data Use Policy: AmeriFlux Legacy Policy (https://ameriflux.lbl.gov/data/data-policy/#ameriflux-legacy)

This data set was produced to support the objectives of two projects. These are: 1) Legacies of Agricultural Pollutants (LEAP) funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and other international partners. 2) "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

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The objectives of this project is to determine the bird species richness in mountain peatlands along an elevation gradient in the Upper Bow River Basin, and model how community composition changes along an elevation gradient. The purpose of this study is to understand what birds occupy mountain peatlands, and studying birds along an elevation gradient can be a proxy for how species richness and community composition will change with the changing climate. Also, bird watching is a very popular economic activity and this taxonomic group is a great motivator for those who care about habitat protection, but before we can protect birds in mountain peatlands, we need to know: what species are there, the number of species, and what influences their presence. This data set is collected for the project titled “Future Water for the Mountain West" [now Mountain Water Futures], which is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

This dataset supports the Global Water Futures project.

Watershed urbanization and stormwater management (SWM) alter the hydrologic and geomorphologic processes of rivers. This purpose of this study is to characterize the bedload sediment transport regime of semi-alluvial gravel-bed rivers, and how it is affected by watershed urbanization and common SWM strategies. This project monitors the movement of coarse sediment and morphological change of three rivers in the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario: Ganatsekiagon Creek (City of Pickering), Wilket Creek (City of Toronto), and Morningside Creek (City of Toronto). This study presents a means of monitoring bedload transport processes in restored rivers, and results can inform future river restoration designs. Funding for this data collection was provided by an NSERC Strategic Grant (STPGP 463321-14, Assessing and restoring the resilience of urban stream networks). This data collected will also be used to support the project titled "Linking Stream Network Process Models to Robust Data Ma ...

CRHM model projects outputs are generated from CRHM model simulations from study sites and include water balance variables and energy balance variables if applicable. CRHM outputs include full water balance variables: Rainfall, snowfall, evaporation from soil, evapotranspiration from forest canopy, blowing snow sublimation, snowpack sublimation, sublimation from intercepted snow from forest canopy, blowing snow transport, subsurface storage, surface depressional storage (if applicable), glacier storage (if applicable), streamflow discharge. CRHM outputs also include energy balance variables for melting snowpack (if applicable): Incoming shortwave radiation, incoming longwave radiation, net radiation, latent heat flux, sensible heat flux, ground heat flux, advective flux. CRHM outputs can be provided as hourly or daily time-step. These CRHM outputs are generated from physically-based hydrological model simulations that are set up for study sites, without relying on calibration. The lat ...

CRHM model project outputs

Develop a systematic classification of Prairie watersheds based on similar geographic characteristics. The classification serves as a foundation for virtual watershed modelling within the project to investigate how watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry respond to environmental change.

Largely overlooked, microbial activity in soil persists under snow and ice throughout the winter transition and reaches its apex during thaw events. With the onset of climate change the active layer of soils will experience colder temperatures as it loses its snowpack insulation and consequently will undergo a higher frequency of freeze-thaw cycles. These changes will have downstream effects on the underlying geochemistry of soils and subsequently microbial composition and activity. The result leave unclear implications for the study of climate change, agricultural management, and biogeochemical cycling. Thus the objective of this research is to characterize the changes in microbial diversity and bioenergetics as a function of the changing environmental metrics of soil geochemistry and nutrient availability throughout the winter transition. Further the efficacy of pre-winter fertilizer amendments will be explored from concerns of decreasing potency as thaw events may allow for early on ...

Code for the Fire and Ice project The includes the main input files, processing script and CRHM simulations files for the Fire and Ice project. The folders and files are generally organized in processing order.

Code for the Fire and Ice project

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The conditioned SRTM Digital Elevation Model (DEM) were downloaded from HydroSHEDS website (https://hydrosheds.cr.usgs.gov/index.php). It has a 3'' resolution which corresponds to about 90 m at the equator. The region of interest (Great Lakes) is cropped and data converted into formats ASCII and NetCDF. Data are then made available to the project collaborators on a private GitHub. Researchers interested in data can email Juliane Mai (University of Waterloo; juliane.mai@uwaterloo.ca)

Data available to project collaborators only on a private GitHub. Researchers interested in data must contact Juliane Mai at University of Waterloo (juliane.mai@uwaterloo.ca)

Hotıì ts’eeda Northwest Territories Spor Support Unit Publication https://nwtspor.ca/projects/contaminant-bio-monitoring-northwest-territories-mackenzie-valley-investigating-links

Datasets related document: Hotıì ts’eeda Northwest Territories Spor Support Unit Publication https://nwtspor.ca/projects/contaminant-bio-monitoring-northwest-territories-mackenzie-valley-investigating-links Also related: Ratelle, M., Laird, M., Majowicz, S., Skinner, K., Swanson, H., & Laird, B. (2018). Design of a human biomonitoring community-based project in the Northwest Territories Mackenzie Valley, Canada, to investigate the links between nutrition, contaminants and country foods. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 77(1), 1510714. Ratelle, M., Skinner, K., Laird, M. J., Majowicz, S., Brandow, D., Packull-McCormick, S., ... & Hanning, R. (2018). Implementation of human biomonitoring in the Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories, Canada (2016–2017). Archives of Public Health, 76(1), 73. Laird, M. J., Henao, J. J. A., Reyes, E. S., Stark, K. D., Low, G., Swanson, H. K., & Laird, B. D. (2018). Mercury and omega-3 fatty acid profiles in freshwater fish of the Dehch ...

Numerical analysis of coupled water, vapor, heat, and stress fields are used to quantify the interactions between surface water and groundwater flow and thermal dynamics related to freezing-thaw and expansion-settlement in seasonally frozen areas. The model structure will be calibrated and validated using measurements, such as the moisture, temperature, and strains in the literature. Then, a virtual watershed approach will be used to test and modify the coupled framework, according to field observations and other well-recognized scientific findings. Finally, this modified model framework will be applied into typical permafrost area, to investigate thermo-hydraulic-mechanical (THM) dynamics, and predict possible damage-related processes in the context of climate change. This model framework and generated data will support the project titled “North Water Futures Big Data Platform and "Smart Watersheds". These are Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada Fi ...

Resources allocated to water management often fluctuate. As a result, the types and number of parameters (e.g., indicators for ecosystem health) being measured, in monitoring programs, are frequently reassessed according to management (or political) priorities, limits on budgets, and availability of human resources. The periodic need to refocus monitoring, conflicts with the need to maintain consistent, long-term indicators that are used to demonstrate changes to ecosystem health, or define ‘abnormal’ indicator measures. Conventional approaches are subjective, time-consuming, and non-standardized. This research developed and tested whether a new approach would reduce time and cost, while increasing objectivity and monitoring adaptability (to fluctuating resources). This project was funded by the Canadian Water Network, but the data collected will also support the research objectives of the project titled "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Water ...

https://doi.org/10.20383/101.0313 GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/00a9cee2-e654-45c0-b743-c5d58762c061 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-8

The project provides metabarcoding data of multiple communities during a period of diluted bitumen exposure and subsequent remediation treatments in lake mesocosms. This project will use next generation techniques to understand the changes of lower trophic organisms (eg. phytoplankton, zooplankton) under variable remediation efforts following a simulated spill of diluted bitumen.

This dataset supports the Global Water Futures project Hydrological Processes in Frozen Soils, which aims to improve understanding of soil freeze-thaw processes and methods of interpreting soil moisture data from instrumentation in frozen soils.

This data is collected as part of the Pillar 3 GWF project "FORMBLOOM: Forecasting Tools and Mitigation Options for Diverse Bloom-Affected Lakes".

Because realized ecosystem services are directly consumed by people and clearly illustrate the link between ecosystem services and human well-being, the aim of this project was to distinguish potential and realized ecosystem services in Southern Ontario's landscape. The initial dataset used for this project was the Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) land use updated to 2016 for ecoregions 6E and 7E. Our analysis of these data yields a total potential value of the bundled ecosystem services of $19 billion per year for Southern Ontario. To estimate the value of the realized (or used) ecosystem services, the potential values are scaled by the corresponding relative use indices. The resulting value of the realized ecosystem services is $9.7 billion per year, that is, about 50% of the value of the potential ecosystem services.

In the absence of long-term environmental monitoring prior to and during resource development, identifying the extent of pollution is challenging but important for assessing risks to ecosystem health. Legacy pollution from Giant Mine in the Northwest Territories is a concern because while gold smelting operations ceased in the late 1990s, the fine, toxic dust arsenic trioxide dispersed into the atmosphere, potentially creating repositories in the surrounding landscape. Lake water surveys and the sampling of surficial sediment have identified a confined emissions footprint within a 30-km radius of the mine. However, these measurements may not capture the range of aerial deposition of emissions from the mine, particularly peak emissions released during the 1950s. Paleolimnological studies from far-field locations have shown evidence of arsenic enrichment coinciding with the timing of peak mine emissions during the 1950s, suggesting further research is needed to characterize stores of leg ...

Related Publication: Jasiak, I., Wiklund, J. A., Leclerc, E., Telford, J. V., Couture, R. M., Venkiteswaran, J. J., Hall, R. I., & Wolfe, B. B. (2021). Evaluating spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition from legacy gold mine emissions using lake sediment records. Applied Geochemistry, 105053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2021.105053

Jasiak, Izabela; Wolfe, Brent; Hall, Roland; Venkiteswaran, Jason, 2021, "Data for: Evaluating spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition from legacy gold mine emissions using lake sediment records", https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/TNYTQL

Data for: Evaluating spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition from legacy gold mine emissions using lake sediment records

Lake sediment Geochemistry Metals Legacy pollution Giant Mine Yellowknife Northwest Territories

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The purpose of the research is to understand how the governance system for nutrient management in the western Lake Erie basin enables, or hinders, consideration of external drivers. Four interrelated objectives will be pursued to accomplish this purpose: (i) Characterize the existing governance system for nutrient management in the western Lake Erie basin and the scales at which it is operating; (ii) Identify external drivers of eutrophication in the western Lake Erie basin, and evaluate the extent to which they are accounted for in the existing governance system; (iii) Examine the extent to which the governance system affects consideration of external drivers; and (iv) If the current governance system hinders consideration of external drivers, explore ways of modifying the governance system. The research is motivated by a need for advancement in both water governance practice and theory. Practically, the causes and drivers of many water issues are partly, or wholly, external to those ...

Lalita Bharadwaj Point of Contact, Principal Investigator lalita.bharadwaj@usask.ca University of Saskatchewan Lori Bradford Point of Contact, Project Manager lori.bradford@usask.ca University of Saskatchewan Myron Neapetung Collaborator Yellow Quill First Nation Justin Burns Collaborator James Smith Cree Nation Kurt Belcher Student Jaclyn Porter Student

Data supporting the project "Agent Based Modeling as a Tool to Investigate Comprehensive Indigenous Health Impacts of Flooding\

Decision-making in the face of uncertainty, while involving multiple stakeholders with different interests and objectives that evolve over time, is a challenging element in environmental management with significant economic implications. Stakeholders will often have decision-support tools to help them make informed and thoughtful choices in a complex environmental decision-making context that accounts for value trade-offs and uncertainty. Our decision-makers currently don’t usually have full information to make decisions about the lakes and the watersheds and this is evident by the recurrent algal bloom issue in Lake Erie. The aim of this project is to co-create decision-support tools with stakeholders to make informed decisions to address this algal bloom issue at Lake Erie while focusing on Agriculture, Combined Sewer Over Flows (CSO) and Bypasses from Wastewater Treatment Plants. Note, that this research is part of the “Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of ...

The Subsurface Hydrogeological Connectivity and Groundwater Protection project aims to understand connections between deep and shallow groundwater systems to allow for improved protection of groundwater resources. These data have also been used in the Prairie Water project, which seeks to understand groundwater resources as part of the overall availability of water in the Canadian Prairies.

The purpose of this research project is to develop a new sensor for detecting nutrients in water, such as nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, ammonium, and silicate and to realize the automated real-time nutrients monitoring in remote water areas, by integrating this to-be-developed sensor into a machine. The sensor would be a capillary microfluidic paper based device. Before the water sample is detected by using the sensor, the water would go through a functionalized nylon filter to remove oil contaminant, in case the oil interferes with the nutrient detection. Note, the initial development of the nylon filter was partially funded by an NSERC Engage Grant. The sensor for this project is developed under the projects titled "Sensor and Sensing Systems for Water Quality Monitoring" and "Transformative technologies for Canadian water futures: big data platform and smart watersheds". These two projects under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The main goal of the project is to develop a module for the Cold Region Hydrology Model (CRHM) platform to predict surface and tile outflow from an agricultural field different climate conditions. We will use the CRHM platform to predict different hydrologic components, such as infiltration and storage in the soil, and will add a tile drainage component (working with the Core team). We use our model to predict the outflows in a large number of precipitation and snow melt events, at a site that is typical of conditions within southwestern Ontario. We will compare our outflow results to the observed edge of field outflow rates to calibrate and verify our model. Note, that this data set is collected to support the project titled "Agricultural Water Futures in Canada: Stressors and Solutions". Agriculture Water Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The main aim of this research is to understand the within-lake dynamics, transport, and retention of nutrients, particularly total and soluble reactive phosphorous, in Lake St. Clair. Specifically, this study will investigate the effects of Lake St. Clair in modulating nutrient loads from its three major tributaries: Thames, Sydenham and Clinton rivers. Note, that this data set will support the project titled "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

This project will develop an integrated hydro-economic model to assess impacts produced by water changes (in quantity and quality) to the gross output of industries located inside the Great Lakes Basin (GLB). This work seeks to assign a dollar value to each cubic meter of water that is reduced or polluted, quantifying the direct effects to the disrupted industry/geography, as well as the spillovers to other regions. The three main goals are: 1) estimate inter-regional trade flows between lake sub-basins, 2) estimate sub-basin gross output, and 3) perform impact scenarios to assess the sensitivity of industries, or regions, to water disruptions. The construction of a quantitative description, linking water to gross output, is a necessary step to properly assess the cost of environmental policies to the GLB, especially because it is responsible for about 36% of the total Canadian output. This data set is collected to support objectives of the project titled "Integrated Modelling Program ...

The overall objective of the project is to develop and deploy “smart” sensor networks for measuring metal and chemical/biochemical contaminants in water. A microfluidic device, with an integrated microwave resonator, will be used as the sensing technology for this project. Microfluidic devices are portable instruments that have the ability to handle small volumes of fluid, while microwave resonators can differentiate these fluids according to their permittivity and conductivity. As a result, such a device can be deployed for field testing and can be controlled remotely. Furthermore, the label-free nature of this sensor minimizes the sample preparation and user-involvement required for operation. This project will consist of the following four steps for device development: 1) understanding the fundamentals of portable microwave resonators, 2) optimizing the design of the microwave resonator for maximum sensitivity and accuracy, 3) training and testing the microwave resonator with differ ...

https://doi.org/10.20383/101.0196 GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/71ce1c86-468a-4c89-a8dc-fa26915398ce Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-1

GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05adceb-3dc0-4076-b410-83d0103e04b0 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-7

This project aims to study the ecological effects of Selenium on the aquatic ecosystem by use of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding. Bacterial, algal, zooplankton and benthic macroinvertebrates communities were characterized by amplicon next-generation sequencing based eDNA metabarcoding. eDNA metabarcoding is being compared with morphology-based species identification for both zooplankton and macroinvertebrate. The data set also serves for the development of tools for risk assessment of eDNA approach. This data set is collected for the project titled Next Generation Solutions to Ensure Healthy Water Resources for Future Generations. This sub-project of eDNA project is collaborated with Se mesocosm study conducted at IISD-ELA. This is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/3014eb07-f908-42c5-8018-4db29fbb6570 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-6

This project aims to study the effects of diluted bitumen on the aquatic ecosystem by use of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding. Zooplankton and benthos were characterized by amplicon next-generation sequencing. eDNA metabarcoding is being compared with morphology-based species identification for both zooplankton and macroinvertebrate. The data set also serves for the development of tools for risk assessment of eDNA. This data set is collected for the project titled Next Generation Solutions to Ensure Healthy Water Resources for Future Generations. This sub-project of eDNA project is collaborated with BOREAL project conducted at IISD-ELA. This is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

This data set is collected to support the project titled “Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds: Work Package 4". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund. The main goal of this research is to identify ecosystem services that are negatively affected by water quality deterioration in the Great Lakes Basin on the Canadian side, and further quantify the monetary costs induced by the worsened water quality. We identify and categorize the direct costs into seven groups: costs on property value, recreation, tourism, water treatment, biodiversity, human health, and commercial fishing. The cost estimates inform us how much it will cost us if we do not invest in solutions to promote the recovery of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Considering that climate change and higher temperature can increase algal growth and nutrient runoff, eutrophication might become an even larger ...

Data are being produced for Theme B3 of the IMPC Project: Developing an integrated hydro-economic model to assess the direct and indirect economic impacts of water management and policy decisions.

sediments metals dioxins and furans Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons Current use pesticides Legacy pesticides Ecotoxicology Organic carbon Sediment texture

Northern cold regions are especially susceptible to climatic variations, and as a result of global climate change, it is important to understand the permafrost distribution using more efficient methods. Surficial alterations, both natural and anthropogenic, can be indicators of permafrost degradation. The objectives of this research are to execute the geophysical surveys using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) to detect changes in permafrost table depth and to assess the efficiency of the EMI method versus ERT method within the Sahtu Region in the Northwest Territories. This data set will also support the objectives of projects titled Transformative sensor Technologies and Smart Watersheds (TTWS) and the Northern Water Futures (NWF). These projects are Pillar 3 projects under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

This research aims to study the effects of climate change stressors (temperature & hypoxia) on the rates of shedding and degradation of environmental DNA of brook, brown, and rainbow trout (Salvelinus fontinalis, Salmo trutta, and Oncorhynchus mykiss). Additionally, microRNA will be collected from the water to determine if there is a link between fish stress levels and changes in microRNA present in the aquatic environment. This data set is collected for the Pillar 3 project titled "Next Generation Solutions to Ensure Healthy Water Resources for Future Generations", under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund. This researcher is co-supervised by Drs. Barbara Katzenback and Paul Craig.

Indigenous youth-focused, on-the-land (OTL) camps are being delivered with communities in the Dehcho region, which involve traditional activities led by various Elders and knowledge keepers, and hands-on science-based learning activities led by graduate students and scientists. This project will be conducted with Dehcho First Nations to help lead their OTL camps, while delivering a photovoice project with the youth participants and building an evaluation framework to assess camp programming. This project will explore: (R1) How do OTL camps in the NWT create a space for Indigenous youth to apply local Indigenous Knowledge and Western science to protect the Land? (R2) What are the concerns and priorities of local Indigenous youth regarding environmental and socio-cultural changes in the Dehcho? How can their concerns and priorities be addressed to build more resilient and sustainable LBE programming in the NWT more broadly? Using a Community-Based, Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) a ...

The purpose of this project was i) to explore how On-the-land camps in the NWT create a space for Indigenous youth to apply local Indigenous Knowledge and Western science to protect the Land, and ii) to determine what are the concerns and priorities of local Indigenous youth regarding environmental and socio-cultural changes in the Dehcho region, and how their concerns and priorities can be addressed to build more resilient and sustainable LBE programming in the NWT more broadly.

The main objective of the project is to evaluate the environmental effectiveness of Best Management Practices (BMP) in reducing total phosphorous loads into Lake Erie from the Grand River watershed in Ontario.

The primary goal of this project will be to compare and validate the capabilities of two existing ice models to simulate the evolution of ice cover on large lakes at large and small scales. The understanding of physical processes in the presence of ice within the lake is important to understanding the complicated lake ecosystem, especially during the spring. The evolution of ice cover on large lakes is very different from what is understood in small lakes in that (i) large lakes are typically only partially covered; and (ii) ice in large lakes is often fragmented and drifts around the lake under the action of wind. Models for ice growth in small lakes preclude the hydrodynamics beneath the ice, but in lakes where total ice cover is unlikely, these relatively simple models can no longer paint a full and useful picture of the processes within the lake. Simulations using two coupled ice models, both of which will eventually include snow, will be carried out using the same hydrodynamic cor ...

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GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/0a84dd85-f8d1-4c1b-8db6-ef49a24e3c96 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-5

Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-4 Sample Collection Fish were collected in gill nets set overnight in the North Saskatchewan River. Intestinal samples were collected from fish from each site. All samples were collected with sterile dissection tools from the bottom 1/3 of the intestines, with separate samples collected for gut contents and tissue. Samples were immediately placed on ice prior to being transferred to a -80C freezer for long-term storage. 16s amplicon sequencing Total genomic DNA was extracted from guts using the DNeasy PowerSoil Kit (Qiagen Inc., Mississauga, ON). Concentrations were measured using a Qubit 4 Fluorometer and dsDNA HS assay kit (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA). The V3-V4 variable region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified using the Bact-0341 forward primer (CCTACGGGNGGCWGCAG) (Klindworth et al., 2013) and the Bact-806 reverse primer (GGACTACNVGGGTWTCTAAT) (Apprill et al., 2015). Samples were dual indexed to increase through ...

Lakes and reservoirs are an important component in hydrological modeling across Canada. In routing processes, for example, lakes and reservoirs can retain parts of snow melt and precipitation in spring and summer, and supply water to rivers in winter and autumn. Moreover, lakes and reservoirs significantly impact simulated flow duration curves. Accounting for them explicitly in hydrologic models can improve peak flow simulations. The lake-river routing structure is a fundamental requirement to include lakes in a hydrologic model. The inclusion of lakes in the routing structure is usually a manual process. For regional or global studies, however, only large lakes are usually added into the lake-river routing structure. This is due to the large number of smaller lakes and the significant processing time required to (manually) include all lakes in the lake-river routing structure. Thus, a geospatial product that explicitly and automatically represents lake-river routing structures is req ...

The project assesses the impacts of climate change on sediment transport and nutrient cycling in the South Saskatchewan River from Lake Diefenbaker to Tobin Lake. The project is essentially water quality components of climate change production runs for the Saskatchewan River Basin. A number of models including MESH, SPARROW, MODSIM, CE-QUAL-W2 and WASP will be loosely coupled to produce daily water quality and sediment variables.

The Matawa Water Futures (MWF) project was developed through the Global Water Futures project to advance Indigenous-informed water science to support decision-making and water stewardship in the Matawa First Nation (MFN) homelands and traditional territories in Northern Ontario. The objective for the end of the MWF project is to hold a large water-themed gathering, inviting all MFN communities to attend to celebrate the value and sacredness of water, as well as share observations and scientific knowledge about the water, and share progress in water and environmental stewardship programs. A vital piece that has supported this project over the years has been the relationships built within our communities, as well as those relationships built with other nations and organizations. In keeping with this appreciation of fostering and maintaining relationships, we would like to extend an invitation to include Indigenous groups and organizations around Canada and beyond who are working in water ...

The project focus is to utilize a hydrological model to simulate the historical and future streamflow of Saskatchewan River Basin. This project supports the Current Generation Hydrological Modelling theme of the Core Modelling and Forecasting Team and Theme A of IMPC.

The current data bring together maps (flowcharts of relationships) created by participants at three workshop series, held in 2009, 2010, and 2013-2014. The maps depict relationships among concepts (+ or -) relationship strength of 1-5 with 5 being strong and 1 being weak) identified as important by workshop participants. Maps were then translated into sparse matrices by project HQP, where the value in Cij represents the strength of the relationship between concepts i and j, which is ith row and jth column of the matrix. The data from each workshop have been combined into an overall consensual fuzzy cognitive map using matrix algebra, depicting a broad understanding of eutrophication in Lake Erie as of 2014. Future workshops are being planned to update this dataset. The updated dataset will allow an assessment of how our understanding of the causes of eutrophication has evolved over time, as well as comparisons of the perceptions of various groups (stakeholders, researchers, etc.).

Links between land-based human activities and in-lake manifestations of eutrophication are identified. The project uses fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) to translate expert knowledge into quantitative data to link causes with effects based on - personal judgement, - compare perceptions of the cause-effect relationships among groups of researchers, managers, stakeholders, and the public, - identification of concepts for understanding eutrophication, and - running of scenarios to understand possible outcomes of management actions.

The data are associated with the article: "Seasonal controls on stream metal(loid) signatures in mountainous discontinuous permafrost" by Skierszkan,E.K.,Carey, S.K., Jackson, S.I., Fellwock, M., Fraser, C. & Lindsay, M.B.J. (2023). Seasonal controls on stream metal(loid) signatures in mountainous discontinuous permafrost, Science of The Total Environment, 908(167999). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167999. The data were used to investigate metal(loid) abundances and mobilization processes in water in a discontinuous permafrost region. The data consist of a compilation of analyses produced as part of baseline environmental monitoring at the proposed Coffee Gold Mine by its proponent, Newmont Corp, and supplemented with additional samples collected as part of a research project into geogenic metal(oid)s in permafrost regions led by Skierszkan et al.

Routine field sampling of Buffalo Pound Lake, Moose Jaw area. This data is collected as part of the Pillar 3 GWF project "FORMBLOOM: Forecasting Tools and Mitigation Options for Diverse Bloom-Affected Lakes".

Routine field sampling of Conestogo Lake and Woolwich Reservoir. This data is collected as part of the Pillar 3 GWF project "FORMBLOOM: Forecasting Tools and Mitigation Options for Diverse Bloom-Affected Lakes".

Routine field sampling of IISD-ELA Lake 227. This data is collected as part of the Pillar 3 GWF project "FORMBLOOM: Forecasting Tools and Mitigation Options for Diverse Bloom-Affected Lakes".

"Urban stream syndrome" describes the increased concentrations of nutrients and contaminants, modified channel morphology and stability, flashy hydrographs, and decreases in biodiversity in urban, lotic streams, because of increases in impermeable surfaces, intensive development, and poor storm water management. Although the hydrologic changes that result from urbanization have been extensively described, the effects of this hydrologic modification on other river processes is poorly understood. The purpose of this project is to understand the consequences of watershed urbanization on geomorphological and ecological processes of rivers through direct comparison of similar rivers with different watershed land-use scenarios. In particular, this project focuses on bedload sediment transport, water quality, and benthic macroinvertebrates. The aim is to use this research to help inform policies on restoration and conservation of urban rivers and aquatic ecosystems. Funding for this data col ...

The Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) has shown potential for the retrieval of properties pertaining to soil moisture and snow depth. The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo has designed and built a reflectometer for these properties. This instrument will be tested, comparing the collected data with coincident field measurements in southern Ontario. This data set is collected for the project titled "Transformative sensor Technologies and Smart Watershed (TTWS): Work Package 2". TTWS a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The first goal of this project was to utilize remote geophysical imagery to identify groundwater (GW) discharge zones in the Central Mackenzie Valley (CMV) of the Northwest Territories. The CMV is a proposed shale oil development region and, is therefore, vulnerable to environmental degradation and surface/groundwater contamination, associated with hydraulic fracturing. Determining locations of groundwater discharge at the surface provides information about potential pathways with which contamination could reach the surface. Additionally, characterizing groundwater discharge locations also contributes to a better overall understanding of the region’s hydrogeology. This work was able to successfully utilize remotely sensed optical and thermal data to identify recurring groundwater discharge zones and their relative sizes. The second goal of this work was to identify regions of continually degrading vegetation within the CMV. Degraded vegetation represents areas where permafrost may be ...

The high-resolution forecasts of the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) atmospheric model and outputs of the Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) have a short historical record. The EU WATCH ERA-Interim reanalysis (WFDEI) has a longer historical record, but has often been found to be biased relative to observations over Canada. The strengths of both datasets (GEM-CaPA and WFDEI) were blended to produce a less-biased long record product (WFDEI-GEM-CaPA) for hydrological modelling and climate change impacts assessment over the a domain covering most of North America. This product is then used to bias-correct climate projections from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis Canadian Regional Climate Model (CanRCM4) from 1951 to 2100 under Representative Concentration Pathway RCP8.5, and an analysis of the datasets shows the biases in the original WFDEI product have been removed and the climate change signals in CanRCM4 are preserved. The resulting bias-corrected data ...

Created WFDEI-GEM-CaPA, a less Canada-biased blend of: - forecasts of the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) atmospheric model, - outputs of the Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA), and - the EU WATCH ERA-Interim reanalysis (WFDEI). for (most of) North America. WFDEI-GEM-CaPA used for - hydrological modelling and climate change impacts assessment, and further, - to bias-correct climate projections from climate projections from the CanRCM4 model (1951 to 2100) under RCP8.5. The resulting high-resolution, bias-corrected meteorological forcing data called CanRCM4-WFDEI-GEM-CaPA: - removed biases from WFDEI, and - preserved the climate change signals in CanRCM4.

Digital Elevation Model data and climate data for this project were downloaded from publicly available online sources from Government of Canada Open Data Catalogue GEOGRATIS (http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/) and Environment Canada and Climate Change (http://climate.weather.gc.ca/) websites respectively; data will also be collected during fieldwork. Field techniques included collection of various tracers such as isotopes, geochemistry, and temperature. Data includes surface water and shallow groundwater quality and chemistry, 18O, 2H, 3H, 87Sr, and 13C isotopes, as well as sampling locations, measurements of active layer thickness, hydraulic conductivity and geology. Data is in spreadsheet and shapefiles/geospatial data formats.

Digital Elevation Model data and climate data for this project were downloaded from publicly available online sources from Government of Canada Open Data Catalogue GEOGRATIS (Link may be broken - http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca ) and Environment Canada and Climate Change (http://climate.weather.gc.ca/) websites respectively; data will also be collected during fieldwork. Field techniques included collection of various tracers such as isotopes, geochemistry, and temperature. Data includes surface water and shallow groundwater quality and chemistry, 18O, 2H, 3H, 87Sr, and 13C isotopes, as well as sampling locations, measurements of active layer thickness, hydraulic conductivity and geology. Data is in spreadsheet and shapefiles/geospatial data formats

Model-agnostic benchmarking – development of a multi-scale, multi-variate model evaluation scheme that can be used to diagnose the process fidelity of any Earth System Model, as part of a wider model-agnostic benchmarking system. Objectives are: 1) Generate hydrologic simulations for the North America domain 2) Collect and synthesize multi-scale and multi-variate evaluation data 3) Define diagnostic evaluation metrics based on hydrologic theory and available data 4) Use the defined diagnostic evaluation metrics to assess process fidelity of the North America simulations 5) Define development goals for the model used to generate North America simulations This project supports the geospatial intelligence theme of the GWF Core Modelling and Forecasting Team.

Hydrologic computer models are used to simulate the availability of water on the land surface. These simulations are important for many purposes, such as predicting how much water will be available for energy generation, agriculture, consumption, etc. These simulations are being performed for every stream and river basin in North America. The goal of this project is to improve the methods we use to see how accurate these simulations are.

This data supports the Global Water Futures project Mountain Water Futures and its goals to identify and characterize aquifers in alpine headwaters, develop simple algorithms representing groundwater storage-discharge relation, and incorporate them in river-basin hydrological models.

A common goal of both the FORecasting tools and Mitigation options for diverse BLOOM-affected lakes (FORMBLOOM) and Transformative sensor Technologies and Smart Watersheds (TTSW) projects is to improve the detection and understanding of harmful algae blooms (HABs) through the use of hyperspectral remote sensing techniques. Certain wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum have been shown to be sensitive to water quality parameters related to HABs such as Chlorophyll-a. The hyperspectral images in this dataset were collected in order to expand the research of water quality monitoring and detecting algae blooms. Several biogeochemical variables were also measured in the water body at/ near the time of acquisition. This data was collected from Lake Erie near Leamington (ON), Conestogo Lake (ON), and Buffalo Pound Lake (SK). FORMBLOOM and TTSW projects are Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

This project aims to examine the impact of freeze-thaw cycling on fertilizer leaching and nitrification inhibitor efficacy. Results suggest that nitrogen fertilizer is susceptible to nitrification following freeze-thaw cycling in agricultural soil and nitrification inhibitor effectiveness may be detrimentally affected by freeze-thaw cycling. Samples for both experiments were collected at the rare Charitable Reserve and project data was collected at the University of Waterloo Ecohydrology Research Group laboratories. Funding for this project was provided by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund under the Global Water Futures Program. For the dissolved organic carbon/total nitrogen and dissolved inorganic carbon data for both the soil column and sacrificial batch experiment, measurements were taken using a Shimadzu TOC-LCPH/CPN analyzer. For the ion chromatography data for both experiments, measurements were taken using a Dionex ICS-5000. pH and EC measurements were taken using LAQU ...

Increased winter temperatures caused by climate warming may expose soils to colder temperatures and more freeze-thaw events. Freeze-thaw cycles influence chemical, biological, and physical soil properties that control carbon and nutrient cycling and microbial activity. Changes to these processes may impact nutrient export from affected soils, possibly altering soil health and nearby water quality. Determining these impacts to geochemical cycling and microbial activity will provide insight into the efficacy of pre-winter fertilizer applications and improve our conceptual and quantitative understanding of shallow subsurface biogeochemical processes. Thus, the overall aim of this research project is to assess the mechanisms of soil biogeochemical processes under variable freeze-thaw cycles and soil moisture content conditions, and determine the effects on carbon and nutrient cycling under variable snow cover and winter conditions. This data set is created to support the project titled " ...

GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/b3f6ea7a-3ce2-4eb0-be67-932d03f4b432 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-4

Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-4 Sample Collection Fish were collected in gill nets set overnight in the North Saskatchewan River. Intestinal samples were collected from fish from each site. All samples were collected with sterile dissection tools from the bottom 1/3 of the intestines, with separate samples collected for gut contents and tissue. Samples were immediately placed on ice prior to being transferred to a -80C freezer for long-term storage. 16s amplicon sequencing Total genomic DNA was extracted from guts using the DNeasy PowerSoil Kit (Qiagen Inc., Mississauga, ON). Concentrations were measured using a Qubit 4 Fluorometer and dsDNA HS assay kit (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA). The V3-V4 variable region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified using the Bact-0341 forward primer (CCTACGGGNGGCWGCAG) (Klindworth et al., 2013) and the Bact-806 reverse primer (GGACTACNVGGGTWTCTAAT) (Apprill et al., 2015). Samples were dual indexed to increase throug ...

The goal of this project was to determine phosphorus (P) speciation and loads found within tile drains over the non-growing season (Oct-May), following fall application of dairy manure, under different land management treatments. These treatments included surface applied manure to a conservation tilled plot and a deep disc tilled plot, in addition to manure incorporation on a conservation tilled plot. This study used a field-based approach with soil samples, taken at the beginning and end of the experiment, as well as water samples collected on an event basis when flow was present within the tile drains. Soluble reactive P (SRP), total dissolved P (TDP), and total P (TP) were tested to determine P speciation and total loads. This dataset is collected to support the objectives of Agricultural Water Futures in Canada: Stressors and Solutions: Work Package 1". Agricultural Water Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excel ...

Changes in soil temperature, as a result of a warmer climate, will have profound effects on cold regions ecosystems. It is hypothesized that reduced snow cover can result in lower soil temperatures, more extensive soil freezing, and an increased frequency of soil freeze-thaw cycles. The objective of this research project is to investigate whether these hypotheses are supported by recent soil and meteorological observations, from monitoring stations across the United States, with seasonally freezing and thawing ground. This data set will be used to support the project titled "Winter Soil Processes in Transition", which is Pillar 1-2 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

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The main goal of this work is to quantify seasonal effluxes of soluble phosphorus from sediments in lakes and reservoirs by means of mechanistic biogeochemical modelling. Funding is acknowledged from: i) Lakes in Transition (Research Council of Norway project no. 244558/E50) held at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research-NIVA; ii) the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ecohydrology; iii) Lake Futures - Work Package 2 (Global Water Futures, a Canada First Research Excellence Fund Program); and iv) Sentinel North Research Chair in Aquatic Geochemistry (Sentinel North, a Canada First Research Excellence Fund Program).

Data collected for this project include a series of surface and subsurface variables characterizing the thermal and mass balance of observation points and the study basin as a whole. This includes both continuous (30 minute intervals) and discrete data sets collected between 2017-07-10 and 2019-09-10. Each data set was stratified across a series of land cover classes designated within the study basin: open water, mineral-cored uplands, riparian, ice-rich permafrost, and thermokarst features. Surface variables measured continuously include stream discharge, albedo, air temperature, relative humidity, net radiation, and rain. Surface variables measured discretely include snow depth, snow density, vegetation height, and vegetation density. Subsurface variables measured continuously include soil temperature, volumetric moisture content, and water table depth. Subsurface variables measured discretely include evapotranspiration rates, groundwater pressure head, and near surface soil thermal ...

This 30-meter spatial resolution dataset from the North American Land Change Monitoring System reflects land cover information for 2010 from Mexico and Canada and 2011 for the United States. The North American Land Cover information was downloaded from http://www.cec.org/tools-and-resources/map-files/land-cover-2010-landsat-30m. The region of interest (Great Lakes) was cropped and data converted into formats ASCII and NetCDF. Data are then made available to the project collaborators on a private GitHub. Researchers interested in data can email Juliane Mai (University of Waterloo; juliane.mai@uwaterloo.ca)

Data has been made available to project collaborators on a private GitHub repository. To obtain data, go and see, or email Juliane Mai.

The Land use & cover from the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Framework (GLAHF) were downloaded from GLAHF website (https://www.glahf.org/data/). Data was converted into the NetCDF format. Data are then made available to the project collaborators on a private GitHub. Researchers interested in finding more about the data can email Juliane Mai (University of Waterloo; juliane.mai@uwaterloo.ca)

Data has been made available to project collaborators on a private GitHub repository. To obtain data, go and see, or email Juliane Mai.

The MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V006 (MCD12Q1_006), 500 m were downloaded from NASA USGS website (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/news/release-modis-version-6-land-cover-dynamics-data-product/). This global product has a 500 m resolution. In the GRIP-E project only the data images of 2016 have been used for the initial land cover parametrization. The region of interest (Great Lakes) is cropped and data converted into formats ASCII and NetCDF. Data are then made available to the project collaborators on a private GitHub. Researchers interested in data can email Juliane Mai (University of Waterloo; juliane.mai@uwaterloo.ca)

Data has been made available to project collaborators on a private GitHub repository. To obtain data, go and see, or email Juliane Mai.

The Great Lakes Runoff Inter-comparison Project (GRIP) includes a wide range of lumped and distributed models that are used operationally and/or for research purposes across Canada and the United States. Participating models are Global Environmental Multi-scale (GEM- Hydro), Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-Hydro), MEC-Surface & Hydrology (MESH), Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC), WATFLOOD, HYdrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE), Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Large Basin Runoff Model (LBRM) The project aims to run all these models over several regions in Canada with Great Lakes, focusing on Lake Erie and Lake St.Clair as the initial domain (GRIP-E). This project will also focus on identifying a standard, consistent dataset for model building that all participants in the inter-comparison project can access and then process to generate their model-specific required inputs. This data set is collected for the project titled "Integrated Modelling Program fo ...

Intercomparison studies play an important, but limited role in understanding the usefulness and limitations of currently available hydrological models. Comparison studies are often limited to well-behaved hydrological regimes, where rainfall-runoff processes dominate the hydrological response. These efforts have not covered western Canada due to the difficulty in simulating that region’s complex cold region hydrology with varying spatiotemporal contributing areas. This intercomparison study is the first of a series of studies under the intercomparison project of the international and interprovincial transboundary Nelson-Churchill River Basin (NCRB) in North America (Nelson-MIP), which encompasses different ecozones with major areas of the non-contributing Prairie potholes, forests, glaciers, mountains, and permafrost. The performance of eight hydrological and land surface models is compared at different unregulated watersheds within the NCRB. This is done to assess the models’ streamfl ...

Learning from hydrological models’ challenges: A case study from the Nelson basin model intercomparison project

The purpose of this research is to offer detailed and systematic analyses of the role of changing demographics and societal values on water governance processes in the Ontario portion of the Great Lakes basin as well as offer potential governance innovations in addressing those challenges. This dataset will support the project titled "Linking Water Governance to Economic, Social and Political Drivers" which is a Pillar 1-2 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the quality of final effluent being discharged into the Grand River watershed, from the Kitchener and Waterloo wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), pre and post upgrades. The final effluent has been analyzed for nutrient levels, pharmaceuticals, total estrogenicity, and specific hormones, since 2010. A better understanding of effluent quality will help predict relationships between contaminant exposure and biological responses. This data set is collected to support the project titled “Linking multiple stressors to adverse ecological response". This is a Pillar 1-2 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

This study aims to link changes in metabolism and gill physiology of the common darter fish (Etheostoma spp) to whole effluent toxicity in the Grand River, to better understand physiological compensation occurring in contaminated environments. This study will contribute to the necessary biomonitoring of fish populations, and overall Grand River health, through measuring changes to ecologically relevant physiological endpoints of multiple species. This data set is collected to support the project titled “Linking multiple stressors to adverse ecological response". This is a Pillar 1-2 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The main objective of this project was to instrument the Alder Creek watershed with sensors and telemetry in order to collect near real-time hydrological data for monitoring the impacts of urbanization and land use change within a critical area for municipal water supply. The goal of the Southern Ontario Water Consortium (SOWC) was to set up a platform for research, development, testing, and demonstration of new sensors, data processing technology, and services. Alder Creek was instrumented as one of several field observatories, and it represented the middle member of three subwatersheds along a continuum from rural/agricultural (Hopewell Creek) to fully urbanized (Mimico Creek, Toronto). Foci within the project included hydrological data collection and data management. Field data such as meteorological, stream, and groundwater observations were recorded. Near real-time transmission of these data, via cellular network telemetry to an Online data platform (IBM's Intelligent Operations f ...

This dataset supports the Global Water Futures project Prairie Water and its goals to understand groundwater recharge processes in the Canadian prairies, develop practical models for recharge estimation, and evaluate the spatial distribution of recharge in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

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Nvivo projects and database

The governance theme of the GWF project "Prairie Water" assesses the current state of prairie governance and its representativeness of public and stakeholder water needs. It also assesses components of water sharing relationships and those components that influence cooperation among communities to co-produce solutions to water issues. This work is done through three major projects: (A) Flood Risk Planning in Mistawasis Nêhiyawak, (B) Source Water Planning and Sharing Water Stories in the North Saskatchewan River Basin, and (C) Exploring Decision-Making in Water Management using Experimental Decision Laboratories.

Model name: HYPE Model version number: 5.13.3 (latest version at the start of model setup) Model source/webpage: https://hypeweb.smhi.se/model-water/documentation-download-open-source-code/ Model output pre-processing script: Internal script available at UC-HAL; Package HYPEtools available for R software Model output post-processing script: Not yet available Model setup: - Lake-river routing derived from Han et al. 2020 (https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3667677) - NALCMS 2015 land use downloaded from https://www.mrlc.gov/data/north-american-land-change-monitoring-system - GSDE soil data downloaded from http://globalchange.bnu.edu.cn/research/soilwd.jsp - WFDEI-GEM-CaPA meteorological forcing taken from https://www.frdr-dfdr.ca/repo/handle/doi:10.20383/101.0111 - Measured daily streamflow discharge taken from Water Survey Canada and USGS website. Time step: Daily from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016 Initial condition: Boundary condition: Additional information: - Model spin-up fro ...

Model Outputs from the Multi-model Intercomparison Project on the Saskatchewan-Nelson-Churchill River Basin

The Nelson-MiP project aims to evaluate internal model processes and generate an ensemble of GWF land surface and hydrologic model simulations in the Saskatchewan-Nelson-Churchill river basin (NCRB). Twelve models are currently participating in this modelling effort for various sub-watersheds (e.g. whole NCRB, Saskatchewan river, Red river, Upper Assiniboine, Lower Nelson) within the project domain. Expect project outcomes are simulated data such as daily discharge for selected locations, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, snow water equivalent etc. These data will be used to understand the drivers of the differences among models from an internal process perspective. We will also drive the developed models with transient CMIP6 future climate change scenarios to assess the reliability of the participating models for the prediction of key hydrologic processes and streamflow under changing climate conditions. The results of this project will serve to demonstrate the differences in model c ...

The Nelson-MiP project on the Saskatchewan-Nelson-Churchill river basin (NCRB) includes many process-based hydrologic and land surface models for operational and/or research purposes. Participating models include HYPE, WATFLOOD, SWAT, HBV, VIC, and MESH, as well as the modelling frameworks RAVEN and SUMMA. This three-year modelling experiment (2020-2022) has gathered hydrologic researchers and practitioners from many institutions across Canada. As part of the Global Water Futures (GWF) program, this project aims to evaluate internal model processes and generate an ensemble of GWF land surface and hydrologic models for NCRB. Beyond the understanding of the drivers of the differences among models from an internal process perspective, this project’s main contribution is to assess the reliability of the participating models for the prediction of key hydrologic processes and streamflow under climate change conditions. First year of this effort focuses on adapting the process-based models to ...

This project supports the hydrological forecasting theme of the GWF Core Modelling and Forecasting Team. As part of the Global Water Futures project, the computational hydrology group builds tools to simulate and predict hydrologic processes. This work focuses on the last point and aims to: -Set up a North America-wide sub-seasonal to seasonal ensemble streamflow forecasting system -Assess the predictability of streamflow on seasonal timescales across North America

Model name: HYPE Model version number: 5.5.1 Model source/webpage: https://sourceforge.net/projects/hype/files/release_hype_5_5_1/ Model output pre-processing script: R script used to run Bayesian inference Model output post-processing script: R script used to run uncertainty analysis and for plotting parameter posterior distributions and uncertainty plots Model setup: Time step: 1 day Initial condition: calibrated Boundary condition: none

Model name: HYPE Model version number: Not published. The source code was modified at the University of Manitoba Model source/webpage: https://sourceforge.net/projects/hype/files/release_hype_5_5_1/ Model output pre-processing script: R script used to run Bayesian inference Model output post-processing script: R script used to run uncertainty analysis and for plotting parameter posterior distributions and uncertainty plots Model setup: Time step: 1 day Initial condition: calibrated Boundary condition: none

Nuisance and harmful algal blooms represent a growing major threat to water security across Canada and the world, because of their undesirable ecological, economic, and health impacts. This project aims to strengthen the predictive understanding and forecasting of the timing, spatial extent, and intensity of algal blooms of large lakes in cold regions. Lake Erie will be the focus of this project; with the internal phosphorus loading and climate change as key considerations for sustaining algal blooms. Note, that this research is part of the CERC Ecohydrology Program funded by Canada Excellence Research Chair and the “Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds: Work Package 2". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures (GWF) Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF).

Nuisance and harmful algal blooms represent a major, and growing, threat to water security across Canada and the world, because of their undesirable ecological, economic, and health impacts. This project aims to strengthen the predictive understanding and forecasting of the timing, spatial extent and intensity of algal blooms in large lakes of the cold temperate to subarctic climate zone. We will (1) perform statistical analyses of the environmental factors that control the occurrence of algal blooms in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario using remote sensing data, and (2) test the performance of data-driven probabilistic models for seasonal and inter-annual forecasting of algal blooms. Note, that this research is part of the “Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds: Work Package 2". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The purpose of this project was to characterize the variation and vertical structure in ground ice content of the near-surface permafrost in the two dominant permafrost-affected forest types in the Great Slave Lowlands, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

The overarching objective of MOECC Thames River Phosphorus Dynamics Study is to improve the conceptual as well as quantitative understanding of how nutrient loadings from the landscape translate to nutrient loadings to receiving water bodies after retention, remobilization and transformation processes in the Thames River channel and its tributaries, as well as to provide an improved understanding of the potential in-stream interventions which could decrease sediment and nutrient loading in the basin. Fanshawe Reservoir was selected for study due to its potential role as a modifier of phosphorus speciation and load, integrating loading from a large area of the Upper Thames watershed before its eventual discharge to Lake St Clair and the western basin of Lake Erie. The data collected will be used to calibrate and validate a model in CE-QUAL-W2 as well as produce a multi-seasonal P mass balance for the reservoir at a monthly resolution. This data collected will also be used to support the ...

The purpose of this research project is to quantify nitrogen and phosphorus flows through a mixed urban and rural area. There is particular interest to find the ways in which increasing population densities in the Greater Toronto Area are impacting nutrient flows across Southern Ontario’s urban/rural continuum and how changing nutrient dynamics may lead to increasingly impaired water quality in Lake Ontario and beyond. This work looks to establish the “metabolism” of the Greater Toronto Area in 2011 through the analysis of the various inputs and outputs of the system that includes factors such as food consumption, fertilizer usage, crop production, and wastewater treatment plants outputs. This data set is collected for the project titled "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The goal of this research is to focus on the long-term effect of nutrient contamination in Lake Erie, and its surrounding waters (watersheds?). Particular emphasis will be placed on the Maumee watershed in Ohio, as it is the biggest contributing watershed to Lake Erie (approximately 60%). The parsimonious model will be used to determine long-term total phosphorus loading trajectories in the Maumee Watershed. This data set is collected for the project titled “Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds - Work Package 1". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures (GWF) Program funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF).

The main goal of this research is to model the farmers’ optimal agricultural fertilization behaviour under two uncertainties: 1) crop price uncertainty and 2) weather uncertainty. The weather uncertainty takes into consideration two factors: precipitation and temperature. Understanding the factors that influence farmers’ decisions on fertilizer application could help to update the recommended fertilizer application rate and support the design of best management practices in fertilizer application. This understanding of farmers' behaviour under uncertainty, can then inform nutrient control strategies, aimed at reducing nutrient inputs to the Great Lakes. This data set is collected to support the project titled “Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds: Work Package 4". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The aim of this project is to build on existing research, which resulted in the development of a low-cost, lab-based fibre optic oxygen sensor for monitoring oxygen in soils and sediments. The field system was built in collaboration with an industrial partner, Hoskin Scientific, who developed the optical detection and electrical control units for the sensor system. In the GWF program, the unit will be tested under field conditions, through deployment at the University of Guelph’s Elora Research Station, in Southern Ontario, in collaboration with the University of Guelph researchers. The optode data being collected will be used for evaluating the sensor performance under field conditions and for an improved understanding of soil oxygen dynamics given the seasonal variations in an agricultural field site. Note that the initial sensor development was funded by the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) program (CERC Ecohydrology), while the field sensor development was in partnership ...

This data was collected to support the GWF project "Mountain Water Futures".

The purpose of this project was to investigate the potential for and controls upon metal/metalloid mobility in peatland porewater in peatlands in the area around Yellowknife, NT.

Location pin for this project given as University of Montreal location, 45.5010087, -73.6157778

This research project aims to address the spatial and temporal evolution of anthropogenic phosphorus inputs into Ontario watersheds. Collected data includes number of livestock, area of crops grown, area fertilized, total cropland area, and population size in each county in Ontario. The outcome of the data processing was total kg of phosphorus per hectare added to the watersheds of Ontario, which was spatially represented in a map of Ontario. Note, that this data set is also collected to support the objectives of two projects. These are: 1) Legacies of Agricultural Pollutants (LEAP) funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and other international partners. 2) "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund

This data is collected as part of the Pillar 3 GWF project "FORMBLOOM: Forecasting Tools and Mitigation Options for Diverse Bloom-Affected Lakes".

The project objectives include testing and application of a non-invasive environmental DNA (eDNA) methodology to determine presence/absence of brook trout fish species in the Grand River sub-watershed. In addition, brook trout population abundance and biomass estimates based on eDNA signal intensity are compared to the relative estimates of abundance/biomass obtained from traditional surveying methods (e.g., electrofishing). This data set is collected for the Pillar 3 project titled “Next Generation Solutions to Ensure Healthy Water Resources for Future Generations”, under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Prairie Water is an interdisciplinary project that prioritizes research to address pressing water security challenges and knowledge gaps in order to enhance the resilience of prairie communities. The project’s objectives and research plans are informed by working with partners from governments, communities, non-profit organisations, and industry groups. The dataset contributes to work package 3.2, B(iii) under Phase II of Prairie Water, and contributes to the objective of identifying the geographical distribution of pesticide contamination in wetlands, key drivers of contamination and transport, and priority areas based on highest proposed risk of exposure.

Prairie Water is an interdisciplinary project that prioritizes research to address pressing water security challenges and knowledge gaps in order to enhance the resilience of prairie communities. The project?s objectives and research plans are informed by working with partners from governments, communities, non-profit organisations, and industry groups. The dataset contributes to work package 3.1, B(ii) under Phase II of Prairie Water, and contributes to the objective of understanding broad spatial patterns of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other chemical parameters across pothole wetlands in the Canadian Prairies.

The Weather Research and Forecasting model Version 3.6.1 ( the model source code is accessible from http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/downloads.html) was used to simulate the historical (2000-2015) and projected climate (RCP8.5) over western Canada with a convection-permitting resolution of 4 km. The WRF model is fully compressible and nonhydrostatic and uses the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) dynamical solvers. The model domain is composed of 699 x 639 grid points with 4-km horizontal resolution to cover western Canada. The atmospheric simulation consists of hourly pseudo global warming climate scenario (RCP8.5, end of 21st century, pgw-wrf-wca) from 2000-10-01 to 2015-09-30 at 4km spatial resolution. The model simulations employed several parameterization schemes, including Thompson microphysics scheme (Thompson et al., 2008), the Yonsei University (YSU) planetary boundary layer scheme, the Noah land surface model (Chen and Dudhia, 2001), and the CAM3 radiative transfer scheme (Co ...

GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/f6342595-4173-458f-b2cd-8016448ec6c1 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-8

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of treated wastewater effluent on reproductive endpoints in rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum). Municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent is a major concern for the health of aquatic ecosystems, as it contains many contaminants that have been shown to cause a wide variety of adverse outcomes. Historically, poor quality effluent from the Kitchener and Waterloo WWTPs has resulted in reproductive system impairments in rainbow darter living downstream in the Grand River, including reductions in sex steroid production and the development of intersex. After the Kitchener WWTP underwent major infrastructure upgrades, these effects were seen to improve to upstream reference site conditions. We are now interested if upgrades to the smaller Waterloo WWTP will also reverse endpoints in rainbow darter downstream of it. The results of this study help build models to describe the sources, treatment and fate of chemicals to bett ...

This project investigated nutrient silicon cycling in Hamilton Harbour, Lake Ontario. A field sampling program was undertaken to collect water, suspended sediment, and bottom sediment samples from Hamilton Harbour, which were then analysed for dissolved and particulate reactive silicon. Sediment cores were also used in sediment core incubation experiments to determine the flux of silicon from sediments to the water column. This data was collated into a reactive silicon mass balance model to determine silicon inputs, outputs and internal cycling processes within Hamilton Harbour. This project was funded the by Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ecohydrology but the data collected will also be used to support the project titled "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The Great Lakes Runoff Inter-comparison Project (GRIP) includes a wide range of lumped and distributed models that are used operationally and/or for research purposes across Canada and the United States. Participating models are Global Environmental Multi-scale (GEM- Hydro), Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-Hydro), MEC-Surface & Hydrology (MESH), Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC), WATFLOOD, HYdrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE), Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Large Basin Runoff Model (LBRM) The project aims to run all these models over several regions in Canada with Great Lakes, focusing on Lake Erie and Lake St.Clair as the initial domain (GRIP-E). This project will also focus on identifying a standard, consistent dataset for model building that all participants in the inter-comparison project can access and then process to generate their model-specific required inputs. This data set is collected for the project titled "Integrated Modelling Program f ...

This project supports the hydrological forecasting theme of the GWF Core Modelling and Forecasting Team. As part of the Global Water Futures project, the computational hydrology group builds tools to simulate and predict hydrologic processes. This work focuses on the last point and aims to: -Set up a North America-wide sub-seasonal to seasonal ensemble streamflow forecasting system -Assess the predictability of streamflow on seasonal timescales across North America

The purpose of this project was to establish relationship between dissolved organic matter and disinfection by-product formation from waters near Yellowknife and Wekweeti, Northwest Territories

The primary focus of this research is to determine the effectiveness of investments made into the watershed, based on the achieved phosphorus loads reductions. Daily discharges were retrieved from the Hydrometric Data (HYDAT) database, provided by the Water Survey of Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada (WSC-ECCC). The Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MOECP) provided the Provincial Water Quality Monitoring Network (PWQMN) data. Census data for population and livestock were obtained from Statistics Canada in periods of 10 years. A systematic review of the environmental programs’ archive was conducted — the origins of the archive website dates back to 1995. This archive is created and maintained by Bruce Bowman, creator of the Canada-Ontario Agriculture Green Plan website (http://agrienvarchive.ca/gp/gphompag.html). This archive includes fifteen major environmental programs related to the reduction of pollution in the Great Lakes Basin in the period 1 ...

The purpose of this research is to better understand which beneficial management and water management practices are feasible and make good business sense for decision makers. This study has two main questions: (1) What soil and water management practices can grain farmers use to improve productivity by optimising the use of available moisture? (2) How feasible (financially, technically, etc.) are these practices in today’s farming environment? This dataset will facilitate improved understanding of the relationship of investment made into Thames River watershed phosphorus reduction and water quality of the river. Specifically, this data set will provide information on the number of investments made since the 1970s and dynamics of change in phosphorus loads. This data set is collected to support the project titled "Agricultural Water Futures in Canada: Stressors and Solutions – Work package 3". Agriculture Water Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded ...

GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/30d98be2-0dcd-4888-9487-aaad8fe17428 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-3

Forests strongly modify the accumulation, metamorphism and melting of snow in mid and high-latitude regions. Recently, snow routines in hydrological and land surface models have been improved to incorporate more accurate representations of forest snow processes but model inter-comparison projects have pointed deficiencies, partly due incomplete knowledge of the processes controlling snow cover in forests. The Snow Under Forest project was initiated to enhance knowledge of the complex interactions between snow and vegetation. Two field campaigns, during the winters 2016-17 and 2017-18, have been conducted in a conifer forest bordering the site study of Col de Porte (1325 m asl, French Alps) in order to document the snow accumulation and ablation processes. This paper presents the field site, instrumentation, and collection methods. The observations include: forest characteristics (tree inventory, LIDAR measurements of forest structure, sub-canopy hemispherical photographs…), meteorology ...

The purpose is to develop a reservoir module that will work with any hydrological models and land surface schemes. As part of this work, reservoir data from dozens of reservoirs across the Arctic drainage basin was collected. This project supports the Water Resources Management theme of the Core Modelling and Forecasting Team.

The main objective of this research project is to examine the significance of shallow/deep groundwater flow including the unsaturated zone on surface water flow predictions within the Alder Creek Watershed located in the Grand River Basin using high resolution numerical model simulations. This project is supported by the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

A high resolution, enhanced version of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s MESH (Modélisation Environnementale Communautaire - Surface Hydrology) land surface hydrological model was set up at a spatial resolution of approximately 4 km by 4 km to correspond to the resolution of dynamically downscaled Weather Research Forecast (WRF) atmospheric model outputs for current and future climates in the region. This convection-permitting WRF product used ERA-Interim reanalysis product boundary conditions over 2000 - 2015 to produce realistic, high resolution weather simulations. The pseudo global warming (PGW) approach to dynamical downscaling of future warming projection under RCP8.5 (2086 - 2100), used WRF bounded by ERA-Interim outputs that were perturbed by the mean outcomes of an ensemble of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) climate model projections. Available land surface data consist of digital elevation models (DEMs), i.e. the hydrologically conditioned HydroSh ...

An ABM was developed to simulate the farmer decision-making process and estimate adoption rates of different BMPs in response to different socio-economic and environmental situations. Six BMPs, including the reduced tillage, the no-till system, grassed waterways, riparian buffer strips, Water and Sediment Control Basin, and windbreaks were focused. Annual Crop Inventory data from 2011 to 2015 were obtained from the Agriculture and Agri Food Canada (AAFC), and were used as land-cover data in this study. It is a set of raster data that shows the distribution of different crop types in Canada at a spatial resolution of 30m. The soil type data was obtained from the Soil Survey Complex dataset, provided by the Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs. The digital elevation model (DEM) data was obtained from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Southwestern Ontario Orthophotography Project (SWOOP) 2015 Digital Elevation Model. It is a set of raster graphics with a spatial resolution of ...

The main goal of this project is to investigate how agriculture and food production systems may change in the future, in response to risks and uncertainties, brought on by different climate stressors and socio-economic drivers. An Agent-based Model (ABM) framework was developed to serve as a proof of concept study conducted to assess the impacts of different socio-economic and environmental factors on farmers decision-making process of the adoption of Best Management Practices (BMP). The developed ABM will also help to model the dynamics of the coupled human-environmental system in affecting phosphorus transportation in agricultural watersheds using an ABM approach, coupled with a hydrological model. This data set is collected for the project titled “Agricultural Water Futures in Canada: Stressors and Solutions is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The Great Lakes Runoff Inter-comparison Project (GRIP) includes a wide range of lumped and distributed models that are used operationally and/or for research purposes across Canada and the United States. Participating models are Global Environmental Multi-scale (GEM- Hydro), Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-Hydro), MEC-Surface & Hydrology (MESH), Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC), WATFLOOD, HYdrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE), Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Large Basin Runoff Model (LBRM). The project aims to run all these models over several regions in Canada with Great Lakes, focusing on Lake Erie and Lake St.Clair, as the initial domain (GRIP-E). This project will also focus on identifying a standard, consistent dataset for model building that all participants in the inter-comparison project can access and then process to generate their model-specific required inputs. This data set is collected for the project titled "Integrated Modelling Program ...

The aim of this research project is to develop an in-situ method to measure hydrological processes in frozen soils through the characterization of coaxial impedance dielectric reflectometry probe response to soil freeze-thaw events. This data set is collected for the project titled Transformative sensor Technologies and Smart Watershed (TTWS), which is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The Soil Landscapes of Canada were downloaded from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada website (http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/slc/v3.2/index.html). Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada developed the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) version 3.2 to provide information about the country's agricultural soils. For this project data was cropped to Great Lakes and then converted into the NetCDF format. Data are then made available to the project collaborators on a private GitHub. Researchers interested in finding more about the data can email Juliane Mai (University of Waterloo; juliane.mai@uwaterloo.ca)

The objective of this research is to develop a water futures risk assessment framework (WFRA) for boreal users and stakeholders to create a more resilient wildland-society-water nexus in Canada's boreal landscape. Specifically, the sub-project focused on the knowledge gaps surrounding wetland wildfire interactions, since wetlands and wildfire are ubiquitous across the boreal. Fire behaviour in peat deposits and wetlands were assessed through research involving natural fire.

This dataset supports the Global Water Futures project Hydrological Processes in Frozen Soils, which aims to improve understanding of soil freeze-thaw processes and methods of interpreting soil moisture data from instrumentation in frozen soils.

We developed a spatially explicit wetland conservation cost model to estimate the private economic benefit of wetland drainage in an agricultural landscape in Alberta, Canada. The net private benefit of drainage or wetland conservation cost for this study is defined as the present value of net-returns from producing annual crops on the drained wetland basin (with a canola-spring wheat rotation), less the cost of wetland drainage, over 20 years. The expected spatial heterogeneity in wetland conservation cost is driven mainly by the heterogeneity in crop yield and wetland drainage cost in the study area. A relative soil productivity weight was used to account for the heterogeneity in crop yields across the landscape in the study area. The relative soil productivity weight was derived from the land assessment values and the variability in canola yields in Alberta. A surface drainage cost function was developed to estimate the surface drainage cost per acre for the ith wetland, and it is t ...

Related Publication: Jasiak, I., Wiklund, J. A., Leclerc, E., Telford, J. V., Couture, R. M., Venkiteswaran, J. J., Hall, R. I., & Wolfe, B. B. (2021). Evaluating spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition from legacy gold mine emissions using lake sediment records. Applied Geochemistry, 105053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2021.105053

Jasiak, Izabela; Wolfe, Brent; Hall, Roland; Venkiteswaran, Jason, 2021, "Data for: Evaluating spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition from legacy gold mine emissions using lake sediment records", https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/TNYTQL

This data set was developed in order to estimate the total phosphorus budget for the St. Clair – Detroit River system for 1998 through 2016, to support the implementation of the 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) on reducing Lake Erie’s phosphorus inputs. This study also identified, for the first time, that loads from resuspended Lake Huron sediment were likely not always detected in US and Canadian monitoring programs, due to mismatches in sampling and resuspension event frequencies, substantially underestimating the load. This additional load increased over time due to climate-induced decreases in Lake Huron ice cover and increases in winter storm frequencies. Given this more complete load inventory, we estimated that to reach a 40% reduction in the Detroit River TP load to Lake Erie, accounting for the missed load, point and non-point sources other than that coming from Lake Huron, and the atmosphere would have to be reduced by at least 50%. Note, this data set was cr ...

Climate change risk assessment of water resources systems under deeply uncertain futures demands a comprehensive set of future scenarios to test the current and proposed management/policy schemes in the basin. This dataset provides a set of future climate scenarios over the Canadian Rocky Mountains where 80% of water in the Saskatchewan River Basin initiates. The dataset uses a multi-site stochastic weather generator to produce scenarios demonstrating plausible climatic changes over the 2080-2100 period. The final format of the dataset will be comma separated value (.csv) files. The following lists some of the datasets used in producing weather scenarios: • The weather generator model is set up based on the daily observed data of the Canadian ANSUPLIN dataset (obtained by Jefferson Wong) from the beginning of 1980 to the end of 2013. • The CORDEX-NA project datasets - which are Regional Climate Models (RCMs) projections over North America - are used to understand the changes in the fu ...

The Great Lakes Runoff Inter-comparison Project (GRIP) includes a wide range of lumped and distributed models that are used operationally and/or for research purposes across Canada and the United States. Participating models are Global Environmental Multi-scale (GEM- Hydro), Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-Hydro), MEC-Surface & Hydrology (MESH), Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC), WATFLOOD, HYdrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE), Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Large Basin Runoff Model (LBRM). The project aims to run all these models over several regions in Canada with Great Lakes, focusing on Lake Erie and Lake St.Clair as the initial domain (GRIP-E). This project will also focus on identifying a standard, consistent dataset for model building that all participants in the inter-comparison project can access and then process to generate their model-specific required inputs. This data set is collected for the project titled "Integrated Modelling Program f ...

The main goal of this project is to accurately estimate streamflow from creeks and tributaries to the main stem of Grand River. The estimated streamflow will be used to estimate non-point nitrogen loads to the main stem of the river and in order to improve the estimation of nitrogen loads from Grand River to Lake Erie. This project supports the Water Quality Modelling theme of the Core Modelling and Forecasting Team.

This dataset was developed in order to improve the understanding of long-term nutrient retention within reservoirs and to quantify the potential contributions of reservoir nutrient legacies to current and future water quality in watersheds around the Great Lakes. Specifically, this dataset will provide information on the accumulation of nutrients within the reservoirs at Lake Belwood and Conestogo Lake located within the Grand River Watershed. Note, that this data set is collected for the project titled "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The suspended sediment and turbidity data will be used to support model development. This data was collected for the Global Water Futures project We need more than just water: Assessing sediment limitation in a large freshwater delta.

The purpose of this project was to explore the impact of Alnus alnobetula shrub growth on ecosystem function and to assess the spatial variability of that impact at the taiga-tundra ecotone.

GeoNetwork record: www.gwfnet.net/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/c6178a0f-16fd-4013-98ae-9b04a7c9b405 Tracking ID under eDNA project: UofS-eDNA-dataset-metadata-9

CFI-MSI Project No. 42687 Major Science Initiative Global Water Futures Observatories

The main aim of this research is to understand the within-lake dynamics, transport, and retention of nutrients, particularly total and soluble reactive phosphorous, in Lake St. Clair. This data set will support the project titled "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The purpose of this research is to better develop end points, related to the protection of the valued ecosystem components, in the southern Grand River watershed. We are examining the life cycle parameters of walleye, to better develop and interpret biomonitoring endpoints. This data set is collected for the project titled “Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds: Work Package 3". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund. This researcher is co-supervised by Drs. Mark Servos and Rebecca Rooney.

In this project, we are aiming to understand how landscape, lake, and fish ecology explain variation in fish mercury (Hg levels). Our results will identify critical variables for future cumulative impact monitoring, and enable more informed predictions of how fish Hg levels in the Dehcho region will respond to continued environmental change. Decision-makers will use our results to develop long-term monitoring strategies, identify lakes that are most vulnerable to future increases in fish Hg levels, refine consumption advisories, and identify lakes with the safest and healthiest sources of food fish. This data set is collected to support the project titled “Northern Water Futures, Objective 2". Northern Water Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund

Small lake systems are a critical part of regional hydrology and ecology throughout Canada, and are easily influenced by various physical processes. As the effects of climate change continue to threaten inland water ecosystems, small lakes provide an invaluable opportunity for environmental monitoring. This dataset includes high resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery, as well as some biogeochemical water property data for Sunfish Lake, a small lake in Waterloo (ON). This data set will also support the project titled "Transformative sensor Technologies and Smart Watersheds (TTWS): Work Package 2". TTWS is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have had recent widespread application to capture high resolution information on snow processes and the data herein was collected to address the sub-canopy snow depth challenge. Previous demonstrations of snow depth mapping with UAV Structure from Motion (SfM) and airborne-lidar have focused on non-vegetated surfaces or reported large errors in the presence of vegetation. In contrast, UAV-lidar systems have high-density point clouds, measure returns from a wide range of scan angles, and so have a greater likelihood of successfully sensing the sub-canopy snow depth. The effectiveness of UAV-lidar and UAV-SfM in mapping snow depth in both open and forested terrain was tested with data collected in a 2019 field campaign in the Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory, Alberta and at Canadian Prairie sites near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The data archived here comprises the raw point clouds from the UAV-SfM and UAV-lidar platforms, generated digital s ...

The project aims at developing computationally efficient methods and strategies for large-scale parameter estimation. These methods are to be process-based, computationally efficient and lead to robust realistic and spatially transferable parameters. This project focus on the version of Variable Infiltration Capacity model developed at PCIC (VICGL). This model is forced by the daily gridded PNWNAmet data. This project supports the Geospatial Intelligence theme of the Core Modelling and Forecasting Team.

The main goal of this project is to validated the Massachusetts Institute of Technology General Circulation Model (MITgcm) and the Canadian Lake Ice Model (CLIMo) so that the ice cover of Lake Erie at large and small scales can be simulated. Note, that this research is part of the project titled "Evaluation of ice models in Large Lakes using Three Dimensional Coupled Hydrodynamic-Ice Models", which is a Pillar 1-2 project under the Global Water Futures (GWF) Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF).

The main goal of this research project is to characterize the vegetation diversity in mountain peatlands, since vegetation is a great indicator of wetland health due to its sensitivity to variation in environmental conditions. This data set provides species richness and percent cover data of vascular plants and bryophytes identified, to species level surveyed from one meter quadrats. Redundancies were employed to reduce sampling bias in percent cover estimates, and reduce the likelihood of missed species identifications. It also characterizes shrub and tree canopies, and canopy characteristics along several transects located in the Elbow, Ghost, and Jumping Pound Watersheds in the Upper Bow Basin in Alberta Canada. This data set is collected for the project titled “Future Water for the Mountain West", which is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Chris Spence Point of Contact, Principal Investigator chris.spence@canada.ca Environment and Climate Change Canada Jared Wolfe Point of Contact, Project Manager jared.wolfe@usask.ca University of Saskatchewan John Pomeroy Collaborator University of Saskatchewan Colin Whitfield Collaborator University of Saskatchewan Kevin Shook Collaborator University of Saskatchewan Balew Mekonnen Originator Associated Engineering Zhihua He Researcher University of Saskatchewan Emily Cavaliere Researcher University of Saskatchewan Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle Researcher Wildlife Conservation Society Helen Baulch Collaborator University of Saskatchewan Robert Clark Collaborator Canadian Wildlife Service

Prairie Water is an interdisciplinary project that prioritizes research to address pressing water security challenges and knowledge gaps in order to enhance the resilience of prairie communities. The project’s objectives and research plans are informed by working with partners from governments, communities, non-profit organisations, and industry groups. The dataset contributes to work packages 1.2, or A(i), under Phase II of Prairie Water, “analyzing future climate and land use change using Virtual Watershed modelling”. The dataset aims to assess hydrological sensitivity of Canadian Prairie catchments to climate with seven temperature scenarios and five precipitation scenarios, and contribute to our understanding of the hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological response of prairie watersheds to climate and land management changes.

This dataset was collected by City of Richmond Hill from 1996 to 2020 for Lake Wilcox. Water chemistry parameters for Lake Wilcox in both epilimnion and hypolimnion zones, which include concentrations of major ions (sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride, sulfate, and dissolved inorganic carbon), nutrients (N and P species), heavy metals (manganese and iron), as well as alkalinity. Additionally, datasets include profiles of pH, temperature, electroconductivity and dissolved oxygen from 0 to 17 m of the depth of Lake Wilcox. Dataset will be used to support projects under the Global Water Futures Program.

Properties of different water resources components such as reservoirs, hydropower, irrigation and non-irrigation demand, environmental flow requirements, channel (natural and diversion) properties, inflow to the system, national and international water sharing agreements, and system operating policy. Data was collected/prepared based on the existing water management model (WRMM) in Alberta Saskatchewan, using the water management model MODSIM. Other major sources of data involve: -Environment and Climate Change Canada's HYDAT and climate database (HYDAT) -Alberta Environment and Parks [AEP] (1998) South Saskatchewan River Basin historical weekly natural flows-1912 to 1995. Edmonton, AB -Alberta Utilities Commission (2010) Final Report for Alberta Utilities Commission - Update on Alberta’s Hydroelectric Energy Resources -TransAlta (2018) Plants in Operation. In: TransAlta Corp. https://www.transalta.com/facilities/plants-operation/. Accessed 4 Jan 2018 -Saskatchewan Water Security Agenc ...

While Indigenous communities recognise western science (WS) standards for drinking water quality, potability as a concept is not sufficient to address the Indigenous concepts of "good" or "bad" in relation to water. The purpose of this collaborative research project is to develop Traditional Knowledge (TK) indicators of "good" and "bad" water in order to explore the similarities and differences between the WS concept of "safe to drink" and the TK concept of "good to drink". This will be achieved through an exploration of water-related health, how human health (encompassing physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional health) is affected by "good" and "bad" water, development of appropriate TK indicators, and community case studies. Through this process and its outcomes, communities will be able to better understand and assess water-related health in Indigenous communities through a TK system and be able to share this with government agencies currently responsible for water management, re ...

The WRF western Canada simulations (CTL-WRF-WCA and PGW-WRF-WCA) are bias-corrected to GEM-CaPA using a multivariate quantile mapping method that correct multiple climate variables of model simulation to observed/target variables through N‐dimensional probability density function (Cannon 2018, doi:10.1007/s00382-017-3580-6; MBCn R-package). The following atmospheric variables are currently available for western Canada at 0.125 degree resolution: precipitation flux, temperature, downward long wave flux, downward short wave flux, surface pressure, mixing ratio, wind speed. These data are in NetCDF format. The description of original WRF simulations: the Weather Research and Forecasting model Version 3.6.1 ( the model source code is accessible from http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/downloads.html) was used to simulate the historical (2000-2015) and projected climate (RCP8.5) over western Canada with a convection-permitting resolution of 4 km. The WRF model is fully compressible an ...

To provide bias-corrected WRF simulations (CTL-WRF-WCA and PGW-WRF-WCA) for hydrological modeling. The target dataset for bias-correction is GEM-CaPA, a combination of GEM’s lower atmospheric condition and CaPA precipitation data. To assess the hydroclimatic risks posed by climate change in western Canada, a retrospective simulation (CTL-WRF-WCA) and a pseudo-global warming (PGW) dynamical downscaling of future warming projection under RCP8.5 from an ensemble of CMIP5 climate model projections using a convection-permitting 4-km WRF model. The convection-permitting resolution of the model avoids the error-prone convection parameterization by explicitly resolving cumulus plumes. The PGW-WRF-WCA dataset contains the pseudo global warming simulation of the period 2000-2015 with climate change scenario of RCP8.5 corresponding to 2071-2100. This data set will be used support atmospheric research objectives within the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fun ...

The Weather Research and Forecasting model Version 3.6.1 ( the model source code is accessible from http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/downloads.html) was used to simulate the historical (2000-2015) and projected climate (RCP8.5) over western Canada with a convection-permitting resolution of 4 km. The WRF model is fully compressible and nonhydrostatic and uses the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) dynamical solvers. The model domain is composed of 699 x 639 grid points with 4-km horizontal resolution to cover western Canada. The atmospheric simulation consists of hourly historical climate scenario (ctl-wrf-wca) from 2000-10-01 to 2015-09-30 at 4km spatial resolution. The model simulations employed several parameterization schemes, including Thompson microphysics scheme (Thompson et al., 2008), the Yonsei University (YSU) planetary boundary layer scheme, the Noah land surface model (Chen and Dudhia, 2001), and the CAM3 radiative transfer scheme (Collins et al., 2004). The deep cumulus pa ...

Li, Y., Li, Z., Zhang, Z., Chen, L., Kurkute, S., Scaff, L., and Pan, X. (2019) High-Resolution Regional Climate Modeling and Projection over Western Canada using a Weather Research Forecasting Model with a Pseudo-Global Warming Approach, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2019-201, in review.

This project encompasses the first evaluation to be conducted on a food processing trailer used to process wild game. The purpose of this evaluation is to inform the community of what the potential of the trailer is for processing wild game.

The Grand River watershed is the largest watershed in southern Ontario, and its resident population is expected to increase over 50% by 2050. Very little research to date has focused on using eDNA metabarcoding to monitor fish and amphibian communities in the Grand River watershed. This research will compare results from eDNA metabarcoding against results from conventional fish and amphibian survey methods to develop a field-tested eDNA metabarcoding monitoring protocol specific to the Grand River watershed. This data set is collected for the Pillar 3 project titled “Next Generation Solutions to Ensure Healthy Water Resources for Future Generations”, under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund. This researcher is co-supervised by Drs. Barbara Katzenback and Paul Craig.

Detailed Model Setup: https://github.com/CH-Earth/summaWorkflow_public Above link contains scripts to install, set up and run the Structure for Unifying Multiple Modeling Alternatives (SUMMA, Clark et al., 2015a,b) and mizuRoute (Mizukami et al., 2016) to generate hydrologic simulations for a given domain. Documentation: https://ral.ucar.edu/projects/summa https://summa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2015WR017198

ATERL-ML-1 Bio-Rad CFX-96 Realtime PCR (x2) Used to run plates for quantifying gene expression and covid-19 in wastewater per sample $600 $690 $930 ATERL-ML-2 Automated plate loader Loads plates for analysis in the 96 touch per day $50 $58 $78 ATERL-ML-3 Bio-Rad CFX- OPUS Realtime PCR (x2) Used to run plates for quantifying gene expression and covid-19^in wastewater per sample $600 $690 $930 ATERL-ML-4 Qiagen Digital PCR Quantifies nucleic acids per sample $800 $920 $1,240 ATERL-ML-5 PCR workstation Used to prepare reagents for PCR and plate them per day $50 $58 $78 ATERL-ML-6 Bio-Rad T100 thermocycler Used for PCR gene expression per sample $100 $115 $155 ATERL-ML-7 Biological safety cabinet Used to prepare, extract samples for various projects per day $50 $58 $78 ATERL-ML-8 NIMBUS automated liquid handler Plates mastermix and samples for covid-19 and other projects per sample $600 $690 $930 ATERL-ML-9 Nanodrop (Thermofisher NanoDrop microvolume spectrophotometers) Measures total RNA, ...

This facility generated baseline and time-sensitive data on lake ice, snow cover, land cover to support the development of statistical modeling and machine learning of the relationship between ice extent, environmental drivers, and water quality, the response of lakes to contemporary and projected climate conditions research of emerging spectrum of environmental issues throughout cold regions, applying remote sensing methods and mathematical modeling.

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Spence, Chris Site PI ECCC

MacVicar, Bruce Project PI Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Wilfrid Laurier University Rudolph, David Site PI University of Waterloo Baltzer Jenn Site PI Wilfrid Laurier University

Carey, Sean Project PI Pomeroy, John Site PI

TTSW Project PI Pomeroy, John Site PI

Baulch, Helen Project PI

Servos, Mark Project PI Site PI

Servos, Mark Project PI Site PI

Servos, Mark Project PI Site PI

Servos, Mark Project PI Site PI

Servos, Mark Project PI Site PI

Servos, Mark Project PI Site PI

Servos, Mark Project PI Site PI

AWF Project PI Helgason, Warren Site PI Fonstad, Terrance Site PI Pomeroy, John Site PI

Carey, Sean Project PI Pomeroy, John Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Swanson, Heidi (UW/Laurier) Site PI

Van Cappellen, Philippe Project PI Van Cappellen, Philippe Site PI

Rezanezhad, Fereidoun Project PI Wagner-Riddle, Claudia Site PI

Van Cappellen, Philippe Project PI Parsons, Chris Site PI

BWF Project PI Ireson, Andrew Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Baltzer, Jennifer Site PI Wilfrid Laurier University

Waddington, Mike Project PI Site PI

MacVicar, Bruce Project PI Site PI

Duguay, Claude Project PI Site PI

Waddington, Mike Project PI Waddington, Mike Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Marsh, Phil (Laurier) Site PI

Duguay, Claude Project PI Schiff, Sherry Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Marsh, Phil (Laurier) Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Ka'a'Gee Tu FN -- Spring, Andrew / Swanson Heidi (Laurier/UW) Site PI

Duguay, Claude Project PI Helgason, Warren Site PI

Fisk, Aaron Project PI University of Windsor Vandergoot, Chris Project PI Michigan State University (MSU) Site PI

Xenopoulos, Maggie Project PI Trent University Wells, Mathew Project PI University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) Site PI

Fisk, Aaron Project PI University of Windsor Hobrook, Chris Project PI USGS Site PI

Fisk, Aaron Project PI University of Windsor Johnson, Tim Project PI OMNRF Site PI

Rennie, Mike Project PI Lakehead University Site PI

MacVicar, Bruce Project PI Site PI

BWF Project PI Ireson, Andrew Site PI

BWF Project PI Ireson, Andrew Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Wolfe, Brent Site PI Wilfrid Laruier University Hall, Roland Site PI University of Waterloo

Carey, Sean Project PI Pomeroy, John Site PI

Rezanezhad, Fereidoun Project PI Rezanezhad, Fereidoun Site PI

Giesy, John Project PI Jardine, Tim Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Sonnentag, Oliver (UdeM) Site PI

Whitfield, Colin Project PI Spence, Chris Project PI Ireson, Andrew Site PI

AWF Project PI Macrae, Merrin Site PI

Baltzer, Jennifer Project PI Marsh, Phil Site PI Wilfrid Laurier University

Rezanezhad, Fereidoun Project PI Webster, Kara Site PI

Arain, Altaf Project PI Site PI

Van Cappellen, Philippe Project PI Hitch, Calvin Site PI

Van Cappellen, Philippe Project PI Hitch, Calvin Site PI

Van Cappellen, Philippe Project PI Withers, William Site PI

Van Cappellen, Philippe Project PI Credit Vally Authority Site PI

Van Cappellen, Philippe Project PI Lam, Bu Site PI

MacVicar, Bruce Project PI Site PI

Carey, Sean Project PI

Carey, Sean Project PI

Carey, Sean Project PI

Carey, Sean Project PI

Carey, Sean Project PI

Carey, Sean Project PI

Vision -------- The dynamic nature of Water Science research—in which approaches to observation, modelling, and prediction of Earth systems are continuously evolving—shapes our present data and re-shapes our legacy data collected over many years through reanalysis. Our interactions with well-managed data--past and present--leads us to new discoveries, new made-to-order solutions, and a sustainable process of iterative refinement of knowledge and research questions. This process inevitably results in future data which will become tomorrow’s important legacy. Global Water Futures (GWF) is thus steadfastly committed to data stewardship and, to this end, has created this template-based form of data catalogue, GWFNet, able to incorporate legacy information and future information (of a to-be-determined form) as easily as it handles information from the present day. The Vision for GWFNet is to enable a variety of information seekers--from the general public to highly specialized scientists ...

A: Calibrated Model Setup for the Yukon ^with Project Report and manuscript Yukon River ^basin MESH 0.125 degrees B: Climate and landuse change ^Simulation Results for the Mackenzie Mackenzie River ^basin MESH 0.125 degrees

North America, Canada, North-West Territories Lead Investigator: Chris Spence Baker Creek is a series of interconnected lakes draining an area of 150 km2 north of Great Slave Lake that is typical of Canadian Shield drainage basins. The landscape is taiga woodland and boreal forest. It has three meteorological stations and one streamflow gauging station. The Baker Creek watershed is located in the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada, with the outlet defined by the Water Survey of Canada (WSC) hydrometric gauging station 07SB013 - Baker Creek at Outlet of Lower Martin Lake - located approximately 7 km north of the capital city of Yellowknife, NWT. The Baker Creek watershed is a sub-basin of the Great Slave Lake watershed and has a gross drainage area of approximately 155 km2 (Spence et al., 2010). The basin is characterized by a number of large lakes drained by short streams with a highly variable flow regime due to the variability of storage capacity in the basin (Spence, 2006; Phi ...

Winter on the prairies is not usually a time to worry about drought, and fire. At least, it wasn't. But large swaths of the country, from BC through Ontario, are currently seeing a lack of snow and water accumulation that is "unprecedented in modern times," according to an expert. In one BC town, the drought is so severe residents are using bottled water. The Alberta government is already making water restriction plans for the spring and summer to come. The conditions will be perfect for a wildfire season that could eclipse last year's records. And farmers will be making choices on which crops to keep, and which to let die. Welcome to the new world, where a large chunk of Canada ... simply doesn't have enough water. GUEST: John Pomeroy, hydrologist, Professor in the department of Geography and Planning at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change TRANSCRIPT: Jordan Heath-Rawlings: You no doubt, remember last year’s forest fire seaso ...

Katherine Finn Project Manager Adam Larocque Data Management adam.larocque@usask.ca Stephen O'Hearn Data Helper sdo124@usask.ca

Legacy

Legacy

Legacy Site (slated for decommission in June 2021) www.usask.ca/dri Restoration Site (under active development) https://gwfnet.net/sites/dri/ I believe the drought metadata search form no longer operates and I will continue to look into this. Regards, Stephen

Global Water Futures Observatories (GWFO) is a follow-on program from Global Water Futures (GWF), the largest and most published university-led freshwater research program in the world with 213 faculty investigators, 531 end-users, 1,826 new researchers, and a network of 23 Canadian universities working on 65 projects and core teams. GWF (and now GWFO) has established and/or operates 64 water observation sites, 15 deployable measurement systems, and 18 state-of-the-art university-based environmental and aquatic analysis facilities. These facilities monitor many things ranging from algae activity in freshwater lakes that are the drinking water source for millions of people, to snowpacks and glaciers in the high Canadian Rockies that feed the rivers and streams of western North America and which can contribute to catastrophic flooding, to the health of the Great Lakes, and to contaminants in groundwater used as drinking water sources for Indigenous communities. GWFO provides data to pr ...

Legacy (2021 Still Funded)

Official site INARCH Phase II (2021-2026): https://inarch.usask.ca Legacy (restored) site INARCH Phase I (2015–2020): https://gwfnet.net/sites/inarch

Legacy

Legacy

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-adaption-governance.php

Develops improved predictive tools, policy instruments and governance strategies for the sustainable management of water resources in the agricultural regions of Canada. Users of Agricultural Water Futures are interested in determining how Canadian agriculture will change in future in response to climate stressors and socio-economic drivers, and are tasked with maintaining water and food security, the Canadian economy, and environmental stewardship. In collaboration with our partners, our seven-year, pan-Canadian AWF goal is to determine how Canadian agriculture and food production systems can best respond to risk and uncertainty associated with current and future climatic and socio-economic stressors. The Agricultural Water Futures project will identify and assess appropriate agricultural activities, Beneficial Management Practices (BMP) and governance arrangements related to water quantity and quality that will ensure sustainable food supplies, healthy ecosystems and an economicall ...

Protozoan cysts (Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts) cause serious human health risks not only in urbanized areas but also in the cold and remote regions. Since these protozoan cysts are hardly inactivated in conventional drinking water treatment, reliable and rapid detection of the pathogenic cysts is urgently demanded, especially for communities without advance disinfection facilities, such as ozonation. This project will develop a novel sensor system where water samples are examined under optical/fluorescent microscopes and the pathogenic cysts on the microscopic images are detected by artificial intelligence (AI). Detailed research objectives and tasks are: (1) to build a sufficient database of microscopic image for machine learning training of AI; (2) to develop a filtration/resuspension system that selectively collects Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts from other particles in natural water (natural organic matter particles, non-pathogenic microorganisms); and ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-ai-cysts.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p3-bwf.php https://twitter.com/bwf_borealwater http://ecohydrology.mcmaster.ca/people.html --> Mike Waddington

Project Overview: Canada’s boreal biome, which represents both a critically important global freshwater resource and carbon reserve, is undergoing extraordinary transformative change that is having profound impacts on boreal ecosystem function, source water protection, and wildfire behaviour and management. Natural resources development is expanding the density of wildland-society interfaces (WSI) at the same time as boreal wildfire intensification is placing ever increasing threats and risks on human health and safety, water quality, and global climate regulation. The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire was Canada's largest natural disaster (economic damage of $8.9B) and represented a turning point for the need to diagnose hydrological thresholds and predict smouldering fire behaviour. Moreover, our recent Boreal Water Futures (BWF) risk assessment, co-developed with BWF stakeholders, highlighted the need to develop nature-based land management solutions (NBS) (e.g. wetland restoration, FireS ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-bwf-wildfire.php

https://www.ohneganos.com https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p3-co-create-indg.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-colab-modelling.php

Project Manager

This project creates a crowdsourcing data platform to support contributions from GWF user communities while also serving users needs in application development. The platforms will allow user communities to share geo-located and time-stamped photographs, which complement traditional forms of data acquisition.

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-crowdsourcing.php

Global Water Futures promotes a culture of data stewardship as the data products generated by its many projects will become one of its most important legacies. This high regard for data is key to the success of the program as science is a data-driven endeavor, and the quality and availability of data directly affects the quality of the program. The vast investment of time and resources in the collection of environmental data warrants that significant effort be expended on its preservation, organization, and capacity to be found. The GWF Data Policy (https://gwf.usask.ca/documents/GWF_Data_Policy_March-4-2019-Final.pdf) guides our data management practices and encourages researchers to meet GWF's commitment to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-model-uncertainty.php

The primary goal of this project is to compare and validate the ability of two existing ice models to simulate the evolution of ice cover on large lakes at large and small scales. See Lake Futures Project

FIShNET collaborates with the Northern Water Futures (NWF) project. In partnership with Indigenous communities in other northern regions in Canada, the FIShNET team evaluates: 1) health concerns and risk perceptions among community members; 2) environmental determinants of mercury and nutrients in wild-harvested fish; 3) balance between contaminant risks and nutrient benefits in traditional foods; 4) links between contaminant levels in the environment, human behavior patterns, and human exposure; and 5) access to traditional food and the impact on food security. FIShNET also generates complementary information for Fort Albany First Nation and Mushkegowuk Council (www.mushkegowuk.com).

Project Lead

Project Lead

Helen Baulch Project Lead Global Institute for Water Security ^and ^School of Environment and Sustainability ^University of Saskatchewan Jason Venkiteswaran Project Lead Department of Geography and Environmental Studies^Wilfrid Laurier University

https://uwaterloo.ca/duguay-research-group/current-projects/forecasting-tools-and-mitigation-options-diverse-bloom See also: https://gwf.usask.ca/formbloom/about/researchers.php#ProjectLeads https://mobile.twitter.com/formbloom Buffalo Pound Lake Buoys https://wqdatalive.com/public/113

This project develops big data analytic tools that support citizens and scientists in two-way knowledge exchanges. GWC Objectives: 1. Build a national inventory of citizen science projects for water resources. 2. Develop tools to reduce barriers to the use of citizen science data by environmental researchers. 3. Develop approaches to maximize the use of GWF information products by vulnerable communities and citizens. 4. Expand participation and improve knowledge of documenting environmental change in Canada's cold regions.

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-geogenic-contamination.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-groundwater-prairies.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-frozen-soils.php

Climate warming is accelerating disturbance processes in northern ecosystems, including thermokarst, boreal and tundra wildfire. In tandem, more gradual processes relating to warming-induced species range shifts are occurring, most notably at the taiga-tundra ecotone. These changes are resulting in dramatic land cover changes across the terrestrial arctic drainages, with profound implications for hydrological and land surface-atmosphere interactions. Despite their importance, these changes and associated feedbacks are poorly represented in Earth Systems Models [Shukla et al., 2019]. The proposed project will: Synthesize understanding of dominant hydrological-ecological interactions and their feedbacks in the terrestrial arctic drainages by a systematic review of current theoretical and empirical understanding of coupled hydrological-ecological processes; Identify shortcomings in the current generation of modelling approaches that are used to simulate these coupled processes ( ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-hydrology-ecology-feedbacks.php

The issue of dynamic water storage in prairie wetlands has received considerable attention in recent years. Accordingly, we have learned a great deal about wetland storage, hydraulic connectivity between adjacent wetlands, and the contribution of wetlands to streamflow and groundwater systems. However, there has been scant attention paid to the factors that influence the rates of evaporation from wetlands, or evapotranspiration from wetland-dominated landscapes. Frequently, evaporation estimates are based on simple Priestly-Taylor or Penman-Monteith approaches, using parameters that can't possibly reflect the dynamic nature of prairie wetlands. This project examines the factors influencing wetland evaporation in prairie agricultural landscapes for the purpose of developing more robust techniques for estimating the rate of wetland evaporation.

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-wetland-evap.php

Is our Water Good to Drink explores the similarities and differences between: - what is considered "good to drink" based on Traditional Knowledge, and - what is considered "safe to drink" based on Western Science, through the collaborative development of Traditional Knowledge indicators. Problem: While many Indigenous communities recognize Western Science (WS) standards for drinking water quality, potability as a concept is not sufficient enough to address the Indigenous concepts of “good” or “bad” in relation to water. The purpose of this collaborative research project is to develop Traditional Knowledge (TK) indicators. Plan: This project will explore the similarities and differences between WS indicators of what is considered “safe to drink” and the TK concept of what is “good to drink”. This will be achieved through an exploration of water-related health, how human health (encompassing physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional health) is affected by “good” and “bad” wat ...

see Project Participants table below

Akaitcho Territory Government (ATG) represents five Dene communities – Deninu K’ue First Nation, Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation, Smith’s Landing First Nation, and Yellowknives Dene First Nation (Dettah and Ndilo): http://akaitcho.ca/ Global Water Futures: https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/i1-schusterwallace.php#Investigators

This project focuses on causes, impacts and mitigation of water quality issues of the lower Great Lakes. The research is focused in four main areas: - land use, - lake processes, - ecosystem health, and - economic values. Lake Futures aims to integrate research from these areas to consider the entire lake basin. This research hopes to address issues of public concern and is lead by the following questions: 1. How do we achieve a 40% reduction in phosphorus (P) export to Lake Erie? 2. How do we manage algal growth in the nearshore waters of the Great Lakes? 3. How are costs and benefits of water quality interventions factored into socially acceptable decision making? 4. What is the role of past land use compared to current land use? Canada possesses a huge number of lakes, both large and small, that provide many services to us. They play a key role in supplying water, food, power, resources, and many other benefits. However, the quality of our water is vulnerable to changes in climate ...

Project Manager

https://uwaterloo.ca/lake-futures https://uwaterloo.ca/duguay-research-group/current-projects/lake-futures-enhancing-adaptive-capacity-and-resilience

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-stressors.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-stream-network-modelling.php

In countries around the world, water resources are under pressure from numerous chronic and acute sources. Problems such as overuse and contamination persist despite decades of sustained attention from governments, researchers, international organizations and civil society. Improving governance is necessary, but the crucial role of external social, economic and political drivers and forces that operate beyond national borders yet impact governance within countries must be accounted for more effectively. Canada’s water resources and governance systems are subject to these drivers and forces. Some originate from within the larger water sector, but others are linked to decisions and actions in sectors operating at the national, continental and global levels that are not normally considered part of the water sector (e.g., energy policy makers, the banking and investment communities). Hence, in the same way that climate scientists need to understand how climate and water resources in Canada ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-water-governance.php

Metawa Water Futures builds an Indigenous-informed water monitoring framework by combining Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge. This framework will help Matawa member First Nations (MFN) prepare for climate change and future industrial development. Matawa member First Nations members (http://www.matawa.on.ca) include - Webequie First Nation (http://www.webequie.ca), - Marten Falls First Nation (http://www.martenfalls.ca), - Neskantaga First Nation (http://neskantaga.com), - Nibinamik First Nation (http://www.summerbeaver.com), - Eabametoong First Nation (no website yet), - Long Lake #58 First Nation (https://www.longlake58fn.ca), - Aroland First Nation (https://www.arolandfirstnation.ca), - Constance Lake First Nation (http://clfn.on.ca), - Ginoogaming First Nation (no website yet), and - Dehcho First Nations (https://dehcho.org). This research promises innovations in water science consistent with a “Two Row Wampum” methodology based on the historical peace and friendshi ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/i2-mitchell.php

Project Manager

Sean Carey PI Masaki Hayashi PI Brian Menounos PI Sarah Irvine Project Manager Stephen Déry Researcher Jeffrey McKenzie Researcher Richard Petrone Researcher John Pomeroy Researcher Rebecca Rooney Researcher Ronald Stewart Researcher Julie Thériault Researcher Cherie Westbrook Researcher Francis Zwiers Researcher

http://www.mountainwaterfutures.ca https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p3-mwf.php

Rapid urban growth in the past decades has made cities major contributors to aquatic ecosystems' health degradation due to the disproportionate location of cities along water bodies. Increased imperviousness combined with more severe weather events are resulting in increasingly flashy and unpredictable urban pollution pulses to receiving waters. The development of adaptive urban water management and planning strategies that minimize negative downstream impacts requires an integrated, system-based understanding of the responses of pollutant export from urban areas to changing climate and urbanization pressures. This project assembles a toolbox for assessing the vulnerability and exposure of the water quality of large water bodies to urbanization and climate change. As the testbed for this integrated approach, the researchers will focus on eutrophication risks in the littoral zone of the western basin of Lake Ontario (WLO) driven by urban phosphorus (P) inputs from Ontario’s Golden Hors ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-eutrophication.php

This project will advance emerging and transformative technologies in biology and bioinformatics, such as environmental DNA (eDNA) and next generation sequencing (NGS), that enable the previously challenging study of aquatic life and their habitats. The DNA analysis of aquatic systems can be used to detect and identify the full range of biological diversity, including presence of rare and endangered species, in near real time, while reducing costs and the need for taxonomic expertise. These transformative technologies have potential to provide more rapid, comprehensive and objective assessments of ecosystem status of aquatic environments exposed to stressors in Canada.

Project Manager

The reliance on groundwater resources in northern Canada is rapidly increasing, yet the understanding of its occurrence and vulnerability is very poorly understood. The unique characteristics of both the climatic and subsurface conditions in the north (e.g. extreme cold, permafrost, etc.) significantly influences groundwater systems and their vulnerability. In this project, major groundwater stakeholders ranging from Territorial and municipal governments, indigenous communities, and private water users are directly engaged with the research team to co-create groundwater management and vulnerability assessment strategies specific to the challenges of the North. The major focus is on developing a novel methodology for Northern Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment for aquifers and wells in the Yukon and Northwest Territories (NWT). Two pilot locations have been selected for implementation and evaluation of the selected/developed vulnerability assessment methods: - the Riverdale Aquifer ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-groundwater-vulnerability.php

This project uses ultrahigh-relolution Mass Spectrometry to monitor water and to predict future trends in aquatic ecosystem structure and function. To wit: 'Omics' approaches such as proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics along with chemical fingerprinting technologies can be used as powerful tools to monitor the current status and to predict future trends in ecosystem structure and function. As an example, organisms living in Canada’s north and at high altitudes, must annually adjust their metabolisms and the lipid components in their cellular membranes to adapt to changing temperatures. Any alterations in the magnitudes or timing of changes in temperature or sources of food could have severe, even catastrophic, negative effects on individual organisms, and ultimately on whole ecosystems and the services they provide to humans. Also, nutrient cycling that controls eutrophication and associated harmful algal blooms (HABs) is controlled, in part, by organic forms of phosphorus and nit ...

http://www.sixnations.ca http://www.lubiconlakeband.ca/about https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/i5-martinHill.php Related Websites: https://www.ohneganos.com https://indigenous.mcmaster.ca/news/new-indigenous-student-led-youtube-series-ohneganos-lets-talk-water Video https://youtu.be/xdVrayhAtRI New Indigenous Student-led Youtube Series: Ohneganos Let's Talk Water: https://indigenous.mcmaster.ca/news/new-indigenous-student-led-youtube-series-ohneganos-lets-talk-water/@@images/image

Recent concerns have arisen around deeper groundwater systems due to issues related to unconventional oil and gas development and subsurface waste disposal -- areas which both suffer from data scarcity. The first phase of this project conducted a review of the available data for western Canada to improve our understanding of hydrogeological connectivity. We have selected a number of case studies to represent typical hydrogeological environments of concern and have produced a series of maps and databases to improve our understanding of the hydrogeological settings. Water chemistry has been compiled for various hydrogeological units to improve our ability to fingerprint and differentiate groundwaters. This data has been supplemented by sampling and analysis of water from provincial groundwater monitoring networks and other sampling opportunities from industry. Numerical models have been used to interpret existing physical and chemical hydrogeological data for a series of case studies and ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-old-meets-new.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-prairie-governance.php

Prairie Water is a research project based at the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan and funded under the Global Water Futures program. The project prioritizes scientific research on water to address pressing concerns of water security and management in the Canadian Prairies. Our objectives are informed by our partners' questions, and our goal is to direct research to help inform water-related management and decision-making with the vision to enhance the resilience of Prairie communities in a changing world.

Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-cmip6.php

The timing of lake ice freeze-up, break-up, and the duration of ice cover in winter are indicators of the annual temperature regime in cold temperate lakes. Under current climate change and winter warming, northern lakes are experiencing significant shifts in ice cover duration and water temperature. Previous studies have identified lake ice as a cryosphere component that is highly sensitive to climate conditions. Analysis of ice thickness trends during the 1950–2011 period indicate a trend toward thinner ice covers for Arctic lakes. Knowledge of the thickness of the lake ice and of the overlaying snow cover are important requirements when determining how much weight an ice cover can safely sustain. However, knowledge of lake ice thickness is remarkably limited. This is mainly due to logistical difficulties in traditionally collecting measurements directly, and challenges estimating lake ice thickness from remote sensing data. Estimation of ice phenology and thickness are vital for saf ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-lake-ice.php

https://specialprojects.wlu.ca/samms https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-samms.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-extreme-precipitation.php

Southern Forests Water Futures Project strives to improve our understanding of biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles in both conifer and deciduous forests and to develop management strategies that can enhance sustainable development of forest water resources and improve forest resilience to negative impacts of climate change. This project will: -provide knowledge, tools and techniques to better manage forest ecosystems and water resources -help in developing next-generation ecosystem and hydrologic models to be used in Canadian regional and global climate models to predict future climate and hydrologic regimes, and -formulate climate change mitigation and adaptation plans to secure water resources.

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-groundwater-models.php

Julie Thériault PI Université du Québec à Montréal Stephen Déry Team Lead University of Northern British Columbia John Pomeroy Team Lead University of Saskatchewan Ronald Stewart Team Lead University of Manitoba Juris Almonte Project Manager Université du Québec à Montréal and University of Northern British Columbia

Many watersheds and water sources both in Canada and across the world are under stress due to human activity as well as climate change. Population growth in urban areas as well as agricultural practices and resource extraction tend to introduce pollutants such as nutrients, metals, microorganisms, pharmaceuticals, industrial waste products and other emerging contaminants into watersheds. These water quality issues are further exacerbated by climate change and other environmental changes in watersheds. This project aims to gain an understanding of the effect of human activities on the ecosystem and water through the development and use of low-cost sensors and sensing systems that can be deployed in the environment to monitor for the presence of contaminants and their variation over short and long time scales. Although sensors and sensing systems for long term monitoring exist for many of the parameters of interest (such as dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, conductivity, nitrates), the ...

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-wq-monitoring.php

This project focuses on cold regions processes related to winter and spring storms and their precipitation over the transboundary Upper Saint John River Basin, located on the border of Maine (ME) and the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick. When combined with spring rainfall and relatively high temperatures (up to 29oC in April 2018 with 50-80 cm of snow still on the ground combined with 152 mm of rain during April), catastrophic flooding can occur downstream. This, for example, happened in 2008, 2018 and again in 2019. All of these led to flooding downstream and all were in the annual top 10 Canadian weather disasters identified by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). Despite these facts, no studies of storms and precipitation and their impact on snowpack evolution have been conducted in this region. This project will study the timing, amount and phase of the precipitation over the Upper Saint John River Basin. Particular attention will be paid in SaJESS to the microphysic ...

https://gwf-sajess.weebly.com https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-sajess.php See also related SPADE https://gwf-spade.weebly.com project

This project is developing a new era of Big Data for water, using terrestrial sensor networks, new sub-orbital aircraft and drone instrument platforms, and near- and far-orbit satellites, linked to rapid information dissemination tools for users and the public. While new drone technology will provide unprecedented spatial data, the project will also deploy and commercialize systems for acoustic sounding of snow, develop and deploy ultrasonic sensors for multiple environmental measurements (snow depth, stream level, stream velocity, air temperature, humidity, blowing snow), and develop and deploy a portable waveguide spectrometer for the identification of water pollutants, to provide accurate and real-time data for Canada's water environment.

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-sk-wellwater.php

To hold Water Knowledge Camps to build strong partnerships through dialog and understanding among researchers and communities to build a comprehensive environmental monitoring program. Communities: The Dene and Métis people of the Sahtú region, NWT Communities throughout the Sahtú have expressed concerns about the cumulative impacts of development and climate change on the quality and quantity of the waters in the region and consequent risks to human and ecosystem health. Some of these concerns are related to mining and other industrial developments in the region and beyond, including Port Radium on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake and oil and gas development in Norman Wells, long-range transport of contaminants, and downstream effects of oil sands development in Alberta. More recently, the impacts of climate change, which include increased frequency of forest fires, changes to hydrological regimes and landscape changes due to permafrost thaw, as well as the potential for develop ...

https://www.sahtu.ca/sahtu-communities https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/i6-Baltzer.php#Investigators https://www.srrb.nt.ca/

http://chcn.ca https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/i4-jardine.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1-winter-soil.php

https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/all-projects/p1ph2-valuing-water.php

In this project, Dehcho AAROM and University of Waterloo have been working together for ~ 10 years to investigate why mercury levels in fish vary among lakes in the Dehcho region, and how mercury levels in fish might change in the future in response to ongoing environmental change. In this three-year phase of the project, we sampled several more lakes (Fish Lake, Greasy Lake, Deep Lake) for fish, water, benthic invertebrates, sediment, and zooplankton. Catchments for all lakes in the study were also characterized. We compiled all available data for this project (dating back to 2013) to model mercury levels in Northern Pike from 11 lakes using piecewise structural equation models. Integrating feedback, ideas, and knowledge from Indigenous Guardians who work together with University researchers on the land each summer, we developed a model that explains >80% of the among-lake variation in mercury levels in Northern Pike. The among-lake variation in fish mercury levels is explained by a c ...

An increase in water demand due to growth in human populations and industry around the globe has led to an increase in riverine flow regulation, impacting the sustainability of downstream ecosystems. The Saskatchewan River Delta (SRD) is the largest inland delta in North America and is located near the Manitoba and Saskatchewan border. Flow regulation infrastructure projects such as the construction of Gardiner, Francois Finley and E.B. Campbell dams along the South Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan rivers have supplied water for irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectricity, flood control, and recreational activities for the province of Saskatchewan. However, this flow regulation has caused negative changes to the flow and sediment regimes for the SRD. A two-dimensional (2D) hydraulic HEC-RAS model was set up and run to verify some of these observations and to run scenarios on how water and sediment balances can be improved. The model domain contains the main channel, floodplains and hint ...

Solutions to complex health and environmental issues experienced by First Nations communities in Canada require the adoption of collaborative modes of research. The traditional “helicopter” approach to research applied in communities has led to disenchantment on the part of First Nations people and has impeded their willingness to participate in research. University researchers have tended to develop projects without community input and to adopt short term approaches to the entire process, perhaps a reflection of granting and publication cycles and other realities of academia. Researchers often enter communities, collect data without respect for local culture, and then exit, having had little or no community interaction or consideration of how results generated could benefit communities or lead to sustainable solutions. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has emerged as an alternative to the helicopter approach and is promoted here as a method to research that will meet the o ...

Land use change and agricultural intensification have increased food production but at the cost of polluting surface and groundwater. Best management practices implemented to improve water quality have met with limited success. Such lack of success is increasingly attributed to legacy nutrient stores in the subsurface that may act as sources after reduction of external inputs. However, current water-quality models lack a framework to capture these legacy effects. Here we have modified the SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) model to capture the effects of nitrogen (N) legacies on water quality under multiple land-management scenarios. Our new SWAT-LAG model includes (1) a modified carbon-nitrogen cycling module to capture the dynamics of soil N accumulation, and (2) a groundwater travel time distribution module to capture a range of subsurface travel times. Using a 502-km2 Iowa watershed as a case study, we found that between 1950 and 2016, 25% of the total watershed N surplus (N Deposit ...

For nearly a century, we have used nitrogen fertilizers to boost crop yields. However, the environmental effects of fertilizer use have been severe. Drinking water with high nitrate levels threatens human health, and high nitrogen loads in rivers lead to the creation of dead zones in coastal waters that make it impossible for fish or underwater plants to survive. Although we have tried for decades to reduce nitrogen levels in our waterways, the results have been disappointing. Scientists now believe that improvements may be slow to come because there are large amounts of nitrogen that have accumulated in soil and groundwater—legacy nitrogen—that continue to pollute our rivers even after farmers have reduced fertilizer use or improved management. However, policymakers still struggle to predict how long it will take to improve water quality. In our work, we have created a new model, Soil Water Assessment Tool-LAG, that allows us to predict the time lags caused by legacy nitrogen. Using a ...

The Interior of Western Canada, up to and including the Arctic, has experienced rapid change in its climate, hydrology, cryosphere and ecosystems and this is expected to continue. Although there is general consensus that warming will occur in the future, many critical issues remain. In this first of two articles, attention is placed on atmospheric-related issues that range from large scales down to individual precipitation events. Each of these is considered in terms of expected change organized by season and utilizing climate scenario information as well as thermodynamically-driven future climatic forcing simulations. Large scale atmospheric circulations affecting this region are generally projected to become stronger in each season and, coupled with warming temperatures, lead to enhancements of numerous water-related and temperature-related extremes. These include winter snowstorms, freezing rain, drought as well as atmospheric forcing of spring floods although not necessarily summer ...

A Software Platform for Integrated Monitoring and Modelling of Stream Restoration Projects

Urbanization significantly alters natural hydrological processes, leading to increased flood risks in urban areas. The potential damages caused by flooding in urban areas are widely recognized, making it crucial for urban residents to be well-informed about flood risks to mitigate potential losses. Flood maps serve as essential tools in this regard, providing valuable information that aids in effective planning, risk assessment, and decision-making. Despite floods being the most common natural disasters in Canada, many Canadians still lack access to high-quality, up-to-date flood maps. The occurrence of recent major flood events across the country has sparked renewed interest among government officials and stakeholders in launching new flood mapping initiatives. These projects are critical for enhancing flood risk management across communities. Traditional flood hazard mapping methods, based on deterministic approaches, often fail to account for the complexities and uncertainties inher ...

Many organizations use legacy systems as these systems contain their valuable business rules. However, these legacy systems answer the past requirements but are difficult to maintain and evolve due to old technology use. In this situation, stockholders decide to renovate the system with a minimum amount of cost and risk. Although the renovation process is a more affordable choice over redevelopment, it comes with its risks such as performance loss and failure to obtain quality goals. A proper test process can minimize risks incorporated with the renovation process. This work introduces a testing model tailored for the migration and re-engineering process and employs test automation, which results in early bug detection. Moreover, the automated tests ensure functional sameness between the old and the new system. This process enhances reliability, accuracy, and speed of testing.

A Testing Approach While Re-engineering Legacy Systems: An Industrial Case Study

In cold regions, climate change, including warming and changes in snowmelt dynamics, have profound impacts on streamflow patterns, often leading to flooding events. Understanding the projected changes in hydrometeorological factors contributing to streamflow, such as snowmelt runoff and rain-on-snowmelt, is crucial for effective adaptation and mitigation strategies. It is also essential to consider uncertainty in streamflow projections and incorporate this uncertainty into flood predictions. This study presents a blueprint for calculating probabilistic future streamflow and flow duration curves in a mountainous cold region. The methodology integrated forcings from an atmospheric model (WRF) with a hydrological model (MESH) at fine spatial (4 km) and temporal (3-hourly) resolutions. To account for uncertainty, an ensemble of 15 CanRCM4 regional climate simulations with varying boundary conditions for the RCP 8.5 scenario was utilized. A novel method was developed to perturb the CanRCM4 ...

Keywords: Streamflow projections; Hydrological modelling; Uncertainty; Floodplain mapping; Flow duration curves

A blueprint for coupling a hydrological model with fine- and coarse-scale atmospheric regional climate change models for probabilistic streamflow projections

Patterned bog and fen peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) currently make up 90% of land cover in this region and form one of the largest continuous peatland complexes in the world. A globally significant storage of carbon, these peatlands are also unique ecosystems and perform valuable water regulation mechanisms in HBL watersheds. At present, the HBL region faces the increasing dual threats of resource extraction operations and increasing temperatures due to climate change, both of which may reduce water availability. In spite of their global significance, there is a dearth of information on the temporal and spatial patterns of hydrological connectivity across HBL peatland complexes, as well as the relative importance and variability of meteorological parameters. Further, studies attempting to characterize the effects of reduced water availability on hydrological structure and function in HBL peatland complexes are extremely limited. Such information is required to better under ...

The Randle Reef contaminated site, located in the southwest corner of Hamilton Harbour, is approximately 60 hectares in size. This site contains approximately 695,000 m3 of sediment contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and metals. The complex Randle Reef sediment remediation project is finally coming to fruition after more than 30 years of study, discussion, collaborations, stakeholder consensus-building, and debate. This paper unravels the reasons behind the delays associated with implementing sediment management at the Randle Reef site. In-depth interviews with experts and professionals from organizations who are/were involved in the project were conducted to identify the nature of performance in five theme areas that are important for successful action namely: (1) participation of appropriate actors with common objectives; (2) funding and resources; (3) decision-making process; (4) research and technology development; and (5) public and political support. It is ...

A comparative analysis of practitioners' experience in sediment remediation projects to highlight best practices

Precipitation from Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs) in the central US are not only a large contributor to water resources, but a hazard to society due to hail, wind gusts, tornadoes, lightning, and flash floods. These severe storms can cause damage to houses, vehicles, and trees. Due to this significance, there is a large interest in using Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) to predict extreme weather and climate. Also, with a changing climate, it is important to understand how weather system characteristics will change in the future. Convection-permitting NWP models simulate convective processes more realistically than coarser grid models due to errors in local-scale processes and convective parameterization not accurately producing convection. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) conducted a continental-scale convection-allowing simulation using the regional Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ARW) model. The model simulations are made up of two p ...

GWF-Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections|

Ice jam behaviour has significant influence on the local ecology of inland deltas. The occurrence and/or absence of ice jams and the subsequent flooding can water or dry riverine delta floodplains and affect their ecological integrity. To better understand and quantify ice jams, historical and future ice jam behaviour is investigated and compared in this thesis from different perspectives. Modelling is a widely used method in the ice jam research field. A literature review on ice jam modelling research shows that previous studies made great advances in ice jam theory, however some research gaps are identified. Due to data limitations, ice jams in remote and data sparse areas are less understood. Similarly, understanding the impacts of climate change on future ice jam behaviour is still limited. To explore ice regimes in data sparse areas, an inland delta (the Slave River Delta) that lacks long term ice jam monitoring data was chosen as the study site. Input factor determination is a pr ...

GWF-Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections|

noproject,submitted

A code clone is a pair of code fragments, within or between software systems that are similar. Since code clones often negatively impact the maintainability of a software system, several code clone detection techniques and tools have been proposed and studied over the last decade. However, the clone detection tools are not always perfect and their clone detection reports often contain a number of false positives or irrelevant clones from specific project management or user perspective. To detect all possible similar source code patterns in general, the clone detection tools work on the syntax level while lacking user-specific preferences. This often means the clones must be manually inspected before analysis in order to remove those false positives from consideration. This manual clone validation effort is very time-consuming and often error-prone, in particular for large-scale clone detection. In this paper, we propose a machine learning approach for automating the validation process. ...

Convection-permitting regional climate models can provide better representations of physical processes, especially convection and underlying surface heterogeneity, in the climate system and provide more detailed climate projections at higher temporal and spatial resolution. However, biases still exist in high-resolution RCM simulations due to their deficiency in representations of sub-grid processes and unavoidable parameterization schemes. The RCM dynamical downscaling of future climate projection, therefore, needs bias-correction before their application. We present a new method to bias-correct the dynamically downscaled climate projection by convection-permitting WRF. The method, based on MBCn and machine learning,preserves the large-scale features of observed patterns in reanalysis with added detail from the RCM simulations. It also maintains the climate change signals between the future projection and the historical simulation.

Neary, L., Anderson, L., Hall, R., Wolfe, B. (2022) A new collaborative research project studying whooping crane nesting ponds in the Northwest Territories, Canada. GNWT-Laurier Partnership Annual General Meeting, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo.

A new collaborative research project studying whooping crane nesting ponds in the Northwest Territories, Canada

Canadian hydrological research is built on a strong legacy and has seen a steady progression over recent decades (Woo, 2019). Canada is a leader in cold regions hydrology and its varied landscapes have led to developments in our understanding of hydrological processes across forest, prairie, mountain, and wetland environments. Today’s early career researchers (ECRs), including graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty, will shape the future of hydrological research in Canada. ECRs play an important role in advancing Canadian hydrological sciences as they make up a large portion of conference presentations and publications. The strong presence of students and other ECRs in the science community led the Canadian Young Hydrologic Society (CYHS) to organize a three-day workshop from July 4 – 6, 2019, in Montreal, QC. Thirty-three hydrology ECRs (within five years of their last degree, including graduate students) from across Canada discussed current and future challen ...

Study region The Peace-Athabasca Delta, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in northeastern Alberta, is protected within Wood Buffalo National Park and contributes to its UNESCO World Heritage status yet is threatened by climate change and upstream energy projects. Study focus Recent drawdown of the delta’s abundant shallow lakes and rivers has deteriorated vital habitat for wildlife and impaired navigation routes. Here, we report continuous measurements at ~50 lakes during open-water seasons of 2018 and 2019 to improve understanding of hydrological processes causing lake-level variation. New hydrological insights for the region Analyses reveal four patterns of lake-level variation attributable to influential hydrological processes, which provide the basis for a new lake classification scheme: 1) ‘Drawdown’ (≥15 cm decline) by evaporation and/or outflow after ice-jam floods, 2) ‘Stable’ lake levels (<15 cm change) sustained by rainfall, 3) ‘Gradual Rise’ by inundation from t ...

Increasing hydrological variability, accelerating population growth and urbanisation, and the resurgence of water resources development projects have all indicated increasing tension among the riparian countries of transboundary rivers. While a wide range of disciplines develop their understandings of conflict and cooperation in transboundary river basins, few process-based interdisciplinary approaches are available for investigating the mechanism of conflict and cooperation. This article aims to develop a meta-theoretical socio-hydrological framework that brings the slow and less visible societal processes into existing hydrological–economic models and enables observations of the change in the cooperation process and the societal processes underlying this change, thereby contributing to revealing the mechanism that drives conflict and cooperation. This framework can act as a “middle ground”, providing a system of constituent disciplinary theories and models for developing formal model ...

Kakisa Lake and Tathlina Lake, located in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, support important fisheries for the local Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation (KTFN). Recently, Walleye (Sander vitreus) of typical catch size in Tathlina Lake were found to have mercury concentrations above Health Canada’s commercial sale guideline of 0.5 ppm. Wild foods with elevated mercury concentrations can pose health risks to the humans who consume them, depending on consumption amounts and vulnerability factors such as age and pregnancy. Because wild fish can accumulate relatively high mercury levels and subsistence fishing contributes greatly to food security in northern regions, mercury-related health risks to people are greater in the north than in the south, where wild fish are not as frequently consumed. Here, I examine and compare known drivers of fish mercury concentrations in two aquatic food webs to investigate causes of between-lake variation in mercury concentrations in food fishes. I rela ...

Kakisa Lake and Tathlina Lake, located in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, support important fisheries for the local Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation (KTFN). Recently, Walleye (Sander vitreus) of typical catch size in Tathlina Lake were found to have mercury concentrations above Health Canada’s commercial sale guideline of 0.5 ppm. Wild foods with elevated mercury concentrations can pose health risks to the humans who consume them, depending on consumption amounts and vulnerability factors such as age and pregnancy. Because wild fish can accumulate relatively high mercury levels and subsistence fishing contributes greatly to food security in northern regions, mercury-related health risks to people are greater in the north than in the south, where wild fish are not as frequently consumed. Here, I examine and compare known drivers of fish mercury concentrations in two aquatic food webs to investigate causes of between-lake variation in mercury concentrations in food fishes. I rela ...

Indigenous populations living in urban northern Ontario have been repeatedly ignored in research regarding Indigenous Peoples food insecurity and food systems, despite the large proportion of Indigenous Peoples living in the region and the unique challenges of the urban northern food environment. The purpose of this thesis is to explore and better understand how Indigenous Peoples in the urban northwestern Ontario service hubs of Sioux Lookout and Thunder Bay access Indigenous foods and the relationship of Indigenous food to their food security and Indigenous food sovereignty. The methodology of this project is based upon on the principles of community-based participatory research, intersectional feminist theory, and the USAI Framework (utility, self-voicing, access, and inter-relationality). Data were collected in open-ended interviews with stakeholders from three groups across the two cities (1) Indigenous female community members (n=6), (2) non-Indigenous staff of Indigenous-servin ...

Perfluoroethylcyclohexanesulfonate (PFECHS) is an emerging perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) that has been considered a potential replacement for perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). However, there is little information characterizing the toxic potency of PFECHS to zebrafish embryos and its potential for effects in aquatic environments. This study assessed toxic potency of PFECHS in vivo during both acute (96-hour postfertilization) and chronic (21-day posthatch) exposures and tested concentrations of PFECHS from 500 ng/L to 2 mg/L. PFECHS was less likely to cause mortalities than PFOS for both the acute and chronic experiments based on previously published values for PFOS exposure, but exposure resulted in a similar incidence of deformities. Exposure to PFECHS also resulted in significantly increased abundance of transcripts of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (ppar?), cytochrome p450 1a1 (cyp1a1), and apolipoprotein IV (apoaIV) at concentrations nearing those of environ ...

Acute Exposure of Zebrafish (Danio rerio) to the Next-Generation Perfluoroalkyl Substance, Perfluoroethylcyclohexanesulfonate, Shows Similar Effects as Legacy Substances

noproject,accepted

Wittrock, V., S. Kulshreshtha, L. Magzul, and E. Wheaton, 2008: Adapting to impacts of climatic extremes: Case study of the Kainai Blood Indian Reserve, Alberta. Institutional Adaptation to Climate Change: A Project of SSRHC – MCRI Program, 108 pp.

Institutional Adaptation to Climate Change: A Project of SSRHC – MCRI Program, 108 pp

Increasing demands to address some of society’s most complex environmental and sustainability issues are defining a new agenda for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) research and practice. SEA, practiced solely in accordance with the traditional project EIA paradigm, has in the past failed to live up to its promise of facilitating true sustainability transitions and promoting the strategic choices needed to achieve broader sustainability goals and objectives. This thesis advances the notion that in order for SEA to fully realize its potential as a sustainability decision-making tool, attention must be paid to the decision processes for addressing environmental and sustainability issues, including the relevant institutional arrangements and governance structures that can enable or constrain the successful formulation and implementation of strategic initiatives. In comparison to the more traditional understanding of SEA as an impact assessment-based tool, however, such an approach ...

To advance monitoring of surface water resources, new remote sensing technologies including the forthcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite (expected launch 2022) and its experimental airborne prototype AirSWOT are being developed to repeatedly map water surface elevation (WSE) and slope (WSS) of the world’s rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. However, the vertical accuracies of these novel technologies are largely unverified; thus, standard and repeatable field procedures to validate remotely sensed WSE and WSS are needed. To that end, we designed, engineered, and operationalized a Water Surface Profiler (WaSP) system that efficiently and accurately surveys WSE and WSS in a variety of surface water environments using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) time-averaged measurements with Precise Point Positioning corrections. Here, we present WaSP construction, deployment, and a data processing workflow. We demonstrate WaSP data collections from repeat field deployme ...

Management strategies aimed at reducing nutrient enrichment of surface waters may be hampered by nutrient legacies that have accumulated in the landscape. Here, we apply the Net Anthropogenic Phosphorus Input (NAPI) model to reconstruct the historical phosphorus (P) input trajectories for the province of Ontario, which encompasses the Canadian portion of the drainage basin of the Laurentian Great Lakes (LGL). NAPI considers P inputs from detergent, human and livestock waste, fertilizer inputs, and P outputs by crop uptake. During the entire time period considered, from 1961 to 2016, Ontario experienced positive annual NAPI values. Despite a generally downward NAPI trend since the late 1970s, the lower LGL, especially Lake Erie, continue to be plagued by algal blooms. When comparing NAPI results and river monitoring data for the period 2003 to 2013, P discharged by Canadian rivers into Lake Erie only accounts for 12.5% of the NAPI supplied to the watersheds' agricultural areas. Thus, ov ...

The Alberta government is partnering with WaterSMART Solutions, a company that deals with complex water management issues, in an effort to mitigate the risk of severe drought this year in Alberta. The government said that parts of the province have experienced drought and water shortages for the past three years and this year will be no different. With less snowfall this season, the province is concerned that rivers and reservoirs are below normal levels. John Pomeroy, University of Saskatchewan professor and Canada research chair in water resources and climate change, earlier this month confirmed those fears. He called drought conditions in Alberta last year the” worst of a lifetime.” Pomeroy expressed concern over the upcoming season, and Alberta’s access to water. “The reservoirs are extremely low in the mountains and the irrigation districts, soil moisture reserves are depleted in the agricultural regions and groundwater is starting to drop down. So we don’t have any reserves t ...

Prior to the beginning of the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Solid Precipitation Inter-Comparison Experiment (SPICE, 2013–2015), two precipitation measurement intercomparison sites were established in Saskatchewan to help assess the systematic bias in the automated gauge measurement of solid precipitation and the impact of wind on the undercatch of snow. Caribou Creek, located in the southern boreal forest, and Bratt's Lake, located in the southern plains, are a contribution to the international SPICE project but also to examine national and regional issues in measuring solid precipitation, including regional assessment of wind bias in precipitation gauges and windshield configurations commonly used in Canadian monitoring networks. Overlapping with WMO-SPICE, the Changing Cold Regions Network (CCRN) Special Observation and Analysis Period (SOAP) occurred from 2014 to 2015, involving other enhanced observations and cold regions research projects in the same geographical domai ...

Young cancer patients have limited options for fertility treatment when facing gonadotoxic treatment. One promising fertility treatment for young cancer patients is the cryopreservation of immature ovarian follicles followed by maturation and subsequent reimplantation. However, preantral ovarian follicles currently have lower post-thaw success rates compared to mature oocytes and embryos. Previous research suggests that damage to vital intercellular connections, Transzonal Projections (TZPs), occurs during the cryopreservation process and may account for the observed lower post-thaw success rate in this tissue. It is likely that cryoprotective agent (CPA) equilibration is the cryopreservation step during which TZP damage occurs. Constructing a biologically relevant model of CPA equilibration and the associated damage may allow for improved protocols as measured by increased post-thaw success rates. Agent-based models are a promising technique to capture steps in the cryopreservation pr ...

The fork-based development mechanism provides the flexibility and the unified processes for software teams to collaborate easily in a distributed setting without too much coordination overhead. Currently, multiple social coding platforms support fork-based development, such as GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. Although these different platforms virtually share the same features, they have different emphasis. As GitHub is the most popular platform and the corresponding data is publicly available, most of the current studies are focusing on GitHub hosted projects. However, we observed anecdote evidences that people are confused about choosing among these platforms, and some projects are migrating from one platform to another, and the reasons behind these activities remain unknown. With the advances of Software Heritage Graph Dataset (SWHGD), we have the opportunity to investigate the forking activities across platforms. In this paper, we conduct an exploratory study on 10 popular open-sourc ...

Bonsal, B. R., Cuell, C., Wheaton, E., Sauchyn, D. J., & Barrow, E. (2017). An assessment of historical and projected future hydro-climatic variability and extremes over southern watersheds in the Canadian Prairies. International Journal of Climatology. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4967

An assessment of historical and projected future hydro-climatic variability and extremes over southern watersheds in the Canadian Prairies

Mohamed Ali, Ben Alaya, Francis W. Zwiers, Xuebin Zhang (2022). An extreme value based likelihood ratio test to evaluate BCCAQv2’s capability for downscaling and projecting future unprecedented precipitation extremes. Proceedings of the GWF Annual Open Science Meeting, May 16-18, 2022.

An extreme value based likelihood ratio test to evaluate BCCAQv2's capability for downscaling and projecting future unprecedented precipitation extremes

The Saskatchewan River Delta is one of the most extensive and biodiverse inland deltas in Canada. This area is situated on the traditional land of the Cumberland House Cree Nation, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, and Cumberland House Métis. There have been vast changes to the Saskatchewan River Delta’s flow patterns in the past century, which have had a profound impact on the people who live there as well as the surrounding ecosystem. One of the most prevelant results has been an overall reduction in the amount of water that reaches the delta in the summer. These changes have negatively impacted fish production in the area, which many of the inhabitants rely on as a valuable resource. In addition to the flow changes, sediment has become trapped in the reservoirs upstream, which yields a net sediment depletion in the delta over time. This depletion causes the banks and channel beds to erode, which has negative impacts on the surrounding areas as well. Sediment restoration is needed, but p ...

An ever-growing Canadian urban population could be severely impacted by increase in temperature. Canada’s mean temperature is projected to increase by 6-8°C towards the end of the 21st century. The consequence of rising temperatures is an increased likelihood of extreme temperature events like heatwaves and wildfires. The thesis aims to assess changes in extreme temperature in large Canadian urban areas. The research will help in developing mitigation measures like urban planning, which help cope with changing temperature extremes. Predicting urban temperature change will require rigorous assessment of climate models, to account for the uncertainty in projecting temperature in large urban agglomerates. CMIP6 ensemble of models, provide an opportunity for assessment of urban-based projections. The models however, would need to be of fine resolution to fully capture its variability since urban temperature is heavily influenced by local urban features that contribute to Urban heat island ...

Rates of food insecurity in Canada’s northern Indigenous communities are at levels that should constitute an emergency. Dominant explanations for these high rates of food insecurity often ignore the ongoing impacts of colonization and over-emphasize individual choices and nutritional guidelines developed by outsiders. The importance of holistic community health is ignored, along with the cultural and social values and practices that support community health and well-being, including traditional food systems. As the acute impact of climate change in the North threatens traditional food access, a shift toward an Indigenous food sovereignty approach in health and food policy is needed. With an emphasis on decolonization and prioritizing Indigenous ways of knowing, this approach supports communities pursuing self-determined food systems. The community of Kakisa in the Northwest Territories has a hybrid food system primarily comprised of traditional food and market food, with a small amoun ...

Rates of food insecurity in Canada’s northern Indigenous communities are at levels that should constitute an emergency. Dominant explanations for these high rates of food insecurity often ignore the ongoing impacts of colonization and over-emphasize individual choices and nutritional guidelines developed by outsiders. The importance of holistic community health is ignored, along with the cultural and social values and practices that support community health and well-being, including traditional food systems. As the acute impact of climate change in the North threatens traditional food access, a shift toward an Indigenous food sovereignty approach in health and food policy is needed. With an emphasis on decolonization and prioritizing Indigenous ways of knowing, this approach supports communities pursuing self-determined food systems. The community of Kakisa in the Northwest Territories has a hybrid food system primarily comprised of traditional food and market food, with a small amount ...

Climate change and food security are complex global issues that require multidisciplinary approaches to resolve. A nexus exists between both issues, especially in developing countries, but little prior research has successfully bridged the divide. Existing resolutions to climate change and food security are expensive and resource demanding. Climate modelling is at the forefront of climate change literature and development planning, whereas agronomy research is leading food security plans. The Benin Republic and Nigeria have grown and developed in recent years but may not have all the tools required to implement and sustain long-term food security in the face of climate change. The objective of this paper is to describe the development and outputs of a new model that bridges climate change and food security. Data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 5th Regional Assessment (IPCC AR5) were combined with a biodiversity database to develop the model to derive these outputs. ...

Causes of software architectural change are clas- sified as perfective, preventive, corrective, and adaptive. Change classification is used to promote common approaches for address- ing similar changes, produce appropriate design documentation for a release, construct a developer’s profile, form a balanced team, support code review, etc. However, automated architectural change classification techniques are in their infancy, perhaps due to the lack of a benchmark dataset and the need for extensive human involvement. To address these shortcomings, we present a benchmark dataset and a text classifier for determining the architectural change rationale from commit descriptions. First, we explored source code properties for change classification independent of project activity descriptions and found poor outcomes. Next, through extensive analysis, we identified the challenges of classifying architectural change from text and pro- posed a new classifier that uses concept tokens derived from t ...

The Saskatchewan River Basin (SRB) covers a large portion of the Canadian Prairies. Agriculture represents a dominant land-use in the SRB, and since the early 1900s irrigation has evolved to become an important part of the sector, improving yields and enabling the production of high-value crops. With climate change projected to increase temperatures and alter precipitation patterns, uncertainty surrounding water security for irrigators and First Nations in the SRB is expected to increase. Given the impacts of climate change, the recent announcements from the Alberta and Saskatchewan Governments regarding irrigation expansion, and the risks faced by First Nations under changing streamflow conditions, a hydrologic analysis of the SRB that dynamically incorporates climate change and irrigation is required to assess future water security and the viability of current water governance (i.e., the Master Agreement on Apportionment). This study integrates Prairie-specific irrigation in the HYPE ...

Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud., the invasive common reed, is a perennial grass with a cosmopolitan distribution. Unlike the native subspecies (Phragmites australis subsp. americanus) in North America, this invasive haplotype is an aggressive competitor and has firmly established itself throughout the Great Lakes basin by dominating wetlands and wet habitat, forcing out native plants and creating monocultures of little use to native fauna. Growing clonally and from seed, invasive Phragmites can quickly dominate wet areas throughout North America. It has also become a prominent feature in roadside habitats, where native plants are subject to increased disturbance under which invasive Phragmites will thrive competitively. In order to effectively manage this aggressive invader, we must be able to accurately map its distribution at multiple spatial scales, understand its invasion ecology, and determine efficacy of current removal efforts. In this thesis, I evaluated multiple re ...

Floods are natural disasters with a significant impact on regions worldwide. They cause extensive damage to infrastructure, disrupt transportation and communication networks, and lead to the displacement of populations. Moreover, floods have long-term consequences on ecosystems, agriculture, and economies. In recent years, Canada has experienced several devastating flood events, highlighting the nation’s vulnerability to such disasters. Climate change, with its associated extreme weather patterns, has exacerbated the frequency and intensity of these events. Specifically, heavy rainfall and rapid snowmelt have triggered extensive flooding in multiple provinces. As global temperatures rise and weather patterns change, the world must remain vigilant and adapt approaches to address the evolving threat of floods. To address this issue, we present an extensive investigation of climate models’ performance in reproducing annual maxima of daily precipitation (AMP) globally and daily snow depth ...

High-latitude environments store approximately half of the global organic carbon pool in peatlands, organic soils and permafrost, while large Arctic rivers convey an estimated 18–50 Tg C a−1 to the Arctic Ocean. Warming trends associated with climate change affect dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export from terrestrial to riverine environments. However, there is limited consensus as to whether exports will increase or decrease due to complex interactions between climate, soils, vegetation, and associated production, mobilization and transport processes. A large body of research has focused on large river system DOC and dissolved organic matter (DOM) lability and observed trends conserved across years, whereas investigation at smaller watershed scales show that thermokarst and fire have a transient impact on hydrologically mediated solute transport. This study, located in the Wolf Creek Research Basin situated ∼20 km south of Whitehorse, YT, Canada, utilizes a nested design to assess sea ...

Although water covers 70% of the earth's surface, less than 1% of it is freshwater that can be used for drinking. Even in Canada, where there is an abundance of freshwater in groundwater and in rivers and lakes, there are many indigenous communities that lack a sustainable source of drinking water. Such is the case for the Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest indigenous Reserve in Canada, located within an hour drive from major urban centers in southern Ontario and where less than 9% of the residents have access to safe, treated potable water. The major tributaries that drain the Six Nations reserve are part of the McKenzie Creek Watershed, which has been characterized as having the highest loading of sediments and nutrients to the lower Grand River, which eventually drains into the eastern basin of Lake Erie. This research project was initiated by the Six Nations community, who wanted an update on the prevalence of fecal contamination in their drinking water sources (wells, cis ...

In Canada, Indigenous youth have remained resilient despite being confronted with a wide range of structural and systemic risks, such as long-lasting boil water advisories, over-representation in the child welfare system, and injustices related to land treaties. As people of the land, all disruptions to ecological health are a disruption to personal and community holistic health. Land-based activities and cultural continuity strengthen pathways of perseverance for Indigenous youth (Toombs et al., 2016). For youth, cultural self-expression and personal agency are enhanced with digital platforms, which are well-suited to Indigenous people’s strengths in art, music, and oral forms of passing on knowledge. The field of mental health has turned to e-supports such as mobile applications (apps) that can provide easy-to-access intervention, when needed. To date, resilience interventions have received comparatively less attention than the study of resilience factors and processes. It is timely ...

The McKenzie Creek is an intermediate size tributary within the southern portion of the Grand River in the Great Lakes Basin. The Creek is an important ecosystem service provider, supplying water for agricultural irrigation to the rural communities within the sub-watershed as well as the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, the largest First Nations community by population in Canada. It is understood that lakes, river, and streams will be impacted by temperature increases and changes in precipitation patterns. Climate change projections for the McKenzie Creek sub-watershed indicate that the region will experience a 3-6°C increase in annual average temperature and increase in winter and early spring precipitation. This study explores the impact of climate change on the streamflow of the McKenzie Creek. The Coupled Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow Model (GSFLOW) was used to simulate changes in streamflow within the sub-watershed from 1951 to 2099. GSFLOW was run using observed NRCAN ...

Arisha Imran, Laura Neary, Brent Wolfe, Roland Hall (2022). Assessing the legacy effects of large-scale flooding in 2020 on hydro-limnological conditions of lakes in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (Alberta, Canada). Proceedings of the GWF Annual Open Science Meeting, May 16-18, 2022.

Assessing the legacy effects of large-scale flooding in 2020 on hydro-limnological conditions of lakes in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (Alberta, Canada)

Water resources in cold regions in western Canada face severe risks posed by anthropogenic global warming as evapotranspiration increases and precipitation regimes shift. Although understanding the water cycle is key for addressing climate change issues, it is difficult to obtain high spatial- and temporal-resolution observations of hydroclimatic processes, especially in remote regions. Climate models are useful tools for dissecting and diagnosing these processes, especially the convection-permitting (CP) high-resolution regional climate simulation, which provides advantages over lower-resolution models by explicitly representing convection. In addition to better representing convective systems, higher spatial resolution also better represents topography, mountain meteorology, and highly heterogeneous geophysical features. However, there is little work with convection-permitting regional climate models conducted over western Canada. Focusing on the Mackenzie River and Saskatchewan Rive ...

Kurkute, S., Li, Z., Li, Y., & Huo, F. (2020). Assessment and projection of the water budget over western Canada using convection-permitting weather research and forecasting simulations. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24(7), 3677-3697. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3677-2020

Assessment and projection of the water budget over western Canada using convection-permitting weather research and forecasting simulations

Lakes are regarded as sentinels of change, where shifts in environmental conditions significantly affect lake phenology. A significant consequence of the change is the perceived increase in the frequency, magnitude, and severity of algal blooms in lakes globally. Algal blooms/increased productivity in lakes pose significant ecological, economic and health risks, impacting fisheries, tourism, and freshwater access. The impacts of external nutrient loading from anthropogenic sources are well documented; however, blooms have been observed to occur in even remote lakes. Climate change is a hypothesized driver of these recent algal bloom trends, such as increasing global air temperatures, water temperatures, lake ice loss, precipitation intensity, and drought. Past research on the impact of climatic drivers on algal biomass dynamics has often been limited to lab, mesocosm, or short termed observations, due to limited in situ data. New remote sensing data products make use of historic multis ...

GWF-Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections|

Groundwater plays a vital role in the hydrologic cycle as it is the largest component of available freshwater. Therefore, diagnosing and predicting hydrologic changes and water futures in Cold Regions will have to account for groundwater. Hydrologic models play an important role in this process. There is a wide spectrum of models of varying complexities available to simulate surface water/groundwater flow and transport. The various users of such models question what level of complexities need to be considered within these different models to achieve project objectives. Currently, there are no clear guidelines or criteria to assist users in selecting appropriate hydrologic models for a specific application. Hydrological models range from lumped parameter models to spatially distributed models to discretize the watershed and represent key hydrologic processes. The main objective of this project is to examine the significance of shallow/deep groundwater flow in both unsaturated and satura ...

Assessment of Remote-sensed Chlorophyll-a dataset from ESA Lakes Climate Change Initiative Project

Warming climate will affect communities across Canada. Many of these communities do not have the adaptive capacity to deal with climate change related challenges. Indigenous communities are believed to be disproportionally affected by climate change because of the lack of adequate infrastructure, and historical and political obstacles that limit their overall adaptive capacity. Therefore, climate change data and information are required to understand the full extent to which these communities are exposed to climate risks. Many past studies in the literature have outlined the effects of climate change at large spatial scales. While these studies are important for understanding the broad effects of climate change, they are not useful for community or local adaptation planning. Ultimately, climate change impacts will be felt at a local level. Hence, high resolution climate change impact studies are urgently needed to capture the realities of these effects in greater detail and to provide ...

Snowmelt is a major driver of the hydrological cycle in cold regions, as such, its accurate representation in hydrological models is key to both regional snow depth and streamflow prediction. The choice of a proper method for snowmelt representation is often improvised; however, a thorough characterization of uncertainty in such process representations particularly in the context of climate change has remained essential. To fill this gap, this study revisits and characterizes performance and uncertainty around the two general approaches to snowmelt representation, namely Energy-Balance Modules (EBMs) and Temperature-Index Modules (TIMs). To account for snow depth simulation and projection, two common Snow Density formulations (SNDs) are implemented that map snow water equivalent (SWE) to snow depth. The major research questions we address are two-fold. First, we examine the dominant controls of uncertainty in snow depth and streamflow simulations across scales and in different climates ...

Assessment of the cascade of uncertainty in future snow depth projections across watersheds of mountainous, foothill, and plain areas in northern latitudes

It is directly aligned with the "Knowledge to Action" theme of the meeting, and also directly aligned with the Climate Related Precipitation Extremes project

User stories are informal, non-technical descriptions of features from a user's perspective that guide collaboration and iterative development in Agile projects. However, ambiguities in user stories can lead to miscommunication among stakeholders. Design models, such as UML sequence diagrams, are essential for enhancing communication, clarifying system behavior, and improving the development process. This paper presents an automated approach for generating behavioral models specifically sequence diagrams from natural language requirements expressed as user stories. We also investigate the effectiveness of a Large Language Model (LLM) in using generative AI for this task. By applying our approach and ChatGPT to two benchmark datasets with the same set of user stories, we generated corresponding sequence diagrams for comparison. Expert evaluations in Software Engineering reveal that our approach effectively produces relevant, simplified diagrams for straightforward user stories, whereas ...

Managing software versions can be a complex software development task as it involves multiple stakeholders with differing interests. Proper management of the versions requires manual interventions from developers, integrators, managers, and release engineers. Intervention is required since the changes across multiple stable versions are created to meet specific requirements from the stakeholders. Backporting, a commonly used activity to port changes from development branches to other versions, is time-consuming and error-prone. It is essential to prioritize stable software and backporting to avoid anomalies and vulnerabilities in specific versions, which can result in significant financial losses and cybercrime. This thesis aims to explore porting, code propagation and backports, identify their challenges and strategies, and present automated approaches to integrate the necessary changes from development to stable ver- sions. First, I did a systematic literature review to provide insig ...

4th year capstone project report, Mechanical department, University of Waterloo, April

Avian research and elevation gradients have been studied extensively in the last century but there is a lack of understanding of the patterns and underlying mechanisms that drive avian species richness in mountain peatlands. This project examined the richness-elevation pattern and possible underlying mechanisms driving this pattern and the accuracy of avian species richness observed when collecting richness estimates from ARUs. Avian species richness was recorded using ARUs at 24 mountain peatland sites in the Upper Bow Basin for one hour during the dawn chorus on four days spread out between May 22nd and June 12th during the breeding season. Avian species richness in mountain peatlands displayed a plateauing pattern, cubic model, much like the plateauing patterns described by McCain in 2009 and it was determined that this pattern was a result of the effect of area on richness and the effect of Natural Subregion, a proxy variable for climate, temperature, soil and vegetation community, ...

noproject,accepted

Watershed urbanization profoundly alters the hydrologic characteristics of urban rivers compared to their rural counterparts. This change in hydrologic conditions in combination with alterations to the sediment supply regime in urban watersheds leads to adjustments to channel form and the widespread degradation of urban rivers. Urban river management increasingly attempts to balance the societal needs of flood and erosion control, while simultaneously improving the ecological health or waterways. Two common types of river management include stormwater management (SWM), which focuses on the attenuation of urban floods, and in-stream restoration, which attempts to reconstruct stable and ecologically favourable channels. However, current urban river management designs lack consideration of the key process responsible for channel stability and habitat availability: bedload sediment transport. Two reasons for this shortcoming are the lack of bedload sediment data in urban watersheds and the ...

Basu, N., & Van Meter, K. J. (2019). Beyond the Mass Balance: A Process Based Approach to Modelling Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics. Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Feb 2019. Conference Presentation

Beyond the Mass Balance: A Process Based Approach to Modelling Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics

Basu, N. and Van Meter, K.J. (2019). Beyond the Mass Balance: A Process Based Approach to Modelling Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics. Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Feb 2019. Conference Presentation

Beyond the Mass Balance: A Process Based Approach to Modelling Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics

Beyond the Mass Balance: Modeling Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics in a Great Lakes Watershed

Basu, N. B., Van Meter, K. J., & Van Cappellen, P. (2018). Beyond the Mass Balance: Modeling Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics in a Great Lakes Watershed, American Geophysical Union 2018, Fall Meeting, Washington DC, USA Conference Presentation

Beyond the Mass Balance: Modeling Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics in a Great Lakes Watershed

Beyond the mass balance: Modelling time lags in Watershed Response due to Legacy Nutrients

High-resolution precipitation and temperature projections are indispensable for informed decision-making, risk assessment, and planning. Here, we have developed an extensive database (SPQM-CMIP6-CAN) of high-resolution (0.1°) precipitation and temperature projections extending till 2100 at a daily scale for Canada. We employed a novel Semi-Parametric Quantile Mapping (SPQM) methodology to bias-correct the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase-6 (CMIP6) projections for four Shared Socio-economic Pathways. SPQM is simple, yet robust, in reproducing the observed marginal properties, trends, and variability according to future scenarios, while maintaining a smooth transition from observations to projected simulations. The SPQM-CMIP6-CAN database encompasses 693 simulations derived from 34 diverse climate models for precipitation. Similarly, for temperature projections, our database comprises 581 simulations from 27 climate models. These projections are valuable for hydrological, env ...

Abdelmoaty, Hebatallah M.; Rajulapati, Chandra Rupa; Nerantzaki, Sofia D.; Papalexiou, Simon Michael (2025) Bias-corrected high-resolution temperature and precipitation projections for Canada, Nature, Scientific Data , Data Descriptors, Vol. 12, Iss. 1, Article number: 191, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04396-z

Bias-corrected high-resolution temperature and precipitation projections for Canada

Annual maxima of daily precipitation are widely used to design critical infrastructures such as dams and stormwater networks. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events. Climate model projections offer a glimpse into the future and can help assess potential changes and impacts. It is reasonable to assume that climate models simulating accurately the historical climate may also simulate well the future. Here, we assessed the latest generation of climate models, that is the CMIP6 models, to reproduce the historical annual maximum daily precipitation. We compared simulations and observations of extreme precipitation using advanced summary statistics, novel probability similarity measures, and robust statistical tests. The results indicate that models, in general, reproduce well the behavior of annual maximum precipitation, but biases exist especially in the simultaneous behavior of mean and variance. Shortcomings of CMIP6 models are highlighted in ...

The Pan-Third Pole includes the Tibetan Plateau and the northern intracontinental arid region of Asia, extending to the Caucasus Mountains in the west and the western Loess Plateau in the east. This region covers 20 million square kilometers and affects the environment inhabited by three billion people. Two special projects have been implemented to provide important scientific support for eco-environmental refining and sustainable economic and social development of the Pan-Third Pole region, with the Tibetan Plateau as its core: the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition Program (a national special project) and the Pan-Third Pole Environmental Change and Construction of the Green Silk Road (hereinafter referred to as the Silk Road and Environment), a strategic pilot science and technology project (Category A) of the Chinese Academy of Science. The Pan-Third Pole big data system is an important data support platform for these two major research programs and has several purposes: t ...

The dynamics and processes of nutrient cycling and release were examined for a lowland wetland-pond system, draining woodland in southern England. Hydrochemical and meteorological data were analyzed from 1997 to 2017, along with high-resolution in situ sensor measurements from 2016 to 2017. The results showed that even a relatively pristine wetland can become a source of highly bioavailable phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N), and silicon (Si) during low-flow periods of high ecological sensitivity. The drivers of nutrient release were primary production and accumulation of biomass, which provided a carbon (C) source for microbial respiration and, via mineralization, a source of bioavailable nutrients for P and N co-limited microorganisms. During high-intensity nutrient release events, the dominant N-cycling process switched from denitrification to nitrate ammonification, and a positive feedback cycle of P and N release was sustained over several months during summer and fall. Temperature cont ...

Polyfluoroalkyl substances and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a family of anthropogenic chemicals that are used in food packaging, waterproof clothing, and firefighting foams for their water and oil resistant properties. Though levels of some PFAS appear to be decreasing in Canada's south, environmental levels have been increasing in the Arctic due to long-range transport. However, the implications of this on human exposures in sub-Arctic and Arctic populations in Canada have yet to be established. To address this data gap, human biomonitoring research was completed in Old Crow, Yukon, and the Dehcho region, Northwest Territories. Blood samples were collected from adults residing in seven northern First Nations and were analyzed by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. A total of nine PFAS were quantified: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulphonic acid (PFOS), perfluorohexane sulphonic acid (PFHxS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), ...

Key message Black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) has historically self-replaced following wildfire, but recent evidence suggests that this is changing. One factor could be negative impacts of intensifying fire activity on black spruce seed rain. We investigated this by measuring black spruce seed rain and seedling establishment. Our results suggest that increases in fire activity could reduce seed rain meaning reductions in black spruce establishment. Context Black spruce is an important conifer in boreal North America that develops a semi-serotinous, aerial seedbank and releases a pulse of seeds after fire. Variation in postfire seed rain has important consequences for black spruce regeneration and stand composition. Aims We explore the possible effects of changes in fire regime on the abundance and viability of black spruce seeds following a very large wildfire season in the Northwest Territories, Canada (NWT). Methods We measured postfire seed rain over 2 years at 25 blac ...

Blockchain based identity management and enhanced security framework for crowdsourcing water science project

Flow management has the potential to significantly affect ecosystem condition. Shallow lakes in arid regions are especially susceptible to flow management changes, which can have important implications for the formation of cyanobacterial blooms. Here, we reveal water quality shifts associated with changing source water inflow management. Using in situ monitoring data, we studied a seven-year time span during which inflows to a shallow, eutrophic drinking water reservoir transitioned from primarily natural landscape runoff (2014–2015) to managed flows from a larger upstream reservoir (Lake Diefenbaker; 2016–2020) and identified significant changes in cyanobacteria (as phycocyanin) using generalized additive models to classify cyanobacterial bloom formation. We then connected changes in water source with shifts in chemistry and the occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms using principal components analysis. Phycocyanin was greater in years with managed reservoir inflow from a mesotrophic ups ...

Climate change and extreme weather events affect hydrology and water resources in catchments worldwide. This study analysed Blue Water (BW) and Green Water (GW) scarcity in the McKenzie Creek watershed in Ontario, Canada, and explored how changes in temperature and precipitation may impact water scarcity dynamics. The McKenzie Creek is the main water source for agricultural activities for the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve (the largest Indigenous community in Canada) and other non-Indigenous communities in the watershed. Data from the water use surveys and streamflow simulations performed using the Coupled Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow Model (GSFLOW) under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios 4.5 and 8.5, representing moderate and high greenhouse gas emissions and climate warming, respectively, were used to calculate BW and GW scarcity. Study results showed that BW scarcity may increase to 'moderate' lev ...

Peatland ecosystems are important as natural climate regulators for their capacity to store carbon over long-time scales. Carbon cycling in peatlands in the boreal ecozone of Canada has been more widely studied than the boreal shield of Ontario, where peat depths are thinner and peatlands spatially smaller. The reliance on fill and spill hydrologic connectivity makes the water table dynamics of peatlands in Ontario’s Eastern Georgian Bay (EGB) region of the Ontario shield ecozone sensitive to rain and drought periods. The drying of wetlands in the EGB region decreases moss productivity and increases the ecosystem’s vulnerability to wildfire through an increase in the water table depth. In an effort to understand how peatlands respond to interannual climate variability and wildfire, we examined the role of regional climate patterns on growing season CO2 exchange from an Ontario shield peatland and completed a post-wildfire assessment of CO2 exchange patterns in a recently burned peatlan ...

The Global Water Futures program (GWF) was granted $77.8 million by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund to conduct research on the forecasting and management of water futures in Canada as part of an effort to combat projected risks associated with global climate change. The production of scientific knowledge is a clear objective of the GWF program, and the evaluation and enumeration of research outcomes is a key metric. The goal of this work is to create a comprehensive bibliographic analysis of research outputs across the full extent of the GWF program including metadata such as the title, author, publication date and geographic locations of the works. Processes to incorporate quality control, classification and validation were documented to ensure these outputs are effectively managed, monitored and evaluated. Links to the resources are also made available to ensure they are easily accessible to a wide range of audiences. Enhanced accessibility is key in sharing critical climat ...

A co-creation framework was developed for non-Indigenous scientists and engineers aiming to conduct research with Indigenous communities. Developed from pre-existing CBPR and co-creation theories, this guide incorporated the personal experiences of two master's students working on this project. As Indigenous communities and individuals are not monoliths, the first draft of this framework was devised to be expanded for use with various other groups allowing researchers to apply relevant concepts specific to their projects. The co-creation framework was developed and executed by conducting an initial water quality analysis of drinking water from SN. Initiated by Duignan’s 2019 SN health survey feedback, preliminary water parameters were analyzed for select households across the community. Community services and members were instrumental in co-creating this style of data collection and knowledge translation with GWF researchers. Collections methods were primarily adapted due to the COVID- ...

Lakes around the world are experiencing increasing degradation due to climate change and human activity. In particular, cultural eutrophication—defined as the overfertilization of waterbodies with nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus due to human activities—and associated harmful algal blooms pose significant environmental, social, and economic challenges. These challenges include declines in biodiversity, disruptions to drinking water treatment, and loss of cultural ecosystem services such as recreation. Despite extensive scientific understanding of eutrophication, a gap persists between understanding and effective management. This thesis aims to bridge that gap by examining the long-term drivers and societal impacts of water quality degradation in two regionally important, diverse, temperate lake ecosystems in Canada: Buffalo Pound Lake in Saskatchewan and Elk/Beaver Lake in British Columbia. By collaborating with end-users and community members and applying biophysical and econ ...

Forward The dynamic nature of water science data—in which approaches to observation, modelling, and prediction of Earth systems are continuously evolving—shape our present data and re-shape our legacy data through a cycle of repeated reanalysis with improved or emerging technologies (e.g., UAVs with new sensors, new models, adoption of machine learning /artificial intelligence). Such repeated interactions with well-managed data—past and present—leads to improved data, new discoveries, and a sustainable process of iterative refinement of knowledge and research questions. This process inevitably results in future data which will become tomorrow’s important legacy. Global Water Futures Observatories (GWFO) is thus steadfastly committed to the long-term stewardship of its open data and, to this end, has devised a new template-based form of data catalogue, GWFNet, capable of incorporating legacy data and future data of a to-be-determined form as readily as it handles data from the present ...

Building upon open-barrel corer and sectioning systems to foster the continuing legacy of John Glew

Drought projections on seasonal to annual time scales are presented for Canada over the twenty-first century, based on the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Results make use of bias-corrected temperature and precipitation projections from 29 global climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), and include three different forcing scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). Large differences in projected drought changes are observed among different regions. On the annual time scale, southwestern Canada and the Prairies may experience an increase in drying under a warmer climate. On the other hand, coastal regions, including northern Canada, the northwest Pacific coast and the Atlantic region, show a small increase in wetness. Winter and spring SPEI results depict an increase in wetting, reflecting the projected country-wide winter and spring precipitation increases under climate change. For the most part, autumn and summer ...

Tam, B.Y., Szeto, K. Bonsal, B., Flato, G., Cannon, A.J. and Rong, R. (2019) CMIP5 drought projections in Canada based on the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques, 44:1, 90-107, DOI: 10.1080/07011784.2018.1537812

CMIP5 drought projections in Canada based on the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index

Citizen science initiatives span a wide range of topics, designs, and research needs. Despite this heterogeneity, there are several common barriers to the uptake and sustainability of citizen science projects and the information they generate. One key barrier often cited in the citizen science literature is data quality. Open-source tools for the analysis, visualization, and reporting of citizen science data hold promise for addressing the challenge of data quality, while providing other benefits such as technical capacity-building, increased user engagement, and reinforcing data sovereignty. We developed an operational citizen science tool called the Community Water Data Analysis Tool (CWDAT)—a R/Shiny-based web application designed for community-based water quality monitoring. Surveys and facilitated user-engagement were conducted among stakeholders during the development of CWDAT. Targeted recruitment was used to gather feedback on the initial CWDAT prototype’s interface, features, ...

Traditional food consumption among northern populations is associated with improved nutrition but occasionally can also increase contaminant exposure. High levels of cadmium in the organs of moose from certain regions of the Northwest Territories, Canada, led to the release of consumption notices. These notices recommended that individuals limit their consumption of kidney and liver from moose harvested from the Southern Mackenzie Mountain. A human biomonitoring project was designed to better characterize exposure and risks from contaminants, including cadmium, among Dene/Métis communities of the Northwest Territories Mackenzie Valley, Canada. The project included a dietary assessment (food frequency questionnaire) to estimate moose and caribou organ (kidney and liver) consumption, as well as urine and blood sampling for the measurement of cadmium concentration using mass spectrometry. For a subset of the samples, urine cotinine was also quantified. The results from this biomonitoring ...

The global terrestrial water storage (TWS), the most accessible component in the hydrological cycle, is a general indicator of freshwater availability on Earth. The global TWS trend caused by climate change is harder to detect than global mean temperature due to the highly uneven hydrological responses across the globe, the brevity of global freshwater observations, and large noises of internal climate variability. To overcome the climate noise and small sample size of observations, we leverage the vast amount of observed and simulated meteorological fields at daily scales to project global TWS through its fingerprints in weather patterns. The novel method identifies the relationship between annual global mean TWS and daily surface air temperature and humidity fields using multi-model hydrological simulations. We found that globally, approximately 50% of days for most years since 2016 have climate change signals emerged above the noise of internal variability. Climate change signals in ...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report critically examines, for the first time, the capacity of Canada’s water sector with respect to meeting and helping other countries meet the water-related targets of the UN’s global sustainable development agenda. Several components of this capacity are examined, including water education and research, investment in water projects that Canada makes internally and externally, and experiences in water technology and governance. Analysis of the water education system suggests that there is a broad capability in institutions of higher learning in Canada to offer training in the diverse subject areas important in water. In most cases, however, this has not led to the establishment of specific water study programmes. Only a few universities provide integrated water education. There is a need for a comprehensive listing of water-related educational activities in universities and colleges — a useful resource for potential students and employers. A review of rece ...

Winter on the prairies is not usually a time to worry about drought and fire. At least, it wasn’t. But large swaths of the country, from B.C. through Ontario, are currently seeing a lack of snow and water accumulation that is “unprecedented in modern times,” according to an expert. “2023 [was] one of the hottest years in Canadian history, depending where you are in the country that year,” says John Pomeroy, hydrologist and professor in the department of Geography and Planning at the University of Saskatchewan. “This was a year that [had] not only a drought, but it was a year that very closely followed the worst-case climate projections for around the year 2100. And so this gives us a taste of what climate change might bring to Canada.” In one B.C. town, the drought is so severe residents are using bottled water. The Alberta government is already making water restriction plans for the spring and summer to come. The conditions will be perfect for a wildfire season that could eclipse l ...

noproject,accepted

Cascade of uncertainty in CMIP5 climate projections for scenario-led water resource impact assessments in major river basins of Canada

Cascade of uncertainty in CMIP5 climate projections for scenario-led water resource impact assessments in major river basins of Canada

To support Indigenous communities in preparing for uncertainties such as climate change impacts and unexpected threats to health, there are calls by researchers and community members for decision support tools that meaningfully and sensitively bring together Indigenous contextualized factors such as social dynamics, local- and culture-specific knowledge, and data with academic tools and practices including predictive modeling. This project used a community engaged approach to co-create an agent-based model geographically bounded to a reserve community to examine three community-requested simulations. Community members and researchers co-designed, built, and verified the model simulations: a contaminated water delivery truck; a Pow Wow where a waterborne infectious disease spreads; and a flood which restricts typical movement around the reserve for daily tasks and health care. The simulations’ findings, displayed as both conventional and narrative outputs, revealed management areas wher ...

Permafrost thaw/degradation in the Northern Hemisphere due to global warming is projected to accelerate in coming decades. Assessment of this trend requires improved understanding of the evolution and dynamics of permafrost areas. Land surface models (LSMs) are well-suited for this due to their physical basis and large-scale applicability. However, LSM application is challenging because (a) LSMs demand extensive and accurate meteorological forcing data, which are not readily available for historic conditions and only available with significant biases for future climate, (b) LSMs possess a large number of model parameters, and (c) observations of thermal/hydraulic regimes to constrain those parameters are severely limited. This study addresses these challenges by applying the MESH-CLASS modeling framework (Modélisation Environmenntale communautaire—Surface et Hydrology embedding the Canadian Land Surface Scheme) to three regions within the Mackenzie River Basin, Canada, under various me ...

Permafrost plays an important role in the hydrology of arctic/subarctic regions. However, permafrost thaw/degradation has been observed over recent decades in the Northern Hemisphere and is projected to accelerate. Hence, understanding the evolution of permafrost areas is urgently needed. Land surface models (LSMs) are well-suited for predicting permafrost dynamics due to their physical basis and large-scale applicability. However, LSM application is challenging because of the large number of model parameters and the complex memory of state variables. Significant interactions among the underlying processes and the paucity of observations of thermal/hydraulic regimes add further difficulty. This study addresses the challenges of LSM application by evaluating the uncertainty due to meteorological forcing, assessing the sensitivity of simulated permafrost dynamics to LSM parameters, and highlighting issues of parameter identifiability. Modelling experiments are implemented using the MESH- ...

Predictions of floods, droughts, and fast drought-flood transitions are required at different time scales to develop management strategies targeted at minimizing negative societal and economic impacts. Forecasts at daily and seasonal scale are vital for early warning, estimation of event frequency for hydraulic design, and long-term projections for developing adaptation strategies to future conditions. All three types of predictions—forecasts, frequency estimates, and projections—typically treat droughts and floods independently, even though both types of extremes can be studied using related approaches and have similar challenges. In this review, we (a) identify challenges common to drought and flood prediction and their joint assessment and (b) discuss tractable approaches to tackle these challenges. We group challenges related to flood and drought prediction into four interrelated categories: data, process understanding, modeling and prediction, and human–water interactions. Data-re ...

This study presents an analysis of daily temperature and precipitation extremes with return periods ranging from 2 to 50 years in phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) multimodel ensemble of simulations. Judged by similarity with reanalyses, the new-generation models simulate the present-day temperature and precipitation extremes reasonably well. In line with previous CMIP simulations, the new simulations continue to project a large-scale picture of more frequent and more intense hot temperature extremes and precipitation extremes and vanishing cold extremes under continued global warming. Changes in temperature extremes outpace changes in global annual mean surface air temperature (GSAT) over most landmasses, while changes in precipitation extremes follow changes in GSAT globally at roughly the Clausius–Clapeyron rate of ~7% °C−1. Changes in temperature and precipitation extremes normalized with respect to GSAT do not depend strongly on the choice of forcing sce ...

Globally, extreme temperatures have severe impacts on the economy, human health, food and water security, and ecosystems. Mortality rates have been increased due to heatwaves in several regions. Specifically, megacities have high impacts with the increasing temperature and ever-expanding urban areas; it is important to understand extreme temperature changes in terms of duration, magnitude, and frequency for future risk management and disaster mitigation. Here we framed a novel Semi-Parametric quantile mapping method to bias-correct the CMIP6 minimum and maximum temperature projections for 199 megacities worldwide. The changes in maximum and minimum temperature are quantified in terms of climate indices (ETCCDI and HDWI) for the four Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5). Cities in northern Asia and northern North America (Kazan, Samara, Heihe, Montréal, Edmonton, and Moscow) are warming at a higher rate compared to the other regions. There is an inc ...

With global warming, the behavior of extreme precipitation shifts toward nonstationarity. Here, we analyze the annual maxima of daily precipitation (AMP) all over the globe using projections of the latest phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) under four shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). The projections were bias corrected using a semiparametric quantile mapping, a novel technique extended to extreme precipitation. This analysis 1) explores the variability of future AMP globally and 2) investigates the performance of stationary and nonstationary models in describing future AMP with trends. The results show that global warming potentially intensifies AMP. For the nonparametric analysis, the 33-yr precipitation levels are increasing up to 33.2 mm compared to the historical period. The parametric analysis shows that the return period of 100-yr historical events will decrease approximately to 50 and 70 years in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively. Un ...

Changes of Extreme Precipitation in CMIP6 Projections: Should We Use Stationary or Nonstationary Models?

Projections of change in high-flow extremes with global warming vary widely among, and within, large midlatitude river basins. The spatial variability of these changes is attributable to multiple causes. One possible and little-studied cause of changes in high-flow extremes is a change in the synchrony of mainstem and tributary streamflow during high-flow extremes at the mainstem-tributary confluence. We examined reconstructed and simulated naturalized daily streamflow at confluences on the Columbia River in western North America, quantifying changes in synchrony in future streamflow projections and estimating the impact of these changes on high-flow extremes. In the Columbia River basin, projected flow regimes across colder tributaries initially diverge with warming as they respond to climate change at different rates, leading to a general decrease in synchrony, and lower high-flow extremes, relative to a scenario with no changes in synchrony. Where future warming is sufficiently larg ...

Changing River Network Synchrony Modulates Projected Increases in High Flows

Quinton, W. L., & Baltzer, J. L. (2013b). Changing surface water systems in the discontinuous permafrost zone: implications for streamflow. Cold and Mountain Region Hydrological Systems Under Climate Change: Towards Improved Projections. IAHS Publ, 360, 85-92.

Cold and Mountain Region Hydrological Systems Under Climate Change: Towards Improved Projections. IAHS Publ, 360, 85-92

Water issues in Indigenous communities of “Canada” are rooted in the settler-nation’s history of colonialism. Conventional approaches to water management have failed to provide Indigenous communities with water security and limit Indigenous self-determination. Innovative and community-led approaches to water monitoring and management can help promote Indigenous water governance. The Co-Creation of Indigenous Water Quality Tools (CCIWQT) research project is a Haudenosaunee-led approach to improving water security in Six Nations of the Grand River (Six Nations). In alignment with the needs and priorities of Six Nations and underpinned by Haudenosaunee values, the goal of CCIWQT is to develop a broad range of “tools” that can assist in enhancing the community's control over their water management. These tools are being developed through a novel interpretation of co-creation. For CCIWQT, co-creation works to harmonize Indigenous and Western approaches to science by recognizing and respecti ...

The southern Canadian Rockies are prone to extreme precipitation that often leads to high streamflow, deep snowpacks, and avalanche risks. Many of these precipitation events are associated with rain–snow transitions, which are highly variable in time and space due to the complex topography. A warming climate will certainly affect these extremes and the associated rain–snow transitions. The goal of this study is to investigate the characteristics and variability of rain–snow transitions aloft and how they will change in the future. Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulations were conducted from 2000 to 2013 and these were repeated in a warmer pseudo-global warming (PGW) future. Rain–snow transitions occurred aloft throughout the year over the southern Canadian Rockies, but their elevations and depths were highly variable, especially across the continental divide. In PGW conditions, with future air temperatures up to 4–5°C higher on average over the Canadian Rockies, rain–snow tra ...

noproject,accepted

Over the past three decades, concerns have been raised regarding the potential adverse effects of certain natural and synthetic chemicals that can disrupt the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife. These endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been reported to cause developmental and reproductive effects at low concentrations (ng/L) in many vertebrate species, particularly in aquatic organisms such as fish. One of the most prevalent sources of EDCs in aquatic environments is municipal wastewater effluents (MWWEs). This is because conventional wastewater treatment systems are inefficient at removing many of the diverse contaminants present in raw sewage, including EDCs. Although multiple initiatives have been initiated to establish standardized testing and monitoring criteria for EDCs in the environment worldwide, our understanding of the contribution of MWWEs to endocrine disruption in Canadian surface waters is incomplete. Therefore, the main aims of this project were to 1) furt ...

Imran, A. (2023) Characterizing the legacy in progress effects of large-scale flooding on the hydrological and limnological conditions of shallow lakes in a northern delta. University of Waterloo.

Characterizing the legacy in progress effects of large-scale flooding on the hydrological and limnological conditions of shallow lakes in a northern delta

Anderson L., Neary L., Bidwell M., Conkin J., Parker L., Kindopp R., Wolfe B., Hall R. (2022) Characterizing vulnerability of shallow ponds to climate warming across the whooping crane's summer breeding range (Alberta-NWT): a new collaborative project. ArcticNet 2022, Toronto, (December 48).

Characterizing vulnerability of shallow ponds to climate warming across the whooping crane's summer breeding range (Alberta-NWT): a new collaborative project

Anderson L., Neary L., Bidwell M., Conkin J., Parker L., Kindopp R., Wolfe B., Hall R. (2022) Characterizing vulnerability of shallow ponds to climate warming across the whooping crane's summer breeding range (Alberta-NWT): a new collaborative project. GNWT-Laurier Partnership Annual General Meeting, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo.

Characterizing vulnerability of shallow ponds to climate warming across the whooping crane's summer breeding range (Alberta-NWT): a new collaborative project

In agricultural watersheds across the world, decades of commercial fertilizer application and intensive livestock production have led to elevated stream nutrient levels and problems of eutrophication in both inland and coastal waters. Despite widespread implementation of a range of strategies to reduce nutrient export to receiving water bodies, expected improvements in water quality have often not been observed. It is increasingly understood that long time lags to seeing reductions in stream nutrient concentrations can result from the existence of legacy nutrient stores within the landscape. However, it is less understood how spatial heterogeneity in legacy nutrient dynamics might allow us to target implementation of appropriate management practices. In this thesis, we have explored the dominant controls of legacy nitrogen accumulation in a predominantly agricultural 6000-km2 mixed-landuse watershed. First, we synthesized a 216 year (1800 – 2016) nitrogen (N) mass balance trajectory at ...

Environmental Research Letters (special Legacy issue

Chesapeake legacies: the importance of legacy nitrogen to improving Chesapeake Bay water quality

The United Nations (UN) has identified 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to tackle major barriers to sustainable development by 2030. Achieving these goals will rely on the contribution of all nations and require balancing trade-offs among different sectors. Water and food insecurity have long been the two major challenges facing China. To address these challenges and achieve the SDGs, China needs to safeguard its agricultural irrigation and water conservancy projects. Although China is making efforts to transition its agricultural development to a sustainable trajectory by promoting water-saving irrigation, a number of issues are emerging, both with policy reforms and technological innovations. Through synthesizing the historical development of agriculture and its relationship with policy and political regimes, this paper identifies four major issues that are challenging the sustainability transformation of China’s agricultural irrigation system and water conservancy projects: ( ...

China's Agricultural Irrigation and Water Conservancy Projects: A Policy Synthesis and Discussion of Emerging Issues

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5139-2022 All code is available in the project GitHub repository (https://github.com/hfadams/pci, last access: 7 August 2022) and in Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6972355, Adams, 2022). The PCI dataset and additional data files can be openly accessed at the Federated Research Data Repository at https://doi.org/10.20383/102.0488 (Ada ms et al., 2021).

Study region Lower Nelson River Basin, Manitoba, Canada Study focus Hydroelectricity makes up almost 97% of electricity generated in Manitoba, of which over 70% of its generation capacity is installed along the Lower Nelson River (LNR). In this study, 19 climate projections representing ~ 87% of climatic variability over Hudson Bay Drainage Basin are applied to coupled hydrologic-operations models to estimate water supply and hydropower generation potential changes under future climates. New hydrological insights for the region Future inflow to the forebay of the main hydropower generating stations along LNR is expected to increase in spring and summer but decrease in winter and fall. Consequently, hydropower generation potential is projected to increase for spring, the historical flood season, which may lead to reduced reservoir inflow retention efficiency. In extremely dry climatic simulations, winter seasons see a reduction in reservoir inflow and hydropower generation potential, ...

Despite numerous studies in statistical downscaling methodologies, there remains a lack of methods that can downscale from precipitation modeled in global climate models to regional level high resolution gridded precipitation. This paper reports a novel downscaling method using a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), CliGAN, which can downscale large-scale annual maximum precipitation given by simulation of multiple atmosphere-ocean global climate models (AOGCM) from Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project 6 (CMIP6) to regional-level gridded annual maximum precipitation data. This framework utilizes a convolution encoder-dense decoder network to create a generative network and a similar network to create a critic network. The model is trained using an adversarial training approach. The critic uses the Wasserstein distance loss function and the generator is trained using a combination of adversarial loss Wasserstein distance, structural loss with the multi-scale structural similarity ind ...

This thesis presents an assessment of the effects of climate change in reservoir inflow and hydropower generation potential across the Lower Nelson River Basin. A hydrologic-operations model coupling framework was developed and two coupled models, WATFLOOD-MODSIM and HEC-HMS-MODSIM, were set up to simulate both basin water balance and hydropower generation. The coupled models were driven by nineteen climate simulations from CMIP5 to compute historical (1981-2010) and future (2021-2070) reservoir inflow and hydropower generation potential. This work aimed to identify changes in the annual and seasonal reservoir inflow quantity and distribution and to evaluate the likelihood of future hydropower generation exceedance (relative to a historical threshold). Results show that it is about as likely as not or unlikely to be a statistically significant trend (neither increase nor decrease) in annual and seasonal reservoir inflow and hydropower generation potential over 30-year periods on Lower ...

In the recent decades, precipitation patterns and corresponding streamflow responses in many cold regions catchments have changed considerably due to warming. Understanding historical changes and predicting future responses are of great importance for planning and management of water resources systems. Regional climate simulations using convention- permitting models are helpful in representing the fine-scale cloud and mesoscale processes, which are critical for understanding the physical mechanisms that cause in convective precipitation. From a hydrological perspective, these fine resolution simulations are helpful in understanding the runoff generation mechanisms, particularly for mountainous watersheds, which have high spatial variation in precipitation due to large differences in elevation over small distances. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is developing the Federal Flood Mapping Guidelines Series to support the National Disaster Mitigation Program (NDMP) led by Public Safety Ca ...

Climate extremes threaten human health, economic stability, and the well-being of natural and built environments (e.g., 2003 European heat wave). As the world continues to warm, climate hazards are expected to increase in frequency and intensity. The impacts of extreme events will also be more severe due to the increased exposure (growing population and development) and vulnerability (aging infrastructure) of human settlements. Climate models attribute part of the projected increases in the intensity and frequency of natural disasters to anthropogenic emissions and changes in land use and land cover. Here, we review the impacts, historical and projected changes,and theoretical research gaps of key extreme events (heat waves, droughts, wildfires, precipitation, and flooding). We also highlight the need to improve our understanding of the dependence between individual and interrelated climate extremes because anthropogenic-induced warming increases the risk of not only individual climate ...

GWF-Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections|

Risk of waterborne diseases (WBDs) persists in temperate regions. The extent of influence of climate-related factors on the risk of specific WBDs in a changing climate and the projections of future climate scenarios on WBDs in temperate regions are unclear. A systematic review was conducted to identify specific waterborne pathogens and diseases prevalent in temperate region literature and transmission cycle associations with a changing climate. Projections of WBD risk based on future climate scenarios and models used to assess future disease risk were identified. Seventy-five peer-reviewed full-text articles for temperate regions published in the English language were included in this review after a search of Scopus and Web of Science databases from 2010 to 2023. Using thematic analysis, climate-related drivers impacting WBD risk were identified. Risk of WBDs was influenced mostly by weather (rainfall: 22% and heavy rainfall: 19%) across the majority of temperate regions and hydrologic ...

Streamflow in high-mountain Asia is influenced by meltwater from snow and glaciers, and determining impacts of climate change on the region’s cryosphere is essential to understand future water supply. Past and future changes in seasonal snow are of particular interest, as specifics at the scale of the full region are largely unknown. Here we combine models with observations to show that regional snowmelt is a more important contributor to streamflow than glacier melt, that snowmelt magnitude and timing changed considerably during 1979–2019 and that future snow meltwater supply may decrease drastically. The expected changes are strongly dependent on the degree of climate change, however, and large variations exist among river basins. The projected response of snowmelt to climate change indicates that to sustain the important seasonal buffering role of the snowpacks in high-mountain Asia, it is imperative to limit future climate change.

Study region Lower Nelson River Basin, Manitoba, Canada Study focus Hydroelectricity makes up almost 97% of electricity generated in Manitoba, of which over 70% of its generation capacity is installed along the Lower Nelson River (LNR). In this study, 19 climate projections representing ~ 87% of climatic variability over Hudson Bay Drainage Basin are applied to coupled hydrologic-operations models to estimate water supply and hydropower generation potential changes under future climates. New hydrological insights for the region Future inflow to the forebay of the main hydropower generating stations along LNR is expected to increase in spring and summer but decrease in winter and fall. Consequently, hydropower generation potential is projected to increase for spring, the historical flood season, which may lead to reduced reservoir inflow retention efficiency. In extremely dry climatic simulations, winter seasons see a reduction in reservoir inflow and hydropower generation potential, ...

Ice jams are impacted by several climatic factors that are likely to change under a future warming climate. Due to the complexity of river ice phenology, projection of future ice jams is challenging. However, it is important to be able to project future ice jam behavior. Additionally, ice jam research is limited by the shortage of long-term monitoring data. In this paper, a novel framework for projecting future ice jam behavior is developed and implemented for ice jams in a data-sparse region, the Slave River Delta, NWT, Canada, situated in the Mackenzie River Basin (MRB). This framework employs both historical records and future hydro-meteorological data, acquired from climate and hydrological models, to drive the river ice models and quantify climate-induced influences on ice jams. Ice jam behavior analysis is based on three outputs of the framework: potential of river ice jamming, ice jam initiation date, and the stage frequency distribution of backwater elevation induced by ice jam ...

Climate change impacts on ice jam behavior in an inland delta: a new ice jam projection framework.

Ice jams are impacted by several climatic factors that are likely to change under a future warming climate. Due to the complexity of river ice phenology, projection of future ice jams is challenging. However, it is important to be able to project future ice jam behavior. Additionally, ice jam research is limited by the shortage of long-term monitoring data. In this paper, a novel framework for projecting future ice jam behavior is developed and implemented for ice jams in a data-sparse region, the Slave River Delta, NWT, Canada, situated in the Mackenzie River Basin (MRB). This framework employs both historical records and future hydro-meteorological data, acquired from climate and hydrological models, to drive the river ice models and quantify climate-induced influences on ice jams. Ice jam behavior analysis is based on three outputs of the framework: potential of river ice jamming, ice jam initiation date, and the stage frequency distribution of backwater elevation induced by ice jam ...

Zhang, F., Elshamy, M and Lindenschmidt, K.-E. (2022) Climate change impacts on ice jam behaviour in an inland delta: a new ice jam projection framework. Climatic Change 171(13): https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03312-3

Climate change impacts on ice jam behaviour in an inland delta: a new ice jam projection framework

The present study analyses the impacts of past and future climate change on extreme weather events for southern parts of Canada from 1981 to 2100. A set of precipitation and temperature-based indices were computed using the downscaled Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) multi-model ensemble projections at 8 km resolution over the 21st Century for two representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios: RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The results show that this region is expected to experience stronger warming and a higher increase in precipitation extremes in future. Generally, projected changes in minimum temperature will be greater than changes in maximum temperature, as shown by respective indices. A decrease in frost days and an increase in warm nights will be expected. By 2100 there will be no cool nights and cool days. Daily minimum and maximum temperatures will increase by 12 and 7°C, respectively, under the RCP8.5 scenario, when compared with the reference period 1981–200 ...

Recent studies have identified stronger warming in the latest generation of climate model simulations globally, and the same is true for projected changes in Canada. This study examines differences for Canada and six sub-regions between simulations from the latest Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) and its predecessor CMIP5. Ensembles from both experiments are assessed using a set of derived indices calculated from daily precipitation and temperature, with projections compared at fixed future time intervals and fixed levels of global temperature change. For changes calculated at fixed time intervals most temperature indices display higher projected changes in CMIP6 than CMIP5 for most sub-regions, while greater precipitation changes in CMIP6 occur mainly in extreme precipitation indices. When future projections are calculated at fixed levels of global average temperature increase, the size and spread of differences for future projected changes between CMIP6 and CMIP5 a ...

Climate model projections for Canada from CMIP6

Climate change presents a major threat to biodiversity globally. Northern ecosystems, such as Canada's boreal forest, are predicted to experience particularly severe climate-induced changes. These changes may reduce the carrying capacity and habitat suitability of the boreal forest for many wildlife species. Boreal birds are susceptible to both direct and indirect effects of climate change, and several studies have predicted northward shifts in species distributions as temperatures become warmer. We forecasted spatially-explicit changes in the densities of 72 boreal landbird species using integrated climate change projections and a forest dynamics model in the Taiga Plains ecozone of the Northwest Territories (NT), Canada, over the 2011–2091 horizon. We 1) identified "winner," "loser," and "bellringer" species over short (2031) and long-term (2091) forecasts, 2) mapped landbird range and density changes under three contrasting Global Circulation Models (GCMs), and 3) quantify differenc ...

Motivated by the limited understanding of future changes in mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), we investigated characteristics of warm-season (June–August) MCSs in the central United States based on high-resolution convection-permitting Weather Research and Forecasting simulations. We examined two 15-year simulations, which include current simulations (2004–2018) forced by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis version 5 (ERA5) and future simulations (2086–2100) forced by perturbed ERA5 (i.e., ERA5 plus climate change signal derived from 28 Coupled Intercomparison Projected Phase 6 models under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway–Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 emission scenario). The initiations and longevities of MCSs were determined using the object-tracking algorithm MODE-Time Domain (MTD) from observation, current simulations (ERA), and future simulations (pseudo-global warming, PGW). Objects identified by MODE-Time Domain were divided into short-/lo ...

A code clone is defined as a pair of similar code fragments within a software system. While code clones are not always harmful, they can have a detrimental effect on the overall quality of a software system due to the propagation of bugs and other maintenance implications. Because of this, software developers need to analyse the code clones that exist in a software system. However, despite the availability of several clone detection systems, the adoption of such tools outside of the clone community remains low. A possible reason for this is the difficulty and complexity involved in setting up and using these tools. In this paper, we present Clone Swarm, a code clone analytics tool that identifies clones in a project and presents the information in an easily accessible manner. Clone Swarm is publicly available and can mine any open-sourced GIT repository. Clone Swarm internally uses NiCad, a popular clone detection tool in the cloud and lets users interactively explore code clones using ...

noproject,accepted

Tracking the effects of air pollution from industries is important for developing management strategies under changing emissions. However, computational tools for air pollution assessment often do not elucidate modeling uncertainty, making it difficult for environmental policy-makers to know how much confidence to put in model results, which also hampers aspects that may need improving. This study examined how the WRF-SMOKE-CMAQ modeling system with various planetary boundary-layer (PBL) schemes and atmospheric datasets mimics the local meteorology, air quality and acidic deposition at 1 km horizontal resolution over the industrializing Terrace-Kitimat Valley of northwestern British Columbia. Quantitative and qualitative correspondence of model outputs with observational data varied with station location, the nature of pollutant emissions, and quantity of chemical species. Valid model outputs were used to delineate present compliance with objectives on ambient fine particulate matter, ...

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a diverse group of over 12,000 synthetic, amphiphilic compounds known for a resistance to degradation that has led to some compounds having a widespread, global presence. Despite not being considered acutely potent compared to other environmental pollutants, PFASs can undergo extensive biomagnification and bioaccumulation in aquatic environments. This results in both humans and wildlife being chronically exposed to PFASs and resulting in some PFASs also being ubiquitous in blood and tissues, with associated toxic effects. While specific substances of concern have been phased-out or banned, other PFASs that are emerging as alternative substances are still produced and are being released into the environment. These “replacement” PFASs are emerging as potential contaminants of concern but remain under-studied and un-tested with relatively unknown toxicity profiles. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to (1) provide an assessment of two such ...

Comparative Toxicological Assessment of Legacy and Replacement Perfluoroalkyl Substances: Mechanisms, Interactions, and Implications for Environmental Health

The flood-prone Saint John River (SJR) traverses provincial and international borders as it travels from its source in northern Maine to its mouth in southern New Brunswick (NB). In 2008, NB experienced its worst spring flood in 35 years, which was followed by more major spring flooding in 2018 and 2019. As part of the Saint John River Experiment on Cold Season Storms (SAJESS), the objectives of this project are to identify the sequence of events that led to these floods, and to compare these to the 2021 season, in which no major spring flooding occurred. Relying largely upon evaluated reanalysis and hydrometric data, numerous atmospheric, surface, and hydrological variables are examined at various spatial and temporal scales. There are commonalities and differences between flood years as well as between flood years and the non-flood year. When averaged across the upper basin, flood years show consistency in terms of positive winter and spring precipitation anomalies, positive snow wat ...

Precipitation is a critical part of the global hydrological cycle that determines the distribution of water resources. It is also an essential meteorological variable used as input for hydroclimatic models and projections. However, precipitation data frequently lack complete series, especially at daily and sub-daily precipitation stations, which are usually large, bulky, and complex. To address this, gap filling is commonly used to produce complete hydrometeorological data series without missing values. Several gap-filling methods have been developed and improved. This study seeks to fill the gaps of 201 daily precipitation time series in Central Italy by localizing the approach used to generate the Serially Complete dataset for the Planet Earth (SC-Earth). This method combines the outcome of 15 strategies based on four various gap-filling techniques (quantile mapping, spatial interpolation, machine learning, and multi-strategy merging). These strategies employ the daily dataset of the ...

Although Earth system models (ESMs) tend to overestimate historical land surface warming, they also overestimate snow amounts in the Northern Hemisphere. By combining ground-based datasets and ESMs, we find that this paradoxical phenomenon is predominantly driven by an overestimation of light snowfall frequency. Using spatially distributed emergent constraints, we show that this paradox persists in mid- (2041–2060) and long-term (2081–2100) projections, affecting more than half of the Northern Hemisphere’s land surface. ESMs underestimate the frequency of freezing days by 12–19% and overestimate snow water equivalent by 28–34%. Constrained projections indicate that the raw ESM outputs overestimate future Northern Hemisphere snowmelt water by 12–16% across 53–60% of the Northern Hemisphere’s land surface. This snowmelt water overprediction implies that the amount of water available in the future for agriculture, industry, ecosystems and domestic use may be lower than unadjusted ESM proj ...

Rare precipitation events with return periods of multiple decades to hundreds of years are particularly damaging to natural and societal systems. Projections of such rare, damaging precipitation events in the future climate are, however, subject to large inter-model variations. We show that a substantial portion of these differences can be ascribed to the projected warming uncertainty, and can be robustly reduced by using the warming observed during recent decades as an observational constraint, implemented either by directly constraining the projections with the observed warming or by conditioning them on constrained warming projections, as verified by extensive model-based cross-validation. The temperature constraint reduces >40% of the warming-induced uncertainty in the projected intensification of future rare daily precipitation events for a climate that is 2°C warmer than preindustrial across most regions. This uncertainty reduction together with validation of the reliability of t ...

Very rare extreme precipitation events are particularly damaging to natural and societal systems. Projections of such rare, damaging precipitation events in the future climate vary substantially among climate models. Reducing this uncertainty will aid adaptation planning. We show here that the projected range of future rare precipitation intensification is strongly affected by the projected range of global warming, especially for regions where the intensification is dominated by increases in atmospheric moisture. We verify that using the past global warming trend as an observational constraint can eliminate more than 40% of the warming-induced uncertainty in the intensification of future rare precipitation events at 2°C warmer above preindustrial across most global land regions. This narrowing of the possible range of future rare precipitation intensification at regional scales can greatly benefit adaptation planning.

Constraining projected changes in rare intense precipitation events across global land regions

The warming climate is creating increased levels of climate risk because of changes to the hazards to which human and natural systems are exposed. Projections of how those hazards will change are affected by uncertainties in the climate sensitivity of climate models, among other factors. While the level-of-global-warming approach can circumvent model climate sensitivity uncertainties in some applications, practitioners faced with specific adaptation responsibilities often find such projections difficult to use because they generally require time-oriented information. Earth system projections following specified emissions scenarios can, however, be constrained by applying the level-of-global-warming approach to observationally constrained warming projections to yield more reliable time-oriented projections for adaption planning and implementation. This approach also allows individual groups to produce consistent and comparable assessments of multifaceted climate impacts and causal mecha ...

Constraining the entire Earth system projections for more reliable climate change adaptation planning

Nutrient losses from agricultural operations contributes to the issue of eutrophication of freshwater systems. Although many studies have been conducted on diffuse nutrient losses from fertilizer application, there is a paucity of studies on point source phosphorus (P) loss from bunker silos. Furthermore, the build-up of legacy P in the landscape from historical land management practices can create critical source areas of P that contribute to P loads long after those practices cease. The goal of this thesis is to quantify the contribution of a dairy farm (dominated by bunker silo losses) to watershed P losses, and to monitor P concentrations in surface and groundwater across a riparian zone to characterize the sorption potential of its sediments and infer whether the riparian zone may be acting as a sink for P, or a source of previously retained (legacy) P to the stream. Stream discharge was monitored continuously throughout the study, and automatic water samplers were deployed in the ...

Arctic Indigenous Peoples are among the most exposed humans when it comes to foodborne mercury (Hg). In response, Hg monitoring and research have been on-going in the circumpolar Arctic since about 1991; this work has been mainly possible through the involvement of Arctic Indigenous Peoples. The present overview was initially conducted in the context of a broader assessment of Hg research organized by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme. This article provides examples of Indigenous Peoples' contributions to Hg monitoring and research in the Arctic, and discusses approaches that could be used, and improved upon, when carrying out future activities. Over 40 mercury projects conducted with/by Indigenous Peoples are identified for different circumpolar regions including the U.S., Canada, Greenland, Sweden, Finland, and Russia as well as instances where Indigenous Knowledge contributed to the understanding of Hg contamination in the Arctic. Perspectives and visions of future Hg r ...

The notion of convergent and transdisciplinary integration, which is about braiding together different knowledge systems, is becoming the mantra of numerous initiatives aimed at tackling pressing water challenges. Yet, the transition from rhetoric to actual implementation is impeded by incongruence in semantics, methodologies, and discourse among disciplinary scientists and societal actors. Here, we embrace "integrated modeling" - both quantitatively and qualitatively - as a vital exploratory instrument to advance such integration, providing a means to navigate complexity and manage the uncertainty associated with understanding, diagnosing, predicting, and governing human-water systems. From this standpoint, we confront disciplinary barriers by offering seven focused reviews and syntheses of existing and missing links across the frontiers distinguishing surface and groundwater hydrology, engineering, social sciences, economics, Indigenous and place-based knowledge, and studies of other ...

The notion of convergent and transdisciplinary integration, which is about braiding together different knowledge systems, is becoming the mantra of numerous initiatives aimed at tackling pressing water challenges. Yet, the transition from rhetoric to actual implementation is impeded by incongruence in semantics, methodologies, and discourse among disciplinary scientists and societal actors. This paper confronts these disciplinary barriers by advocating a synthesis of existing and missing links across the frontiers distinguishing hydrology from engineering, the social sciences and economics, Indigenous and place-based knowledge, and studies of other interconnected natural systems such as the atmosphere, cryosphere, and ecosphere. Specifically, we embrace ‘integrated modeling’, in both quantitative and qualitative senses, as a vital exploratory instrument to advance such integration, providing a means to navigate complexity and manage the uncertainty associated with understanding, diagno ...

Background: Country food consumption by Indigenous peoples is associated with improved nutrition, food security, and lower rates of chronic diseases (Kuhnlein, Burlingame, & Erasmus, 2013); however, these foods can also pose potential risks of exposure to contaminants such as mercury and cadmium (Berti, 1997). Elevated fish mercury concentrations in some lakes in the Sahtú region of the Northwest Territories (NWT) resulted in a series of consumption notices that suggested people limit their consumption of walleye, northern pike, and lake trout from specific lakes in the region (NWT, 2016). Therefore, as part of a health communication component was added. This component was designed to assess participants risk perceptions and awareness of current consumption notices and health messages, to provide baseline data to evaluate the impact of consumption notices, to determine how health messages are currently developed, and to make recommendations to create more targeted communication strateg ...

We expanded the existing one-dimensional MyLake model by incorporating a vertically resolved sediment diagenesis module and developing a reaction network that seamlessly couples the water column and sediment biogeochemistry. The application of the MyLake-Sediment model to boreal Lake Vansjø illustrates the model's ability to reproduce daily water quality variables and predict sediment-water column exchange fluxes over a long historical period. In prognostic scenarios, we assessed the importance of sediment processes and the effects of various climatic and anthropogenic drivers on the lake's biogeochemistry and phytoplankton dynamics. First, MyLake-Sediment was used to simulate the potential impacts of increasing air temperature on algal growth and water quality. Second, the key role of ice cover in controlling water column mixing and biogeochemical cycles was analyzed in a series of scenarios that included a fully ice-free end-member. Third, in another end-member scenario P loading fro ...

Agriculture is directly related to food security as it determines the global food supply. Research in agriculture to predict crop productivity and losses helps avoid high food demand with little supply and price spikes. Here, we review ten crop models and one intercomparison project used for simulating crop growth and productivity under various impacts from soil–crop–atmosphere interactions. The review outlines food security and production assessments using numerical models for maize, wheat, and rice production. A summary of reviewed studies shows the following: (1) model ensembles provide smaller modeling errors compared to single models, (2) single models show better results when coupled with other types of models, (3) the ten reviewed crop models had improvements over the years and can accurately predict crop growth and yield for most of the locations, management conditions, and genotypes tested, (4) APSIM and DSSAT are fast and reliable in assessing broader output variables, (5) Aq ...

Uncertainties surrounding tree carbon allocation to growth are a major limitation to projections of forest carbon sequestration and response to climate change. The prevalence and extent to which carbon assimilation (source) or cambial activity (sink) mediate wood production are fundamentally important and remain elusive. We quantified source-sink relations across biomes by combining eddy-covariance gross primary production with extensive on-site and regional tree ring observations. We found widespread temporal decoupling between carbon assimilation and tree growth, underpinned by contrasting climatic sensitivities of these two processes. Substantial differences in assimilation-growth decoupling between angiosperms and gymnosperms were determined, as well as stronger decoupling with canopy closure, aridity, and decreasing temperatures. Our results reveal pervasive sink control over tree growth that is likely to be increasingly prominent under global climate change.

Cities are under pressure to operate their services effectively and project costs of operations across various timeframes. In high-latitude and high-altitude urban centers, snow management is one of the larger unknowns and has both operational and budgetary limitations. Snowfall and snow depth observations within urban environments are important to plan snow clearing and prepare for the effects of spring runoff on cities’ drainage systems. In-house research functions are expensive, but one way to overcome that expense and still produce effective data is through citizen science. In this paper, we examine the potential to use citizen science for snowfall data collection in urban environments. A group of volunteers measured daily snowfall and snow depth at an urban site in Saskatoon (Canada) during two winters. Reliability was assessed with a statistical consistency analysis and a comparison with other data sets collected around Saskatoon. We found that citizen-science-derived data were m ...

GWF-Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections|

This report summarizes the group discussions and priorities that emerged from a workshop hosted by the Cordon Foundation, the University of Waterloo's Water Institute and the Lake Futures project. The workshop was held virtually in December 2020 and the accompanying publication was released in April 2021. Its purpose was to define what is needed to improve access to water quality data in the Great Lakes region.

Data for: Evaluating spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition from legacy gold mine emissions using lake sediment records

Carbon storage in northern peatlands is estimated to be ~795 Tg, equivalent to ~40% of atmospheric CO2. Peatlands are dominant features of the Western Boreal Plains (WBP), which are experiencing a regime shift to a warmer and drier climate, as well as an increase in forest fire disturbance. Burning of the upper layers of rich organic matter peat releases enormous quantities of C to the atmosphere. The projected response of peatlands to forest fire is concerning, but widely understudied and could be of the utmost importance for the biogeochemical function and future net C balance of peatland. Impacts of climate change driven drying on peatland nutrient dynamics have been explored previously, however, the impacts of wildfire on nutrient dynamics have not been examined. This study assessed the impact of wildfire on N and P bioavailability and nutrient mineralization, plant nutrients balance, and the C and macronutrient stoichiometry and stock in a fen one-year post-wildfire by comparing a ...

Jasiak I, J Telford, JA Wiklund, RI Hall and BB Wolfe. 2019. Defining a legacy pollution footprint: assessing spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic and other metals in sub-arctic lakes using paleolimnology. Canadian Geophysical Union - Hydrology Section Ontario Student Conference, Ryerson University, Toronto. Conference Presentation

Defining a legacy pollution footprint: assessing spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic and other metals in sub-arctic lakes using paleolimnology

Jasiak, I., Telford, J., Wiklund, J. A., Hall, R. I., & Wolfe, B. B. (2019). Defining a legacy pollution footprint: assessing spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic and other metals in sub-arctic lakes using paleolimnology. Global Water Futures Annual Science Meeting 2019, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Conference Presentation

Defining a legacy pollution footprint: assessing spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic and other metals in sub-arctic lakes using paleolimnology

Jasiak, I., Telford, J., Wiklund, J. A., Hall, R. I., & Wolfe, B. B. (2019). Defining a legacy pollution footprint: assessing spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic and other metals in sub-arctic lakes using paleolimnology. Ontario-Quebec Paleolimnology Group Graduate Student Conference, University of Waterloo, Waterloo

Defining a legacy pollution footprint: assessing spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic and other metals in sub-arctic lakes using paleolimnology

Defining a legacy pollution footprint: assessing spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic and other metals in sub-arctic lakes using paleolimnology

Our goal is to develop a low-cost, modular, and energy-efficient water quality monitoring system that utilizes self-hosted servers and can function effectively in remote areas with unreliable connectivity. The system will support queries from both mobile devices and desktops, offer a user interface in multiple languages, and integrate with Terrastories (a geostorytelling application). Designed for open source and educational use, the project ensures secure transmission and storage of sensitive data while maintaining configurability for various use cases.

Snow cover dynamics in alpine regions play a crucial role in view of the water balance of head water catchments. The temporal storage of water in form of snow and ice leads to a decoupling of precipitation and runoff. Changes in the volume and the temporal dynamics of the snow storage lead to modified runoff regimes and can influence the frequency of low flow events and floods. For a better estimation of the possible range and direction of future changes, projection runs can be realized by using process-based models. In this study, the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling platform (CRHM) is used to compile such a model for simulating the snow cover development within research catchment Zugspitze (RCZ; 11.4 km2/Germany). Therefore, the catchment is divided into four hydrological response units (HRUs), able to cover the physiographic characteristics in four elevation zones. The model is evaluated over snow depth measurements. The range of variability within and differences between the HRU ...

Snow cover dynamics in alpine regions play a crucial role in view of the water balance of head water catchments. The temporal storage of water in form of snow and ice leads to a decoupling of precipitation and runoff. Changes in the volume and the temporal dynamics of the snow storage lead to modified runoff regimes and can influence the frequency of low flow events and floods. For a better estimation of the possible range and direction of future changes, projection runs can be realized by using process-based models. In this study, the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling platform (CRHM) is used to compile such a model for simulating the snow cover development within research catchment Zugspitze (RCZ; 11.4 km2/Germany). Therefore, the catchment is divided into four hydrological response units (HRUs), able to cover the physiographic characteristics in four elevation zones. The model is evaluated over snow depth measurements. The range of variability within and differences between the HRU ...

Community-based projects place emphasis on a collaborative approach and facilitate research among Indigenous populations regarding local issues and challenges, such as traditional foods consumption, climate change and health safety. Country foods (locally harvested fish, game birds, land animals and plants), which contribute to improved food security, can also be a primary route of contaminant exposure among populations in remote regions. A community-based project was launched in the Dehcho and Sahtù regions of the Northwest Territories (Canada) to: 1) assess contaminants exposure and nutrition status; 2) investigate the role of country food on nutrient and contaminant levels and 3) understand the determinants of message perception on this issue. Consultation with community members, leadership, local partners and researchers was essential to refine the design of the project and implement it in a culturally relevant way. This article details the design of a community-based biomonitoring ...

Ratelle, M., Laird, M., Majowicz, S., Skinner, K., Swanson, H., & Laird, B. (2018). Design of a human biomonitoring community-based project in the Northwest Territories Mackenzie Valley, Canada, to investigate the links between nutrition, contaminants and country foods. International journal of circumpolar health, 77(1), 1510714. https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2018.1510714

Design of a human biomonitoring community-based project in the Northwest Territories Mackenzie Valley, Canada, to investigate the links between nutrition, contaminants and country foods

GWF-Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections|

Climatologists use formal detection and attribution methods to identify externally forced signals in the observed climate record. Even with these widely used methods, it is still difficult to detect climate change in terrestrial water storage (TWS) at global scale due to the brevity of the time series from global freshwater observations. In this study, we applied a novel method to identify relationship between annual global mean TWS and daily weather patterns (including surface air temperature and humidity fields) using hydrological simulations from ISIMIP2b, yielding fingerprints of anthropogenically forced change. Reanalysis datasets are projected onto the fingerprints to detect climate change at daily scale. It is found that approximately 80% of days for most years since 2016 have informed climate change signals, with high inter-annual variability. While strong signals of forced climate change in global mean TWS could not be uniformly detected from each day during the studied period ...

A human biomonitoring study was conducted in Old Crow, Yukon as well as the Dehcho and Sahtú regions of the NWT from 2016-2020. Results of this project indicate that levels of lead, cobalt, manganese, and hexachlorobenzene were elevated in blood and urine samples in some of these communities in comparison to the general Canadian population. Based on community feedback, this study was designed to help identify potential determinants of exposure for these parameters. Multivariable logistic regression models were run to identify possible associations between individual determinants of exposure, including traditional food consumption, lifestyle factors, and demographics, with key biomarkers including lead, manganese, cobalt, and hexachlorobenzene. Several lifestyle factors were associated with elevated exposure levels of these biomarkers, including drinking untreated river water in Old Crow, and smoking. Relationships between consumption of caribou and moose organs, such as bone marrow, bo ...

To address community concerns within northern Canada, human biomonitoring projects measured concentrations of environmental contaminants and nutrients in human biological samples from the Dehcho and Sahtú regions of the Northwest Territories and Old Crow, Yukon. Hair and blood samples were analyzed for total mercury, blood was analyzed for selenium, and plasma was analyzed for eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Demographic and dietary characteristics associated with concentrations of these biomarkers, within and between the northern Canadian regions sampled, were assessed. Spearman correlations between biomarker concentrations were calculated, geometric mean biomarker concentrations were compared across strata of participant characteristics (stratified by region), and associations were further examined in multivariable models. Participant age and consumption of at least one species of fish and waterfowl were associated with mercury (adjusted R2 = 0.26 for hair ...

Hydropower is a renewable, economic, and low-emission source of energy and has the flexibility to accommodate different electricity demands. The Province of Manitoba’s current electricity supply is about 97% generated by hydropower, making it potentially vulnerable to climate change. The increase in the annual mean temperature in the Canadian Prairies is twice the rise in the global mean temperature, influencing precipitation patterns which ultimately highlights the importance of understanding the impacts of climate change in Manitoba. A MODSIM-DSS model has been developed for the operation of water control structures and hydropower facilities along the Winnipeg River, including the Rainy and English Rivers, which contains 11% of the hydropower capacity in Manitoba. This simulation model is equipped with parametric rule curves representing the operation of control points in the system. These rule curves are calibrated and evaluated against historically measured and observed data. To be ...

Freshwater ecosystems across northern Canada provide important habitat for wildlife and have long supported the traditional lifestyles of Indigenous communities. Multiple potential stressors threaten the security of water supply to northern landscapes, which fosters need for information spanning broad spatial and temporal scales to inform adaptive and mitigative strategies. At the Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD; northern Alberta), the world's largest boreal freshwater delta, existing data records have been too short and too sparse to resolve many concerns over the roles of major energy projects (hydroelectric regulation of river flow, oil sands development) and climate change on decline of flood frequency and magnitude and drawdown of shallow aquatic basins, and on supply of substances of concern. Intensive paleolimnological research during the past two decades at the PAD has evaluated past changes in contaminant deposition and hydroecological conditions to discern effects attributable to ...

In this thesis, a red green and blue (RGB) laser diode driver (LDD) is designed, assembled and tested, which can work as a standalone device or an internal component fully controlled by a laser projector. In particular, the thesis explores a multi-channel RGB LDD for a retrofitted laser projector, targeting projectors for home, business and education. If laser diodes (LDs) with the same color are connected in series, a higher forward voltage is required, making most commercial LDDs unsuitable for this application due to their insufficient compliance voltages. If the connections of all the LDs are in parallel, issues on size and cost arise since many LDs are used in this case. Another problem to use the commercial LDDs for RGB laser projection is that there are no proper communication interfaces to link the LDDs to the laser projector. In order to solve these problems by taking advantage of all the features of iC-HTG, an integrated circuit with automatic current control functionality, b ...

Zha, Rong (2019) Development of A Multi-channel RGB Laser Diode Driver for Laser Projection Applications, MacSphere Open Access Dissertations and Theses, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/25036

Development of A Multi-channel RGB Laser Diode Driver for Laser Projection Applications

Machine learning (ML) models have been widely used for hydrological simulation. Previous studies have reported that conventional ML models fail to accurately simulate extreme flows which are crucial for design flood estimation and associated risk analysis in the context of climate change. Therefore, this study proposes a joint probabilistic rainfall-runoff model (JPRR) for improving high-to-extreme flow projection. With the aid of paired copula constructions, bootstrap aggregation, and multi-model ensemble approaches, the proposed model is able to effectively characterize the dependence relationships of predictors (i.e., precipitation time series with different moving sums) with various probability distributions. JPRR has been applied to four pristine basins in China, representing different climate zones and landscapes. The results reveal that JPRR significantly outperforms three well-known ML models (i.e., random forest, artificial neural networks, and long short-term memory) in high- ...

Li, K., Huang, G., Wang, S., Razavi, S., Zhang, X. (2022) Development of a Joint Probabilistic Rainfall-Runoff Model for High-to-Extreme Flow Projections Under Changing Climatic Conditions. Water Resources Research, 58(6), e2021WR031557. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR031557

Development of a Joint Probabilistic Rainfall-Runoff Model for High-to-Extreme Flow Projections Under Changing Climatic Conditions

Microplastics (MPs), plastic particles smaller than 5~mm, are emerging as a significant environmental threat due to their widespread presence in ecosystems and potential health impacts. They originate from both primary sources, such as microbeads in personal care products, and secondary sources, like the degradation of larger plastics. MPs can accumulate in aquatic life, pose risks to food chains, and carry toxic pollutants. Despite their environmental significance, detecting MPs in natural settings is challenging due to complex particle characteristics and the limitations of current detection methods. Several well-established methods have been developed for detecting and monitoring MPs in aqueous samples. Fourier-transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy are among the most widely used techniques due to their unique ability to identify chemical compositions at the molecular level. However, these methods generally require bulky, expensive equipment and skilled personnel. Additionally, ...

There are many real-world hydrological problems on the Canadian Prairies for which existing tools are poorly suited, due to the region’s complex cold-region hydrology and its equally complex hydrography, which is dominated by depressions, poorly defined and results in dynamic drainage basin contributing areas to streamflow. The complexities of the problems are compounded by changes in hydrology due to climate change, and by changes in depressional storage capacities due to wetland drainage. Although some hydrological models (CRHM, MESH) are able to simulate Prairie hydrology, including the effects of changes in climate, they do not have the ability to simulate detailed local-scale hydraulics. Conversely, hydraulic models which can simulate these small-scale features do not have the ability to simulate prairie hydrological processes. The Prairie Hydrology Design and Analysis Product (PHyDAP) deploys the research results of the GWF Prairie Water Project to produce a tool useful for solvi ...

This report assesses the impacts of projected climate change on the hydrology, including the flood frequencies, of the Bow and Elbow Rivers above Calgary, Alberta. It reports on investigations of the effects of projected climate change on the runoff mechanisms for the Bow and Elbow River basins, which are important mountain headwaters in Alberta, Canada. The study developed a methodology and applied a case study for incorporating climate change into flood frequency estimates that can be applied to a variety of river basins across Canada. This research was carried out by scientists from the University of Saskatchewan Centre for Hydrology, under contract to Natural Resources Canada and Alberta Environment and Parks with contributions from the City of Calgary, Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Global Water Futures program. high resolution, enhanced version of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s MESH (Modélisation Environnementale Communautaire - Surface Hydrology) land s ...

Climate warming may cause mountain snowpacks to melt earlier, reducing summer streamflow and threatening 15 water supplies and ecosystems. Few observations allow separating rain and snowmelt contributions to streamflow, so physically based models are needed for hydrological predictions and analyses. We develop an observational technique for detecting streamflow responses to snowmelt using incoming solar radiation and diel (daily) cycles of streamflow. We measure the 20th percentile of snowmelt days (DOS20), across 31 watersheds in the western US, as a proxy for the beginning of snowmelt-initiated streamflow. Historic DOS20 varies from mid-January to late May, with warmer sites having earlier and 20 more intermittent snowmelt-mediated streamflow. Mean annual DOS20 strongly correlates with the dates of 25% and 50% annual streamflow volume (DOQ25 and DOQ50, both R2 = 0.85), suggesting that a one-day earlier DOS20 corresponds with a one-day earlier DOQ25 and 0.7-day earlier DOQ50. ...

Invertebrate drift is a key process that potentially affects multiple levels of food web organization within stream environments. However, our understanding of the mechanistic drivers of drift in high latitude streams and subsequent bottom-up control that drift may have on fish predators in these environments remains understudied. This project aimed to gain the baseline knowledge of how drift functions across two major high latitude ecozones, the boreal forest and tundra, and how those possible differences in drifting community characteristics may impact drift-feeding Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus). These objectives were accomplished by characterizing stream environments across both ecozones, sampling the benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) community and drifting components of macroinvertebrate communities, and utilizing drift data in a drift feeding bioenergetics (DFBM) model to calculate potential tissue growth of Arctic grayling. Both benthic and drift compositions differed signif ...

In this study we quantified the sensitivity of snow to climate warming in selected mountain sites having a Mediterranean climate, including the Pyrenees in Spain and Andorra, the Sierra Nevada in Spain and California (USA), the Atlas in Morocco, and the Andes in Chile. Meteorological observations from high elevations were used to simulate the snow energy and mass balance (SEMB) and calculate its sensitivity to climate. Very different climate sensitivities were evident amongst the various sites. For example, reductions of 9%–19% and 6–28 days in the mean snow water equivalent (SWE) and snow duration, respectively, were found per °C increase. Simulated changes in precipitation (±20%) did not affect the sensitivities. The Andes and Atlas Mountains have a shallow and cold snowpack, and net radiation dominates the SEMB; and explains their relatively low sensitivity to climate warming. The Pyrenees and USA Sierra Nevada have a deeper and warmer snowpack, and sensible heat flux is more import ...

In addition to aiding in digestion of food and uptake of nutrients, microbiota in guts of vertebrates are responsible for regulating several beneficial functions, including development of an organism and maintaining homeostasis. However, little is known about effects of exposures to chemicals on structure and function of gut microbiota of fishes. To assess effects of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on gut microbiota, male and female fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) were exposed to environmentally-relevant concentrations of the legacy PAH benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) in water. Measured concentrations of BaP ranged from 2.3 × 10−3 to 1.3 μg L−1. The community of microbiota in the gut were assessed by use of 16S rRNA metagenetics. Exposure to environmentally-relevant aqueous concentrations of BaP did not alter expression levels of mRNA for cyp1a1, a “classic” biomarker of exposure to BaP, but resulted in shifts in relative compositions of gut microbiota in females rather ...

Discerning the effects of major energy projects, climate and change in distributary flowpaths on hydrology of lakes in the Athabasca Delta, Canada

Discerning the effects of major energy projects, climate and change in distributary flowpaths on hydrology of lakes in the Athabasca Delta, Canada

Discerning the effects of major energy projects, climate change and distributary flow on hydrology of lakes in the Athabasca Delta using paleolimnology

Kay, M.L., Remmer, C., Vucic, J., Neary, L., MacDonald, E., Wesenberg, K., Thomson, K., Brown, K., Wiklund, J.A., Wolfe, B., & Hall, R.I. (2017). Discerning the effects of major energy projects, climate change and distributary flow on hydrology of lakes in the Athabasca Delta using paleolimnology. Canadian Association of Geographers - Ontario Division Annual Meeting, Queen's University, Kingston. Conference Presentation

Discerning the effects of major energy projects, climate change and distributary flow on hydrology of lakes in the Athabasca Delta using paleolimnology

The advancements in information and communications technology, including the widespread adoption of GPS-based sensors, improvements in computational data processing, and satellite imagery, have resulted in new data sources, stakeholders, and methods of producing, using, and sharing spatial data. Daily, vast amounts of data are produced by individuals interacting with digital content and through automated and semi-automated sensors deployed across the environment. A growing portion of this information contains geographic information directly or indirectly embedded within it. The widespread use of automated smart sensors and an increased variety of georeferenced media resulted in new individual data collectors. This raises a new set of social concerns around individual geopricacy and data ownership. These changes require new approaches to managing, sharing, and processing geographic data. With the appearance of distributed data-sharing technologies, some of these challenges may be addres ...

Extreme precipitation can trigger various natural hazards, causing catastrophic losses worldwide. As global warming accelerates, it is widely acknowledged that extreme precipitation will become more frequent and intense, calling for more accurate historical and projected precipitation estimation. Identifying extreme precipitation events is understudied particularly on the global scale, given that most studies only focus on pixel-by-pixel characteristics while ignoring the space-time continuity and evolution of extreme events. This study utilizes an object-based tracking method to track the precipitation system objects in time, extracting spatiotemporal attributes of precipitation events and investigates variable definitions of extremes for a better understanding of the performance of existing precipitation datasets. Five satellite and two reanalysis precipitation products (IMERG, GSMaP, PERSIANN-CCS, TRMM 3B42, CMORPH, ERA5, and ERA-Interim) are involved to investigate (1) the differen ...

Method-level comments are critical for improving code comprehension and supporting software maintenance. With advancements in large language models (LLMs), automated comment generation has become a major research focus. However, existing approaches often overlook method dependencies, where one method relies on or calls others, affecting comment quality and code understandability. This study investigates the prevalence and impact of dependent methods in software projects and introduces a dependency-aware approach for method-level comment generation. Analyzing a dataset of 10 popular Java GitHub projects, we found that dependent methods account for 69.25% of all methods and exhibit higher engagement and change proneness compared to independent methods. Across 448K dependent and 199K independent methods, we observed that state-of-the-art fine-tuned models (e.g., CodeT5+, CodeBERT) struggle to generate comprehensive comments for dependent methods, a trend also reflected in LLM-based approa ...

Switzerland plans to restore 4000 km of rivers by 2090. Despite the immense investment costs, river restoration benefits have not been valued in monetary terms, and a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) does not exist for any river restoration project in Switzerland. We apply stated preference methods to elicit public preferences and willingness to pay for restoring two specific but representative river sites. The benefits of restoration are compared with its costs. Upscaling the results to the national level shows that the government budget allocated for river restoration (CHF 1200/m) is insufficient to cover the costs of local restoration projects. However, the surveyed local populations are willing to pay substantially more for restoring rivers in their area of residence than they are legally obliged to do. The CBA results demonstrate that the benefits outweigh the costs in the two case studies, and hence that restoration efforts are justified from an economic point of view. A sensitivity a ...

To complement several community-based projects on water monitoring and management, a research project was completed to characterize the consumption of water and identify the perception of water for Indigenous communities from the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Yukon (YT). As part of a larger research program, data on water consumption and perceptions were available from surveys and a focus group. The focus group was conducted with Elders in an on-the-land camp setting in the NWT. The consumption of water in winter was 0.9L/day on average (including tea and coffee). Of the 81% of respondents who reported consuming water in the previous 24-hours of the survey, 33% drank more bottled water than tap water. About 2% of respondents consumed water from the land (during the winter season). Chlorine smell was the main limiting factor reported to the consumption of tap water. Findings from the focus group suggested Indigenous knowledge might impact both the perception and consumption of water. ...

Boreal forests harbor as much carbon (C) as the atmosphere and significant amounts of organic nitrogen (N), the nutrient most likely to limit plant productivity in high-latitude ecosystems. In the boreal biome, the primary disturbance is wildfire, which consumes plant biomass and soil material, emits greenhouse gasses, and influences long-term C and N cycling. Climate warming and drying is increasing wildfire severity and frequency and is combusting more soil organic matter (SOM). Combustion of surface SOM exposes deeper older layers of accumulated soil material that previously escaped combustion during past fires, here termed legacy SOM. Postfire SOM decomposition and nutrient availability are determined by these layers, but the drivers of legacy SOM decomposition are unknown. We collected soils from plots after the largest fire year on record in the Northwest Territories, Canada, in 2014. We used radiocarbon dating to measure ?14C (soil age index), soil extractions to quantify N pool ...

Drivers of Legacy Soil Organic Matter Decomposition after Fire in Boreal Forests

Droughts exert widespread impacts on both natural and social systems, and there is accumulating evidence that this situation may worsen in the context of global warming. Despite the importance of assessing changes in droughts to understand their potential future impacts on society, studies are unevenly distributed worldwide. In this study, utilizing bias-corrected CMIP6 simulations and a standard precipitation-evaporation index based approach, we quantified expected changes in future drought properties across 735 Brazilian catchments under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios. Beyond evaluating the statistical properties of future droughts, we assessed their occurrence under both land use and water demand perspectives and propose a new framework to better understand their link with changes in long- and short-term conditions of precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PET). Our results indicate that drought events are projected to become more frequent and severe in the future, wit ...

Drylines are atmospheric boundaries separating dry from moist air that can initiate convection. Potential changes in the location, frequency, and characteristics of drylines in future climates are unknown. This study applies a multi-parametric algorithm to objectively identify and characterize the dryline in North America using convection-permitting regional climate model simulations with 4-km horizontal grid spacing for 13-years under a historical and a pseudo-global warming climate projection by the end of the century. The dryline identification is successfully achieved with a set of standardized algorithm parameters across the lee side of the Rocky Mountains from the Canadian Rockies to the Sierra Madres in Mexico. The dryline is present 27% of the days at 00 UTC between April and September in the current climate, with a mean humidity gradient magnitude of 0.16 g−1 kg−1 km−1. The seasonal cycle of drylines peak around April and May in the southern Plains, and in June and July in the ...

ECCC Project: A model-agnostic benchmarking system

GWF-Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections|

This paper describes ESM-SnowMIP, an international coordinated modelling effort to evaluate current snow schemes, including snow schemes that are included in Earth system models, in a wide variety of settings against local and global observations. The project aims to identify crucial processes and characteristics that need to be improved in snow models in the context of local- and global-scale modelling. A further objective of ESM-SnowMIP is to better quantify snow-related feedbacks in the Earth system. Although it is not part of the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), ESM-SnowMIP is tightly linked to the CMIP6-endorsed Land Surface, Snow and Soil Moisture Model Intercomparison (LS3MIP).

Beavers (Castor canadensis and C. fiber) are expanding in their native range in North America and Eurasia and are expanding their range into urban environments and the Arctic tundra. Outside their natural range, they are also in Southern Patagonia because of historic releases in the fur industry. Given the broad geographical span of this expansion, it is critical to understand and predict the hydrology of beaver-dominated landscapes. Beavers build dams that modify the water balance and modulate streamflow through different flow states, which might result in drought and flood mitigation. To date, four published hydrological models have been developed to predict these impacts; however, these models were unable to represent dam variability and dynamics. In this study, a model specific to beaver dams was developed to predict the impacts of beaver dams on hydrology by including the flow state dynamics and the heterogeneity of dams and ponds. First, through the instrumentation of the montane ...

Phosphorus (P) rich runoff from agricultural landscapes are a major contributor to freshwater eutrophication issues. To intercept this runoff before it reaches waterways, vegetated buffer strips (VBS) are often employed at field edges. Over time, sediment and nutrients accumulate at these unmanaged field edges and can become legacy sources of P, representing a source of dissolved P to waterways. In addition, typical non-growing season (NGS) conditions experienced in cold climates favour the release of P from vegetation within VBS, further adding to the potential for these features to contribute to P loads of waterways. Although these sites represent potential sources of P to waterways, it is unclear if the risk of release differs across different regions, or with riparian zone shape/topography or vegetation type. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to measure the variability of P concentrations in VBS soil and vegetation samples across several sites to determine the effects that topography ...

The application of deicing salts causes salinization of receiving waters, including lakes in urban catchments. Salinization of a lake’s water column increases the water density and, consequently, stabilizes the summer stratification and reduces the chemical exchanges between the epilimnion and hypolimnion. The latter translate in longer and more intense periods of hypolimnetic hypoxia that, in turn, accelerate the internal loading of the limiting nutrient phosphorus (P). These effects of salinization are clearly seen in water chemistry data covering the period 2001-2020 for Lake Wilcox, a shallow kettle lake in the greater Toronto metropolitan area that shows symptoms of eutrophication. The data show statistically significant increases with time of the major cations (potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium) and anions (chloride, sulfate, and dissolved inorganic carbon), as well as alkalinity. In addition to the changing major water chemistry, the lake is also experiencing an increase ...

Northern Canada has struggled with various systemic challenges based on Eurocentric ideologies, policies, and practices. A major challenge Indigenous communities face North of the 60th parallel is their food security and sovereignty. Inuit, First Nation and Métis populations across the North experience 5 to 6 times higher levels of food insecurity compared to the National average (Food Secure Canada, 2020). These communities face concentrated levels of food system issues, which connect to other factors, such as, health and wellness, the supply chain of market foods, governance, a shift away from traditional foods, and the impacts of climate change. Climate change has been altering the ecosystems and landscapes throughout the North and are increasing the risks and challenges harvesters face in accessing traditional foods. This project details a collaboration with the Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation (KTFN) located in Kakisa, Northwest Territories (NWT) where community members describe changes a ...

Northern Canada has struggled with various systemic challenges based on Eurocentric ideologies, policies, and practices. A major challenge Indigenous communities face North of the 60th parallel is their food security and sovereignty. Inuit, First Nation and Métis populations across the North experience 5 to 6 times higher levels of food insecurity compared to the National average (Food Secure Canada, 2020). These communities face concentrated levels of food system issues, which connect to other factors, such as, health and wellness, the supply chain of market foods, governance, a shift away from traditional foods, and the impacts of climate change. Climate change has been altering the ecosystems and landscapes throughout the North and are increasing the risks and challenges harvesters face in accessing traditional foods. This project details a collaboration with the Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation (KTFN) located in Kakisa, Northwest Territories (NWT) where community members describe changes a ...

Organic micropollutants (OMPs) in climate change affected natural environment such as wetlands, and engineered systems have brought serious concerns for water security and public health. These issues have increased the demand for better managing water resources and developing effective technologies for aqueous micropollutants removal. This thesis investigated these subjects through the following five sub-research projects. First, boreal peatland was used as a case study for understanding how peatland fires and droughts impacts peatland resilience. Laboratory results suggested that heating and moisture condition, coupled with peat organic hydrophobic transformations, influence peat soil hydrophobicity and the resultant water-extractable pollutant leaching, which potentially threatens peatland downstream receiving waters such as potable waters by high organic loads. Further, post-fire peat chemistry and their mechanistic relationships to leached pollutants (total organic carbon (TOC), nu ...

Heatwaves pose significant threats to socioeconomic and environmental systems, with their intensity and frequency expected to increase due to climate change. Despite their critical impacts, future heatwaves in Brazil remain underexplored, especially from a human-perceived perspective, which is crucial for assessing potential public health impacts. Here, we propose a method to assess heatwaves using the humidex ()—a climate index that combines temperature and relative humidity to indicate human-perceived heat - alongside traditional temperature-based measures. Using bias-corrected simulations from 10 CMIP6 models under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios, we quantified projected changes in heatwaves across Brazil. The results indicate that heatwaves will become more severe and prolonged, with greater changes under the SSP5-8.5 scenario by the end of the century, particularly in the North, Northeast, and Central regions. The magnitude of human-perceived heatwaves is expected to rise faster t ...

The project is funded by Global Institute for Water Security.

In an era of rapid climate change, the need for reliable information to support adaptation has never been greater. Changes resulting from warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns are influencing snowmelt dynamics, freeze-thaw cycles and basin response. These shifts may transform Canada’s environmental systems in profound and unprecedented ways. The Global Water Futures modelling research was developed to address these evolving challenges, providing insights into how Canada’s major river basins may respond to these changes. This work focuses on the pan-Canadian application of the MESH land-surface hydrology model across the Yukon, Fraser, Columbia, Mackenzie, Nelson, Churchill, Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence, and Saint John Basins, covering more than 5 million square kilometres. The model simulations integrate bias-corrected, downscaled climate projections to explore future scenarios. We detail the innovative workflows and tools developed for this research and present key fi ...

In an era of rapid climate change, the need for reliable information to support adaptation has never been greater. Changes resulting from warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns are influencing snowmelt dynamics, freeze-thaw cycles and basin response. These shifts may transform Canada’s environmental systems in profound and unprecedented ways. The Global Water Futures modelling research was developed to address these evolving challenges, providing insights into how Canada’s major river basins may respond to these changes. This work focuses on the pan-Canadian application of the MESH land-surface hydrology model across the Yukon, Fraser, Columbia, Mackenzie, Nelson, Churchill, Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence, and Saint John Basins, covering more than 5 million square kilometres. The model simulations integrate bias-corrected, downscaled climate projections to explore future scenarios. We detail the innovative workflows and tools developed for this research and present key fi ...

The evaluation of snowpack models capable of accounting for snow management in ski resorts is a major step towards acceptance of such models in supporting the daily decision-making process of snow production managers. In the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 (H2020) project PROSNOW, a service to enable real-time optimization of grooming and snow-making in ski resorts was developed. We applied snow management strategies integrated in the snowpack simulations of AMUNDSEN, Crocus, and SNOWPACK–Alpine3D for nine PROSNOW ski resorts located in the European Alps. We assessed the performance of the snow simulations for five winter seasons (2015–2020) using both ground-based data (GNSS-measured snow depth) and spaceborne snow maps (Copernicus Sentinel-2). Particular attention has been devoted to characterizing the spatial performance of the simulated piste snow management at a resolution of 10 m. The simulated results showed a high overall accuracy of more than 80 % for snow-covered areas compa ...

Gold mining operations near Yellowknife (Northwest Territories, Canada) released vast quantities of arsenic trioxide during the 1950s, which dispersed across the landscape. Contemporary measurements of arsenic concentrations in lake water and surficial sediment identify enrichment within a 30 km radius. However, paleolimnological studies have identified possible evidence of mining influence during the 1950s at a lake beyond this distance, suggesting a more expansive legacy footprint may exist. Here, we analyze spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition from sediment cores at lakes located 10–40 km (near-field) and 50–80 km (far-field) from the mines along the prevailing northwesterly wind direction (NW) and 20–40 km to the northeast (NE) of the mines to improve characterization of the legacy footprint of emissions. We build upon previous findings to determine if: 1) there is evidence of mine-related pollutants beyond the well-established 30 km radius and 2) enric ...

Evaluating spatiotemporal patterns of arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition from legacy gold mine emissions using lake sediment records

In Canada, construction companies are facing disruptions to their operations due to bad or extreme weather conditions such as thunderstorms, heavy precipitation, flooding, heatwaves and snowstorms, which cause project delays, loss of productivity and increased financial costs. This sector is prone to more disruptions due to increase in the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme weather events due to future climate change. This study examined the impacts of extreme weather events on infrastructure development companies and investigated their current practices and actions to alleviate these impacts. A survey questionnaire was developed and administrated to owners, managers, engineers, supervisors and planners of construction companies. Apart from descriptive evaluations, the survey responses were quantitatively analyzed to determine the impact of bad weather conditions on the construction companies. The findings of this study suggested that most construction companies’ operations w ...

Transdisciplinary researchers collaborate with diverse partners outside of academia to tackle sustainability problems. The patterns and practices of social interaction and the contextual nature of transdisciplinary research result in different performance expectations than traditional, curiosity-driven research. Documenting patterns of interaction can inform project success and affirm progress toward interim outcomes on the way to achieve sustainability impacts. Yet providing credible and robust indicators of research activity remains challenging. We provide quantitative and qualitative indicators for assessing transdisciplinary practices and patterns through social network analysis (SNA). Our assessment developed four criteria to reveal how SNA metrics provide insight into (1) diversity of participants; (2) whether and how integration and collaboration are occurring, (3) the relative degrees of network stability and fragility, and (4) how the network is structured to achieve its goals ...

Hydrometeorological events have been the predominant type of natural hazards to affect communities across Canada. While climate change is a concern to all Canadians, Indigenous communities in Canada have been disproportionately more affected by these extreme climate events than non-Indigenous communities. As the impacts of climate change intensify, it becomes increasingly important that high-resolution climate services are made available to Indigenous decision makers for the development of climate change adaptation plans. This paper examined extreme climate trends in the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, the most populated Indigenous community in Canada. A set of 12 indices were used to evaluate changes in extreme climate events from 1951 to 2013, and 2006 to 2099 under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5. Results indicated that from 1951 to 2013, Six Nations became warmer and wetter with an average temperature increase of 0.7 °C and precipitation increase of ...

Deen, T. A., Arain, M. A., Champagne, O., Chow-Fraser, P., Nagabhatla, N., & Martin-Hill, D. (2021). Evaluation of observed and projected extreme climate trends for decision making in Six Nations of the Grand River, Canada. CLIMATE SERVICES, 24: 100263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2021.100263.

Evaluation of observed and projected extreme climate trends for decision making in Six Nations of the Grand River, Canada

Extreme temperature is a major threat to urban populations; thus, it is crucial to understand future changes to plan adaptation and mitigation strategies. We assess historical and CMIP6 projected trends of minimum and maximum temperatures for the 18 most populated Canadian cities. Temperatures increase (on average 0.3°C/decade) in all cities during the historical period (1979–2014), with Prairie cities exhibiting lower rates (0.06°C/decade). Toronto (0.5°C/decade) and Montreal (0.7°C/decade) show high increasing trends in the observation period. Higher-elevation cities, among those with the same population, show slower increasing temperature rates compared to the coastal ones. Projections for cities in the Prairies show 12% more summer days compared to the other regions. The number of heat waves (HWs) increases for all cities, in both the historical and future periods; yet alarming increases are projected for Vancouver, Victoria, and Halifax from no HWs in the historical period to appr ...

Bartsch, A. and ESA DUE GlobPermafrost & CCI+ Permafrost teams, (2019). Examining Environmental Gradients in permafrost regions - achievements of the ESA DUE GlobPermafrost project and first results from ESA CCI+ Permafrost. AGU 2019 Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, 9-13 December. Conference Presentation

Examining Environmental Gradients in permafrost regions - achievements of the ESA DUE GlobPermafrost project and first results from ESA CCI+ Permafrost

The Sahtú is a subarctic region located in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is comprised of five remote communities, with a total population of approximately 2600 people. Over 75% of the total population is Indigenous, with the largest group being Dene First Nation. Previous human biomonitoring work in the region had indicated lead (Pb) levels in both blood and urine were higher when compared to both the neighbouring Dehcho region, and the general Canadian population. Pb is an element that is toxic to humans in high concentrations. Pb is commonly absorbed through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal exposure, and is distributed in bone and blood. Negative health implications related to chronic exposure include neurological, cardiovascular, and renal impacts. Pb is still widespread in environmental media including soil, air, and water, from anthropogenic releases into the environment, as well as use in industry and hobbies. Specific to the Northern Canada, diet, and hunting practices, ...

The Fraser River basin (FRB) of British Columbia is one of the largest and most important watersheds in Western 10 North America, and is home to a rich diversity of biological species and economic assets that depend implicitly upon its extensive riverine habitats. The hydrology of the FRB is dominated by snow accumulation and melt processes, leading to a prominent annual peak streamflow invariably occurring in June-July. However, while annual peak daily streamflow (APF) during the spring freshet in the FRB is historically well correlated with basin-averaged, April 1 snow water equivalent (SWE), there are numerous occurrences of anomalously large APF in below- or near-normal SWE years, some of which 15 have resulted in damaging floods in the region. An imperfect understanding of which other climatic factors contribute to these anomalously large APFs hinders robust projections of their magnitude and frequency. We employ the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) process-based hydrological ...

noproject,submitted

The Fraser River Basin (FRB) of British Columbia is one of the largest and most important watersheds in western North America, and home to a rich diversity of biological species and economic assets that depend implicitly upon its extensive riverine habitats. The hydrology of the FRB is dominated by snow accumulation and melt processes, leading to a prominent annual peak streamflow invariably occurring in May–July. Nevertheless, while annual peak daily streamflow (APF) during the spring freshet in the FRB is historically well correlated with basin-averaged, 1 April snow water equivalent (SWE), there are numerous occurrences of anomalously large APF in below- or near-normal SWE years, some of which have resulted in damaging floods in the region. An imperfect understanding of which other climatic factors contribute to these anomalously large APFs hinders robust projections of their magnitude and frequency. We employ the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) process-based hydrological mode ...

The carbon balance of peatlands is predicted to shift from a sink to a source this century. However, peatland ecosystems are still omitted from the main Earth system models that are used for future climate change projections, and they are not considered in integrated assessment models that are used in impact and mitigation studies. By using evidence synthesized from the literature and an expert elicitation, we define and quantify the leading drivers of change that have impacted peatland carbon stocks during the Holocene and predict their effect during this century and in the far future. We also identify uncertainties and knowledge gaps in the scientific community and provide insight towards better integration of peatlands into modelling frameworks. Given the importance of the contribution by peatlands to the global carbon cycle, this study shows that peatland science is a critical research area and that we still have a long way to go to fully understand the peatland–carbon–climate nexu ...

GWF-Paradigm Shift in Downscaling Climate Model Projections|

A software release note is one of the essential documents in the software development life cycle. The software release contains a set of information, e.g., bug fixes and security fixes. Release notes are used in different phases, e.g., requirement engineering, software testing and release management. Different types of practitioners (e.g., project managers and clients) get benefited from the release notes to understand the overview of the latest release. As a result, several studies have been done about release notes production and usage in practice. However, two significant problems (e.g., duplication and inconsistency in release notes contents) exist in producing well-written & well-structured release notes and organizing appropriate information regarding different targeted users' needs. For that reason, practitioners face difficulties in writing and reading the release notes using existing tools. To mitigate these problems, we execute two different studies in our paper. First, we ex ...

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to explore the acceptability and feasibility of a resilience-focused mobile application, JoyPop™, for use with Indigenous youth. Methods: A Haudenosaunee community-based research advisory committee co-developed the research project, in accordance with OCAP™ principles. Adopting a mixed-method approach, five youths from an immersion school used the JoyPop™ app for four consecutive weeks, as well as completed pre-test questions and weekly usage surveys. Most participants also completed post-test questions and a semi-structured interview. Based on a semi-structured interview protocol, youth responded to questions, and the most common themes were categorized to capture the experience of using the app. Results: All youth reported a positive impression, used the app daily, found it easy to navigate, and indicated that they would recommend it to a friend. All features were uniformly positively endorsed. There were features that youth used most ...