Primary Investigators (PIs)
Dr. Vincent St.LouisProfessor, University of Alberta
Vincent is a biogeochemist with over 40 years of research experience that began with whole-ecosystem experimentation at the Experimental Lakes Area (NW Ontario) on the environmental impacts of acid rain, hydroelectric reservoir creation, and the atmospheric deposition of mercury. In 2004, his research interests expanded northward to studying biogeochemical cycling of toxic methylated mercury in high- and sub-Arctic marine animals and freshwaters. More recently, he focused his research efforts on determining how accelerated climate change in polar regions altered terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem productivity, greenhouse gas emissions from landscapes, water quality, contaminant loadings and biomagnification, and glacial river biogeochemical process. In 2019, he turned his attention to the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains where he is leading a team in quantifying the impacts of accelerated glacial melt on glacial river water quality, productivity and geochemical reactions. |
Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke
Rolf focuses on the cumulative impacts of multiple environmental stressors on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in mountain, boreal, and arctic lakes. In particular, he is interested in the ecological mechanisms that regulate the resistance of ecosystems and their recovery from stressors, such as climate change, acidic nitrogen deposition, stratospheric ozone depletion and increased ultraviolet-B radiation, and invasive species.
www.biology.ualberta.ca/vinebrooke_lab/index.html
www.biology.ualberta.ca/vinebrooke_lab/index.html
Dr. Suzanne Tank
Associate Professor, University of Alberta
Suzanne has a long-standing interest in understanding the effects of global change on aquatic ecosystem function. Over the years, she has worked in various regions of the Arctic, on the North American Pacific Coast, and in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Much of the research currently underway in her lab has a specific focus on understanding land-to-freshwater, and freshwater-to-ocean linkages, and the role that aquatic systems play within the landscapes that surround them
www.suzannetank.net
Suzanne has a long-standing interest in understanding the effects of global change on aquatic ecosystem function. Over the years, she has worked in various regions of the Arctic, on the North American Pacific Coast, and in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Much of the research currently underway in her lab has a specific focus on understanding land-to-freshwater, and freshwater-to-ocean linkages, and the role that aquatic systems play within the landscapes that surround them
www.suzannetank.net
Dr. Maya BhatiaAssistant Professor, University of Alberta & Campus Alberta Innovates Program (CAIP) Chair in Watershed Science
Maya joined the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department at the University of Alberta in October 2017. Before coming to Edmonton, she completed her PhD in the MIT / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program and she was a NSERC and CIFAR Global Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. mbhatia7.wixsite.com/bhatia-lab-ualberta |
Dr. Mark PoeschAssociate Professor, University of Alberta
Mark's research focuses on issues related to aquatic biodiversity, including: conservation of freshwater fishes (e.g. species at risk, invasive species), sustainable resource development and developing robust restoration and reclamation activities. His goals are to: build effective collaborations across Alberta and North America; to train the next generation of research leaders; to provide an atmosphere of respect and learning; to engage the public and stakeholders; and, to develop leading edge novel research to solve applied problems. poeschlab.ualberta.ca |
Graduate Students
Jessica SerbuPhD student supervised by Dr. Vincent St.Louis
Jessica researches the biogeochemistry of glacier-fed lakes and rivers in landscape-scale studies. Her primary focus is to characterize and quantify greenhouse gases, contaminants, and other chemical water quality parameters within glacial freshwaters in the context of a changing climate. In Project ICEWATER, her three objectives are to: (1) Determine if weathering-driven carbon dioxide undersaturation occurs in this region, and how it changes across space and time; (2) Quantify patterns in proglacial freshwater chemistry and quality; and (3) Quantify ecosystem-scale metabolic processes in proglacial rivers. www.jessicaserbu.ca |
Shelby StenersonPhD student supervised by Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke
Shelby's work focuses on the use of periphyton, the main primary producer within streams and rivers, as bioindicators of water quality, here in central Alberta. Her role within Project ICEWATER involves the collection and identification of periphyton across watersheds, determining structural and functional differences in community composition and how they relate to environmental characteristics. |
Blake StuparykPhD student supervised by Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke
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Hayley Drapeau
MSc student co-supervised by Drs. Suzanne Tank & Maya Bhatia
Hayley's project focuses on learning more about the organic carbon cycle within glacier fed streams. In particular she is interested in learning more about which qualities within the stream organic carbon pool are preferentially consumed by microbial communities, and investigating whether glacial organic carbon could be an important food source to these microscopic organisms. |
Chloe ChristensonMSc student supervised by Dr. Mark Poesch
Chloe's main thesis project is studying the potential impacts of whirling disease across the Bow river basin on Rainbow Trout and Westslope Cutthroat Trout. She is using field collection methods to assess the non-fish portions of the Myxobolus cerebralis life cycle. This includes water filtrations to collect the free-floating stage of the parasite (TAMs), aquatic worm density surveys and collections targeted to find Tubifex sp. worms, as well as stream temperature monitoring to assess the amount of time spent in optimal temperatures for parasite release. Her whirling disease sampling includes the 4 lower Project ICEWATER sites in the Bow River as well as many many more lower in the Bow River basin as far downstream as Calgary. |
Collaborators
Dr. Craig EmmertonWatershed Scientist with Alberta Environment and Parks and an Adjunct Faculty member of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta.
Craig works on the Project ICEWATER (also known as From the mountains to our tables: freshwater security in three Canadian Eastern Rock Mountain watersheds project) supporting water quality and biogeochemical cycling investigations in lake and river settings. |
Maria CavacoResearch technician in Dr. Maya Bhatia's lab
Maria obtained her master's in microbial ecology, which focused on freshwater microbial community diversity in a High Arctic watershed located on Northern Ellesmere Island, NU. Currently, her work with the CMN project involves helping out during field campaigns and contributing towards understanding microbial community dynamics throughout the watersheds studied herein. |
Karson SudlowMSc student supervised by Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke
Karson is researching how glaciers influence algal community structure in alpine streams in Alberta's Rockies. His goal is to understand how declining glacier influence, due to accelerating glacier melt, impacts algal diversity in glacier-fed streams. Glacier melt provides alpine streams with water and nutrients which are essential for the survival of algae in extreme mountain environments. Shrinking glaciers may jeopardize the supply of these resources which could have negative effects on algal diversity and ecosystem functioning in alpine streams. He hopes to shed a light on the relationship between glaciers and algae to better inform potential threats to Alberta's unique alpine diversity. |
Rory BurfordMITACS visiting PhD student
Rory is a UK-based PhD student under the supervision of Professor Jemma Wadham and Dr Christoper Yates (Bristol Glaciology Centre). His research explores controls on the composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in glacial rivers. Rory joined the Bhatia Lab in 2021 under a Globalink Research Award, in order to conduct fieldwork with the Canadian Mountain Network. Whilst in Canada, Rory intends to develop a novel incubation experiment to directly measure the age of the respirable DOM fraction, and to add a number of Canadian samples to his global comparison of high mountain glacial DOM. Outside of academia, Rory enjoys reading fiction, playing games with friends, and finding creative ways to hurt himself under the guise of competitive sport. |
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Samuel Metacat-YahMay 2021 - Aug 2021
Samuel was hired via I-STEAM Pathways to assist Hayley with both lab and field work. |
Lakoda Thomas |
Annika Fuhr KuharicMay 2021 - Aug 2021
Anika is getting her degree in Native Studies and Elementary Education. She is an I-STEAM Pathways awardee who works with Chloe. |
Janelle FlettMay 2020 - Aug 2020
Janelle is about to graduate with her Environmental Science degree from Mount Royal University and is an Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation member. She was hired through I-STEAM Pathways to assist graduate students Jessica and Hayley in both the field and lab, helping prep, collect and analyze samples (particularly Hg), and work through some of the results. In her own words: "I joined an amazing team of professors, grad and undergrad students and this really opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities of pursuing a further education in academia. I have always loved water and within Canada clean drinking water for reserves is a huge issue that has yet to be fully addressed. One of the glaciers we were sampling [water from] feeds over 20 Indigenous communities including my own and for that reason this project was very close to my heart." |
Lauren PerrasMay 2020 - Aug 2020
Lauren was hired via I-STEAM Pathways to assist Chloe with deploying temperature loggers at Project Icewater sites. |
Sydney EnnsMay 2019 - Aug 2020
Sydney recently obtained her Environmental and Conservation Sciences degree from the University of Alberta. She was originally hired via an NSERC-USRA to assist Jessica in 2019, but stayed on through the year to help analyze Hg and DIC samples. She then returned summer 2020 as an I-STEAM Pathways awardee. Sydney also examined some of the data from summers 2019 and 2020 to submit a poster for the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fall Conference in 2020. She analyzed temporal and spatial trends of turbidity and non-filterable residue in our study sites. She was further able to use this project to obtain her Sustainability Certificate from the University of Alberta! |