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Guest Lecture with Dr. John P. Smol

On July 5, 2018, The Centre for Water Resources Studies and The Department of Civil & Resource Engineering held a special guest lecture.

 Dr. John P. Smol, OC, PhD, FRSC, FRS , a professor of biology at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario), where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change, presented:

 Exploring the Past to Protect Our Future: Using lake sediments to study water quality changes

This presentation summarized recent lake sediment work that explored a relatively new environmental problem that has affected Nova Scotia lakes, namely the decline of calcium concentrations in softwater systems that were previously affected by acidic deposition and/or timber harvesting. In addition, using the Alberta oilsands as an example, the application of “forensic paleolimnology” was explored, showing how lake sediment analyses can be used to identify if an environmental problem exists and, if so, what were baseline (pre-impact) conditions and trajectories of ecosystem change.