Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The overall objective of my research program is to provide new insight and better quantification of the effects of climate change on our surface and groundwater resources.  I will focus on two projects.  The first project will investigate how the groundwater and surface water of Canada's Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions will respond to global warming.  The focus is on quantifying the hydrologic, geotechnical, and biogeochemical response of permafrost to atmospheric temperature and solar variations.  The second project investigates how suspended sediment loads and associated contaminants in the Lake Erie watershed are controlled by groundwater-surface water interactions and how these linkages are affected by anthropogenic and climatic factors.             Central to the permafrost hydrogeology research is a Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) funded ($650,000) climate chamber which will reproduce the Canadian Arctic solar and atmospheric environment.  The approach is to first select a sampling site in the climate and ecologically sensitive Mackenzie River Basin and test extraction methods.  In 2007 a permafrost monolith (1.5 m diameter, 4 m depth) will be extracted and transported by refrigerated truck to the climate chamber at Western.  Research will then focus on how the hydrogeological, geotechnical, and biogeochemical properties of permafrost change with varying atmospheric forcing (solar, air temperature, precipitation, CO2) consistent with published climate change scenarios.  It is critical to determine how Canada's Arctic ecosystems will respond to climate change.        The Lake Erie basin research started in 2004 with a field program measuring suspended sediment concentrations in the Kettle Creek watershed.  The Kettle Creek watershed is a prime example where the re-mobilization of contaminated sediment is posing human health and ecological risks.  A numerical watershed model will be developed that predicts the impact of land management practices on water, sediment, and agricultural chemical yields in the watershed.  In fall 2005 work began on the Grand River watershed, and similar procedures will be followed for all Lake Erie subwatersheds until a complete basin model is developed.  As anthropogenic and climate induced changes occur in the watershed sediment associated contaminants will continue to be re-mobilized and negatively affect human and ecosystem health.  This research will ultimately allow the prediction and management of this risk.