Hynes Lecturer 2012
David Schindler, PhD
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta
We are fortunate to be hosting Dr. David Schindler, Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology from the University of Alberta as this year’s H.B.N. Hynes lecturer. He is one of Canada’s top environmental scientists and is known worldwide for his leadership in aquatic sciences, especially in understanding the effects of eutrophication and acid precipitation on lakes. He established the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), a research facility that is unique in the world for its ability to conduct experiments on whole ecosystems. Many of the studies done at ELA under his leadership directly and effectively influenced legislation to decrease emissions of acidifying substances from smokestacks and the use of phosphates in detergents and their release in municipal wastewaters. More recently his research has focused on the effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems, the eutrophication of Lake Winnipeg, the restoration of lakes from stocking of alien fish species or from excessive nutrient inputs, and the downstream impacts of oil sands development.
Dr. Schindler has been recognized for his high-impact science and contributions to public policy and education countless times. As examples, he received the first Stockholm Water Prize, the Volvo Environment Prize, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and Canada’s highest scientific honour the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of a non-profit foundation, the Safe Drinking Water Foundation, that educates Canadian students about the importance of water and helps aboriginal communities with water problems. For his tireless promotion of science and education of non-scientists, he received the Royal Canadian Institute’s Sandford Fleming Medal for public communication of science. Among many other accolades, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, was awarded eleven honorary degrees from universities, and has an Endowed Professorship in Aquatic Sciences at Trent University. He will be speaking at UNB Saint John and Fredericton November 15th and 16th, 2012, respectively, on impacts of oil sands and cultural eutrophication on Canadian waterways.
Related websites:
- David Schindler, University of Alberta www.biology.ualberta.ca/faculty/david_schindler/
- Experimental Lakes Area www.experimentallakesarea.ca/
- Safe Drinking Water Foundation www.safewater.org/home.htm
LECTURES
Public Lecture: “The Oil Sands: Economic Saviour or Environmental Disaster?”
November 15th, 7 pm, Hazen Hall Lecture Theatre, UNB Saint John
The Alberta oil sands are being promoted by the oil sands industry and by government officials as the solution to North American energy needs for the foreseeable future. The impacts of oil sands development have been downplayed in propaganda promoting the oil sands. In this lecture, I will discuss some of the impacts that have been ignored or misrepresented, such as water quality, fisheries, wetland reclamation, carbon sequestration, and treaties with aboriginal communities. Following the advice of several expert panels, on October 17th, 2012, Alberta Minister of Environment, Water and Sustainable Resources Diana McQueen announced an independent agency to direct a new and improved monitoring program on the Athabasca River. This need for this initiative and the broad-ranging effects of oil sands development will be discussed.
Science Lecture: “The Dilemma of Controlling Cultural Eutrophication “
November 16th, 3 pm, Kent Auditorium, Wu Centre, UNB Fredericton
Eutrophication occurs in surface waters when there are excess inputs of nutrients, resulting in blooms of algae and degraded water quality. In this talk, I review several decades of experience with controlling eutrophication of lakes in Canada and elsewhere in the world. I find that recent studies concluding that nitrogen as well as phosphorus must be controlled in order to reverse eutrophication are erroneous, because they are based on short-term bottle or mesocosm studies that do not include key ecosystem processes such as inter-annual increases in recycling of nutrients, nutrient fluxes from sediments, and long-term changes in community composition. There are numerous cases where reducing phosphorus loading has successfully decreased eutrophication, but no unequivocal cases where nitrogen reductions to lakes have been successful. I will present new results of whole lake experiments at the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario where phosphorus and nitrogen loading were increased or decreased singly and in combination, and a new summary of how climate change and increased human activity in the watershed have combined to cause the rapid eutrophication of Lake Winnipeg.
