Areas of Interest
Water is a natural resource essential to all forms of life. Quality and supply (quantity) of water are fundamental to healthy ecosystems and sustainable societies. However, our water resources are limited and often under stress as the result of over-allocation, over-development, careless or uninformed practices, or more recently, changes linked to regional climate extremes. My research focuses on the responses of aquatic organisms, communities and ecosystems to stressors. Stressors can be chemical or physical in nature and result from changes to system hydrology (e.g., hydroelectric power production) or to industrial, agricultural, and municipal activities. With respect to contaminants, I am particularly interested in:
- The bioavailability and toxicity of metals, including nanomaterials, in surface waters and sediments;
- Deriving environmental quality thresholds (water, sediment and tissue-based guidance);
- Aquatic ecotoxicology;
- Ecological risk assessment (prospective and retrospective investigations); and,
- Neo- and paleoenvironmental assessment of freshwater systems, the latter involving retrospective assessment of stressor-induced changes to ecosystems.
Research Projects
The majority of these projects are collaborative, with various researchers from the University of Saskatchewan and other organizations contributing expertise or resources to different aspects or components of each project.