CH MSc student Alasdair Morrison is blogging about his field work experience in the Rockies this summer. His goal is to inventory Rocky Mountain peatlands, especially those infested with beaver: he is using ground penetrating radar to search for buried beaver paleoponds, to give us insight into beaver as a soil forming agent. The blog is at: dontrunfromthebears.blogspot.ca
In his words to supervisor Dr Cherie Westbrook: “I’m trying to keep it reasonably entertaining and funny, so I may be using a bit of exaggeration and artistic licence at some points for comedy effect. I just don’t want you to get worried about when I talk about trespassing, and getting lost etc! I’m hoping it comes off as a reasonably fun and honest (bar exaggerations) account of what happens during field work!”
Grand Slam for Nicholas Kinar!
CH PhD student Nicholas Kinar won the D.M. Gray Award at the 2012 Canadian Geophysical Union meeting in Banff, Alberta on June 8 for his paper and talk on Acoustic Imaging and Measurement of Snow.
Nicholas won the Horton Award from the American Geophysical Union in December 2011 and so is the first to achieve the ‘grand slam’ of North American hydrology awards.
Many congratulations, Nicholas!
Hydrology Seminar – Dr Jessica Lundquist, 10th April
Dr Jessica Lundquist, Associate Professor at the University of Washington, will speak on Cold Air Pools in Complex Terrain, on Tuesday April 10th at 2pm in Agri 2C71.
In complex terrain, air in contact with the ground becomes cooled from radiative energy loss on a calm clear night and, being denser than the free atmosphere at the same elevation, sinks to valley bottoms. Cold-air pooling (CAP) occurs where this cooled air collects on the landscape. We present an objective mapping algorithm for identifying cold-air pool locations and compare the results against distributed temperature measurements in Loch Vale, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado; in the Eastern Pyrenees, France; and in Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada, California. We then discuss the impacts of cold air pools on snow, hydrology, and ecology, both in the present day and under a changing climate.
‘Why Cold Matters’ in Canmore Press
This week’s edition of Canmore’s Rocky Mountain Outlook carried a detailed report on Why Cold Matters: The State and Fate of Canada’s Ice and Snow, an evening of presentations co-hosted by the Centre for Hydrology and the Interpretive Guides’ Association on Thursday, March 1.
Presenters included Prof John Pomeroy (Director of the Centre for Hydrology), Bob Sandford (CH associate and chair of the Canadian arm of the UN’s Water for Life Decade), and glaciologist Dr Shawn Marshall (University of Calgary): all three are key members of the Western Watersheds Research Collaborative.
Their talks provided illustrations of entire ecosystems which have evolved in alpine and glacial habitats, and of the immense importance of snow and ice as store-houses of water for human use. With changes to global climate likely to lead to temperature increases of as much as 4° C in the next few decades, their continued existence is looking increasingly precarious.
The article is available on the Outlook’s web-site.
Pomeroy / Shook SWA Flood Report in the News
CBC News has posted a report about a recent review of operations at Lake Diefenbaker preceding and during the floods of late Spring 2011, conducted by U of S hydrologists Prof John Pomeroy and Dr Kevin Shook: the article is available on the CBC Website.
The Winnipeg Free Press also published its perspective on the report.
The study, conducted on behalf of the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, highlights the challenges of striking the right balance when trading-off the competing demands of flood protection, electricty generation and water supply. It notes that minimum water levels in the lake have been rising over the years, and that inflows from snowmelt and rainfall were – despite the best efforts of SWA staff – under-predicted, due in part to a paucity of gauges in the watersheds which drain into the lake.
The report is available as a PDF from the SWA website at the following URL.
Why Cold Matters: The State and Fate of Canadas Ice and Snow – 1st March 2012
The Centre for Hydrology is co-sponsoring a suite of presentations hosted by the Interpretive Guides’ Association on Thursday, March 1 at the Policeman’s Creek Drop-In Centre in Canmore, AB, entitled Why Cold Matters: The State and Fate of Canada’s Ice and Snow.
The evening will feature presentations by Prof John Pomeroy (Director of the Centre for Hydrology), Bob Sandford (CH associate and chair of the Canadian arm of the UN’s Water for Life Decade), and glaciologist Dr Shawn Marshall (University of Calgary): all three presenters are key members of the Western Watersheds Research Collaborative.
“Canadians love their snow and its beauty, but often see it as something to be only shovelled or skied upon,” says Dr Pomeroy. “But, not only is it one of the most beautiful and physically complex natural phenomena, it is the home of many plants and animals, the food source for many more and the provider of water for the alpine summer and for the rivers that drain the mountains to provide water to the parched prairies.”
The role of snow as a part of the mountain ecosystem, how it interacts with forests and alpine vegetation and how it is sensitive to climate warming comprise just part of the focus of the presentation.
Summarizing the recent findings of two networks of cold regions research funded by the Canadian Foundation for Climate & Atmospheric Science that form the basis of his forthcoming book, Cold Matters: The State and Fate of Canada’s Fresh Water, Mr Sandford will focus on how seemingly small changes in temperature are influencing not just Canada’s climate, but also Canadians’ very identity.
“We are likely the first generation of human beings to accurately measure and fully understand how what we may have once thought were very small relative changes in mean temperature – changes as small as a single degree Celcius – can result in changes in the behaviour of the atmosphere noticeable enough to be reflected in the patterns of the seasons,” Sandford said.
“Because the most pronounced warming is occurring in winter, the most visibly obvious changes are related to the extent and duration of snow pack and snow cover. Snow cover, atmospheric circulation and temperature are inter-dependent and relate to one another as feedbacks. Water and temperature define climate. Climate defines ecosystems; and ecosystems define us.”
“In the absence of snow we would be different people living in a different world. It appears that, in the context of where and how we live in Canada, cold really does matter.”
Dr Marshall will discuss the latest research findings related to the effects of contemporary climatic trends on the extent and influence of glaciers in Canada’s western mountains and abroad, while Pomeroy will share the findings of his own research.
“The water security of Western Canada is predicated on the preservation of the natural flows and storage of mountain snow, ice and water,” Pomeroy said. “This controls our natural ecosystems and our ability to provide communities, food and energy throughout Western Canada. We risk everything by losing it, and so must conserve our mountain cold environments.”
Why Cold Matters: The State and Fate of Canada’s Ice and Snow takes place on Thursday, March 1 at the Policeman’s Creek Drop-In Centre. Doors open at 7 with the presentation beginning at 7:30. Admission is free.
Canadian Geophysical Union – Hydrology Section: Western Student Conference
The 11th annual Western Canada CGU Hydrology Section student conference will be held at the University of Saskatchewan on February 11th, 2012.
Abstracts (max 250 words) are invited for oral presentations by CGU members, by January 25th, 2012.
More information about the event – including details of how to submit your abstract – is available here
CH News from the AGU 2011 Fall Meeting
Two items of CH-related news from the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California, December, 2011:
Dr Phil Marsh, an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Hydrology, and Research Scientist and Project Chief in Environment Canada, was honoured by the American Geophysical Union as author of one of the top 5 papers in the journal Water Resources Research.
Marsh and co-author Dr Lance Lesack from Simon Fraser University received this award for their article entitled River-to-lake connectivities, water renewal, and aquatic habitat diversity in the Mackenzie River Delta.
Nicholas Kinar, who was named in July as winner of the prestigious Horton Research Grant, was formally recognized by the AGU at its Hydrology Section Luncheon at. Together with Prof. John Pomeroy, Nicholas presented a poster at the meeting entitled Acoustic Imaging and Analysis of Snowpack Physical Properties.
Centre for Hydrology / CSHS Principles of Hydrology short course, March 2012
The Centre for Hydrology and Canadian Society for Hydrological Sciences will again be holding their popular short course in Physical Principles of Hydrology in the Kananaskis Valley, Alberta, from March 1-12, 2012.
The course is intended for hydrology and water resources graduate students and early to midlevel career water resource engineers, hydrologists, aquatic ecologists and technologists from Canada who are either working directly in hydrology and water resources or are looking to broaden their understanding of hydrological systems and processes.
Factors governing hydrological processes within the context of distinctly Canadian landscape features will be discussed. Students will be exposed to an overview of each subject, with recent scientific findings and new cutting edge theories, tools and techniques, through a combination of classroom sessions at the University of Calgary’s Biogeoscience Institute’s Barrier Lake Station, and fieldwork at the Marmot Creek Research Basin.
Students will emerge from the course with a deeper understanding of physical hydrological processes and how they interact to produce catchment water budgets and streamflow response, together with state-of-the-art field instrumentation and measurement techniques.
More information is available here, or from Dr Chris Spence or Dr John Pomeroy
Take on the Drought Game!
Andrew Ireson, Assistant Professor in Subsurface Hydrology with the School of Environment and Sustainability and the Global Institute for Water Security, is keen to hear from grad. students who may be interested in participating in an Invitational Drought Tournament.
This is a game in which students from U of Alberta, U of Regina and U of Saskatchewan will form multi-disciplinary teams, consisting of approximately five players. Having chosen their initial conditions or ‘preparedness strategies’, teams will be guided through a simulated multi-year drought scenario of unknown length and severity, throughout which they will work collaboratively to discuss and select adaptation options that should help them better prepare for, adapt to, respond to, and recover from the drought’s impacts. The chosen strategies should maximize economic benefits and reduce social and ecological stress. More details are given here, in a description of a similar tournament held last year.
The game will take place in late February / early March of 2012. At this stage, Andrew is looking to find out who is interested in participating. This is all about decision-making under pressure, with finite resources, focusing on minimizing environmental impacts of droughts, which are one of the most expensive, devastating natural disasters in the Canadian prairies (billion dollar impacts). It should also be great fun – it’s a game after all. If you think you would like to take part, or if you have any questions or comments please get in touch with Andrew.