Learn about ongoing research and issues related to the environment
Free and open to all members of the Trent community and the public
Friday, March 17th, How the Arctic Became Global
Arctic images, such as polar bears perched on melting ice, are now widely viewed as portents of global transformation. Why has the Arctic become so central to global environmental anxieties? Some of the answer lies in our understanding of the planetary consequences of disappearing sea ice and melting permafrost. But there is more going on here. Through an exploration of the history and politics of environmental knowledge we will be shown how evolving ideas about this region – as a space defined by Cold War tensions, a pristine wilderness, a resource frontier, and an Indigenous homeland – have together woven a view of the Arctic as an icon of global change.
Stephen Bocking is professor emeritus in the Trent School of the Environment. Although he's now retired, he is still doing a little teaching. His research interests include the history and politics of environmental knowledge
Friday, March 3rd, Neil Ever Osborne: Trent, There & Back Again
The major environmental movements of the past century were complex, with multiple stakeholders and arcane science, policy, and politics. They began to engage audiences not when lay citizens understood every aspect but when an overarching core narrative—a foundational story manifested through individual storylines of these crises—reached the public, resulting in tangible cultural responses. In Trent, There & Back Again, Neil Ever Osborne shared a collection of (visual) stories—which grounds his ongoing research—while he addresses the central question: "What are we fighting for?"
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Finding incentives for community-based treatment of domestic wastewater using treatment wetlands in Latin America
Chris Metcalfe and Tom Whillans
Friday, January 20th
Friday, December 9th, 2022
Jim Buttle, Professor Emeritus, Trent University
Chemostasis of streamflow chemistry: persistent and pervasive?
The talk explored relationships between solute concentrations and stream discharge and the mechanisms that have been invoked to explain them using a long-term record for a set of forested headwater catchments in central Ontario. In particular, it examined whether chemostasis – the ability of a catchment to maintain relatively constant solute concentrations in streamflow despite wide ranges in stream discharge – is the dominant form of concentration-discharge relationship in this forest landscape. It also addressed whether non-chemostatic behaviour can be explained in terms of catchment characteristics and solute type, and whether concentration-discharge relationships are resilient in the face of changes in climate and atmospheric deposition chemistry in this landscape over a 40 year period.
Friday, November 18th, 2022
Claude Fortin, Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre
Predicting metal bioavailability in surface waters using biofilms
Biofilms develop at the surface of substrates and are composed of bacteria, algae, fungi, and micro-meiofauna. They are ubiquitous, even in highly contaminated ecosystems, which makes them ideal candidates for biomonitoring. Although the composition of this heterogeneous community evolves quickly, biofilms have been shown to provide a robust signal in terms of metal bioavailability over time and over large geographical areas. Metal bioavailability strongly depends on the extent of metal complexation (e.g. presence of dissolved organic matter, pH) and competition for key binding sites (e.g. H+, Ca2+, Mg2+, etc.). Predicting bioavailability can thus become challenging in complex natural environments. Links between metal speciation, water composition and metal (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) accumulation in biofilms will be presented using field data collected in mining areas of Quebec and Ontario over the last decade. Advantages and limitations of using biofilms as a biomonitoring tool will be discussed.
The expertise of Professor Fortin lies both in the fields of element biogeochemistry and ecotoxicology in aquatic systems. More specifically, his work contributes to improving ecotoxicological risk assessment of metallic contaminants in the environment through the characterization of metal exposure and effects on aquatic organisms. His work focuses mainly on the impacts of environmental factors such as pH, micronutrients and dissolved organic matter on the bioavailability and subcellular distribution of trace elements in phytoplankton and biofilms.
Friday, October 21st, 2022
Mark Seasons, Professor, School of Planning, University of Waterloo
The climate emergency: what can planners do?
Climate change is an obvious, high-profile, high-impact issue for all Canadians, including planners. We see almost daily reports of flooding, droughts and extreme weather events (e.g., hurricanes, tornados). These impacts are significant, long-lasting, and they are experienced unevenly in communities across this country and globally. We need to view this for what it is: the existential threat of our time.
It’s clear that communities, and their planners, need to enhance their capacity to mitigate, and plan for and manage local impacts of climate change. Planners have considerable agency in this regard. While planners have a good understanding of the science of climate change, to be effective, they will need to make creative, innovative, and strategic use of existing policy frameworks and implementation tools, create new tools, and develop new models of decision-making.
In this presentation, we reviewed current thinking and best practices in urban and regional planning, and consider the factors that can facilitate, or impede, planners’ efforts to manage the causes and impacts of climate change.
