UNews - Matthew Bogard

Drs. Tiffany Hind Bull-Prete and Matthew Bogard earn Canada Research Chair support

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:05:41 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has a new Canada Research Chair (CRC) and a second researcher has had his program renewed thanks to $311 million in funding announced today in support of the Government of Canada’s CRC program.

Apooyak’ii Dr. Tiffany Hind Bull-Prete, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and member of the Kainai (Blood Tribe) of the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy), has been named a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Resiliency. Dr. Matthew

Dr. Tiffany Hind Bull-Prete is the Tier II Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Resiliency. PHOTO courtesy of MoonSong Photography

Bogard, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, has had his Tier II CRC in Aquatic Environments renewed for a second term.

Hind Bull-Prete’s CRC appointment is focused on advancing research inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action 21 and 22.

“My work seeks to restore balance and resilience within Indigenous communities, with a particular focus on the Siksikaitsitapi,” she says. “Grounded in Blackfoot principles and conducting community driven research, my work will delve into the intergenerational trauma that has stemmed from colonial policies that severed familial and cultural ties, leaving a legacy of profound trauma.”

The initiative is dedicated to fostering meaningful relationships within the community, strengthening bonds and mutual support. Ultimately, Hind Bull-Prete’s research aspires to document and co-develop models of resilience in collaboration with community members, Elders, and leaders, illuminating how traditional teachings and innovative practices continue to empower the Blackfoot People to restore balance and cultivate a thriving community in the present day.

Dr. Matthew Bogard is the Tier II Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Environments.

Hind Bull-Prete earned her Bachelor of Elementary Education, specializing in math and science, her Master of Education and Doctor of Philosophy in Education all at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta. She has held a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, and was an inaugural recipient of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary's Provost's Postdoctoral Award for Indigenous and Black Scholars. She has been at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge since 2022.

As Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Environments, Bogard is exploring how aquatic ecosystems in the Canadian prairies — such as lakes, streams and reservoirs — are affected by these human activities.

By integrating biogeochemical and ecological approaches across scales — from tiny microbial habitats to the entire prairie region — he and his research team are identifying how various stressors are reshaping the cycling of nutrients, organic matter and potent greenhouse gases. Ultimately, their work will help address critical issues, such as the overabundance of nutrients in watersheds (eutrophication) and water quality loss. It will also support the move toward sustainable agriculture and nature-based climate solutions.

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas grant supports ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research expertise

trevor.kenney — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 20:59:41 +0000

Eight ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research projects focused on water storage, carbon storage, insect health, fish habitat and the endangered sage grouse will go ahead thanks to a $500,000 grant from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (AEPA).

“We’re joining forces with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge to look deeper into environmental issues impacting southern Alberta,” said Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, in a news release. “This grant will help us better maximize and manage Alberta’s water supply, reduce emissions, recover species at risk and protect the environment in the years ahead. This is a great example of government and university scientists working together.”

The three-year research grant will ultimately help both government and ULethbridge researchers better understand and respond to environmental challenges in southern Alberta and across the province.

"The Ministry's significant investment in these innovative and provincially important research projects led by ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers working with Environment and Protected Areas colleagues is greatly appreciated,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president research. “The research includes answering important questions about water resources and habitat management, carbon storage in landscapes, ensuring diverse and thriving insects, birds, and fish populations, as well as human actions and interventions that affect water and lands."

The projects target diverse areas of research. Drs. Matthew Bogard and Sam Woodman (BSc '15), a postdoctoral fellow, will collaborate with researchers from AEPA and Ducks Unlimited Canada to map and define patterns of prairie wetland carbon and nutrient stocks.

In another project, Drs. Theresa Burg and Melissa Chelak, a postdoctoral fellow, will work with AEPA scientists to see how endangered sage grouse populations are responding to recent habitat restoration, namely oil and gas reclamation efforts.

Drs. Laura Chasmer, Chris Hopkinson and Craig Coburn will be focusing on the vulnerability of peatlands to wildfire. Peatlands in Alberta have been drying out in recent years, reducing their ability to slow the spread of forest fires and resulting in increased carbon loss into the atmosphere. In addition, Chasmer and Hopkinson will also work on a project to assess the province’s lake water resources.

Climate phases, such as El Nino, can impact the productivity of native grassland and wetland ecosystems. Dr. Larry Flanagan and AEPA will examine how these year-to-year variations in weather contribute to fluctuations in productivity and carbon sequestration in these ecosystems and how these factors in turn can affect dryland farming, ranching, irrigated crop production and bird habitat.

How rainbow and brown trout in urban rivers such as the Bow River are affected by the combined effects of exposure to two stormwater associated chemicals as well as increased water temperatures and decreases in dissolved oxygen is the subject of research by Drs. Steve Wiseman and Andreas Eriksson, a postdoctoral fellow, in collaboration with researchers from AEPA and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan.

Grasshopper expert, Dr. Dan Johnson, will be conducting extensive field sampling of Orthoptera to determine their diversity, abundance and biomass in wildlife food webs. Orthoptera includes insects such as grasshoppers and crickets.

A project team led by Dr. Jodie Asselin, an anthropology professor, in collaboration with government researchers, will look at the impact of human activities on the ecology of the Upper Oldman Watershed to assist in the development of policies that balance the needs of recreational users with the protection of at-risk species such as bull trout.

“These projects will help to monitor and build understanding of the southern Alberta environment and potentially lead to better responses to droughts, floods, species at risk and less predictable climate changes,” says McMartin.

Study shows methane emissions from Prairie wetlands are lower than expected

caroline.zentner — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 21:28:35 +0000

Inland waters including ponds and wetlands are one of the largest natural sources of methane. Pound for pound, methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Now, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge-led study has found that many of the ponds and wetlands dotting the Canadian Prairies emit less methane than predicted in part due to their elevated salt content, making previous estimates highly inaccurate.

“We came up with new prairie-specific models and estimates that were much lower than expected based on models developed in other parts of the world,” says Dr. Matthew Bogard, a ULethbridge biology professor and Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Environments. “We were very conservative in our calculations and even so, we found that emissions were drastically overestimated.

Their study was recently published in Nature Communications.

Bogard and Dr. Cynthia Soued, a ULethbridge post-doctoral fellow at the time of the study, partnered with scientists from Ducks Unlimited Canada and the universities of Regina, British Columbia and McGill. Their goal was to develop an understanding of methane emissions from inland aquatic systems in the Prairie Pothole Region.

“There is growing interest in understanding the role of prairie ecosystems in carbon accounting, both provincially and nationally,” says Bogard. “Decades of research have improved our estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from inland waters. However, our knowledge of methane emissions from saltier ecosystems in the Prairies lags behind other regions. This study provides a step toward better carbon accounting.”

Because prairie ecosystems are saltier on average than many comparable habitats worldwide, the researchers predicted that salts limit the amount of methane that mud-dwelling microbes produce through a series of complicated processes. They suspected that ignoring this effect could ultimately lead to errors in estimating methane emissions from prairie aquatic systems.

The researchers assembled new and existing data from nearly 250 aquatic ecosystems across the Canadian Prairies. They used advanced sensors to monitor real-time emissions at two wetlands and assembled data from other regions of the world where salty systems exist.

Why is this important?

The findings from this study become important for Canada and other regions when decisions are being made about draining or preserving wetlands and ponds.

“We need accurate estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from these systems to know exactly what we gain or lose with different management decisions,” says Bogard.

“Wetland drainage on agricultural land is a hotly contested topic in the prairie provinces these days,” says Dr. Kerri Finlay, a professor at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Regina and lead co-author of the publication. “Our research now shows that intact wetlands and ponds in this region are much lower emitters of methane than previously assumed. Draining wetlands will instead create large pulses of greenhouse gas emissions, far beyond anything we see if a wetland is preserved.”

Methane emissions are only one component of the carbon cycle in these ecosystems. Plants also suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to build biomass and lock away vast amounts of carbon in the mud at the bottom of these ecosystems. Bogard says years of work are still needed to understand the full balance of carbon cycling in prairie ponds and wetlands, but in the meantime, we cannot overlook their benefits.

“These systems provide many different ecosystem services to us for free that are worth over $20 billion a year in Canada alone,” Bogard says. “They store water, so they buffer floods and droughts. They provide cooling as water evaporates into the atmosphere. They are refuges for birds, amphibians and animals that we hunt. They also filter and process nutrients and toxins out of our water.”

This research represents a step toward balancing carbon storage and emissions in a way that will better incorporate carbon cycling into models of nature-based services on the Prairies and abroad.

Funding for this study included the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, a Natural Sciences and Enginerring Research Council Discovery Grant, MITACS and the Beef Cattle Research Council. The Research Support Fund supports a portion of the costs associated with managing the research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, such as salaries for staff who provide administration support, training costs for workplace health and safety, maintenance of libraries and laboratories, and administrative costs associated with obtaining patents for inventions.

$10-million partnership will study the effectiveness of Canada’s wetlands in helping achieve climate targets

caroline.zentner — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 21:50:43 +0000

Wetlands provide habitat for wildlife, filtration for water and even play a role in protecting us from drought. Now a group of Canadian researchers, including Drs. Larry Flanagan and Matthew Bogard from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, will study them to learn more about their exact role in combating climate change.

Frank Lake Wetland near High River is one of the many Prairie wetlands that will be included in the study.

Led by Dr. Irena Creed, vice-principal of research and innovation at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto, Scarborough, the project will build scientific understanding of wetlands, their function and the services they provide.

“There’s an assumption that nature is storing carbon to a certain degree, but we need stronger evidence to truly know how effective wetlands are as a nature-based climate solution,” says Creed.

“This work is highly relevant to southern Alberta and the Lethbridge area, because wetland protection and restoration is front and center in many discussions related to sustainable agriculture and watershed management,” says Bogard.

“This project is also key to broadening our knowledge about the part wetlands can play in mitigating climate change,” adds Flanagan.

Wetlands offer essential ecological services for wildlife, humans and climate. They protect and improve water quality, provide habitats for fish and wildlife, store floodwaters and maintain surface water during dry periods. They store large amounts of carbon, which is a benefit to fighting climate change, but also emit large quantities of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas.

By teaming up, Bogard, an aquatic scientist, and Flanagan, a terrestrial ecologist, will provide a more integrated, land-to-water picture of wetlands and how they cycle carbon and nutrients, with a focus on understanding the magnitude of net carbon sequestration relative to emissions of other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide.

Bogard and his team will contribute to the project by measuring greenhouse gas content in the water accumulating in wetlands across Canada, especially those in the Prairie Pothole region — an area of the Great Plains in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba with shallow wetlands that were created by glacial activity. By calculating the rate of emissions of the most potent greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — the team will provide a comprehensive estimate of how wetlands influence Earth’s climate.

Flanagan and his team will bring expertise to the project by using a highly sensitive sampling technique called eddy covariance that continuously tracks exchanges of carbon dioxide and methane between wetlands and the atmosphere. In addition to measuring wetland greenhouse gas emissions, they will also assess wetland ecosystem responses to environmental conditions such as drought, warmer temperatures and nutrient pollution. This information will help to evaluate the contributions that nature-based solutions make to reduce the effects of climate change.

Creed says wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world, despite efforts to slow their rate of loss. Governments around the world have spent considerable money and resources rightfully trying to restore and rehabilitate them. At the same time, wetlands are being used as nature-based climate solutions without truly understanding the scale of their impact. What’s lacking is data showing at what point this strategy is good for addressing climate change.

“We need to fully understand the science behind it, to know what the tipping point is for storing carbon dioxide versus releasing more potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere such as methane,” says Creed, a renowned ecosystem scientist.

The project is being funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Climate Action and Awareness Fund. The fund is an investment of $206 million over five years to support Canadian-made projects that help reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The partnership will include researchers from six universities from across Canada and seven non-academic organizations representing government and conservation agencies led by Ducks Unlimited Canada. An additional $4 million dollars will be invested in the project by various non-academic partners.

Healthy river systems depend on protected headwaters

caroline.zentner — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 21:18:39 +0000

Using measurements collected by the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Canada over the last 20 to 40 years, Dr. Sarah Ellen Johnston, a post-doctoral fellow at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and Canada Research Chair Dr. Matthew Bogard have mapped out changes in the flow of carbon through the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) in a study that was recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.

“What happens in the mountain headwaters has huge implications for us down here in the prairies,” says Johnston. “Our big takeaway from this study was that a lot of the carbon comes from the mountains, so we really need to consider those headwater sources of carbon as the main energy and fuel sources to the food webs in the rest of our watershed. If we don’t want to see big changes in organic carbon, we need to protect the headwaters.”

The organic form of carbon, the focus of this research, is an important indicator of the health of river systems. Too little carbon or a rapid decline in carbon content lowers the ability of a river to sustain life, while too much carbon or a rapid increase has ramifications for drinking water and other important ecosystem services. While some carbon sources come from within a river system itself, such as bacteria and algae, carbon also enters river systems from the landscape, through trees, plants and soils. For rivers in the SSRB, including the Bow, Oldman and Red Deer sub-basins, the typical pattern is a surge in carbon during the spring snow melt.

“An exciting discovery in recent decades is that rivers and lakes intercept an enormous amount of the carbon moving off the land toward the oceans,” says Bogard. “What happens in Canada’s rivers impacts the balance of carbon in our atmosphere. Our study adds new numbers to this, which is like adding a piece to help solve the global carbon budget puzzle. The better we understand the global carbon cycle, the better we can help guide society in terms of cost-effective climate-change mitigation strategies.”

“In general, Alberta is doing quite a good job of protecting the headwaters by having them designated as parkland,” Johnston says. “There’s a push to change that, but maintaining the protection of these headwaters will help to maintain the energy source for the rest of the river systems.”

The SSRB originates in the Rocky Mountains and covers about 146,000 square kilometres of southern Alberta, Montana and Saskatchewan. The region shows large shifts in land cover and development, as well as in water usage and allocation. For example, southern Alberta, with its agricultural base, has high proportions of water withdrawal from its rivers.

“We wanted to determine whether there have been changes over time in the flow of organic carbon through these river systems,” she says. “If humans are causing particular decreases or increases, then that’s really where we start to see issues. So, if we start having things like coal mines, for instance, up in the mountains, then mine waste and disturbances to the pristine watersheds can have cascading effects in the rivers and affect downstream ecosystems.”

Along with Johnston, a U.S. National Science Foundation Earth Sciences-funded post-doctoral research fellow, and Bogard, the research team included graduate student Panditha Gunawardana and professor emeritus Dr. Stewart Rood. They used publicly available measurements of both organic carbon content and the amount of water flowing through the SSRB rivers. Their goal was to model how much carbon moves through these systems and whether those patterns have changed over the years. The data captured the extremes of river conditions, including severe droughts and flooding.

“What we found is that, through time, carbon fluxes, or the movement of carbon, hasn’t really changed directionally,” says Johnston. “Unlike in many other regions of the world, it’s not going up or down. We found that the land cover — whether it’s forested, or prairie or agricultural land — is really what determined how much carbon we saw moving through the rivers.”

In more forested systems, such as in the mountains, a lot more carbon and water were present than in grasslands and agricultural systems. The researchers also examined differences between years and found that climate oscillations, such as El Niño, have a large impact on the flow of carbon through the SSRB.

“We found that climate oscillations are really important in determining how much carbon is moving through our rivers each year,” says Johnston. “It’s linked to larger climate processes, which are getting more erratic with climate change.”

The findings could have implications for understanding mountain-to-grassland transitional ecosystems around the world. The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canada Research Chairs program, the U of L and Alberta Innovates.

The Research Support Fund supports a portion of the costs associated with managing the research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, such as salaries for staff who provide administration support, training costs for workplace health and safety, maintenance of libraries and laboratories, and administrative costs associated with obtaining patents for inventions.

McCain Foundation investment paves the way for U of L studentships in sustainable agriculture

caroline.zentner — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 17:02:50 +0000

Thanks to a $280,000 investment by the McCain Foundation, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge graduate students will further contribute to innovation in sustainable agriculture.

The McCain Foundation Studentships for Sustainable Agriculture are aimed at supporting and promoting master of science students in biology whose research focuses on science and leadership in sustainable agriculture. The pilot project will fund a minimum of six graduate students for two years at $20,000 per year. The studentship offers training in experimental science with world-class researchers at the U of L, as well as novel courses and new networking opportunities. Students in the specialized cohort will conduct a thesis-based research project focusing on one of three major themes, including genetics, physiology and natural product chemistry, and environmental sciences.

“The McCain Foundation has long supported initiatives in the rural communities where McCain operates and potatoes are grown by local farmers,” says Linda McCain, chair of the McCain Foundation. “We are pleased to support the McCain Studentship in Sustainable Agriculture, in line with our commitment to education and the environment, so these communities and their farms can continue to grow for generations to come.”

“We are excited to partner with the McCain Foundation and help build local expertise and knowledge in sustainable agriculture,” says Dr. Erasmus Okine, U of L provost and vice-president academic. “McCain and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge are ideally positioned in Canada’s Premier Food Corridor to become leaders in sustainability to ensure local agriculture thrives well into the future.”

As the world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion in the next 30 years, the need to produce more food using less resources is critical. The partnership between the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and McCain and the training opportunities it provides for students will help advance sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices in southern Alberta, across Canada and around the world.

“Feeding an ever-growing population with agriculture practices that protect and preserve the planet is a massive challenge,” says Jeremy Carter, professional agrologist and McCain director of agriculture Western Canada. “Producing delicious food sustainably is our priority, and we are committed to ongoing research into regenerative agriculture, and sharing this knowledge with farm families we partner with across Canada.”

Students chosen for the studentships will take specialized coursework that includes a lecture or seminar class focused on advances in sustainable agriculture. A master class in agricultural enterprise management will also be offered through the Dhillon School of Business. At the end of the two years, students will participate in research showcase event to publicize their work.

Dr. Matt Bogard

“This is an ideal training opportunity because the students will be exposed to a broad training platform to enhance their research skills and knowledge base in the field of sustainable agriculture,” says Dr. Matt Bogard, a Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Environments and assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. “This program will enhance the employability of graduates, making them attractive candidates for careers in applied research or management in the sustainable agriculture industry.”

The investment is part of the U of L’s SHINE campaign and this partnership highlights the importance of the U of L’s connection to the community, specifically how expertise available at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ helps solve problems at the local level and beyond and leads to opportunities for economic growth and a more sustainable future.

McCain, founded 60 years ago, is a Canadian success story rooted in agriculture. It partners with more than 130 potato growers in Canada, 30 of them in southern Alberta. Its Coaldale processing facility recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. With an eye to the future, McCain is committed to regenerative and sustainable agriculture, working hard to develop farms with smaller carbon footprints and fewer environmental impacts.

UNews - Matthew Bogard

Drs. Tiffany Hind Bull-Prete and Matthew Bogard earn Canada Research Chair support

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