Irena creed
Dr. Irena Creed is a Canada Research Chair in Watershed Sciences and Professor at Western University in the Department of Biology with cross-appointments to the Departments of Earth Sciences and Geography. She is the founder and leader of the Catchment Research Facility, an advanced monitoring, analytical and modeling facility established for the analysis of catchment processes. Her research involves investigation of the dominant factors regulating energy, water, and nutrient processes and pathways within specific watersheds in a range of forest regions, including the Algoma Highlands of central Ontario and Clayoquot and Barklay Sounds of Vancouver Island. Her research includes field- and laboratory-based monitoring as well as computer-based modelling approaches to develop a predictive understanding of the watershed processes within forests. ​                                                   

LEWIS MOLOT

Picture
Dr. Lewis Molot is an applied scientist with the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. His interests focus on ecological processes and pollution in lakes. Over the years he has studied acidification, nutrient dynamics, photochemical processing of organic carbon, the impacts of climate change on thermal stratification and oxygen depletion and has developed several management tools (models) to assist environmental managers. His lab is now studying how iron availability limits growth of cyanobacteria in oligotrophic freshwaters and how they overcome this Fe limitation to form harmful blooms as lakes become eutrophic.
​

FRANCES PICK 
Dr. Frances Pick is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Pick’s team at the Center for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics examines the factors regulating the abundance and diversity of aquatic microbes and plants in lakes, rivers, urban ponds and wetlands. The team studies the impacts of nutrient loading, climate change and invasive species on algae/cyanobacteria and algal toxins. Methods and approaches range from laboratory experiments with cultures, field experiments to empirical studies of aquatic ecosystems varying in water chemistry and land-use. Techniques include molecular biology tools, analytical chemistry to microscopy (Utermohl, flow cytometry).

JOHN SMOL 
​Dr. John Smol is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Queen’s University where he is also holder of the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change. Dr. Smol co-directs the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory (PEARL) at Queen's University, a group of about 30 paleolimnologists (researchers studying long-term changes in aquatic ecosystems using lake and river sediments as archives of long-term natural and human-related environmental change) working throughout the world on a variety of limnological and paleoecological problems. Recent projects include studying the long-term effects of lake eutrophication, acidification, contaminant transport, calcium decline, fisheries management, and a large body of work on climate change with a special focus on the Arctic. John’s lab is using the environmental record preserved in lake sediments to better understand the nature and timing of algal blooms (especially in remote locations where long-term monitoring data are lacking), and to better determine the likely causes of blooms.

CHARLES TRICK

Picture
​Dr. Charlie Trick is a Professor in the Department of Biology and Interfaculty Program in Public Health at Western University. His research group is dedicated to understanding the ecology of phytoplankton in oceans (and periodically they will enter the freshwater world). As primary producers, phytoplankton, are important in the global cycles of carbon and nitrogen. They are contributing to this understanding by considering the role of metals on controlling phytoplankton community composition and activity. They have a long-term interest in iron as the limiting nutrient in both open oceans and as a regulator of community physiology in coastal waters.

DAN WALTERS 
Dan Walters is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Nipissing University. His current program of research focuses on water governance and the transition towards integrated watershed management. The downloading of responsibility to local watershed authorities without any evaluation of the capacity of these agencies to effectively manage resources has had negative consequences on the protection of water quality.
His research on algal blooms focuses on the social, economic and environmental impacts on shoreline communities and the design and implementation of policy responses by local watershed authorities. It is often the case that shoreline communities, through ‘local watershed authorities’, are responsible for designing and implementing solutions to harmful algal blooms. The term ‘local watershed authority’ includes both the legislated watershed authorities (e.g. conservation authority) and those that form out of necessity or at the grassroots level (e.g. Muskoka Watershed Council). The specific impacts and implementation challenges will vary among local watershed authorities according to the social, economic and political context. Using multiple case studies, we can learn how the context of the problems and solutions vary among shoreline communities, as well as the social and economic impacts of algal blooms. His research addresses the gap in our understanding of how shoreline communities, often through local watershed authorities are responding to the emergence of harmful algal blooms in Ontario. What are the social and economic impacts? Is there sufficient social capital to implement responses? How does science help to inform and guide solutions?