Canada Research Chair unlocking secrets of watersheds

​Nipissing University researcher Dr. April James is helping to secure the future of Canada’s water resources by building a better understanding of how our headwater watersheds operate. 

James holds the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Watershed Analysis and Modelling, which was announced today by the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, in a speech at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto. Nipissing received $100,000 per year for five years from CRC to fund James’ research.
 
Headwater watersheds are vitally important to our environment, providing fresh water and other ecosystem services, that determine the volume and quality of water that ends up downstream. James’ research focuses on the movement of water through the terrestrial environment as it makes its way to streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands. The movement and storage of water in the landscape affects a vast number of water systems that people rely on for potable water as well as industrial uses, recreation and ecological health. James is interested in how long water resides in a watershed, where it is stored and the pathways that it travels. She is also looking at how these functions change with varying landscapes to map out how watersheds process water. James’ research may also lead to improvements in how the environmental impacts of climate change and of land use from urban development, agriculture, forestry and mining, are predicted and evaluated.
 
Since much of the water in the terrestrial environment is subsurface, James has to do a bit of detective work to find out exactly how the water is being processed.  She uses a combination of field studies, computer modelling and laboratory analysis of water chemistry and stable isotopes to study the surface and subsurface flow-paths that water takes on its journey, including where and how long the water stops along its way.
 
Thanks in part to funding provided by CRC and Canada Foundation for Innovation programs, Nipissing has established a Watershed Hydrology laboratory that includes equipment for experimental field study, computer modelling and analysis of stable isotopes of the water molecule.
 
A better understanding of how headwater watersheds operate benefits all of society and is especially relevant in Nipissing University’s home community of North Bay, which sits within the headwaters of two watersheds, with Lake Nipissing flowing to the French River and on to Georgian Bay and Trout lake, North Bay’s source of drinking water, flowing into the Ottawa River.  What happens in the North Bay region impacts water users both locally and downstream.
 
“Nipissing is really perfectly situated for this research, given its location and the existing expertise on water policy, water quality and remote sensing already present in the university’s Department of Geography,” said James. “The region is also home to many forms of industry, from agriculture and mining to urban development and tourism, which affect and are affected by watershed health.  My research will hopefully inform some local issues, like the long term protection of the sources water of Trout Lake and the blue green algae blooms recently observed in Callander Bay.  If we can better understand how our watersheds process water, we can apply that knowledge to improve watershed health and support long-term sustainability.”