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Item A 1000-Year Record of Temperature From Isotopic Analysis of the Deep Critical Zone in Central China(Wiley Open Access [Commercial Publisher]; American Geophysical Union [Client Organisation], 2023) Wang, Hongxiu; Li, Han; Xiang, Wei; Lu, Yanwei; Wang, Huanhuan; Hu, Wei; Si, Bing Cheng; Jasechko, Scott; Mcdonnell, JeffreyTemperature proxies for paleoclimate reconstruction have been made typically via ice cores, tree rings, stalagmites, and lake sediments. While extremely useful, these proxies can be limited spatially. Here we sampled a 98 m “soil core” from Loess Plateau of China and examined the relationship between pore water isotopic values and hydroclimate history. We extracted soil pore water for δ 18O, δ 2H, and 3H and measured chloride concentration. The 3H-peak at 6 m and chloride mass balance were used to turn depth into calendar year. A 1000 year span was revealed. δ 18O and δ 2H values between 14–50 m were anomalously low—bracketing well the Little Ice Age period from 1420 to 1870. The identification was consistent with other standard proxies in the region and showed the same temporal dynamics of temperature anomalies. Our study shows the potential of stable isotopes of soil water for paleoclimate reconstruction in deep soils.Item A Micro Financing Framework for Rural Water and Sanitation provisioning in Sub-Saharan Africa(UNU-INWEH, 2014) Mengueze, Sandrine; Mbuvi, Dorcas; Dickin, Sarah; Schuster Wallace, CorinneAcross rural regions in particular, inadequate access to water supply and sanitation (WSS) services negatively affects women more than men. Women and girls are twice as likely as men (and boys) to bear the burden of water collection that requires walking long distances in search of improved sources. Collecting and carrying large amounts of water is physically demanding and limits time available to pursue educational, professional and leisure activities. Indeed, women lose about forty billion hours each year in daily water collection in SSA - time that could be redirected towards other socio-economic and productive activities. Moreover, women and girls risk physical and sexual assualt when collecting water or trying to find a dignified location to relieve themselves. Given the need for sustainable access to WSS in rural Sub Saharan Africa for improved quality of life, universal access becomes a moral and practical imperative. Water is necessary for health, food production, economic activities and environmental integrity. In order to attain national water supply and sanitation (WSS) Millennium Development Goal targets by 2015, developing country governments need to advance their rural WSS services coverage. In Sub Saharan Africa in particular, scaling up functional, quality, reliable and affordable WSS facilities among rural populations is a significant impediment. Moreover, in most cases rural households find it difficult to raise up-front capital that is often required for the construction of facilities. Self-sustaining micro financed facilities can be realized for equitable and safe rural WSS provision. A systematic model through which sustainable rural WSS-related micro financing can be attained is currently lacking. Self-supply, while contested with respect to issues of responsibility, is a feasible option given that there is money to be made in service delivery and the fact that many rural families pay considerably more for their drinking water through informal water providers, without any guarantee of quality. This does not have to undermine government responsibility for provision; rather accelerate the scale up and out of rural access and put community-based mechanisms in place for sustainable interventions that can be incorporated into national WSS strategies as they become established. Moreover, it overcomes the primary challenge in self-supply – that of up front funds for infrastructure. Given that key principles of successful microfinance (including shared solidarity and mutual accountability, access to capital, capacity development and ownership) are similar to and supportive of the principles of sustainable WSS interventions (community engagement and ownership, capacity development, financial accountability), it makes sense to explore this as a mechanism for self-supply in rural settings in order to increase access in a timely manner. A co-operative microfinance framework would potentially share the financial and social costs and benefits between communities and governments. Many of the benefits that accrue through WSS access are realized by the community (through increased health, school attendance and time savings) and the government (through reduction in requirements for other services, such as healthcare, and improved productivity that supports national growth). The framework demands active and coordinated government support through specific related ministries (water and sanitation, health, finance, rural development, public works, etc.). It relies on continued village demand for improved WSS facilities and willingness to effectively engage in the revolving RoSCA schemes. Additionally, it is founded on clear division of responsibilities among four main stakeholders for the transparent and accountable operationalization of interventions. The revenue generated, in addition to paying for the operation and maintenance of the system(s) can be used to acquire or expand additional basic household services. As a result, co-operative members are able to engage in other water and non-water related entrepreneurial activities, to add on to the WSS-fund and strengthen the local economy more generally. However, the framework is flexible and not limited to WSS provisioning.Item A Review of Health Risks and Pathways for Exposure to Wastewater Use in Agriculture(National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), 2016) Dickin, Sarah K; Schuster Wallace, Corinne; Qadir, Manzoor; Pizzacalla, KatherineBackground: Wastewater is increasingly being used in the agricultural sector to cope with the depletion of freshwater resources as well as water stress linked to changing climate conditions. As wastewater irrigation expands, research focusing on the human health risks is critical because exposure to a range of contaminants must be weighed with the benefits to food security, nutrition and livelihoods. Objectives: The goal of this paper was to review research examining health risks and exposure pathways associated with wastewater irrigation to identify research trends and gaps. Methods: We conducted a review of the literature and identified a total of 126 studies published from 1995 to 2013. Findings were summarized based on several themes including types of exposure pathways, wastewater contaminants, methodological approaches and the geographical distribution of research. Results: Only 23 studies used epidemiological methods, while most research applied alternative methods to estimate risk, such as quantitative risk assessment models or comparisons of crop contamination to established guidelines for wastewater reuse. A geographic breakdown demonstrated a focus on microbiological contaminants in specific regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, despite growing chemical risks associated with rapid urbanization and industrialization that may change the types and distribution of wastewater contaminants. Conclusions: To provide a more comprehensive understanding of the health risks of wastewater use in agriculture, future research should consider multiple exposure routes, long-term health implications, and increase the range of contaminants studied, particularly in regions heavily dependent on wastewater irrigation.Item Above- and Below-Ground Carbon Sequestration in Shelterbelt Trees in Canada: A Review(MDPI, 2019) Mayrinck, Rafaella; Laroque, Colin; Amichev, Beyhan; Rees, Ken VanShelterbelts have been planted around the world for many reasons. Recently, due to increasing awareness of climate change risks, shelterbelt agroforestry systems have received special attention because of the environmental services they provide, including their greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential. This paper aims to discuss shelterbelt history in Canada, and the environmental benefits they provide, focusing on carbon sequestration potential, above- and below-ground. Shelterbelt establishment in Canada dates back to more than a century ago, when their main use was protecting the soil, farm infrastructure and livestock from the elements. As minimal-and no-till systems have become more prevalent among agricultural producers, soil has been less exposed and less vulnerable to wind erosion, so the practice of planting and maintaining shelterbelts has declined in recent decades. In addition, as farm equipment has grown in size to meet the demands of larger landowners, shelterbelts are being removed to increase efficiency and machine maneuverability in the field. This trend of shelterbelt removal prevents shelterbelt’s climate change mitigation potential to be fully achieved. For example, in the last century, shelterbelts have sequestered 4.85 Tg C in Saskatchewan. To increase our understanding of carbon sequestration by shelterbelts, in 2013, the Government of Canada launched the Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program (AGGP). In five years, 27 million dollars were spent supporting technologies and practices to mitigate GHG release on agricultural land, including understanding shelterbelt carbon sequestration and to encourage planting on farms. All these topics are further explained in this paper as an attempt to inform and promote shelterbelts as a climate change mitigation tool on agricultural lands.Item Adapting to Climate Change Through Source Water Protection: Case Studies from Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada(Scholarship@Western, 2018) Patrick, Robert J.The protection of drinking water sources continues to gain momentum in First Nation communities on the Canadian Prairie. Through the identification of potential threats to drinking water sources communities are taking action to mitigate those threats. This article explores the extent to which climate change has been taken into consideration in recent source water protection planning community exercises. In addition, this article describes how source water protection planning has potential to enhance community adaptation strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change on source water and drinking water systems. Results are based on six case studies from Alberta and Saskatchewan.Item Addition of Biochar to a Sandy Desert Soil: Effect on Crop Growth,Water Retention and Selected Properties(MDPI, 2019) Alotaibi, Khaled D.; Schoenau, JeffreyAgricultural and environmental applications of biochar (BC) to soils have received increasing attention as a possible means of improving productivity and sustainability. Most previous studies have focused on tropical soils and more recently temperate soils. However, benefits of BC addition to desert soils where many productivity constraints exist, especially water limitations, have not been widely explored. Thus, three experiments were designed using a desert soil from Saudi Arabia to address three objectives: (1) to evaluate the effect of BCs produced from date palm residues added at 8 t ha−1 on wheat growth, (2) to determine the effect of BC addition and BC aging in soil on water retention, and (3) to reveal the effect of BC on selected soil physical (bulk density, BD; total porosity; TP) and chemical (pH; electrical conductivity, EC; organic matter, OM; cation exchange capacity, CEC) properties. The feedstock (FS) of date palm residues were pyrolyzed at 300, 400, 500, and 600 °C, referred to here as BC300, BC400, BC500, and BC600, respectively. The BC products produced at low temperatures were the most effective in promoting wheat growth when applied with the NPK fertilizer and in enhancing soil water retention, particularly with aging in soil, whereas high -temperature BCs better improved the selected soil physical properties. The low-temperature BCs increased the yield approximately by 19% and improved water retention by 46% when averaged across the incubation period. Higher water retention observed with low-temperature BCs can be related to an increased amount of oxygen-containing functional groups in the low-temperature BCs, rendering BC surfaces less hydrophobic. Only the BC300 treatment showed a consistent positive impact on pH, OM, and CEC. Pyrolysis temperature of date palm residue along with aging are key factors in determining the potential benefit of BC derived from date palm residues added to sandy desert soil.Item Advances in mapping sub-canopy snow depth with unmanned aerial vehicles using structure from motion and lidar techniques(Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2019) Harder, Phillip; Pomeroy, John; Helgason, Warren D.Vegetation has a tremendous influence on snow processes and snowpack dynamics yet remote sensing techniques to resolve the spatial variability of sub-canopy snow depth are lacking. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have had recent widespread application to capture high resolution information on snow processes and are herein applied to the sub-canopy snow depth challenge. Previous demonstrations of snow depth mapping with UAV Structure from Motion (SfM) and airborne lidar have focussed on non-vegetated surfaces or reported large errors in the presence of vegetation. In contrast, UAV-lidar systems have high-density point clouds, measure returns from a wide range of scan angles, and so have a greater likelihood of successfully sensing the sub-canopy snow depth. The effectiveness of UAV-lidar and UAV-SfM in mapping snow depth in both open and forested terrain was tested in a 2019 field campaign in the Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory, Alberta and at Canadian Prairie sites near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Only UAV-lidar could successfully measure the sub-canopy snow surface with reliable sub-canopy point coverage, and consistent error metrics (RMSE <0.17m and bias -0.03m to -0.13m). Relative to UAV-lidar, UAV-SfM did not consistently sense the sub-canopy snow surface, the interpolation needed to account for point cloud gaps introduced interpolation artefacts, and error metrics demonstrate relatively large variability (RMSE <0.33m and bias 0.08 m to -0.14m). With the demonstration of sub-canopy snow depth mapping capabilities a number of early applications are presented to showcase the ability of UAV-lidar to effectively quantify the many multiscale snow processes defining snowpack dynamics in mountain and prairie environments.Item Aid when ‘there is nothing left to offer’: Experiences of palliative care and palliative care needs in humanitarian crises(Public Library of Science, 2023-02-01) Schwartz, Lisa; Nouvet, Elysee; de Laat, Sonya; Yantzi, Rachel; Wahoush, Olive ; Khater, Wejdan A.; Rwililiza, Emmanuel Musoni; Siam, Ibraheem Abu; Krishnaraj, Gautham; Amir, Takhliq; Bezanson, Kevin; Schuster Wallace, Corinne; Sow, Oumou Bah; Diallo, Alpha Ahmadou; Diallo, Fatoumata Binta; Elit, Laurie; Bernard, Carrie; Hunt, MatthewAccess to palliative care, and more specifically the alleviation of avoidable physical and psychosocial suffering is increasingly recognized as a necessary component of humanitarian response. Palliative approaches to care can meet the needs of patients for whom curative treatment may not be the aim, not just at the very end of life but alleviation of suffering more broadly. In the past several years many organizations and sectoral initiatives have taken steps to develop guidance and policies to support integration of palliative care. However, it is still regarded by many as unfeasible or aspirational in crisis contexts; particularly where care for persons with life threatening conditions or injuries is logistically, legally, and ethically challenging. This article presents a synthesis of findings from five qualitative sub-studies within a research program on palliative care provision in humanitarian crises that sought to better understand the ethical and practical dimensions of humanitarian organizations integrating palliative care into emergency responses. Our multi-disciplinary, multi-national team held 98 in-depth semi-structured interviews with people with experiences in natural disasters, refugee camps in Rwanda and Jordan, and in Ebola Treatment Centers in Guinea. Participants included patients, family members, health care workers, and other staff of humanitarian agencies. We identified four themes from descriptions of the struggles and successes of applying palliative care in humanitarian settings: justification and integration of palliative care into humanitarian response, contextualizing palliative care approaches to crisis settings, the importance of being attentive to the ‘situatedness of dying’, and the need for retaining a holistic approach to care. We discuss these findings in relation to the ideals embraced in palliative care and corresponding humanitarian values, concluding that palliative care in humanitarian response is essential for responding to avoidable pain and suffering in humanitarian settings.Item Applying a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model to estimate fish stranding risk downstream from a hydropeaking hydroelectric station(Wiley Online Library, 2023) Glowa, Sarah; Kneale, Andrea; Watkinson, Douglas A.; Ghamry, Haitham K.; Enders, Eva; Jardine, TimothyFish stranding is of global concern with increasing hydropower operations using hydropeaking to respond to fluctuating energy demand. Determining the effects hydropeaking has on fish communities is challenging because fish stranding is dependent on riverscape features, such as topography, bathymetry and substrate. By using a combination of physical habitat assessments, hydrodynamic modelling and empirical data on fish stranding, we estimated the number of fish stranding over a 5-month period for three model years in a large Prairie river. More specifically, we modelled how many fish potentially stranded during the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 across a 16 km study reached downstream from E.B. Campbell Hydroelectric Station on the Saskatchewan River, Canada. Fish stranding densities calculated from data collected through remote photography and transect monitoring in 2021 were applied to the daily area subject to drying determined by the River2D hydrodynamic model. The cumulative area subject to change was 90.05, 53.02 and 80.74 km2 for years 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively, from June to October. The highest number of stranded fish was estimated for the year 2021, where estimates ranged from 89,800 to 1,638,000 individuals based on remote photography and transect monitoring fish stranding densities, respectively, 157 to 2,856 fish stranded per hectare. Our approach of estimating fish stranding on a large scale allows for a greater understanding of the impact hydropeaking has on fish communities and can be applied to other riverscapes threatened by hydropeaking.Fish stranding is of global concern with increasing hydropower operations using hydropeaking to respond to fluctuating energy demand. Determining the effects hydropeaking has on fish communities is challenging because fish stranding is dependent on riverscape features, such as topography, bathymetry and substrate. By using a combination of physical habitat assessments, hydrodynamic modelling and empirical data on fish stranding, we estimated the number of fish stranding over a 5-month period for three model years in a large Prairie river. More specifically, we modelled how many fish potentially stranded during the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 across a 16 km study reached downstream from E.B. Campbell Hydroelectric Station on the Saskatchewan River, Canada. Fish stranding densities calculated from data collected through remote photography and transect monitoring in 2021 were applied to the daily area subject to drying determined by the River2D hydrodynamic model. The cumulative area subject to change was 90.05, 53.02 and 80.74 km2 for years 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively, from June to October. The highest number of stranded fish was estimated for the year 2021, where estimates ranged from 89,800 to 1,638,000 individuals based on remote photography and transect monitoring fish stranding densities, respectively, 157 to 2,856 fish stranded per hectare. Our approach of estimating fish stranding on a large scale allows for a greater understanding of the impact hydropeaking has on fish communities and can be applied to other riverscapes threatened by hydropeaking.Item The Art of Flood Forecasting : Making a difference on the ground(Global Water Futures Core Modelling, 2023-03) Arnal, LouiseExperience of a Global Water Futures researcher using art to communicate scientific research.Item Assessing and Mitigating Ice-Jam Flood Hazards and Risks: A European Perspective(MDPI, 2022) Lindenschmidt, Karl-Erich; Alfredsen, Knut Tore; Carstensen, Dirk; Choryński, Adam; Gustafsson, David; Halicki, Michał; Hentschel, Bernd; Karjalainen, Niina; Kögel, Michael; Kolerski, Tomasz; Korna´s-Dynia, Marika; Kubicki, Michał; Kundzewicz, Zbigniew; Lauschke, Cornelia; Marszelewski, Włodzimierz; Möldner, Fabian; Näslund-Landenmark, Barbro; Niedzielski, Tomasz; Parjanne, Antti; Pawłowski, Bogusław; Pińskwar, Iwona; Remisz, Joanna; Renner, Maik; Roers, Michael; Rybacki, Maksymilian; Szałkiewicz, Ewelina; Szydłowski, Michał; Walusiak, Grzegorz; Witek, Matylda Katarzyna; Zagata, Mateusz; Zdralewicz, MaciejThe assessment and mapping of riverine flood hazards and risks is recognized by many countries as an important tool for characterizing floods and developing flood management plans. Often, however, these management plans give attention primarily to open-water floods, with ice-jam floods being mostly an afterthought once these plans have been drafted. In some Nordic regions, ice-jam floods can be more severe than open-water floods, with floodwater levels of ice-jam floods often exceeding levels of open-water floods for the same return periods. Hence, it is imperative that flooding due to river ice processes be considered in flood management plans. This also pertains to European member states who are required to submit renewed flood management plans every six years to the European governance authorities. On 19 and 20 October 2022, a workshop entitled “Assessing and mitigating ice-jam flood hazard and risk” was hosted in Pozna´ n, Poland to explore the necessity of incorporating ice-jam flood hazard and risk assessments in the European Union’s Flood Directive. The presentations given at the workshop provided a good overview of flood risk assessments in Europe and how they may change due to the climate in the future. Perspectives from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Poland were presented. Mitigation measures, particularly the artificial breakage of river ice covers and ice-jam flood forecasting, were shared. Advances in ice processes were also presented at the workshop, including state-of-the-art developments in tracking ice-floe velocities using particle tracking velocimetry, characterizing hanging dam ice, designing new ice-control structures, detecting, and monitoring river ice covers using composite imagery from both radar and optical satellite sensors, and calculating ice-jam flood hazards using a stochastic modelling approach.Item Assessing hydrological sensitivity of grassland basins in the Canadian Prairies to climate using a basin classification-based virtual modelling approach(Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2022) Spence, Christopher; He, Zhihua; Shook, Kevin R.; Mekonnen, Balew A.; Pomeroy, John; Whitfield, Colin; Wolfe, JaredSignificant challenges from changes in climate and land use face sustainable water use in the Canadian Prairies ecozone. The region has experienced significant warming since the mid-20th century, and continued warming of an additional 2 _C by 2050 is expected. This paper aims to enhance understanding of climate controls on Prairie basin hydrology through numerical model experiments. It approaches this by developing a basin-classification-based virtual modelling framework for a portion of the Prairie region and applying the modelling framework to investigate the hydrological sensitivity of one Prairie basin class (High Elevation Grasslands) to changes in climate. High Elevation Grasslands dominate much of central and southern Alberta and parts of south-western Saskatchewan, with outliers in eastern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba. The experiments revealed that High Elevation Grassland snowpacks are highly sensitive to changes in climate but that this varies geographically. Spring maximum snow water equivalent in grasslands decreases 8% °C-1 of warming. Climate scenario simulations indicated that a 2 °C increase in temperature requires at least an increase of 20% in mean annual precipitation for there to be enough additional snowfall to compensate for enhanced melt losses. The sensitivity in runoff is less linear and varies substantially across the study domain: simulations using 6 °C of warming, and a 30% increase in mean annual precipitation yields simulated decreases in annual runoff of 40%in climates of the western Prairie but 55% increases in climates of eastern portions. These results can be used to identify those areas of the region that are most sensitive to climate change and highlight focus areas for monitoring and adaptation. The results also demonstrate how a basin classification based virtual modelling framework can be applied to evaluate regional-scale impacts of climate change with relatively high spatial resolution in a robust, effective and efficient manner.Item Assessing hydrological sensitivity to future climate change in the Canadian southern boreal forest(2023) He, Zhihua; Pomeroy, JohnItem Assessing runoff sensitivity of North American Prairie Pothole Region basins to wetland drainage using a basin classification-based virtual modelling approach(Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2022) Spence, Christopher; He, Zhihua; Shook, Kevin R.; Pomeroy, John; Whitfield, Colin; Wolfe, JaredWetland drainage has been pervasive in the North American Prairie Pothole Region. There is strong evidence that this drainage increases the hydrological connectivity of previously isolated wetlands and, in turn, runoff response to snowmelt and rainfall. It can be hard to disentangle the role of climate from the influence of wetland drainage in observed records. In this study, a basin-classification-based virtual modelling approach is described that can isolate these effects on runoff regimes. The basin class which was examined, entitled Pothole Till, extends throughout much of Canada’s portion of the Prairie Pothole Region. Three knowledge gaps were addressed. First, it was determined that the spatial pattern in which wetlands are drained has little influence on how much the runoff regime was altered. Second, no threshold could be identified below which wetland drainage has no effect on the runoff regime, with drainage thresholds as low as 10 % in the area being evaluated. Third, wetter regions were less sensitive to drainage as they tend to be better hydrologically connected, even in the absence of drainage. Low flows were the least affected by drainage. Conversely, during extremely wet years, runoff depths could double as the result of complete wetland removal. Simulated median annual runoff depths were the most responsive, potentially tripling under typical conditions with high degrees of wet- land drainage. As storage capacity is removed from the landscape through wetland drainage, the size of the storage deficit of median years begins to decrease and to converge on those of the extreme wet years. Model simulations of flood frequency suggest that, because of these changes in antecedent conditions, precipitation that once could generate a median event with wetland drainage can generate what would have been a maximum event without wetland drainage. The advantage of the basin-classification-based virtual modelling approach employed here is that it simulated a long period that included a wide variety of precipitation and antecedent storage conditions across a diversity of wetland complexes. This has allowed seemingly disparate results of past research to be put into context and finds that conflicting results are often only because of differences in spatial scale and temporal scope of investigation. A conceptual framework is provided that shows, in general, how annual runoff in different climatic and drainage situations will likely respond to wetland drainage in the Prairie Pothole Region.Item Assessing the fate of brown trout (Salmo trutta) environmental DNA in a natural stream using a sensitive and specific dual-labelled probe(Elsevier, 2019) Deutschmann, Björn; Müller, Anne-Kathrin; Hollert, Henner; Brinkmann, MarkusEnvironmental DNA (eDNA) analysis in the aquatic environment has emerged as a promising tool for diagnosis of the ecological status in comprehensive monitoring strategies and might become useful in context of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and other legislations to derive stressor-specific indicators. Despite many studies having made significant progress for the future use of eDNA in terms of ecosystem composition and detection of invasive/rare species in inland waters, much remains unknown about the transport and fate of eDNA under natural environmental conditions. We designed a specific dual-labelled probe to detect brown trout (Salmo trutta, L.) eDNA and used the probe to describe the fate of eDNA released from an aquaculture facility into the low mountain range stream Wehebach, Germany. The probe was shown to be specific to brown trout, as ponds housing rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) did not test positive. Even though we observed different strengths of eDNA signals for three ponds containing different brown trout quantities, no significant correlation was found between biomass (kg/L) and eDNA quantity. Our results indicate that the release of DNA from brown trout might be life stage and/or age-dependent. The effluents of the aquaculture facility were a source of high levels of eDNA which resulted in the greatest abundance of brown trout eDNA directly downstream of the facility. Despite the natural occurrence of brown trout in the Wehebach, as shown by ecological investigations conducted by authorities of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) and personal observations, we observed a significant decrease of relative abundance of eDNA in the Wehebach within the first 1.5 km downstream of the aquaculture. Our results suggest that concentrations of eDNA in running waters rapidly decrease under natural conditions due to dilution and degradation processes, which might have important implications for the utility of eDNA in environmental research.Item Assessment of Water SDG Proposals against Principles for SDGs(UNU-INWEH, 2013) Adeel, Zafar; Bullock, Andrew; Chaudry, M. A.; Kuylenstierna, Johan; Qadir, Manzoor; Schuster Wallace, Corinne; Weitz, NinaThis document complements the report “Catalyzing Water for Sustainable Development and Growth. Framing Water within the Post 2015 Agenda: Options and Considerations” (Available from: http://inweh.unu.edu/water-sustainability). It outlines the assessment of three clusters of water SDG proposals against four outcome-based and four attribute-based principles, which SDGs should meet.Item Beaver dam capacity of Canada’s boreal plain in response to environmental change(Springer Nature, 2020) Stoll, Nichole-Lynn; Westbrook, CherieEnvironmental changes are altering the water cycle of Canada’s boreal plain. Beaver dams are well known for increasing water storage and slowing flow through stream networks. For these reasons beavers are increasingly being included in climate change adaptation strategies. But, little work focuses on how environmental changes will affect dam building capacity along stream networks. Here we estimate the capacity of the stream network in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, Canada to support beaver dams under changing environmental conditions using a modelling approach. We show that at capacity, the park’s stream network can support 24,690 beaver dams and hold between 8.2 and 12.8 million m3 of water in beaver ponds. Between 1991 and 2016 the park’s vegetation composition shifted to less preferred beaver forage, which led to a 13% decrease in maximum dam capacity. We also found that dam capacity is sensitive to the size of regularly-occurring floods— doubling the 2-year flood reduces the park’s dam capacity by 21%. The results show that the potential for beaver to offset some expected climatic-induced changes to the boreal water cycle is more complex than previously thought, as there is a feedback wherein dam capacity can be reduced by changing environmental conditions.Item Bias-Corrected RADARSAT-2 Soil Moisture Dynamics Reveal Discharge Hysteresis at An Agricultural Watershed(MDPI, 2023) Lee, Ju Hyoung; Lindenschmidt, Karl-ErichSatellites are designed to monitor geospatial data over large areas at a catchment scale. However, most of satellite validation works are conducted at local point scales with a lack of spatial representativeness. Although upscaling them with a spatial average of several point data collected in the field, it is almost impossible to reorganize backscattering responses at pixel scales. Considering the influence of soil storage on watershed streamflow, we thus suggested watershed-scale hydrological validation. In addition, to overcome the limitations of backscattering models that are widely used for C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) soil moisture but applied to bare soils only, in this study, RADARSAT-2 soil moisture was stochastically retrieved to correct vegetation effects arising from agricultural lands. Roughness-corrected soil moisture retrievals were assessed at various spatial scales over the Brightwater Creek basin (land cover: crop lands, gross drainage area: 1540 km2) in Saskatchewan, Canada. At the point scale, local station data showed that the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSEs), Unbiased RMSEs (ubRMSEs) and biases of Radarsat-2 were 0.06~0.09 m3/m3, 0.04~0.08 m3/m3 and 0.01~0.05 m3/m3, respectively, while 1 km Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) showed underestimation at RMSEs of 0.1~0.22 m3/m3 and biases of 0.036~0.2080 m3/m3. Although SMAP soil moisture better distinguished the contributing area at the catchment scale, Radarsat-2 soil moisture showed a better discharge hysteresis. A reliable estimation of the soil storage dynamics is more important for discharge forecasting than a static classification of contributing and noncontributing areas.Item Bioactivation of Quinolines in a Recombinant Estrogen Receptor Transactivation Assay Is Catalyzed by N-Methyltransferases(ACS Publications, 2019) Brinkmann, Markus; Barz, Bogdan; Carrière, Danielle; Velki, Mirna; Smith, Kilian; Meyer-Alert, Henriette; Müller, Yvonne; Thalmann, Beat; Bluhm, Kersti; Schiwy, Sabrina; Hotz, Simone; Salowsky, Helena; Tiehm, Andreas; Hecker, Markus; Hollert, HennerHydroxylation of polyaromatic compounds through cytochromes P450 (CYPs) is known to result in potentially estrogenic transformation products. Recently, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of alternative pathways such as aldehyde oxidases (AOX) or N-methyltransferases (NMT) in bioactivation of small molecules, particularly N-heterocycles. Therefore, this study investigated the biotransformation and activity of methylated quinolines, a class of environmentally relevant N-heterocycles that are no native ligands of the estrogen receptor (ER), in the estrogen-responsive cell line ERα CALUX. We found that this widely used cell line overexpresses AOXs and NMTs while having low expression of CYP enzymes. Exposure of ERα CALUX cells to quinolines resulted in estrogenic effects, which could be mitigated using an inhibitor of AOX/NMTs. No such mitigation occurred after coexposure to a CYP1A inhibitor. A number of N-methylated but no hydroxylated transformation products were detected using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, which indicated that biotransformations to estrogenic metabolites were likely catalyzed by NMTs. Compared to the natural ER ligand 17β-estradiol, the products formed during the metabolization of quinolines were weak to moderate agonists of the human ERα. Our findings have potential implications for the risk assessment of these compounds and indicate that care must be taken when using in vitro estrogenicity assays, for example, ERα CALUX, for the characterization of N-heterocycles or environmental samples that may contain them.Item Blackberry Dreams : Modelling water vapour’s role in climate change(Global Water Futures Core Modelling, 2023-03) Laguë, MarysaA group of young modelers collaborate to simulate an alternate Planet Earth.