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Spring 2024

Guo, Henian

The current hot water extraction method to recover bitumen from excavated oil sands ores after surface mining generates large volumes of fluid fine tailings that are temporarily deposited in oil sands tailings ponds. Promising techniques for tailings ponds reclamation such as end-pit lakes are...

Spring 2024

Zerb, Jessica OB

Fire weather indices are used by fire management agencies around the world to estimate potential wildfire danger. This allows for resources to be allocated effectively and to warn communities of potential wildfire hazards. Currently, monitoring and short-term forecasting of fire weather depends...

Spring 2024

Fleurial, Killian G.

Boreal plant and tree stress responses under climate change and anthropogenic disturbances have become an important research area due to a strong climate warming signal and large-scale anthropogenic pollution. This thesis investigates tree physiological response mechanisms to a variety of...

Spring 2024

Lanti-Traikovski, Alexander A.

Climate change is increasing the frequency of droughts and wildfires, reducing tree recruitment, and altering post-fire species composition. In Canada’s western boreal forests, postfire recruitment, particularly of drought-intolerant coniferous species like black spruce, has declined in recent...

Spring 2024

Little-Devito, Mika

Horticultural peat harvesting continues to expand in Canada, yet the impact to downstream water quality during the initial stages of peatland opening and peat extraction are poorly understood. Major changes can occur to the hydrology and internal processes within a peatland during the transition...

Spring 2024

Orlova, Julia

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in stream water plays a critical role in shaping aquatic ecosystems, influencing water quality and acting as a food source to microorganisms, and affects drinking water treatment. Understanding variations in the concentration and composition of DOM and environmental...

Spring 2024

Leicht, Kiah M

Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer has increased crop yields, but crop nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is low. The N fertilizer not taken up by the crop is subject to nitrate leaching, ammonia volatilization, and denitrification losses, contributing to declining air and water quality, ozone layer...

Spring 2024

Dias de Andrade Silva, Raiany

Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is a dioecious clonal tree species with broad distribution in North America. In dioecious species, sexes are predicted to perform differently, based on the principle of allocation and the energy costs associated with reproduction. Aspen reproduce...

Spring 2024

Lau, Nicole

Mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) disturbances, amplified by climate change, have led to extensive tree mortality and ecosystem succession in boreal forests across western Canada. Often following attack, former ectomycorrhizal (EM) pine stands in Alberta are replaced by...

Spring 2024

Humeny, Erin C.

Many communities in Canada rely on surface drinking water supplies that are located within or downstream of forests. The typically clean, clear waters flowing from forests are sensitive to disturbances that can degrade source water quality. Unpaved access roads are one of the most widespread...