Part of an ongoing series of Gazette stories celebrating researchers who received support as part of the federal government’s recent announcements for research and science. Read more here and here.
A Memorial University researcher hopes to raise more awareness of how Canadian environments will be affected by changing climates and to create better policies and strategies to manage those changes.
As a national leader in climate change research in the Department of Earth Sciences, Dr. Sue Ziegler and her research group investigate the chemical clues uncovered from natural organic matter including soil and dissolved organic matter in fresh and marine waters.
This research and its findings will impact sectors such as resource management and climate adaptation, and contribute to a better regional and global understanding of how ecosystems will change as Earth warms.
It is work that Dr. Susan Ziegler will continue at Memorial University, now that she has been renewed as a tier 1 Canada Research Chair in boreal biogeochemistry.
“This new grant will help support work that spans forests, wetlands and their connections to waterways and coastal environments, so we can develop adaptation strategies for forestry and fisheries resources and enable more accurate Earth system models for better climate predictions,” said Dr. Ziegler.
Why carbon matters
A growing team powers Dr. Ziegler’s research: two research technicians, two undergraduate students, seven graduate students, a post-doctoral researcher, a research associate and a network of collaborators work together.
The team focuses on how dissolved organic carbon, mobilized by warming temperatures and shifting precipitation, travels from forests and wetlands, through rivers, to the ocean.
“Being a part of this team has been one of the most formative experiences of my academic development.”
As it moves, dissolved organic carbon carries a source of energy for organisms, facilitates the transport of metals and other nutrients and changes the light environment in the aquatic environment.
Carbon stored in boreal and sub-Arctic landscapes is critical to stabilizing global climate, but these ecosystems are under threat from rapid climate change.
Simultaneously, these vulnerable stores of carbon are cited as part of nature-based climate solutions.
Knowledge gap
The research team is helping to fill this knowledge gap with place-based knowledge built over decades of fieldwork in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Helia Kamel, a PhD candidate who has been working on the project, says that contributing to this knowledge has been deeply motivating and underscores the importance of regional insights for improving carbon budgets and supporting more accurate climate models.
“Working with Dr. Ziegler has helped ground me in science and strengthened my skills as a researcher,” said Ms. Kamel. “Being a part of this team has been one of the most formative experiences of my academic development, and I am proud to contribute to this research.”
Terrestrial-marine connections
The renewed Canada Research Chair funding will enable Dr. Ziegler to expand her research from upland watersheds where her earlier work was focused, to the full freshwater-to-marine ecosystem.
A key part of the expanded work includes new community-led monitoring stations and observations, especially in Nunatsiavut, a region where Dr. Ziegler and her collaborators have long-standing partnerships.
“That local expertise is crucial.”
Dr. Ziegler says one of the unique things about working in Nunatsiavut is the government’s connection to local expertise and ongoing research activities.
“The Nunatsiavut Government Research Advisory Committee reviews research applications and provides important feedback. They and other community leaders connect researchers with local experts,” she said. “That local expertise is crucial. Developing such collaborations takes more time than typical scientific collaborations, but is well worth it. A common set of values and goals must be established, but once that is recognized, trust builds and great work happens!”
The work is happening across all five Nunatsiavut communities through the Sea Ice Observer Program, which has been the basis for developing the questions and focus of a new coastal rivers project, led by Dr. Ziegler and supported through community, academic and non-profit partnerships.
Funded through the North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action, the research is focused on developing sustainable, community-based monitoring methods for coastal rivers and providing knowledge on how they link land, sea ice and coastal ecosystems.
Dr. Louise Mercer, a post-doctoral research fellow on the project, says it was this commitment to addressing community research priorities through respectful research practices that attracted her to Memorial and Dr. Ziegler’s team.
“I am supporting the Nunatsiavut Rivers Project with the goal of setting up a resilient and long-term coastal ecosystem monitoring program,” she said. “I have already gained further experience in supporting fieldwork, geospatial data analysis, community engagement and collaborating across diverse research teams.”
Dr. Mercer’s work will provide an important example of bringing together Inuit knowledge and scientific knowledge systems to better understand changes to coastal ecosystems and inform appropriate resiliency and adaptation decision-making.
Moving forward
Now with seven years of funding secured, Dr. Ziegler, her team and the project’s collaborators can plan for long-term data collection, build regional capacity and deepen local engagement.
Ultimately, she hopes her work supports not just academic models, but decisions that help northern communities adapt to climate change.
“I feel a real responsibility to help inform adaptation and policy,” she said. “Working locally means our work can have a greater impact, informed by a clearer understanding of what matters most to the people who live here.”
Learn more about research at Memorial and check out Research Strategy 2023-28 to learn how we’re moving ideas forward.
