Earth and Environmental Sciences
This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences .
Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).
Waterloo faculty, students, and staff can contact us or visit the UWSpace guide to learn more about depositing their research.
Recent deposits
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The influence of soil moisture, oxygen, and temperature on naphthalene biodegradation and CO2 and CH4 effluxes
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-22)Petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) are essential to the functioning of the industrialized world yet serve a potential threat to human and ecosystem health when they inadvertently enter the environment. In recent decades, ... -
Land use changes and salinization: Impacts on lake phosphorus cycling and water quality
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-05)Over the past few decades, there has been a rapid global increase in urbanization accompanied by the conversion of natural or agricultural land into more impervious land cover. This ongoing acceleration of global urbanization ... -
Assessing Sensitivity of Subsurface Mine-Dewatering Activities to Climate Change
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-01)Underground mining activities require constant removal of groundwater from their void spaces to maintain dry and safely accessible excavations for ore extraction in a process known as dewatering. The nature and degree ... -
Hydraulic Tomography Analyses of Different Datasets for Subsurface Heterogeneity Characterization at Various Scales
(University of Waterloo, 2023-08-21)Hydraulic Tomography (HT) has been evaluated to be a robust approach for high-resolution characterization of subsurface heterogeneity. However, geostatistics-based HT may produce overly smooth distributions of hydraulic ... -
Influence of Dynamic River Stage on The Vulnerability of Water Wells and Structure Foundations in Cold Regions
(University of Waterloo, 2023-07-12)Groundwater is important for people in Northern Canada, yet the groundwater protection protocols and water well vulnerability assessments designed for other warmer regions of Canada may not be applicable to communities ... -
Passive sampling to understand and predict sources of wastewater and agricultural contamination in rural watersheds
(University of Waterloo, 2023-07-12)Passive sampling techniques have emerged as valuable tools in environmental monitoring, offering distinct advantages over traditional discrete sampling methods. Discrete sampling techniques are only representative of the ... -
Comparing thallium isotopes to paleosalinity and Mo-U isotope paleoredox proxies: A case study of the Upper Devonian Kettle Point Formation, Ontario
(University of Waterloo, 2023-06-22)Black shale formations are utilised to reconstruct ancient global ocean redox conditions by analyzing and inferring their geochemical and isotopic compositions. However, the accuracy of these reconstructions can decrease ... -
Forested Watersheds and Water Supply: Exploring Effects of Wildfires, Silviculture, and Climate Change on Downstream Waters
(University of Waterloo, 2023-06-13)Drinking water supplies for much of society originate in forests. To preserve the capability of these forests to produce clean and easily treatable water, source water supply and protection strategies focus in particular ... -
Global Study of Tailings Dam Failures by Statistical and Remote Sensing Methods
(University of Waterloo, 2023-04-26)The growth of the mining industry, mainly driven by increased resource demands, has accelerated the production and storage of mine waste. Tailings comprise the fine-grained fraction of this waste. Due to their intrinsically ... -
Natural source zone depletion of petroleum hydrocarbons under variable temperature and moisture conditions
(University of Waterloo, 2023-02-15)In subsurface environments contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs), the steep geochemical and redox gradients near the water table, the oxygen availability, moisture content, salinity, pH, nutrient concentrations and ... -
Evaluation of Hydraulic Conductivity Collected by Various Approaches at a Highly Heterogeneous Field Site
(University of Waterloo, 2023-01-27)Significant research efforts have been conducted over the last several decades to better understand the groundwater flow and subsurface contaminant transport. It has been found that building a groundwater model for remediation ... -
Modelling Legacy Nitrogen Dynamics in the Transboundary Lake Erie Watershed
(University of Waterloo, 2023-01-26)Lake Erie is a source of drinking water, recreation, and commercial opportunity for both the United States and Canada, making the protection of its water quality essential. In the past decades, Lake Erie's ecosystems ... -
Sequential Extraction of Trace Metals as Geochemical Indicators of Land Use Near Ancient Metallurgical Sites in Faynan, Jordan
(University of Waterloo, 2023-01-23)Civilizations are tied to soils through a reliance on agriculture. In the Faynan Valley, southern Jordan, both the individuals who tend to the soils and the soils themselves have evolved through a series of environmental ... -
Characterizing and Modelling Tailings Hydrogeochemistry Under a Composite Cover at the Abandoned Kam Kotia Mine, ON
(University of Waterloo, 2023-01-09)A principal environmental concern associated with mining is the weathering of mine waste in the presence of oxygen and water that generates acid mine drainage (AMD) concentrated in toxic elements. Installation of composite ... -
Impacts of Dredging and Brush Cutting of Paired Agricultural Drainage Ditches on GHG Emissions and Nutrient Filtration Capacity
(University of Waterloo, 2023-01-04)Agriculture provides many beneficial and essential ecosystem services. Along with these beneficial services, the conversion of natural ecosystems into heavily modified agricultural ecosystems is also a source of ... -
PETROLOGY, TECTONIC SETTING, AND REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE OPHIOLITIC LIUYUAN COMPLEX, NW CHINA
(University of Waterloo, 2023-01-03)Located along the southern margin of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), the mafic 290-280 Ma Liuyuan Complex stratigraphy and tectonic setting have been controversial for decades. Here, the results of a detailed field ... -
Early Paleozoic Ocean Redox Dynamics: Perspectives from Uranium Isotopes of Sedimentary Rocks
(University of Waterloo, 2022-11-23)The trajectory of global ocean oxygenation could have greatly influenced the metazoan evolutions because O2 could provide valuable energy to support biological activities. Remarkable metazoan diversifications occurred ... -
Quantifying the Effects of Water Management Decisions on Streambank Stability
(University of Waterloo, 2022-09-30)Streams continuously change due to natural processes and human activities, significantly affecting streambank erosion and stability. These changes cause severe environmental issues, including sedimentation of reservoirs, ... -
A ca. 273-261 Ma multi-component arc pluton in the southern area of the Beishan Orogenic Collage, NW China: a geochronological, geochemical, and petrogenetic analysis
(University of Waterloo, 2022-09-29)Along the southern edge of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt lies the Beishan Orogenic Collage, bridging the Tianshan Orogen (west) to the Mongolia-Xing’anling Orogen (east). The Beishan Orogenic Collage is thought to represent ... -
Field derived phosphorus accumulation rates and fractionation in bioretention cells
(University of Waterloo, 2022-09-23)Bioretention cells are commonly used green infrastructure in urban stormwater management systems. They show promising performance in managing stormwater and mitigating a multitude of pollutants. In urban catchments, they ...