Changing water quality and quantity: impacts of human activities on water resources in Western North America

有强有力的证据表明，上个世纪全球气温迅速上升是由于与人类活动有关的温室气体空前增加。这些全球变化将如何影响区域温度、水文气候和水生生态系统，目前还不太确定。加剧这种不确定性的是人们对气温升高和营养富集的协同作用知之甚少，这是人类活动的结果，即使是在远离人类活动的地区，正如我的研究所显示的那样。了解气候变暖-营养协同作用至关重要，因为它可能对未来的水量和水质产生显著影响。因此，我的研究计划旨在利用高山和北方湖泊沉积物来促进我们对水文气候变化和营养富集的认识。该项目包括三个研究主题：1）加拿大落基山脉南部两个水系上游地区全新世水文气候变化的若干时间尺度; 2）过去一年气候变化和大气氮污染对偏远高山和北方湖泊的影响。100年，和3）新的古温度测量的高山湖泊使用的氧同位素在硅藻蛋白石二氧化硅。地理目标沿着从加拿大西北地区的北方寒带森林到美国山间西部的高山地区的广阔横断面。这项研究将得到新装备的湖泊和水库系统研究设施（LARSRF）的分析设施的支持，我在西安大略大学在过去两年中开发的。该设施拥有各种最先进的设备，以记录和评估自然和人为对水资源的影响。在所描述的时间范围内，充分实现拟议的研究目标是合理的，因为我的NSERC-UFA职位，LARSRF设施的卓越性以及我成功招募和培训HQP的记录。我提出的研究计划将继续和促进协作，跨学科的方法来分析湖泊环境，我的工作特点。

There is strong evidence that the rapid rise in global temperatures over the last century is due to the unprecedented increase in greenhouse gases related to human activities. It is less certain how these global changes will affect regional temperature, hydroclimates and aquatic ecosystems. Compounding this uncertainty is the poorly understood synergy of warming temperatures and nutrient enrichment, which results from human activities even, as my research is showing, in areas remote from human occupation. Understanding the climate warming-nutrient synergy is critical as it may have a marked impact on future water quantity and quality. My research program is, therefore, designed to contribute to our knowledge of changing hydroclimates and nutrient enrichment utilizing alpine and northern lake sediments. This program consists of three research themes: 1) Holocene hydroclimate variability at several timescales in the headwater reaches of two drainages in the southern Canadian Rockies; 2) Impacts of climate change and atmospheric nitrogen pollution on remote alpine and northern lakes over the last ca. 100 years, and 3) New paleotemperature measurements of alpine lakes using oxygen isotopes in diatom opaline silica. The geographic targets lie along a broad transect from the northern boreal forest of the Canadian Northwest Territories to alpine regions of the US Intermountain West. This research will be supported by the analytical facilities of the newly equipped Lake and Reservoir System Research Facility (LARSRF) that I have developed at the University of Western Ontario over the last two years. This facility hosts a wide range of state-of-the-art equipment to document and evaluate natural and anthropogenic impacts on water resources. The full achievement of the proposed research goals is reasonable in the timeframe described given my 70% research effort associated with my NSERC-UFA position, the excellence of the LARSRF facilities and my successful track record of recruiting and training HQP. My proposed research program will continue and promote the collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to the analyses of lake environments that has characterized my work.