FERN: Streams of the Anthropocene

ICYMI: The FERN Newletter has been released!

Everyone at HHL loves tea, especially watershed tea!  The ingredients in this tea are not your typical tea leaves, but instead a series of dissolved components of the many aquatic environments in flows through.  These dissolved components are called DOM (dissolved organic matter), which we call Watershed TeaTM.

HHL researcher Shayenna Nolan is investigating DOM as a medium for measuring stream health, and recently published her undergraduate thesis in the esteemed journal Ecological Indicators. As part of her PhD this work is now expanding to include watersheds all across southern Ontario and the broader Nayaano-nibiimaang Gichigamiin (the Great Lakes in Anishnaabemowin, the Ojibwe language). Combining molecular and microbial tools with watershed monitoring, she is also incorporating knowledge and values with and from local Indigenous communities including the UWindsor National Urban Park’s Indigenous Youth Circle. 

Read more in the FERN newsletter! (Download your copy from HHL’s Figshare through this link: https://tinyurl.com/hhl-fern-newsletter)