IAGLR 2021: BRIDGING KNOWLEDGES, SEVEN GENERATIONS, AND LAND TO LAKE

The Healthy Headwaters Lab has a full lineup of presentations at this year’s IAGLR conference. Register for #IAGLR2021 here and we’ll see you there! (see our abstracts below)

IAGLR 2021 x HHL ABSTRACTS:

Stories are Data, too! Delivering Science with Impact from the Healthy Headwaters Lab's Storyteller Initiative
Shayenna Nolan — Tuesday May 18th @ 9:45AM, Session 27: Room 3

What does it mean to deliver science with impact? Generally, it is quantitative scientific approaches that are revered however in many contexts and cultures, scientific knowledge is transferred across time and space through storytelling. Drawing on multiple ways of knowing, a global #KindnessInScience movement, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, and the Dimensions Charter for advancing just, equitable, inclusive and diverse approaches to research excellence and impact, the Healthy Headwaters Lab created a position of a Lab Storyteller. The role of our Storyteller was to listen, learn, connect and generate an authentic communications strategy. Here we share insights from a pilot teaching and learning grant, and present metrics that both challenge and complement traditional notions of research impact and excellence. We share practical tips from this experience that can be transferrable across a range of contexts in the Great Lakes and beyond.

Committing to reconciliation and accelerating ecosystem restoration through #KindnessInScience & Allyship
Dr. Catherine Febria — Wednesday May 19th @ 9:30AM, Session 25: Room 1

As we enter the UN Decade of Restoration and reflect on mounting evidence of a global biodiversity decline, the need to connect land, water and people has never been more urgent. Moreover, the social contract with scientific research is being reconsidered and expanded to reconciliation with Indigenous communities in research and resource management. For non-Indigenous scientists also committed to both ecosystem restoration and reconciliation, partnerships, knowledge co-production and equitable, ethical and impactful approaches to science are essential. The Healthy Headwaters Lab (University of Windsor, Canada) has taken a systems-thinking approach informed by parallel efforts in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here I offer perspectives on how investments in partnerships and the strategic allocation of resources offer a more effective approach. Outcomes beyond science outputs include capacity- and capability-building, the fostering of richer research environments, and progress towards reconciliation. The key investment is time, but it is essential for ensuring the recovery of the Great Lakes ecosystem for the benefit of future generations.

Building a holistic research program to address freshwater restoration through a community-centred approach
Katrina Keeshig — Wednesday May 19th @ 11:00AM, Session 25: Room 1

Indigenous nations have been continuously excluded from decision-making processes that directly affect their Territories and way of life. With calls for reconciliation and Indigenous self-determination in research and resource management, institutions and organizations are looking to develop or improve relationships with Indigenous communities. However, given that mainstream approaches have historically excluded Indigenous communities and Indigenous people continue to be underrepresented in Western sciences, few examples exist on how to ethically and practically go about this. This presentation will explorea community-centred approach to relationship-building and research co-productionby a University research lab and a First Nation community in the Traditional Territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations. Leveraging a federally funded project to restore aquatic species at risk habitat withinBkejwanong Territory, this presentation will look at how our teams are journeying together to move beyond standard research programs and objectives, and towards Indigenous-led stewardship and community goals.

Characterizing carbon complexity across the land-water interface in agricultural landscapes
Lauren Weller — Thursday May 20th @ 10:00AM, Session 01: Room 6

Carbon may be a key underexplored factor in nutrient management in the Great Lakes basin. Landscape-level characteristics greatly influence the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM) exported into freshwater ecosystems. Light-emitting fluorescent fractions of DOM (FDOM) have been linked to broad land-use categories. However, using FDOM to characterize carbon in agricultural landscapes with respect to practices that build soil health remains largely unexplored. Using the low-topography, clay-dominated soils of Essex County, southern Ontario, as a case study we conducted a field survey to characterize DOM across the land-water interface. We used FDOM as a tracer across a suite of farm-based agricultural practices related to carbon. Here we discuss the farmer-centered approach taken to implementing the field study and show preliminary results. This is especially critical in the Great Lakes basin, where farm-based measures are primarily focused on P-management. By examining DOM in the context of other macronutrient cycles our work may provide critical insight into the realities of implementing regional policy and management.