An Ecohydrological Observatory for Watersheds and Wetlands in the Georgian Bay Biosphere Mnidoo Gamii
NOBEL was established in 2010 to better understand the ecohydrological and hydrometeorological controls on eastern Boreal Shield wetlands and rock barrens ecosystem form and function. NOBEL is situated within, and operated in partnership with, the Georgian Bay Biosphere Mnidoo Gamii, a UNESCO biosphere. Nibi is Anishinaabemowin for Water and NOBEL is located on traditional Anishinabek territory.
Located in Ontario's reptile biodiversity hotspot and in a region undergoing unprecedented development and climate change disturbance (drought and wildfire), NOBEL research takes an integrative water and ecosystem science approach to inform evidence-based boreal wetland conservation, restoration and management.
With over 10 hydrometeorological towers and over 75 instrumented wetlands and mini-watersheds, NOBEL is Ontario's only water observatory dedicated to water, wildfire, reptile species at risk habitat and carbon sequestration science.
NOBEL is part of the Global Water Futures Observatories.
Located in Ontario's reptile biodiversity hotspot and in a region undergoing unprecedented development and climate change disturbance (drought and wildfire), NOBEL research takes an integrative water and ecosystem science approach to inform evidence-based boreal wetland conservation, restoration and management.
With over 10 hydrometeorological towers and over 75 instrumented wetlands and mini-watersheds, NOBEL is Ontario's only water observatory dedicated to water, wildfire, reptile species at risk habitat and carbon sequestration science.
NOBEL is part of the Global Water Futures Observatories.
Publications
- North TD*, Markle CE*, Fallas RY*, Moore PA*, Waddington JM. 2024. Initial impacts of wildfire on overwintering conditions for a species-at-risk snake. Global Ecology and Conservation, in press.
- Van Huizen B*, Markle CE*, Moore PA,* Waddington JM. 2024. Bedrock morphology influences rock barrens turtle nesting habitat energy dynamics. Ecology and Evolution 14: e11183, doi: 10.1002/ece3.11183
- Markle CE*, Freeman H*, Hudson D*, Waddington JM. 2024. Creating landscape-appropriate habitat restoration strategies: Success of a novel nesting habitat design for imperiled freshwater turtles in rock barren landscapes. Ecological Restoration 32: e14116, doi: 10.1111/rec.14116
- Markle CE*, Simone KL*, Wilkinson SL*, Freeman H*, Wiebe S*, Sherwood E*, Waddington JM. 2024. Severe wildfire affects the thermal and moisture regimes of at-risk turtle nesting habitat. Northeastern Naturalist, in press.
- Price JS, Sutton O, McCarter CPR, Quinton W, Waddington JM, Whittington PN, Strack M, Petrone RM. 2023. Advances in Wetland Hydrology: The Canadian contribution over 75 years. Canadian Water Resources Journal, in press, doi: 10.1080/07011784.2023.2269137
- McDonald R*, Moore PA*, Helbig M*, Waddington JM. 2023. Reduced net CO2 uptake during dry summers in a boreal shield peatland. Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences 28: e2022JG006923, doi: 10.1029/2022JG006923
- North TD*, Moore PA*, Birch WS*, Markle CE*, Freeman HC*, Furukawa AK*, Hudson DT*, Wilkinson SL*, Waddington JM. 2023. iWetland: A community science platform for monitoring wetland water levels. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 8: 7, doi: 10.5334/cstp.448
- McCarter CPR*, Moore PA*, Waddington JM. 2023. Modelling the potential for peat-block transplants to restore industrially contaminated Sphagnum peatlands. Ecological Engineering 187: 106874, doi: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2022.106874
- Morris PJ, Davies ML, Baird AJ, Balliston N, Bourgault M.-A., Clymo RS, Fewster RE, Furukawa AK*, Holden J, Kessel E, Ketcheson S, Klöve B, Larocque M, Marttila H, Menberu M, Moore PA*, Price JS, Ronkanen A.-K, Rosa E, Strack M, Surridge BWJ, Waddington JM, Whittington P, Wilkinson SL*. 2022. Saturated hydraulic conductivity in northern peats inferred from other measurements. Water Resources Research 58: e2022WR033181, doi: 10.1029/2022WR033181
- Markle CE*, Gage H*, Tekatch AM*, Wilkinson SL*, Waddington JM. 2022. Wetland successional state affects fire severity in a boreal shield landscape. Wetlands 42: 87, doi: 10.1007/s13157-022-01586-y
- Lehan K*, McCarter CPR*, Moore PA*, Waddington JM 2022. Effect of stockpiling time on donor-peat hydrophysical properties: Implications for peatland restoration. Ecological Engineering 182: 106701, doi: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2022.106701
- Wu Y, Xu X, McCarter CPR, Zhang N, Ganzoury MA, Waddington JM, de Lannoy C-F. 2022. Assessing leached TOC, nutrients and phenols from peatland soils after lab-simulated wildfires: Implications to source water protection. Science of the Total Environment 822: 153579, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153579
- Moore PA*, Didemus BR*, Furukawa A*, Waddington JM. 2021. Peat depth as a control on Sphagnum moisture stress during seasonal drought. Hydrological Processes 35: e14117, doi:10.1002/hyp.14117.
- Markle CE*, Sandler N*, Freeman H*, Waddington JM. 2021. Multi-scale assessment of rock barrens turtle nesting habitat: Effects of moisture and temperature on hatching success. Ichthyology and Herpetology 109: 507-521, doi: 10.1643/h2020125.
- Hudson DT*, Markle CE*, Harris LI*, Moore PA*, Waddington JM. 2021. Ecohydrological controls on lichen and moss CO2 exchange in rock barrens turtle nesting habitat. Ecohydrology 14: e2255, doi: 10.1002/eco.2255.
- Bengtsson F, Rydin H, Baltzer JL, Bragazza L, Bu Z-J, Caporn SJM, Dorrepaal E, Flatberg KI, Galanina O, Gałka M, Ganeva A, Goia I, Goncharova N, Hájek M, Haraguchi A, Harris LI, Humphreys E, Jiroušek M, Kajukało K, Karofeld E, Koronatova NG, Kosykh NP, Laine AM, Lamentowicz M, Lapshina E, Limpens J, Linkosalmi M, Ma J-Z, Mauritz M, Mitchell EAD, Munir TM, Natali SM, Natcheva R, Payne RP, Philippov DA, Rice SK, Robinson S, Robroek BJM, Rochefort L, Singer D, Stenøien HK, Tuittila E-S, Vellak K, Waddington JM, Granath G*. 2021. Environmental drivers of Sphagnum production across the Holarctic region. Journal of Ecology 109: 417-431, doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.13499.
- Markle CE*, North TD*, Harris LI*, Moore PA*, Waddington JM. 2020. Spatial heterogeneity of surface topography in peatlands: Assessing overwintering habitat availability for the eastern massassauga rattlesnake. Wetlands 40: 2337-2349, doi: 10.1007/s13157-020-01378-2.
- Wilkinson SL*, Tekatch AM*, Markle CE*, Moore PA*, Waddington JM. 2020. Shallow peat is most vulnerable to high peat burn severity during wildfire. Environmental Research Letters 15: 104032, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aba7e8.
- Markle CE*, Moore PA*, Waddington JM. 2020. Primary drivers of reptile overwintering habitat suitability: Integrating wetland ecohydrology and spatial complexity. Bioscience 70: 597-609, doi: 10.1093/biosci/biaa059.
- Markle CE*, Wilkinson SL*, Waddington JM. 2020. Initial effects of wildfire on freshwater turtle nesting habitat. Journal of Wildlife Management 84: 1373-1383, doi: 10.1002/jwmg.21921.
- Markle CE*, Moore PA*, Waddington JM. 2020. Temporal variability of overwintering conditions for a species-at-risk snake: Implications for climate change and habitat management. Global Ecology and Conservation 22: e00923, doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e00923.
- Moore PA*, Lukenbach MC*, Thompson DK*, Kettridge N, Granath G*, Waddington JM. 2019. Assessing the peatland hummock-hollow classification framework using high-resolution elevation models: Implications for appropriate complexity ecosystem modelling. Biogeosciences 16: 3491-3506, doi:10.5194/bg-2019-20.
- Moore PA*, Smolarz AG*, Markle CE*, Waddington JM. 2019. Hydrological and thermal properties of moss and lichen species on rock barrens: Implications for turtle nesting habitat. Ecohydrology 12: e2057, doi:10.1002/eco.2057.
- Granath G*, Rydin H, Baltzer JL, Bengtsson F, Boncek N, Bragazza L, Bu Z-J, Simon J, Caporn M, Dorrepaal E, Galanina O, Gałka M, Ganeva A, Gillikin DP, Goia I, Goncharova N, Hájek M, HaraguchiA, Harris LI, Humphreys E, Jiroušek M, Kajukało K, Karofeld E, Koronatova NG, Kosykh NP, Lamentowicz M, Lapshina E, Limpens J, Linkosalmi M, Ma J-Z, Munir TM, Natali S, Natcheva R, Noskova M, Payne RP Pilkington K, Robinson S, Robroek BJM, Rochefort L, Singer D, Stenøien HK, Tuittila E-S, Vellak K, Verheyden A, Waddington JM, Rice SK. 2018. Environmental and taxonomic controls of carbon and oxygen stable isotope composition in Sphagnum across broad climatic and geographic ranges. Biogeosciences 15: 5189-5202, doi:10.5194/bg-15-5189-2018.
- Smolarz AG*, Moore PA*, Markle CE*, Waddington JM. 2018. Identifying resilient Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus) peatland hummock hibernacula sites. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 96: 1024-1031, doi:10.1139/cjz-2017-0334.
Funding
NOBEL research has been supported by several organizations (listed alphabetically)
- Blazing Star Environmental
- Boreal Water Futures (within the Global Water Futures Initiative)
- Canada Wildfire NSERC Strategic Network
- Ganawenim Meshkiki
- Georgian Bay Biosphere Mnidoo Gamii
- Global Water Futures Observatories
- Heney Inlet Wind LP
- McMaster Centre for Climate Change
- McMaster Faculty of Science Global Solutions Initiative
- NSERC Canada
- RBC Canada
