Campus Connection

[caption id="attachment_27885" align="alignleft" width="259"] David Schindler, professor of ecology at University of Alberta, Edmonton[/caption] A Canadian scholar who has earned numerous environmental awards will discuss his successes and failures providing science to ground environmental public policy during a public lecture Thursday, Nov. 7 at UW-La Crosse. David Schindler, professor of ecology at University of Alberta, Edmonton, will give a public seminar “Letting in the Light: Providing Environmental Science to Direct Public Policy” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7. He will also give a scientific seminar “Preventing Cyanobacteria Blooms in Freshwater Lakes” at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8. Both events are at the Skogen Auditorium in Centennial Hall. Schindler is visiting UW-L as part of a Distinguished Lectures Series in the Life Sciences. Schindler says often politicians expect science to conform to policy, rather than vice-versa. In his public seminar he will draw on his experiences with eutrophication, or an ecosystem’s response to the addition of artificial or natural substances such as acid rain, dioxins, PCBs and pollution from the oil sands. Schindler was the founding director of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in northwestern Ontario, a facility where the impacts of pollutants and changes to communities can be studied in whole ecosystems. Schindler’s work with eutrophication and acid rain has been used in Canada, the U.S. and Europe as the basis for environmental policy. In 1989 he left ELA to take the University of Alberta’s Killam Memorial Chair position. Schindler’s science aims to underpin environmental policy and has earned him numerous national and international awards, including the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal, the First Stockholm Water Prize, the Volvo Environmental Prize and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.

Scientific Seminar: Preventing Cyanobacteria Blooms in Freshwater Lakes 3:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, Skogen Auditorium, Centennial Hall

Algal blooms, fish kills, and other symptoms of “cultural eutrophication” are one of the most pervasive problems in the world. Typically, the algal blooms are dominated by Cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae) that contain toxins, cause taste and odor problems, and form windrows on swimming beaches. In the early 1970s, Schindler directed whole lake experiments with various combinations of nutrients that indicated that controlling the element phosphorus would prevent or reverse the problem. These experiments resulted in phosphorus removal from sewage and reduced phosphorus content of detergents. Recently, papers have claimed that the “phosphorus paradigm” has been eroded, and that to effectively reverse eutrophication, both nitrogen and phosphorus must be controlled. Schindler reviewed case recovery histories and whole-lake experiments to examine this claim. In whole-lake experiments, he found that controlling nitrogen did nothing to recover lakes from eutrophication. In reviewing case histories, he found no evidence that controlling nitrogen inputs caused any decline in algal blooms, and some evidence that adding nitrogen improved the condition of lakes by preventing objectionable blooms of Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). In a 2012 review of the topic, he found that much of the controversy over nutrient limitation and eutrophication control is based on flawed logic and the misinterpretation of short-term experiments. In some cases, non-point sources of phosphorus from intensive agriculture and urbanization have effectively replaced sewage and detergents, maintaining lakes in a eutrophic state. He says the growth of human populations and agriculture will continue to aggravate the eutrophication problem in North America and globally. If you go— What: Letting in the Light: Providing Environmental Science to direct Public Policy Where: Skogen Auditorium, UW-L Centennial Hall When: 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7 Admission: Free What: Preventing Cyanobacteria Blooms in Freshwater Lakes Where: Skogen Auditorium, UW-L Centennial Hall When: 3:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8 Admission: Free