Marking World Water Day: Long-term research project examines water quality in Saskatchewan lakes

World Water Day is on Saturday, March 22 and there’s no better time to highlight some of the critical water research underway at the U of R.

Biology professors Dr. Peter R. Leavitt and Dr. Kerri Finlay have made a serious, long-term commitment to water quality in Saskatchewan lakes. In 1994, Dr. Leavitt was looking to conduct research on environmental issues related to water to develop a long-term record of data that could help to measure how the environment was changing. This is when he began a long-term study on a series of lakes in the Qu’Appelle Valley, which have now been sampled every two weeks, every single summer, for the past 32 years. Together, they co-direct the University of Regina’s Institute of Environmental Change and Society.

In 2006, Dr. Finlay joined Dr. Leavitt as a post-doctoral researcher, and the two have continued working together ever since. Long-term ecological research projects like this one provide an opportunity to examine important environmental questions that require long periods to resolve.

Dr. Leavitt and Dr. Finlay’s research has proven to be useful around the province. The provincial government uses their data to determine whether their policies related to environmental protection are working as they are supposed to, First Nations use it to establish changes in the environment arising from violations of treaty rights, farmers use it to look at water quality as it relates to irrigation and their livestock, and the public wants to know that the water is safe for drinking and recreation.

World Water Day is held annually on March 22 as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

If Dr. Leavitt and Dr. Finlay’s research sounds interesting to you, check out their current projects at the Institute of Environmental Change and Society, or at the Department of Biology!

Banner photo: Last Mountain Lake is just one of the lakes that Dr. Leavitt and Dr. Finlay have spent the last three decades sampling. Credit: Still image from the video in the story, video shot and produced by University Communications and Marketing.