Queen's University

PEARL Paleoecological Environmental Assesment & Research Lab

Drs. John Smol and Brian Cumming are the two faculty members associated with the PEARL. PEARL is a group of approximately 25 scientists dedicated to the development and implication of applied and theoretical paleolimnology. Over the last ten years, PEARL has used paleolimnological approaches to study a wide range of environmental issues including: lake acidification and eutrophication, fisheries declines, metals and toxic pollution, biodiversity, environmental change in the Arctic, and drought cycles in western Canada.


PEARL is actively involved in a number of international programs including a study of climatic change in Siberia, ongoing research on acid rain in North America and Europe, new initiatives in Sri Lanka , and climatic change research in arid and semi-arid regions. Well over 200 publications have been produced from PEARL. In 1993, the North American Lake Management Society presented the Technical Excellence Award to Dr. Smol and PEARL.


Our market of interest are individuals in government and industry that are interested in assessing the impact of anthropogenic activities on aquatic systems (esp. lakes and reservoirs) through paleolimnological techniques. Keyword: paleolimnology, paleoecology, diatoms, chrysophytes, invertebrates, lakes, reservoirs.

Company Details

Company Information

Brian F. Cumming
Title: Manager
Area of Responsibility: Management Executive
Telephone: (613) 545-6000
Fax: (613) 545-6617
Email: Click Here

John P. Smol
Title: Manager
Telephone: (613) 533-6153
Fax: (613) 533-6617
Email: Click Here

Products

Environmental Products And Services

Applying Paleolimnological Techniques
Aquatic ecosystems are, and have been, altered in a number of ways by both natural and anthropogenic sources. In order to effectively manage aquatic ecosystems, lake and water managers require information concerning: (1) background conditions and natural variability; (2) how a system has changed through time; (3) plausible mechanisms for these changes; and (4) the ability to predict how a system will change in the future. Unfortunately, long-term records from monitoring programs and historical records are severely lacking for most aquatic ecosystems, and consequently managers lack the necessary information to make informed decisions. In the absence of historical measurements, proxy records are often the only way to reconstruct background conditions and establish how a system has changed through time. Paleolimnology is the study of lake histories through the interpretation of the physical, chemical and biological remains preserved in a lake's sedimentary profile. Sediment cores removed from the bottom of a lake contain both direct and indirect evidence of past terrestrial and aquatic events from which past environmental conditions can be reconstructed with time resolutions ranging from years to millennia. Consequently, paleolimnologcial techniques have been widely used to assess the significance of anthropogenic and natural disturbances on aquatic ecosystems (e.g. climatic change, lake acidification, eutrophication, toxins). Many scientists from the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory (PEARL) are actively developing and applying paleolimnological techniques that can be used to better understand both natural and anthropogenic environmental and ecological change.

Services