Paleolimnology is the science (and art) of reconstructing the past environments of fresh water systems. Join hosts Adam Jeziorski and Josh Thienpont as they wade through the wide variety of topics that make up this interdisciplinary field. Whether you are already an expert at collecting sediment cores and identifying microfossils, or you simply have an interest in environmental issues such as acid rain, eutrophication, and climate change, this podcast will help make the natural records that surround us as clear as mud.
Adam Jeziorski is a research scientist in the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory within the Department of Biology at Queen’s University.
Adam’s relationship with paleolimnology began early in his academic career while investigating the legacy of acid rain on lakes of the Canadian Shield. Today, his research uses paleolimnological techniques to study the responses of aquatic invertebrate communities in temperate lakes to a wide variety of environmental stressors (including acid deposition, calcium decline, metal contamination, and climate warming). Whether to discuss examining calcium decline using cladoceran assemblages or reconstructing long-term trends in dissolved oxygen concentrations from chironomid remains, Adam is always happy to step away from the microscope and talk mud.
Adam received a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada) in 2001, a M.Sc. in Biology from York University (Toronto, Canada) in 2005 and a Ph.D. in Biology from Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada) in 2011.
Josh Thienpont is a sessional assistant professor in the Department of Geography at York University. He teaches courses on geomorphology, river processes, geoinformatics, and introductory physical geography. Josh is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
Josh’s research interests currently centre on using paleolimnological methods to assess the impact of landscape changes on northern lake ecosystems, primarily in the western Canadian Arctic. He is exploring how geomorphological impacts such as permafrost thaw features, and coastal flooding alter physical, chemical, and biological processes in lakes. Interestingly, both were topics of his PhD research, and he is excited to be revisiting them after a decade of climate-driven changes in the Arctic have continued to alter the landscape at an alarming rate.
Josh completed his B.Sc.H. in biology at Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada) in 2007, as well as his Ph.D. in biology at Queen’s, in 2013. He received a W. Garfield Weston postdoctoral fellowship for northern research, which he completed in the Department of Geography at Brock University. Before joining York, he was a research associate at the University of Ottawa, and taught courses as a contract faculty member at Carleton University, and the University of Toronto.