Fire, Earth, Water, Air Contaminant Biogeochemistry Lab
Understanding the connectivity between enviromental systems
We have set out to develop global strategies to reduce the impact of pollutants on human and environmental health. Our research utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach allowing for greater quantitative and qualitative assessment of this impact.
A team committed to environmental stewardship & understanding the impacts contaminants have on natural systems
Lead by Dr. David McLagan, our lab consists of a diverse group of students and researchers that strive to build meaningful research collaborations both in Canada and abroad.
Lab News
David McLagan, along with PhD Supervisors, Carl Mitchell and Frank Wania win Governor General’s Innovation Award
David McLagan, along with PhD Supervisors, Carl Mitchell and Frank Wania (from University of Toronto Scarborough) were one of six winners of the Governor General's Innovation Award for the development of MerPAS presented at a ceremony on the 18th of May 2023. MerPAS...
David McLagan featured on Emerging Environments podcast
David was interviewed by Prof. Karen Smith and Prof. Stu Livingston from the Dept. of Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto on their really cool podcast called Emerging Environments. They chatted about David's path in research, mercury as a...
Research Projects
Wildfire emissions and in-plume chemistry monitoring using alternative sampling methodologies
In 2018, Dr. McLagan worked on the Oil Sands Monitoring Campaign with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) that utilised a research aircraft decked out with an array of sophisticated atmospheric contaminant monitoring instruments. During this campaign, there...
Assessing internal tree physiological processing and archiving of mercury using stable mercury isotopes.
Our knowledge of the critical ecosystem services trees and forests play as a sink for anthropogenically perturbed contaminants such as mercury has developed rapidly over the past two decades. For mercury we have learned that the foliar assimilation of elemental...
Biogeochemical cycling of mercury associated with mercury use in Artisanal Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM)
Emissions of mercury from ASGM activities are now the largest single emitter of mercury to the atmosphere globally. However, there are major shortcomings in our knowledge of the biogeochemical cycling and impacts of this mercury relating largely to the informal,...