F. Rezanezhad

University of Waterloo | UWaterloo · Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

The adverse impacts of excessive soil nutrients on water quality and carbon sequestration have been recognized in tropical and temperate regions, with already widespread industrial farming and urbanization, but rarely in subarctic regions. However, recent studies have shown significant increases in porewater nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentr...

Knowledge of freeze-thaw-induced carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling and concomitant nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions in perennial bioenergy crops is crucial to understanding the contribution of these crops in mitigating climate change through reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this study, a 49-day laboratory incuba...

The temperature sensitivity (Q 10) of soil respiration is a critical parameter in modeling soil carbon dynamics; yet the regulating factors and the underlying mechanisms of Q 10 in peat soils remain unclear. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive synthesis data analysis from 87 peatland sites (350 observations) spanning boreal, temperate...

The extensive use of road salts as deicers during winter months is causing the salinization of freshwater systems in cold climate regions worldwide. We analyzed 20 years (2001–2020) of data on lake water chemistry, land cover changes, and road salt applications for Lake Wilcox (LW) located in southern Ontario, Canada. The lake is situated within a...

In recent years, there has been a surge in annual plastic production, which has contributed to growing environmental challenges, particularly in the form of microplastics. Effective management of plastic and microplastic waste has become a critical concern, necessitating innovative strategies to address its impact on ecosystems and human health. In...

Sediment core and water quality data, together with historical information on land use/land cover (LULC), were used to reconstruct changes in phosphorus (P) loading and cycling in Lake Wilcox, Ontario, Canada, since the early 1920s. After first being cleared for farming, the originally forested watershed subsequently underwent urbanization. The lar...

The acceleration of global urbanization continues to fuel concerns surrounding water quality impairments in urban lakes, particularly eutrophication. Eutrophication of freshwater environments is generally assumed to be driven by increased anthropogenic phosphorus (P) supplies which can alleviate limitations on primary production. Salinization is al...

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic is one of the most commonly used polymers worldwide and found in high rates as environmental waste. Previous studies have shown that the degradation of plastics using commercial grade enzymes is possible and highly effective in lab settings. However, the effectiveness and rates of enzymatic plastic degradati...

Coastal peatlands have been frequently blocked from the sea and artificially drained for agriculture. With an increasing awareness of ecosystem functions, several of these coastal peatlands have been rewetted through dike removal, allowing sea water flooding. In this study, we investigated a recently rewetted peatland on the Baltic Sea coast with t...

Soil moisture is a known environmental factor influencing carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions and therefore represents an important variable in predictive models. Establishing relationships between soil CO 2 emissions and soil moisture has long focused on the role of soil organic carbon mineralization by aerobic respiration. This approach, which genera...

Study region: Zohreh River Basin, Southwest Iran Study focus: The salinity of Zohreh River sharply increases in three salinity zones (SZs) along the river named SZ1, SZ2 (the focus of this study), and SZ3. Determining the salinity sources and salinization mechanism using an integrated approach including geological, hydrochemical, isotopic , geophys...

A variety of best management practices (BMPs) are being implemented to attenuate the increasing eutrophication risk caused by excessive phosphorus (P) export via urban stormwater runoff. However, P reduction performance of the BMPs are highly variable under different climatic, watershed, and design settings. Many of BMPs are actually reported to en...

Bioretention cells (Bio-C) have emerged as a popular low impact development (LID) option to attenuate both flow discharge and reduce nutrient export from urban areas. We present a novel numerical reactive transport model that incorporates a detailed representation of the phosphorus (P) biogeochemical reaction network. The model was applied to an ex...

Phosphorus (P) export from urban areas via stormwater runoff contributes to eutrophication of downstream aquatic ecosystems. Bioretention cells are a Low Impact Development (LID) technology promoted as a green solution to attenuate urban peak flow discharge, as well as the export of excess nutrients and other contaminants. Despite their rapidly gro...

Cold regions are warming much faster than the global average, resulting in more frequent and intense freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) in soils. In hydrocarbon-contaminated soils, FTCs modify the biogeochemical and physical processes controlling petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) biodegradation and the associated generation of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO...

Bioretention cells (BRCs) have emerged as one of the Green Infrastructure and low impact development (LID) practices to reduce peak discharge and nutrient export in urban areas. Despite growing implementation globally, understanding of P cycling and retention mechanisms in BRC is limited. In this presentation, we present a novel numerical reactive...

Phosphorus (P) loadings from urban areas exported via stormwater runoff are typically elevated compared to those associated with runoff from natural lands, and cause water quality issues such eutrophication in downstream aquatic systems. Low impact development (LID) options such as bioretention cells (Bio-C) have emerged as a green solution for red...

Bioretention cells (Bio-C) have emerged as a low impact development (LID) option to reduce peak discharge and nutrient export from urban areas. Despite growing implementation globally, understanding of P cycling and retention mechanisms in Bio-C is limited. Here we present a novel numerical reactive transport model to simulate the fate and transpor...

Bioretention cells are a Low Impact Development (LID) technology widely promoted as a green solution to attenuate loads of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) exported with urban stormwater runoff and, hence, mitigate downstream eutrophication. Despite their increasing implementation worldwide, reported removal of P and N by bioretention cells is highl...

Determining the origin of groundwater in active and unstable mining environments has proven quite challenging. We evaluated the origin and salinity of the groundwater using major/minor ions, 2H and 18O stable isotopes, and 3H and 14C radioisotopes. Samples were collected from a multi-aquifer system including three distinct aquifers: an upper alluvi...

In cold regions, climate change is expected to result in warmer winter temperatures and increased temperature variability. Coupled with changing precipitation regimes, these changes can decrease soil insulation by reducing snow cover, exposing soils to colder temperatures and more frequent and extensive soil freezing and thawing. Freeze-thaw events...

Bioretention cells are a Low Impact Development (LID) technology, widely promoted as a green solution to attenuate the loadings of the limiting macronutrients phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) exported through urban stormwater runoff. Despite the broad implementation of this LID approach in North America, their reported P and N reduction efficiencies...

The ongoing climate warming is likely to increase the frequency of freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) in cold-temperate peatland regions. Despite the importance of soil hydro-physical properties in water and carbon cycling in peatlands, the impacts of FTCs on peat properties as well as carbon sequestration and release remain poorly understood. In this study...

Bioretention cells are a Low Impact Development (LID) technology, widely promoted as a green solution to attenuate the loadings of the limiting macronutrients phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) exported through urban stormwater runoff. Despite the broad implementation of this LID approach in North America, their reported P and N reduction efficiencies...

Microbial activity persists in cold region agricultural soils during the fall, winter, and spring (i.e., non-growing season) and frozen condition, with peak activity during thaw events. Climate change is expected to change the frequency of freeze-thaw cycles (FTC) and extreme temperature events (i.e, altered timing, extreme heat/cold events) in tem...

Cold regions are warming faster than the rest of the planet, with the greatest warming occurring during the winter and shoulder seasons. Warmer winters are further predicted to result in more frequent soil freezing and thawing events. Freeze-thaw cycles affect biogeochemical soil processes and alter carbon and nutrient export from soils, hence impa...

Lake Wilcox (LW), a shallow kettle lake located in southern Ontario, has experienced multiple phases of land use change associated with human settlement and residential development in its watershed since the early 1900s. Urban growth has coincided with water quality deterioration, including the occurrence of algal blooms and depletion of dissolved...

The rapid growth in microplastic pollution research is influencing funding priorities, environmental policy, and public perceptions of risks to water quality and environmental and human health. Ensuring that environmental microplastics research data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) is essential to inform policy and mitig...

In temperate cold regions, the gradual resurgence of soil microbial activity during spring freeze-thaw events is frequently associated with greenhouse gas emissions. Enhanced greenhouse gas fluxes during spring freeze-thaw are related to the mineralization of bioavailable substrates, which may be elevated when soil is amended with organic residues...

Bioretention cells are a Low Impact Development (LID) technology, widely promoted as a green solution to attenuate the loadings of the limiting macronutrients phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) exported through urban stormwater runoff. Despite the broad implementation of this LID approach in North America, their reported P and N reduction efficiencies...

Climate change is a threat to the 500 Gt carbon stored in northern peatlands. As the region warms, the rise in mean temperature is more pronounced during the non-growing season (NGS, i.e., winter and parts of the shoulder seasons) when net ecosystem loss of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) occurs. Many studies have investigated the impacts of climate warming...

Peatlands around the world have been drained for agriculture and forestry practices over the last century, leading to carbon loss, water loss, and soil degradation. Soil available water capacity (AWC, the amount of water a soil can provide for plants) is one of the most important soil properties regulating the water balance and plays a pivotal role...

Salinization of inland freshwaters is observed around the world, but particularly in cold temperate regions due to the runoff of salt applied on roads as de-icing agents during the winter. This is the case for Lake Wilcox, a shallow kettle lake located within the greater Toronto metropolitan area in Ontario, Canada. Since the early 1900s, the lake'...

Phosphorus (P) concentrations in urban stormwater runoff are typically elevated compared to those associated with runoff from natural lands. Urban P export is a leading driver of eutrophication problems in downstream aquatic systems. Low impact development (LID) options such as bioretention cells (Bio-C) have emerged as a green solution for reducin...

Phosphorus (P) concentrations in urban stormwater runoff are typically elevated compared to those associated with runoff from natural lands. Urban P export is a leading driver of eutrophication problems in downstream aquatic systems. Low impact development (LID) options such as bioretention cells (Bio-C) have emerged as a green solution for reducin...

Excessive phosphorus (P) export from urban areas via stormwater runoff contributes to eutrophication problems in downstream aquatic ecosystems. Bioretention cells are a Low Impact Development (LID) technology that is being promoted as a green solution to attenuate peak discharge and urban nutrient loadings. Despite extensive implementation of biore...

Peat accumulation in high latitude wetlands represents a natural long-term carbon sink, resulting from the cumulative excess of growing season net ecosystem production over non-growing season (NGS) net mineralization in soils. With high latitudes experiencing warming at a faster pace than the global average, especially during the NGS, a major conce...

In this paper, the dissolution and mobilization of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) blobs in the Surfactant-Enhanced Aquifer Remediation (SEAR) process were upscaled using dynamic pore network modeling (PNM) of three-dimensional and unstructured networks. We considered corner flow and micro-flow mechanisms including snap-off and piston-like movement...

Understanding the effect of manure particle fractionation on transport, retention, and release of bacteria plays a critical role in manure management and environmental policies that address soil and water bacterial pollution. Compared to soil particle size, there is less understanding of the importance of solid manure particle size and fractionatio...

Global climate warming disproportionately affects high-latitude and mountainous terrestrial ecosystems. Warming is accompanied by permafrost thaw, shorter winters, earlier snowmelt, more intense soil freeze-thaw cycles, drier summers, and longer fire seasons. These environmental changes in turn impact surface water and groundwater flow regimes, wat...

Global climate warming disproportionately affects high-latitude and mountainous terrestrial ecosystems. Warming is accompanied by permafrost thaw, shorter winters, earlier snowmelt, more intense soil freeze-thaw cycles, drier summers, and longer fire seasons. These environmental changes in turn impact surface water and groundwater flow regimes, wat...

Soil freeze-thaw induces a pulse of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions fueled by a concomitant increase in available organic carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) substrates. These substrates are hypothesized to originate from the disruption of aggregates and microbial biomass, but experiments designed to falsify these hypotheses have been scarce. We therefore co...

Peatlands are important ecosystems that store approximately one third of terrestrial organic carbon. Non-growing season carbon fluxes significantly contribute to annual carbon budgets in peatlands, yet their response to climate change is poorly understood. Here, we investigate the governing environmental variables of non-growing season carbon emiss...

Bacteria transport through soil is a complex process particularly when the cells are released from solid manures and co-transported with particles. This study focuses on understanding of the Escherichia coli release from different particle fractions (0.25-, 0.5-, 1-, and 2-mm) of solid manure and evaluating different influent boundary conditions du...

Phosphorus (P) loadings from urban areas exported via stormwater runoff are typically elevated compared to those associated with runoff from natural lands, and cause water quality issues such as eutrophication in aquatic systems. Bioretention cell (Bio-C) is a commonly used low impact development (LID) technology for reducing peak discharge and nut...

Phosphorus (P) loadings from urban areas exported via stormwater runoff are typically elevated compared to those associated with runoff from natural lands, and cause water quality issues such eutrophication in downstream aquatic systems. Bioretention Cell (Bio-C) is a Low Impact Development (LID) option that has emerged as a green solution for redu...

Naturally-ignited wildfires are increasing in frequency and severity in northern regions, contributing to rapid permafrost thaw-induced landscape change driven by climate warming. Low-severity wildfires typically result in minor organic matter loss. The impacts of such fires on the hydrological and geochemical dynamics of peat plateau-wetland compl...

Rising industrial interest in the application of nanomaterials for the remediation of contaminated sites has led to concern over the environmental fate of the nanoremediation agents used. A critical requirement in evaluating and understanding nanoparticle (NP) behaviour in porous media is the development of analytical methods capable of in situ mon...

The emerging growth of lithium-ion battery usage necessitates the development of unconventional resources for battery grade lithium carbonate. Extraction of lithium from micas such as lepidolite produces several marketable by-products as well as a silt-sized gypsum rich blended residue containing elevated level of thallium (Tl). The goal of this st...

The world’s cold regions are experiencing some of the fastest warming, especially during the winter and shoulder seasons. Recent studies have highlighted the significance of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions during the non-growing season (NGS) to the annual carbon budgets of northern peatlands. Because of the positive feedback of soil microbial respir...

Pollution of the potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is a major concern in the metal ore-mining environment. Active polymetallic industries and mines cause great continuous devastation of both terrestrial and aquatic environments on a local and regional scale. This study investigated the pollution of surface water and groundwater in the area containi...

Petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) contamination is a global environmental issue. Understanding the key factors and mechanisms controlling the fate and mobility of PHCs in soils and aquifers is critical for environmental risk assessment, the development of remediation strategies, and policy decisions. This study focuses on the effects of soil composition...

Most of the prediction theories regarding dissolution of organic contaminants in the subsurface systems have been proposed based on the static water conditions; and the influence of water fluctuations on mass removal requires further investigations. In this study, it was intended to investigate the effects of water table fluctuations on biogeochemi...

Hydro-physical properties of peat influence the partitioning of rainfall into infiltration versus runoff, determine water flow and solute transport patterns, and regulate the carbon and nitrogen cycles in peatlands. Compared with mineral soils, our understanding of hydraulic properties of peat soils is limited, especially of the temporal dynamics o...

Engineered sulfate injection has been introduced as an effective technology to enhance the remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons. While some studies indicate that sulfate injection is a promising method for the treatment of hydrocarbon-contaminated subsurface systems, its application in the brackish soil environ...

Urbanization increases flashiness of the hydrologic response in watersheds and results in a great amount of stormwater (SW) runoff that drains into downstream receiving water bodies. Generally, nutrient concentrations are high in SW runoff resulting in eutrophication-related issues. Along with conventional SW management options such as ponds, Low I...

Peatlands are wetlands that provide important ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and water storage that respond to hydrological, biological, and biogeochemical processes. These processes are strongly influenced by the complex pore structure of peat soils. We explore the literature on peat pore structure and the implications for hydro...

Engineered sulfate application has been proposed as an effective remedy to enhance the rate-limited biodegradation of petroleum-hydrocarbon-contaminated subsurface environments, but the effects of dissolved organic phase composition and salinity on the efficiency of this method are unknown. A series of flow-through experiments were conducted for 15...

Water table fluctuations generate temporally and spatially dynamic physicochemical conditions that drive biogeochemical hot spots and hot moments in the vadose zone. However, their role in the cycling of soil C remains poorly known. Here, we present results from unvegetated column experiments filled with 45 cm of artificial soil containing 10% humu...

Although the majority of coastal sediments consist of sandy material, in some areas marine ingression caused the submergence of terrestrial carbon-rich peat soils. This affects the coastal carbon balance, as peat represents a potential carbon source. We performed a column experiment to better understand the coupled flow and biogeochemical processes...

Biodegradation is a key process for the remediation of sites contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs), but this process is not well known for the (semi)-arid coastal environments where saline conditions and continuous water level fluctuations are common. This study differs from the limited previous studies on the biodegradation of PHCs in Qata...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Recent warming in the Arctic, which has been amplified during the winter1,2,3, greatly enhances microbial decomposition of soil organic matter and subsequent release of carbon dioxide (CO2)⁴. However, the amount of CO2 released in winter is not known and has not been well represented by ecosystem models or empirically based estimates5,6. Here we sy...

Sea-level rise coupled with land subsidence from wetland drainage exposes increasingly large areas of coastal peatlands to seawater intrusion. Seawater contains high concentrations of sulfate (SO4²⁻), which can alter the decomposition of organic matter thereby releasing organic and inorganic solutes from peat. In this study, a flow-through reactor...

Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) release from peatlands are closely related to water management and soil degradation. However, peat degradation has not been explicitly accounted for when estimating national greenhouse gas inventories. Here, we assembled a comprehensive dataset covering European, Russian and Canadian peatlands and introduced soil bulk de...

Spectral induced polarization (SIP) signatures have been used as proxies for microbial abundance in subsurface environments, by taking advantage of the charged properties of microbial cell membranes. The method's applicability, however, remains qualitative, and signal interpretation ambiguous. The adoption of SIP as a robust geo‐microbiological too...

Microbial transport in soil affects pathogen retention, colonization, and innoculant delivery in bioremediating agricultural soils. Various bacteria strains residing in the fluid phases of soils are potential contaminants affecting human health.We measured the transport of hydrophilic Escherichia coli (E. coli) and hydrophobic Rhodococcus erythropo...

Reliable estimation of streamflow especially in ungauged basins is most important for environmental management and planning. Regionalization of streamflow using either the physical attributes or spatial proximities of linked gauged and ungauged basins are considered to be standard techniques for estimating streamflow in ungauged basins. Unfortunate...

The chemical and physical characteristics of humic acids (HA) may differ depending on their source, and the ideal extraction method should not modify the characteristics of HA. Hydrofluoric acid (HF) is often used in HA extraction methods to remove inorganic substances that are often present in the sample in addition to the organic molecules of int...

The dual-porosity structure of peat and the extremely high organic matter content give rise to a complex medium that typically generates prolonged tailing and early 50% concentration breakthrough in the breakthrough curves (BTCs) of chloride (Cl⁻) and other anions. Untangling whether these observations are due to rate-limited (physical) diffusion i...