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Schindler earns Tyler Award: Renowned ecologist credits inspirational mentors

Written By: Richard Cairney

2006-04-28

A University of Alberta scientist who sounded the alarm on acid rain has been awarded one of the most prestigious international awards for environmental research. Dr. David Schindler has received the Tyler Award for Environmental Achievement.

He joins such luminaries as primatologist Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Doll, who established the link between lung cancer and cigarette smoking, and Nobel Laureates Paul Critzen and Mario Molina.

In a series of landmark experiments conducted during the 1970s and 1980s, Schindler demonstrated that acid rain could begin destroying freshwater lakes at far lower levels than previously thought, and that phosphorus was the major cause of uncontrolled algae growth.

Schindler's findings had a decisive influence in the policy wars over sulfur oxide emissions and phosphorus use and led to a ban on the use of phosphorous in detergents.

Stanford University biological sciences professor Peter Vitousek said Schindler's approach – the fertilization of entire lakes in an Ontario research reserve – provided incorruptible findings.

"Dave Schindler did the right set of experiments... demonstrating beyond any reasonable doubt that phosphorus controls the eutrophication of temperate lakes," Vitousek wrote in a letter supporting Schindler's award.

"Dr. Schindler then took the same approach to the issue of acid rain. Other people did good work on acid rain effects – and some of them spent a great deal more money – but none of them provided such clear, convincing information," Vitousek added.

"His experiments were key to the ban of phosphorus in detergents and to the understanding of the impacts of sulfuric acid in lakes," Wallace Broecker, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University, wrote in a letter nominating Schindler for the award.

"It's amazing to be in this kind of company – I just can't believe it," said Schindler, who holds the U of A's Killam Memorial Chair in Ecology and is a previous winner of the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal for Science and Engineering – the highest honour for Canadian researchers. He is the only Canadian to receive both the Stockholm Water Prize (1991) and the Volvo International Environment Prize (1998).

That Broecker supported Schindler's nomination is of particular note. Schindler refers to Broecker as "probably the greatest oceanographer of the 20th century," and considers him a mentor. Although they worked in different disciplines, the two worked side-by-side at the experimental lakes research station in Ontario.

"I've always found that mentors don't necessarily have to be in your own field," Schindler said. "There is something about the way these people's brains work, that if your brain is on the same wavelength – if you're working on the same problem or not – it gets it channelled in the right direction. It is something about working with someone who has contagious enthusiasm for what they're doing."

The two inspired one another, Schindler said.

"We'd sit there most of the day, most people figured we were just wasting time, but we'd talk and argue about all these different problems and it was tremendous fun. And we had a huge influence on each other, probably more him on me than vice-versa but that was another really amazing experience and another occasion when his enthusiasm and his curiosity for what really made things work was just really amazing."

U of A president Indira Samarasekera said that Schindler, in turn, has become a "generous and inspiring" mentor.

"David Schindler's research has had an enormous, profound impact on environmental policy," she said. "Moreover, his extraordinary mentorship of scores of graduate and undergraduate students has inspired a new generation of committed and creative scientists to address other pressing global environmental issues."

"Great minds challenge each other and thrive off of each other," said U of A Dean of Science Dr. Greg Taylor. "When students and academics come here, when the great minds arrive in his lab or group, they are challenged and they thrive on that challenge."

The award, which includes a $200,000 cash prize and gold medals, will be shared with professor Igor A. Shiklomanov, director of the State Hydrological Institute in St. Petersburg. He is best known for describing the connection between millions of local water withdrawals and the world's water "budget."

Administered by the University of Southern California, the prize was established in 1973 to recognize individuals associated with world-class environmental accomplishments.

But more important than the award itself, said Schindler, are the opportunities that come with it.

"It isn't the prize that means so much to me – a prize and the publicity mean another chance to speak out on issues that I think are getting insufficient attention," he said. "And one of those, probably my pet project right now, is water quality and quantity in the western Prairies. Every time I think about it I get a knot in my stomach."

Schindler and colleague Bill Donahue recently published a paper on the topic in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, early online edition. Their research shows that the Canadian prairies are facing an unprecedented water crisis due to a combination of climate warming, increased human activity and historic drought.

They discovered the 20th century was probably the wettest century the region has experienced in the last two millennia, and severe droughts are in fact the norm.

"Probably sometime in the next quarter century we are going to find ourselves in a several-year drought," he said. "We're going to know what water scarcity is all about."

Schindler said the effects could be mitigated to a degree if we cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, protected watersheds and "pull out all the stops" in water conservation.

"We wouldn't suffer much if we cut our water consumption by half, and we could do a lot better than that if we used recycled water for lawns and gardens and flushing toilets and things like they do in water-scarce countries. We just haven't realized that we are a water scarce country."

His recommendations are likely to be taken seriously. His skill as a scientific communicator has earned him influence in the policy arena, according to Karen Kraft Sloan, a former member of Canada's parliament.

"His words are used time and time again as the highest measure of credibility to educate the public on an issue or to get the attention of parliamentarians and the government," Sloan wrote, supporting his nomination.

Schindler continues to study the effects of external factors on freshwater bodies, focusing on climate change, alien fish species and cumulative effects of human activities.

This article originally appeared in Folio News Story