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• Fort McKay (AMS 1)
• Mildred Lake (AMS 2)
• Lower Camp Met Tower (AMS 3)
• Buffalo Viewpoint (AMS 4)
• Mannix (AMS 5)
• Patricia McInnes (AMS 6)
• Athabasca Valley (AMS 7)
• Fort Chipewyan (AMS 8)
• Barge Landing (AMS 9)
• Albian Mine Site (AMS 10)*
• Lower Camp (AMS 11)
• Millennium (AMS 12)
• Syncrude UE-1 (AMS 13)
• Anzac (AMS 14)
• CNRL Horizon (AMS 15)
• Albian Muskeg River (AMS 16)*

*Note: AMS 10 was retired due to mining in the location. It has been replaced with AMS 16 which is 4km SE of the former AMS 10 site.

Dr. Bernhard Mayer

Dr. Mayer is a Professor in the Department of Geoscience at University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta.

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Phone: 403-220-5389

Position and responsibilities within WBEA:

Dr. Bernhard Mayer is principle investigator of the stable isotope tracing project currently conducted by the TEEM program within WBEA.

The objective of this project is to determine the stable isotope compositions of N and S compounds in (a) industrial emissions, (b) atmospheric deposition, and (c) various environmental receptors including lichens, plant foliage, soils and surface water obtained from numerous sites located at various distances from the major emission sources in the Athabasca oilsands region around Fort McMurray.

The obtained results will reveal to which extent stable isotope ratios of N and S compounds emitted from the oilsands operations can be used, in concert with chemical analyses, to trace the fate of industrial emissions in the surrounding terrestrial and aquatic environment. The project will make a major innovative contribution to assessing the environmental footprint of industrial N and S emission from the Athabasca oilsands region.

Education and Experience:

Dr. Bernhard Mayer is a Professor of Isotope Geochemistry in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary. His Applied Geochemistry research group (AGg) employs chemical and isotopic techniques to trace water, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur compounds in surface and subsurface environments.

Dr. Mayer has (co-)authored more than 80 papers in international refereed journals and 10 book chapters. His innovative research has contributed to various provincial, national, and international research programs, including the Alberta Ingenuity Center for Water Research (AICWR), the Alberta Ingenuity Center for In-Situ Energy (AICISE), the Carbon Management Canada (CMC) and the Canadian Water Networks (CWN) of Centers of Excellence (NCE), and the United Nations SCOPE Nitrogen group.

Dr. Bernhard Mayer received his PhD in Isotope Geochemistry in 1993 from the University of Munich (Germany). After an 18 months stint as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary, he returned to Germany as an Assistant in the Department of Sedimentary and Isotope Geology at the Ruhr-University Bochum (1994-1997). In September 1997, Dr. Mayer accepted a professorial appointment at the University of Calgary.

Previous Appointments:

• Dr. Mayer serves as assistant scientific director of Carbon Management Canada Inc. hosted at the University of Calgary since September 2010.
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): Isotope Hydrology Section: expert adviser on the “Use of Isotope Methodologies for Nutrient Management in Rivers”.
• Member of Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU) Hydrological Sciences Committee on Isotopic Tracers.
• Was member of Scientific Review Panel for Alberta Environment’s Standard for Baseline water-well Testing for Coalbed Methane Operations (2006-2008)

Professional Affiliations:

• Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU)
• American Geological Society (GSA)
• Geochemical Society (GS)
• Geological Association of Canada (GAC)
• International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry (IAGC)
• International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
• American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Five Most Relevant Publications:

• Aravena, R. & Mayer, B. (2010): Isotopes and Processes in the Nitrogen and Sulfur Cycles. – In: Environmental Isotopes in Biodegradation and Bioremediation (Aelion, C. M. et al., eds.), pp. 203-246. Lewis Publishers.
• Mayer, B., Alpay, S., Gould, W. D., Lortie, L. & Rosa, F. (2007): The onset of anthropogenic activity recorded in lake sediments in the vicinity of the Horne smelter in Quebec, Canada: sulfur isotope evidence. – Applied Geochemistry: 22: 397-414. doi: 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2006.10.001.
• Mayer, B. (2005): Assessing sources and transformations of sulphate and nitrate in the hydrosphere using isotope techniques. – In: Isotopes in the Water Cycle: Past, Present & Future of a Developing Science (P. Aggarwal, Gat, J. & Froehlich, K. F. O., eds.), pp. 67-90. Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
• Shanley, J. B., Mayer, B., Mitchell, M. J., Michel, R. L., Bailey, S. W. & Kendall, C. (2005): Tracing sources of streamwater sulfate during snowmelt using S and O isotope ratios of sulfate and 35S activity. – Biogeochemistry, 76(1): 161-185. DOI 10.1007/s10533-005-2856-9.
• Prietzel, J., Mayer, B. & Legge, A. (2004): Cumulative impact of forty years of industrial sulfur emissions on a forest soil in west-central Alberta (Canada). – Environmental Pollution 132(1), 129-144.