• Home
• About WBEA
  • History & Evolution
  • Vision, Mission & Values
  • Executive Director & Governance Committee
  • Members
  • Meet Our Scientists
  • Organizational Structure
  • Related Links
  • Careers
• Air Monitoring
• Terrestrial Monitoring
• Human Exposure Monitoring
• Monitoring Stations & Data
• Library
• News Room
• Contact

• 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. R. Kelman Wieder

Dr. R. Kelman Wieder is a Professor of Biology, Associate Dean for Sciences at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Phone: 610-519-4856

Position and Responsibilities within WBEA:

Dr. R. Kelman Wieder is a principal investigator on the WBEA-funded project: Development of Monitoring Protocols for Nitrogen-Sensitive Bog Ecosystems, Including Further Development of Lichen Monitoring Tools; 2009-2013; see http://www13.homepage.villanova.edu/kelman.wieder/WBEA.html

Education and Experience:

Dr. Wieder as a ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist who has conducted research in tallgrass prairies, tropical forests of Panama, wetlands for acid mine drainage treatment, and peatlands, with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, Shell Oil the Cumulative Environmental Management Association, and WBEA.

In collaboration with Dr. Dale Vitt, Dr. Melanie Vile, Ms. Kimberli Scott, technicians, and students, Wieder’s research over the past two decades has focused on the structure and function of peatlands of continental, western Canada.  Much of this research has examined the fate of the local and regional peatland carbon sink in light of ongoing climate change, in particular changes in temperature and precipitation regimes and ongoing permafrost thaw, and anthropogenic disturbance, most importantly wildfire.

Recent and ongoing research focuses on reclamation of decommissioned oil pads initially constructed in peatland ecosystems (supported by Shell Oil); on developing monitoring tools to assess the spread of elevated atmospheric nitrogen and sulfur deposition from oil sands development onto bogs of the Fort McMurray area (supported by WBEA); and on the influences of regional atmospheric nitrogen and sulfur deposition on Sphagnum fuscum production, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur accumulation in peat (supported by CEMA).  Beginning in 2011, a new project funded by CEMA, will use field additions of nitrogen to a bog, a poor fen, and an upland jack pine forest stand with an overall goal of determining nitrogen critical loads for critical ecosystems in the Fort McMurray region.  This new project is in collaboration with Dr. Dale Vitt (Southern Illinois University), Dr. Melanie Vile and Ms. Kimberli Scott(Villanova University), Drs. John Gibson and Jean Berks (University of Victoria), Dr. Shawn Watmough (Trent University), and Dr. Shanti Berryman and Mr. Justin Straker (Integral Ecology Group).

Dr. Wieder has a B.A. degree in Biology from Amherst College, a M.A. degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a doctoral degree from West Virginia.  He has been on the faculty at Villanova University since 1984.

Previous Appointments:

• Associate Editor, Biogeochemistry, 2005-present
• Fellow, Society of Wetland Scientists
• Organizing Committee, BIOGEOMON Conference series
• Steering Committee for PEATNET: Globalization of Northern Peatland Ecosystem Research (US National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network, Dale Vitt, PI), 2005-2011
• Board of Directors and Chair of Science Advisory Panel for FLUXNET-Canada, 2002-2007

Professional Affiliations:

• Society of Wetland Scientists
• American Geophysical Union

Five Most Relevant Publications:

• Vitt, D.H., R.K. Wieder, B. Xu, M. Kaskie and S. Koropchak. 2011. Peatland establishment on mineral soils: Effects of water level, amendments, and species after two years of growing seasons. Ecological Engineering 37: 354-363.
• Wieder, R.K. D.H. Vitt, M. Burke-Scoll, K.D. Scott, M. House and M.A. Vile. 2010. Nitrogen and sulphur deposition and the growth of Sphagnum fuscum in bogs of the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, Alberta. Journal of Limnology 69 (Suppl. 1): 147-160.
• Wieder, R.K., K.D. Scott, K. Kamminga, M.A. Vile, D.H. Vitt, T. Bone, B. Xu, B.W. Benscoter and J.S. Bhatti. 2009. Post-fire carbon balance in boreal bogs of continental, western Canada. Global Change Biology 15: 63-81.
• Wieder, R.K. and D.H. Vitt (editors). 2006. Boreal Peatland Ecosystems. Ecological Studies 188, Springer. 444 pp.
• Vitt, D.H., R.K. Wieder, L.A. Halsey and M.R. Turetsky.  2003.  Response of Sphagnum fuscum to nitrogen deposition: A case study of ombrogenous peatlands in Alberta, Canada.  The Bryologist 106: 235-245.