“Unparalleled dedication to student growth and climate science” – Professor’s local initiatives have global impact

Inspiration struck three times for Altaf Arain in the forests of Norfolk County.

It’s where he launched the Turkey Point Environmental Observatory in 2002. The observatory’s been collecting data every half hour ever since, making it an invaluable resource for hundreds of climate scientists around the world.

Seven years later, it’s where Altaf came up with the idea to found the McMaster Centre for Climate – a centre he would lead for 15 years and build into a catalyst for interdisciplinary research, student engagement, science communication and community outreach.

And in 2022, Altaf drew on what he was discovering at the observatory to break ground on a model carbon sink forest with 1,000 trees close to McMaster’s campus.

It all started with Altaf exploring the woodlands along the northern shore of Lake Erie soon after joining McMaster at the start of the new millenium. He’d never been to that part of Canada before, having completed his PhD in Hydrology at the University of Arizona and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia.

Altaf, who’s now a professor in the School of Earth, Environment & Society and the Science Research Chair in Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change, was looking to test a potential solution to our climate crisis.

When Altaf looked at forests, he didn’t just see the trees – he saw carbon sinks. Trees pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and then store it above and below ground. Altaf wanted to know if young plantation forests – managed forests planted with trees of similar ages and species – would outperform older and naturally regenerated forests in sequestering human generated greenhouse gas emissions. Plantation forests could buy us time while clean energy and climate mitigation measures are dreamed up and rolled out.

The Norfolk County woodlands were an ideal place for Altaf to find the answer – there was a native Carolinian forest along with three pine plantations planted in 1939, 1974 and 2002. Altaf could  compare how much carbon dioxide these forests were absorbing along with how extreme weather and climate change were affecting the health and growth of the different forests.

Altaf put a research station at each forest – a fifth station was added in 2020 at a nearby farmer’s field. Instruments at the top of scaffold towers and along the forest floor continuously monitor in real time carbon dioxide and water fluxes, along with temperature, precipitation, radiation, soil moisture, water table levels, transpiration, biometric and remote sensing indicators. The data gets uploaded to Altaf’s research lab back at McMaster.

Having 22 years worth of half-hour and daily records of what’s happened in the forests makes for more accurate predictions of what could happen in the future. And those predictions can be used to build ecosystem, hydrologic and climate models that in turn build the case for bold decisions and major investments to tackle extreme weather events and climate change.

Today, the observatory’s part of the Global Water Futures, the Global Centre for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters, the North American Carbon Program and FLUXNET – a network of more than 500 towers that measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere.

“Few other environmental observatories have collected as much data over as many years,” says Altaf. His research group alone has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers based on Turkey Point Environmental Observatory data alone, making Altaf among world’s top one per cent of highly cited scientists.

Maintaining the equipment is a top priority so Altaf’s enlisted the help of postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students from his research group to help run the observatory. They’ve made countless trips over the years during every season and through all kinds of weather, from the dog days of summer to the dead of winter.

Lejla Latifovic was one of those graduate students – she’s now the Senior Communications Lead, Communities & Decarbonization with the Pembina Institute. Along with a bird’s eye view of the forests from the top of the towers, she could see the global reach and impact of the work they were doing in Norfolk County. “I was incredibly proud to contribute to such an impressive data collection effort. We knew that scientists across the globe were using that data to answer critical questions about how carbon cycles through our environment.”

Lejla is also grateful to Altaf for turning his observatory into a living lab for students. “Whether Altaf was helping me formulate or execute my research or teaching me hands-on skills like trouble-shooting equipment at the top of the tower, he created endless opportunities for learning. Altaf was an exceptional mentor and guide during my academic journey at McMaster – his dedication to student growth and climate science is unparalleled.“

Altaf’s also committed to science communication. All of the data coming down from the towers and off the forest floor is going out to hundreds of climate scientists who are building knowledge and making discoveries.

Altaf saw a pressing need to get those discoveries and knowledge out of academia’s ivory towers and into the hands, heads and hearts of as many people as possible.

“Academics have a responsibility to engage, to share our knowledge and research. Communication is absolutely critical to addressing climate change. There’s a real need and hunger for accurate, high-quality science knowledge.”

Altaf decided to lead by example – he launched and then spent 15 years leading the McMaster Centre for Climate Change while also teaching and running one of the largest research groups in the Faculty of Science. It made for some long days, nights and weekends.

Altaf would spend a lot of time communicating – meeting with politicians and government agencies, fielding interview requests from journalists and connecting with climate scientists, groups and organizations looking to collaborate or replicate what the centre was doing at their universities (Watch Altaf and Lejla take TVO Kids’s Taviss Paul Millington Edwards on a tour of the observatory).

Altaf says the centre’s become everything he had hoped for – fostering  multidisciplinary research with local to international partnerships, championing science communication and inspiring the next generation of climate scientists.

Faculty associated with the centre have published more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, presented over 160 times at national and international scientific conferences, workshops and symposiums and secured more than $8.5 million in grants from Tri-Council agencies and the Global Water Futures Program.

Altaf’s equally proud of the internships, research and leadership opportunities offered to high school and university students. Getting students involved in the centre’s been an easy sell – the challenge has come from keeping pace with students who are driven to make a difference. “Students share a real sense of urgency when it comes to solving our climate crisis.”

And then there’s the cornerstone of the centre’s outreach work – in-person and online public talks held twice a year. Altaf’s invited leading researchers to talk about their work and explore climate change from every angle. “Climate change isn’t just an environmental issue – it affects all of us in every aspect of our lives.” He says the impact of climate change on human health needs far more attention.

Altaf was asked if he’d serve a fourth term as director of the centre. He mulled over the offer but decided it was time for new leadership to take the centre in new directions. Altaf also wanted to free up more time for his family – he’s a proud dad to three young children. So he handed the centre’s reins over to his colleague Sean Carey, a fellow professor in the School of Earth, Environment & Society and director of the Watershed Hydrology Group at McMaster.

“Altaf put a huge amount of effort into making the climate centre what it is today,” says Sean. “As the only director of the centre since its inception, Altaf’s built it from the ground up into an important voice for the university in communicating the climate emergency.”

Gillian Goward’s another colleague who’s impressed by Altaf’s contributions during his 24 years at McMaster. The Associate Dean of Research & External Relations for the Faculty of Science says the Turkey Point Observatory and the McMaster Centre for Climate Change are impressive examples of sustained commitment to students and research.

“Altaf’s created a living library of ecological history that’s widely used around the world. Collecting data for 22 years and counting demonstrates unbelievable staying power,” says Gillian. “What stands out even more is the influence Altaf has had on generations of students in his research group and across McMaster.”

While he’s stepping back from the McMaster Centre for Climate Change, Altaf isn’t walking away. He says he’ll help Sean and the centre however he can whenever he’s asked.

He’ll also continue to run the Turkey Point Environmental Observatory. In 2022, Altaf added a sixth forest station just four kilometres from campus and in the heart of Hamilton. The McMaster Carbon Sink Forest is a model plantation forest with 10 native and climate-resilient tree species planted on a hectare of donated land. Altaf wants to know which species outperform the others in sequestering carbon.

The forest’s also doubling as a living lab to support experiential learning for undergraduate and graduate students. One of those future scientists just might be Altaf’s eldest son – he was among the hundreds of student and community volunteers who planted the forest’s 1,000 trees.

Like the stations in Norfolk County, the health and growth of each tree in the McMaster Carbon Sink Forest is being closely monitored by Altaf’s research group. By sharing the data with climate scientists around the world, Altaf hopes the McMaster Carbon Sink Forest inspires other researchers, groups and governments to plant similar large and small-scale carbon sequestering forests across the globe.

While our world continues to grow warmer – June 2024 marked the 12th consecutive month where global temperatures reached 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages – Altaf remains an optimist.

“We’ve come a long way in a relatively short period of time. When I started as a climatologist, there was little public awareness or sense of urgency.  The causes and consequences of climate change were still being challenged and questioned. That debate’s been settled and there’s now universal agreement that climate change is an existential threat that requires collective action. The will is there and climate scientists are finding ways every day to meet the climate crisis.”

Altaf and his research group are doing their part. The forests of Norfolk County have yielded the answer to the question Altaf asked while exploring the woodlands for the first time.

Altaf’s research group has found that young plantation forests do in fact function as large carbon sinks. And what’s happening now at the McMaster Carbon Sink Forest could soon show which species of trees should make up plantation forests.