Manitobans love their lake life, including Lake Winnipeg, the world’s 10th largest freshwater lake. However, over the last three decades water quality has deteriorated due to overfertilization of freshwater ecosystems with nutrient phosphorus.
This contamination, or eutrophication of the lake, has resulted in increasingly frequent algal blooms that can be toxic. This causes negative health and environmental implications and threatens communities and commerce that depend on the lake.
To help stop the negative implications of eutrophication, UWinnipeg student Allyza Tabirara, is trying to find ways to mitigate the issues.
Allyza’s passion for freshwater research is infectious, and she brings an incredible level of enthusiasm and creativity to everything she does.
Dr. Nora Casson
As part of her MSc research that begins this fall, Tabirara is looking at reducing phosphorus in the Lake Winnipeg Basin. Her research proposal has earned her the Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium’s (LWRC) Dr. G.H. Lawler Memorial Scholarship.
Tabirara has been involved in freshwater research at UWinnipeg throughout her undergraduate degree and is starting in the Master in Environmental & Social Change (MESC) program in September.
Tabirara is interested in freshwater systems and environmental science, particularly in Manitoba, where Lake Winnipeg holds significant ecological and cultural importance.
Building on her curiosity, Tabirara was a volunteer water quality monitor at FortWhyte Alive, which is complemented by her extensive field experience working for the province and doing research in Dr. Emily Chase’s and Dr. Casson’s labs at UWinnipeg.
“My early experiences in water monitoring first sparked this passion, which I have since developed through extensive hands-on work,” shared Tabirara.
Currently, Tabirara’s research focuses on reducing phosphorus loading in the Lake Winnipeg Basin by evaluating the effectiveness of routine drain cleanouts as a nutrient management strategy.
“In Manitoba, drainage systems were originally designed to prevent flooding, but they now also act as pathways that transport phosphorus from agricultural runoff and municipal sources into larger waterways,” explained Tabirara.
In Manitoba, snowmelt-driven runoff rapidly transports nutrients into drainage systems at times when plants cannot absorb them, making traditional land-based management strategies less effective.
Allyza Tabirara
Over time, sediments in these drains accumulate “legacy phosphorus,” which can later be released back into the water and continue to impact water quality.
“My work aims to quantify how much phosphorus is stored in these sediments, how much can be removed during cleanouts, and whether newly exposed sediments can help retain phosphorus more effectively afterward,” said Tabirara.
This research is important to help mitigate the phosphorus pollution that is a major driver of algal blooms in Lake Winnipeg.
“In Manitoba, snowmelt-driven runoff rapidly transports nutrients into drainage systems at times when plants cannot absorb them, making traditional land-based management strategies less effective,” explained Tabirara. “By exploring alternative approaches like drain cleanouts, this research helps identify new, actionable ways to reduce nutrient loading and protect freshwater systems.”
In addition to the Dr. G.H. Lawler Memorial Scholarship, Tabirara has been given a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Graduate Research Scholarship (NSERC CGRS-M), a NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA), and the MEIA Deb Tardiff Scholarship, that will allow her to continue her research.
Thanks to her NSERC USRA scholarship, she will be collaborating on her research with Dr. Casson this summer. This research will continue this fall with her graduate studies.
“Allyza’s passion for freshwater research is infectious, and she brings an incredible level of enthusiasm and creativity to everything she does,” shared Dr. Casson. “I’m so pleased that her accomplishments have been recognized with these scholarships, and I know that she will continue to excel in her graduate studies.”
Tabirara graduates this June with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Biology and Geography.
