The purpose of this study is to learn about what smartphone applications like iNaturalist and eBird enable everyday users and scientists to do, and how it contributes to practical work done by scientists. The anticipated benefits of this study are to make visible the tangible benefits of everyday users to scientists’ work, and precisely what those benefits are. The basic procedures will include a self-study of how a novice user comes to learn to use the application and how expert users (i.e., scientists) use the application. These procedures will help to uncover how the mobile application helps to mediate between these two kinds of users. Interviews and audio/video recordings will be used to learn about how scientists and conservationists have integrated the mobile application(s) and the app’s user-generated data into their day-to-day work.

Monitoring biodiversity is a key part of developing climate resiliency in aquatic ecosystem conservation. However, sampling resources are often insufficient to assess the numerous low population density waterbodies present in Ontario. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a powerful emerging tool for non-invasive and economical environmental surveying. As organisms move through their environment, they shed genetic material that we can sample to identify what species are present in a waterbody. With eDNA, we can monitor the status of native plant, fish, and invertebrate populations, locate algal blooms, and detect invasive species. Our project aims to develop an easy-to-use community science oriented eDNA sampling kit and protocol, and field test it in Grand River at the rare Charitable Research Reserve. After developing our kit, we will conduct eDNA sampling with it as well as our lab sampling protocol for comparison. We will compare eDNA yield with the two types of sampling and use DNA metabarcoding to examine what species are present in the river at the rare reserve. By comparing our community science sampling protocol with traditional eDNA sampling techniques and existing lists of species known to be present, we will validate our kit for wider production and use. 

I am an interdisciplinary artist with a background in dance and a great love of trees. I am researching how deep listening and artistic practices can help us to better understand and relate to our natural world. I am curious about the sentience of all living things and enhancing our sense of kinship. We are all related, and everything is connected. What would trees tell us if we listen? I see artistic creation as a way to heal our relationship with the earth and through my creativity, I am investigating my place on this Indigenous land, while simultaneously investigating my own Celtic cultural heritage. I will be sharing my arts based research through multi-media projects, writing and community gatherings.

Frogs are great, not only because they are well-loved by many, but also because they are important to nature. Frogs are an irreplaceable food source for many animals, and they keep insect populations under control by feeding on them. Unfortunately, frogs and their prey are facing alarming declines because of habitat loss. It is still poorly understood how this affects food webs in Canada. For these reasons, I am researching the diets of frogs across Southern Ontario by using poop! The frogs caught for my project will stay in comfortable cages overnight. The next morning, their cages will be checked for poop and all frogs will be released back to the wild. By collecting these poop samples and analyzing them with state-of-the-art molecular techniques, I can learn what the frogs ate without causing them any harm. Learning this information is valuable for Canada’s efforts towards amphibian conservation.

Humans have had a profound impact on the environment in Southern Ontario, through means including agriculture and urbanization. These types of disturbances can disrupt ecosystems and bring previously distant species into close contact, which can allow for hybridization between these species. In my thesis project, I will assess how outcomes of hybridization vary between minnow species, and how the type of disturbance affects the frequency and type of hybrid individuals. Species of interest include creek chub minnows and their hybrid offspring with a number of other related Cyprinidae fish species. While creek chub and related minnow species are not endangered, this research is an opportunity to learn how human disturbance shapes evolution of species native to this area and will hopefully support conservation efforts of endangered taxa in this region and similarly disturbed areas.

This pilot project is part of a broader initiative by the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative to investigate the impact of plastic pollution on Ontario wildlife, with a specific focus on birds. A major focus of the broader initiative is to use post-mortem examination of wildlife that are passively collected for surveillance to quantify plastic ingestion and investigate impacts of plastic on wildlife health. This turkey vulture project is intended to establish a baseline understanding of whether vultures are ingesting plastics in Ontario – this understanding will help us to develop future work that assesses health metrics in these species. Turkey vultures are scavenger bird species that regularly feed at landfills and other human-dominated landscapes, and therefore are potentially important sentinel species to study the impacts of plastic pollution on wildlife.

Much of southern Ontario has experienced three to four centuries of extensive European and contemporary land use, and millennia of Indigenous land use. Human land use in a stream’s watershed can cause a variety of disturbances to the stream that can, in turn, impact fish populations. Fish populations can respond to disturbance in many ways, including population size changes, splits, and between-population migration. These population-level responses are often reflected in the genetics of future generations. Using modern bioinformatics technologies, we can take advantage of this and use the genetics of modern fish to infer historical population-level responses. My work aims to characterize responses that were caused by human activities within the last 1000 years.

The aim of the study is twofold: 1) to understand the combined effects of semi‐natural area and insecticide spraying on insect predator-prey populations and, 2) evaluate the importance of habitat for predator biocontrol service. An in-field cage experiment will be conducted using three treatments (habitat, crop, habitat+crop) and two levels of insecticide (sprayed and unsprayed) to assess recovery of predator and prey populations and the baseline level of biocontrol. The habitat treatment will consist of a plant community dominate in the oldfield ecosystem at rare Charitable Research Reserve, the crop treatment will be conventional soybean, and the habitat and crop treatment will be a 20% oldfield and 80% soybean plot which follows the Alternative Land Use Service (ALUS) model of farming. Each cage will be stocked at the beginning of the growing season (May 15) with 15 ladybird beetles (Hippodamia convergens) and 100 soybean aphids (Aphis glycines). Insect density and biocontrol will be monitored during the whole growing season from May- August. We expected that: (a) habitat plots will have a smaller benefit to biocontrol in sprayed than unsprayed cages and (b) recovery of biocontrol service after insecticide spraying will be faster in plots with habitat.

In this field study, I will determine if adding hybrid pollen to native crabapple trees can have an impact on the reproduction of the native species. This native species is relatively uncommon in Ontario and often grow in areas close to commercial grown domestic apple trees, or in areas where these domestic trees have escaped (called feral domestic apple trees). These two species can then hybridize, which is the crossing of two closely related species that produces an offspring. Using several series of pollination treatments on native crabapple trees at rare Charitable Research Reserve and one other location, I will address three questions: 1) what is the impact of hybrid pollinations on the population size and dynamics of crabapples; 2) does hybrid pollination influence the frequency of asexually produced offspring; and 3) what is the primary source of hybrid pollen, from orchards or feral trees? The results provide insights into the impacts of agricultural environments on native biodiversity. This information can also be transferred to other native species who have the ability of reproducing with their domestic relatives.

Monitoring behavioural changes in animals can tell us how pollutants, like microplastics (plastic particles < 5 mm), are likely to affect populations. High numbers of microplastics are currently present in freshwater habitats, and these habitats are becoming more susceptible to microplastic pollution over time, especially in cities. Freshwater fishes, including salmonids, are known to mistake microplastic particles for food, and eat them. Laboratory studies show that behavioural changes often result from microplastics ingestion, including altered swimming and foraging behaviour, but it is currently unknown how these behavioural changes scale up to affect population size. This project aims to fill this knowledge gap by using Agent-Based Models (ABMs) to assess how behavioural changes that occur following microplastics ingestion will affect the population viability of stream-dwelling salmonids. This study identifies targets for microplastics pollution likely to prevent declines in salmonid populations, in combination with educational material for rare that aligns with the Canadian government’s intention to ban single use-plastics by the end of 2021, a first step toward zero plastic waste in Canada by 2030.

BugNet is a global network of scientists that aims to better understand the impacts of invertebrate herbivores and fungal pathogens on different aspects of plant communities. While a few studies have shown big impacts of invertebrates and fungal pathogens, we know little about how generally important they are, and how their functional composition varies across a range of different ecosystems. A powerful tool to quantify the variation in plant consumer communities and their impact are globally coordinated experiments, using standardized measurements and replicated experiments across ecological gradients. The “Bug-Network” will be such a project and aims to explore the context dependency of biotic interactions within a coordinated research network comprised of many grassland- and shrubland sites worldwide.

During the spring and early summer, monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) lay eggs on milkweed (Asclepias spp.), which, by the third generation of monarchs in late fall, results in individuals having a unique migratory physiology (i.e., long, thing wings]). These monarch butterflies then undergo a nearly 4000 km migration from Southern Canada to the Oyamel fir forests in Mexico where they will overwinter for 9 months before beginning a multigenerational migration northward. Unfortunately, this migratory phenomenon is at risk due to various threats including exposure to agricultural chemicals. Neonicotinoid pesticides are known to affect the mobility, reproductive output and survival of insects, with studies focusing on honeybees and bumblebees. Unfortunately, little is known about the effects on monarch butterflies. This project aims to assess the effect of the neonicotinoid pesticide clothianidin on monarch reproductive output, development, and migration capacity. Monarchs will be reared on milkweed grown in soil treated with the pesticide, during which we will monitor development. Once adults, monarchs will be mated to assess reproductive output (e.g., the number of eggs produced). Monarchs reared in fall will be tested using a flight simulator to gauge whether they naturally orient SW, as expected during migration.

Climate change, land development, invasive species, and other disturbances can destroy the composition, structure, and functions of vegetation across landscapes. These disturbances will impact insect parasitoids, which are a key, and often overlooked, component of the overall biodiversity in forest ecosystems and integral in maintaining diversity among other species through their role in fostering resilient forests. Understanding and monitoring vegetation structure and composition and how it relates to parasitoid populations will help to quickly detect, measure, and forecast negative changes to forest ecosystems. This research will explore the link between plant and parasitoid populations across forests of different successional stages and disturbance regimes to provide (1) a strong basis on which to create and improve ecological restoration and rehabilitation programs and (2) data on the relationship between vegetation and parasitoids to identify and detect the effects of future disturbances and cascade effects on animal species as part of regular, long-term management of forests. This is especially relevant in Ontario as invasive species, such as the emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), continue to spread rapidly throughout the province having detrimental impacts on the landscape.

Indigenous land practices involve the following seven steps for the development of a sustainable landscape: Step 1: Observation, planning, and community engagement; Step 2: Clearing the land, seed saving and initiating a design; Step 3: Planting, irrigating and fertilizing; Step 4: Maintenance; Step 5: Harvesting; Step 6: Preparing, preserving, and storing harvest and seed; and, Step 7: Sharing and trading. This project proposes to build an Indigenous Garden at rare that implements the above seven steps using traditional Indigenous foods and medicines for the purpose of determining the viability in these steps to collect and maintain seed for future generations. This space will foster a welcoming and inclusive environment where local community members can learn practical Indigenous land wisdom. The vision of this proposed garden is to promote Indigenous presence, Indigenous Knowledge exchange, community engagement, and cross-cultural relationship building at rare. By engaging community members in education surrounding Indigenous land-based practices new understanding of Indigenous people can be fostered.

Blood-borne parasites are found on nearly every continent and infect approximately 70% of bird species worldwide. Given their ability to infect multiple species and the anticipated range expansions of parasites associated with climate change, understanding host-parasite interactions is increasingly important. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a diverse gene family that plays a crucial role in the immune response to pathogens. MHC genotypes may affect the ability of populations to persevere under changing parasite pressures. I will study three song sparrow populations in Ontario, including sparrows at the rare Charitable Research Reserve. Using next-generation sequencing, microscopy, and song analysis software, I will explore whether 1) MHC genotypes are correlated with parasites, 2) different breeding populations show differences in parasite load (intensity of infection) and diversity (number of lineages), 3) parasite communities differ throughout the breeding season, and 4) increased parasite load decreases song performance. Understanding population differences in how birds cope with parasitic infections and the correlations between infection and fitness may inform future management decisions in songbirds.

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This study is an assessment and comparison of species richness and impact of agricultural practices of earthworm communities in three different regions (south of Ontario, south of France, and French Guyana). I will estimate the sensitivity of earthworm communities to land use changes and study the historical and ecological factors that condition the structuring (assembling rules) of earthworm communities.

My research focuses on detecting the traces of DNA shed by amphibians into vernal pools. Sampling for traces of genetic material in the environment, known as environmental DNA (eDNA), is a next-generation bio-monitoring technique that can non-invasively identify the species in a waterbody with much greater accuracy and far less effort than conventional survey methods. Metabarcoding is a big-data technique that uses high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technology to characterize the eDNA of multiple species from a single sample. No research to date has focused on using eDNA metabarcoding to monitor amphibians in the Grand River watershed. I will sample eDNA from vernal pools and compare the species detected by eDNA to those amphibian species detected by visual encounter surveys, egg mass surveys, and the Marsh Monitoring Protocol. My research will validate the utility of eDNA metabarcoding for use as a monitoring tool while improving knowledge of eDNA metabarcoding sampling methods in vernal pools.

We are investigating the role of rodents in the ecology of Baylisascaris procyonis, the raccoon roundworm. In this study we aim to identify and quantify the species visiting established raccoon latrines through the use of motion-sensitive trail cameras directed at identified and accessible latrines. Images will be assessed for presented behaviours in addition to the number of species present.

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With increasing concern about population declines and range reductions, it is important to research the current state of bee fauna in Canada. I am interested in how restoration and land management influence the structure of wild bee communities. I will assess bee community composition and characterize vegetation in remnant and restored tallgrass prairie and naturalized meadow habitat in southern Ontario. Only 1% of the original tallgrass prairie communities remain in Canada. My research will also investigate the movement and habitat use of bumble bee species on a landscape scale using innovative radio-tracking and molecular techniques. I aim to track the movement of queen bumble bees during selection of overwintering and nest sites and examine factors that limit population success. Little is known about bumble bee queen movement, habitat use and specific life history requirements and how these factors may differ between species. Linking patterns of movement with landscape use and structure will facilitate improved habitat management strategies to support and enhance pollinator populations. Research outcomes will have implications for restoration ecology, land management, pollinator conservation and best management practices.

The rapid growth of new media in recent years has greatly influenced how data is collected by citizen scientists. It is clear that new media are expanding into a wide range of data collection practices, yet the ways in which the underlying designs of new media impact citizen scientists and the data they collect are not clear. I seek to orient new media users along with the media they exploit as central to my analysis. By studying a group of citizen scientist birders as they interact with new media in the data collection process, I seek to gain deeper insights into the communicative nature of new media and the designs that underpin them. In turn, I hope to shed light on future digital designs and new media used at rare and the wider citizen science community.

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Since only 1-3% of tallgrass prairie habitat remains in North America, dedicated citizens, scientists, and government officials are working to restore prairie in southern Ontario. Most of these restorations are done by either hand-broadcasting or drilling-in seeds on ex-agricultural land. While there is increasing evidence that invasive earthworms are important ecosystem engineers, surprisingly little is known about their effect on invaded habitat. Despite knowing that exotic earthworms are spreading across Ontario and that they both eat and bury seeds, key information about the presence, community structure, and population density of these seed predators is lacking. This project will address this knowledge gap at rare by assessing the earthworm population in the restored tallgrass prairie at the rare Charitable Research Reserve. The results of this work will inform future prairie restoration by adding another piece to the complex food web of establishing habitats and will deepen our understanding of factors related to earthworm invasion.

Biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships are widely observed in nature. These relationships are largely attributed to niche complementarity effects or selection effects of diverse plant species. If plant species have differential preferences in time or space for nutrient uptake, the complementarity hypothesis holds that resources will be used more efficiently and completely, thereby allowing for greater ecosystem-level functionality. In contrast, the selection effect purports that capturing the direct contributions from inherently high functioning species become increasingly probable as the richness of a species assemblage increases. Despite the widespread acceptance that biodiversity promotes ecosystem function, the most abundant ecosystem on the planet – agricultural landscapes – largely overlook biodiversity as a potential mechanism through which ecosystem function could be enhanced. Here, we propose a test of diversity-function relationships to ask if increasing species richness provides an opportunity to maintain target productivity levels while best conserving, and in exceptional instances restoring, total ecosystem functionality within an agricultural context.

Pollution of ground- and surface waters with nutrients from agricultural sources leads to eutrophication of water bodies and is a major stressor on Canada’s water resources. Eutrophication can harm aquatic ecosystem communities by causing excessive algae growth and hypoxic zones, which has implications for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Consequently, controlling the movement of nutrients from soil to water has become a major goal of conservation practices. To plan for effective nutrient management in the future, we need to develop a better understanding of the processes that control nutrient losses from soil, especially under future climate change as rainfall events become more intense. In this project, I will investigate nutrient mobility in agricultural soils at rare. Specifically, I will be looking at how dynamic hydrologic conditions in soil affect nutrient mobility and the microbial communities that influence nutrient processing, and how intensifying rainfall will impact these. The outcomes of this project will lead to more effective nutrient management strategies to protect aquatic ecosystems from the ramifications of nutrient pollution.

With an ever-growing human population, increasing stress is placed on the aquatic environment, impacting biodiversity. Stressors such as wastewater, agricultural and urban runoff, and the introduction of invasive species, all affect natural communities. To study the impact of these stressors in combination continues to be a keystone in ensuring that we limit our global ecological footprint. One aspect of monitoring the effects of our actions on the environment is detection/identification of fish populations to ensure that all native species are at a sustainable level, and no invasive species are present. Historically, the only way to measure this was via sampling and identification, which is time-consuming, costly, and disruptive to the environment. In the last decade, an alternative technique has been developed where DNA in the water column, environmental DNA (eDNA), is used to identify the presence or absence of certain species. Furthermore, environmental RNA (eRNA), could be used to identify fish heath or stress levels. Therefore, using non-invasive measures of eDNA and eRNA will allow for measurement of changes in fish populations and health in response in multiple stressors in the Grand River watershed.

Noise is an increasingly important pollutant in the developed world, causing stress, high blood-pressure and lowered quality of life in humans and reducing habitat and diversity of wildlife. Natural areas are often relatively quiet because of the sound-dampening properties of vegetation and distance from human development. Fragmentation and disturbance of natural areas make it more difficult to find relative quiet, both for humans and for animals that communicate and avoid threats by sound. While noise-reduction and attenuation are considered ecosystem services, there is very little research quantifying the ability of restored ecosystems to reduce noise. This research will look at how restored tallgrass prairie and forest can be used to reduce and attenuate noise. Environmental noise will both be measured passively over time, and by playing back recorded noise at set frequencies and decibel level, measuring its reduction over a distance using a decibel meter. Noise pollution reduction is an important ecosystem service that can be added to the arguments for ecosystem restoration. It may also inform what type of restoration, conservation and enhancements are needed near sources of noise, for both human and animal wellbeing.

Insect populations worldwide are declining and agricultural activity is partly to blame. Agriculture involves simplifying the landscape in both structure and composition, disrupting natural food chains in unexpected ways. One major consequence is the decline of insect predators and parasitoids because structure shapes their hunting strategies and determines their success. If native insects could be encouraged to predate herbivores in neighbouring agroecosystems, food production could be done with lower pesticide use therefore reducing its ecological impact and possibly creating new habitat in currently unproductive lands. Experimental farm plots with different configurations of habitat structure will be established at rare and sampled for insects and arthropods. The arthropod abundance and identity at each plot and surrounding areas will be recorded and analysed to test which habitat structure configurations are preferred by native predators and parasitoids. The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding between beneficial predator arthropods and simplied farm landscapes so that new solutions may be developed in the future.

We are researching the effects of agricultural nutrient loading on the relationships between plants and symbiotic fungi. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form nutritional mutualisms with over 80% of terrestrial plant species. AM fungi colonize plant roots and exchange nutrients, particularly phosphorus, for photosynthetically-derived carbohydrates. Plants exclude the fungi from their roots in more fertile soils, resulting in a decline of AM fungi in terms of abundance, and species diversity. It has also been hypothesized that AM fungi adapt to elevated nutrients by colonizing plant roots more aggressively, and essentially becoming parasitic. In this study, we are collecting soil and plant samples from several farms around Southern Ontario to determine if nutrient enrichment has caused a decline in AM fungal abundance and diversity. Soils will also be used to inoculate plants under growth room conditions to determine if the fungi have defected to parasitism. The rareCharitable Research Reserve will act as a reference site to study plants and fungi that are less affected by agriculture.

Sexual ornaments often result in increased risk of being caught by predators. Increased mortality can lead to evolution of those traits to optimize survival and sexual reproduction. Previous work has tended to focus on the effects of a single predator, so my project aims to look at how multiple predators interact to affect the evolution of sexual ornaments in a prey species. The prey species is O. nigricornis, a species of tree cricket, and the predators are I. mexicana, a predatory wasp, and S. neglecta, and parasitoid fly. These species were chosen as both predators leave their prey relatively intact, allowing for direct comparisons between crickets that are being targeted and survivors.

Urbanization is a threat to many natural ecosystems across the globe. Human invasion into thenatural landscape yields an entirely novel ecosystem for local wildlife populations, beyondanything they have ever experienced. This study aims to identify potential mechanisms that driveurban adaptation by characterizing changes in behavioural temperaments and stress physiology,specifically in the eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). We trapped and sampled squirrelsfrom the University of Guelph and the rare Charitable Research Reserve in Cambridge, whichrepresents our urban and rural sites, respectively. Open field (OF) trials were conducted onsquirrels to quantify exploratory behaviour, while stress physiology was evaluated throughdexamethasone-ACTH hormone challenges and fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs).Squirrels were initially assessed in May and June, followed by a second assessment in July andAugust 2019. Interestingly, preliminary results show that rural squirrels were bolder in the OFarena compared to urban squirrels, but do not differ in other behavioural traits. Additionally,FGMs were consistently higher in urban squirrels whereas the reactivity of the stress axis is morecomplex as it is influenced by site, sex and capture number. These results suggest thattemperament differences observed between urban and rural squirrels may be the result ofphenotypic plasticity instead of inherent changes in personality. Furthermore, our results showthat urban squirrels possess a unique stress response from that of their rural conspecifics andthus may contribute to shaping an urban phenotype. In summation, our findings provide crucialinsight into the potential mechanisms of adaptation that allow the eastern grey squirrel to thrivein an urban environment.

This project will engage gardeners using rare’s community gardening plots to document and quantify the garden’s impact to local food security, environmental awareness, and ecosystem services. Community gardens can play an important role in (1) providing access to locally produced foods, (2) ensuring a cost-effective source of healthy produce, and (3) contributing to the health and wellbeing of urban residents. The specific role of rare’s community gardens in providing these benefits will be determined by surveying community gardeners. The survey will provide quantitative and in-depth information on the impact of the gardens, which will help communicate their benefits to the public.

Nitrogen is a key element controlling terrestrial productivity. Nitrification, mediated by microorganisms, converts reduced (ammonia) to oxidized (nitrite and nitrate) forms of nitrogen. Nitrification has profound influences on the environment, for example, by contributing greenhouse gasses (nitrous oxide) and leaching fertilizer nitrogen (nitrate). Although nitrification has been studied for over a century, it is only recently that ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) were discovered in addition to their counterparts, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), which were formerly regarded as the sole contributors to nitrification. Since their discovery, questions regarding the ecology, physiology, and metabolism of AOA are still not well answered. This project will combine molecular methods, microcosm incubations, and bioinformatics to study the biogeography and activity of soil AOA in an effort to better understand AOA distributions and function. As main part of this project, soil samples will be collected at rare Charitable Research Reserve, and microcosm incubation will be set up under different conditions (temperature and substrate form). Short-term and long-term soil incubation aim at elucidating the influence of temperature and different forms of nitrogen (organic/inorganic) on AOA activity, adding more evidence to the niche seperation of soil AOA.

As a human facilitated introduced species, giant hogweed poses a threat to habitat diversity and ecosystem health. As an invasive species, giant hogweed is thought to reduce diversity among native plant communities where its colonies have established. This is especially true when monocultures become established within populations due to the high quantity of seeds produced per plant. Its large leaf area has the potential to shade smaller plants, as well as increase riverbank erosion when the senescence of vegetation creates bare ground in the fall and winter. This erosion can have a number of consequences, including the threat to fish and other organisms, from both changes to their habitat and possible addition of chemical substrates. With these negative influences giant hogweed has on communities it’s invaded, safe and effective management is important. Giant hogweed’s proximity to water makes control without chemicals necessary but challenging due to its persistence and regenerative abilities. This research will investigate different manual control treatments and how they affect the ability hogweed has to produce viable seed through regeneration.

One of the primary mechanisms hypothesized to facilitate the invasion of nascent niches created by urbanization is synanthropic modification of a species’ stress response. In vertebrates, stress physiology plays an important role in regulating everything from homeostasis and immunity, to ‘fight or flight’ behavioural responses. The closer human-association implicit in synurban adaptive modification of an organism’s stress response, would not only increase incidences of human-wildlife conflict, but also zoonotic disease risk. Further exacerbating this risk is the connection between stress and immune physiology, since changes in the former could compromise the latter, thereby increasing pathogen prevalence on the urban environment. While the importance of understanding these processes is emphasized in the literature, little is known about synurban stress physiology, and even less about its interaction with disease transmission. Using a combination of field, lab, and citizen science techniques, I propose to characterize longitudinal synanthropic patterns in stress/immune physiology, and disease ecology in urban and exurban populations of eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis).

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Pollinators are very important ecologically and economically but some are in decline.  Habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change may have contributed to the declines, but many hypotheses have not been tested for rare species in Canada due to lack of data.  BumbleBeeWatch.org (BBW) is a program where volunteers upload bumble bee photos to a website and work through an identification key to determine a species name, which experts verify.  Although many records have been submitted, this data has not been analyzed or compared to that collected by experts.  By using a database of expert-confirmed observations, data from BBW, and targeted field surveys, I will attempt to answer questions including: 1. Does BBW show increased distribution and abundance of bumble bees as compared to expert data? 2. Is habitat loss and/or land use changes driving the decline of bumble bees in Canada?  3. How can BBW data allow for increased conservation status assessments and effect conservation actions?  4. What is the diversity of bumble bees at high quality habitats like the rare property?  My work will fill knowledge gaps, improve conservation status assessments, recommend recovery actions and influence policy for actions related to bumble bees.

Colour pattern differences appear to play an important role in allowing closely related species of birds to live together, but we don’t yet know exactly what this role is. One relatively unexplored hypothesis for why colour pattern divergence might be favoured when closely related species live together focuses on the role that species recognition plays in costly aggressive interactions; if species share similar signals, then intraspecific aggression may be misdirected towards members of other species. I will test this hypothesis that selection against interspecific aggression drives colour pattern divergence in birds by presenting Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) with models painted to look like their close relatives which have varying degrees of colour pattern similarity (i.e., Vermilion Cardinals, C. phoeniceus are very similar to Northern Cardinals, while Pyrrhuloxia, C. sinuatus, are much more dull).

For access to research conducted before 2018, please reach out to us directly and we would be happy to provide information on past projects.

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