Love Lab Alumni

Dr. Pierre Legagneux

Post-Doctoral Fellow
2012 - 2017

Pierre just recently landed a prestigious position as a full-time research scientist at the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé which is part of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) system in France. Pierre began working with our team examining links between physiology, reproductive investment and survival in response to avian cholera in common eiders as part of our recent Cholera NSERC Strategic Projects Grant (SPG). He is currently a member of the Baffinlands MITACS Industrial award and is based at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) with Dr. Joël Bêty. Pierre continues to work closely with Love lab and the East bay team as a whole examining relationships between ecology, physiology and reproduction in our common eiders.

Dr. Emily McKinnon

Post-Doctoral Fellow
2014 - 2018

Emily continues to work with the Love Lab using long-term datasets from both the Canadian Snow Bunting Network (CSBN) and the East bay Snow bunting team to examine migratory carry-over effects and ecosystem linkages in wintering and breeding populations, respectively. During her time in the Love Lab, Emily was  a Bird Studies Canada Mitacs post-doctoral fellow in her capacity as an expert in determining how variation in migratory behaviour  impacts performance in subsequent life-history stages. As part of her project and ongoing research program, Emily also examined the migratory behaviour of Connecticut warblers. Emily is now a research-teaching faculty member at the University of Manitoba and you can find out more about Emily’s extensive research program on her website.

Dr. Natalie Sopinka

Post-Doctoral Fellow
2015 - 2017

Dr. Natalie Sopinka to our team was an Industrial MITACS post-doctoral fellow co-supervised by Dr. Christina Semeniuk, the Love lab and Dr. Daniel Heath at GLIER. Natalie completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia on the impact of maternal stress on salmonid phenotypic variation and fitness. She led a number of research projects in our lab in collaboration with MSc student Pauline Capelle examining the interactive impacts of the maternal and rearing environments on performance and fitness in Chinook salmon with our industrial aquaculture partners at Yellow Island Aquaculture Limited (YIAL) on Quadra island, British Columbia. Natalie has now found full-time employment in the field she has always centred upon – science outreach.

Dr. Christine Madliger

Post-Doctoral Fellow
2016 - 2020

Christine completed her PhD in the Love Lab examining baseline glucocorticoids (GCs) as biomarkers of human-induced environmental change using Tree swallows, a declining aerial insectivore, as a model system. Christine is continuing her work in the field of Conservation Physiology with an NSERC-funded fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Steven Cooke at Carleton University. In addition to her current empirical work on the effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) on fishes, Christine continues to work on assessing how barriers related to logistics, interpretation, and translation of knowledge may limit the carry-through of physiological monitoring to conservation success. You can find out more about Christine’s extensive research program on her website.

Dr. Holly Hennin

Post-Doctoral Fellow
2016 - 2018

Holly completed her PhD in the Love Lab in May by exploring individual variation in stress- and energetic physiology as the mechanisms that link individual state, reproductive decisions and fitness in female Arctic-breeding Common eiders nesting at East bay, Nunavut. Holly was a MITACS PDF as part of our large collaborative MITACS Accelerate award with Baffinlands Inc. Holly examined the mechanisms underlying individual variation in movement and foraging behaviour of Arctic-breeding common eiders in response to multiple environmental stressors. Holly is now working as Dr. Grant Gilchrist’s senior technician at the National Wildlife Research Centre at Environment and Climate Change Canada in Ottawa. Well done Holly!

Dr. Ryan O’Connor (co-supervised w/ Dr. François Vézina)

Post-Doctoral Fellow
2019 - Present

Determining how thermal constraints limit performance and impact fitness in bird species is Dr. O’Connor’s speciality. Ryan has been applying these concepts to examine whether cold-adapted Snow buntings now face massive costs and constraints as they are expected to survive and thrive in a rapidly warming world. Based at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) with his primary supervisor Dr. François Vézina, Ryan is finding that in fact buntings have limited heat tolerance and they very easily begin to overheat at even very low ambient temperatures. As a post-doctoral fellow, Ryan is helping to lead the ArcticScope team assembled by Dr. Vézina and supported by the Love Lab, Dr. Kyle Elliott, and Dr. Anna Hargreaves examining how cold-specialist Arctic birds are predicted to perform in a world that is quickly becoming far too warm for them.

Holly Hennin

PhD Candidate
2010 - 2016

Holly is exploring individual variation in stress- and energetic physiology as the mechanisms that link individual state, reproductive decisions and fitness in female Arctic-breeding Common eiders nesting at East bay, Nunavut. Holly’s work has been supported by her NSERC PGS-D  and Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) awards, and she is currently working in close collaboration with post-doctoral fellow Dr. Pierre Legagneux and Dr. Joël Bêty from the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR).

Christine Madliger

PhD Candidate
2010 - 2016

Christine examined the effectiveness of baseline stress hormones as a conservation and management tool by determining whether baseline corticosterone in Tree swallows integrate multiple environmental features in highly-changed landscapes. Christine conducted her field-work at Ruthven Park National Historic Site and linked intra- and inter-individual variation in glucocorticoid physiology with life-history traits, spatial habitat characteristics and fitness. Christine was supported by NSERC PGS-D and Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) awards and continues to use her diverse and highly integrative training to investigate emerging issues in Conservation Biology.

Rolanda Steenweg

PhD Candidate
2013 - 2020

Rolanda studied the migratory carryover effects of spring and wintering climate in Arctic-breeding Common eiders breeding at East bay, Nunavut. Specifically, Rolanda combined the use of physiology, stable isotopes and satellite telemetry to examine how endogenous and exogenous resources gained on both the wintering and breeding grounds influence reproductive timing and success in this biologically- and culturally-important seabird species. During her degree, Rolanda held an NSERC PGS-M award at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, where she worked with her primary supervisor Dr. Glenn Crossin. Rolanda gained employment with the Government of Alberta as a Research Biologist even before defending, a position she continues to work at full-time since her defense in October. Congratulations Rolanda!

Audrey Le Pogam

PhD Candidate
2014 - 2021

Understanding how and why organisms respond morphologically, behaviourally and physiologically to environmental variation allows us to uncover the mechanisms by which we expect them to respond to climate change. Audrey examined the metabolic adaptations and cold acclimation mechanisms that allow free-living and captive Snow buntings to survive and thrive across a highly variable annual cycle. Audrey  conducting her field work at Alert, Nunavut and her lab-based work on a captive population of buntings held at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) where she worked with her primary supervisor Dr. François Vézina. Audrey’s work found that Snow buntings use multiple mechanisms to respond to the cold across different life stages, and that they gain benefits from carryover of these mechanisms between successive stages. Nonetheless, in a rapidly warning world some of these cold acclimation mechanisms may now turn out to be costs. Audrey is now exploring some of these consequences in her role as a post-doctoral fellow within the ArcticScope team led by Dr. Vézina and supported by Dr. Kyle Elliott, Dr. Love and Dr. Anna Hargreaves.

Sarah Baldo

MSc Student
2010 to 2012

Sarah explored relationships between male song quality, oxidative stress and reproductive success in male Snow buntings at East bay. Sarah was co-supervised by Dr. Dan Mennill during her MSc and is now completing a Teaching Degree at the University of Windsor.

Christie Macdonald

MSc Student
2010 to 2012

Christie assessed the conservation implications of migratory connectivity in our breeding population of Snow buntings at East bay. Using Geolocation technology combined with stable isotope analysis and banding return data, she determined connectivity and population structure in eastern and western Canadian wintering populations. Christie is now at the National Wildlife Research Centre of Environment Canada working with collaborator Dr. Grant Gilchrist on avian movement.

Sarah Guindre-Parker

MSc Student
2010 - 2012

Sarah explored links between male plumage quality, physiology and reproductive success in male Snow buntings at East bay. Sarah is now conducting a PhD examining the costs of cooperative breeding in birds with Dr. Dustin Rubenstein at Columbia University in New York.

Chris Harris

MSc Student
2012 - 2015

Chris began with the lab in the spring of 2010 on our Tree swallow system and has been our lab and field manager since then. For his MSc Chris is testing the validity of feather corticosterone as a relevant biomarker of environmental stress in tree swallows. In between his thesis research, Chris works on everything from winter bunting banding, developing/supervising physiological assays, and the general running of our lab. Chris completed his B.Eng.Mgt at McMaster University.

Peter Marier

MSc Student
2014 - 2015

Peter began his work in our lab with an undergraduate honours project in 2010 examining Snow bunting phenology. He continued with a number of research assistantships working on categorizing Arctic insect emergence. Peter has returned for his MSc to expand upon his honours work by examining links between climatic variation, insect emergence and breeding phenology in Snow buntings.

Pauline Capelle

MSc Student
2014 - 2016

Pauline examined how and why variation in maternal stress induces an optimal match between offspring phenotypes (physiology, behaviour, morphology) and future environments in Chinook salmon. Pauline worked at the Yellow Island Aquaculture Ltd (YIAL) research facility on Quadra island, BC in collaboration with  PDF Natalie Sopinka. Pauline completed her honours B.Sc at McMaster University where she undertook a number of integrative projects with behavioural ecologist Dr. Sigal Balshine. Pauline was supported by an NSERC CGS-M award and was co-supervised by Dr. Christina Semeniuk at GLIER, University of Windsor.

Graham Sorenson

MSc Student
2014 - 2016

Graham is examining the physiological mechanisms underlying variation in foraging effort and spatial habitat use in thick-billed murres breeding at multiple colonies in the Canadian and Norwegian Arctic. His integrative project is a strong collaborative effort with Dr. Grant Gilchrist of the National Wildlife Research Centre at Environment Canada and Dr. Sebastien Descamps of the Norwegian Polar Institute. Graham is a seasoned field biologist with many years and systems’ experience in avian field work and is coming most recently from his B.Sc at Kenyon College, Ohio, and he is currently supported by an NSERC ERASMUS award at the University of Windsor in collaboration with Dr. Daniel Heath.

Marie-Pier Laplante

MSc Student
2014 - Present

Marie-Pier examined the environmental variables which drive sex-specific migratory and wintering strategies in Snow buntings. For her thesis she combined long-term data collected by the Canadian Snow Bunting Network with local data on wintering populations in Québec to understand how and why birds move nomadically during the winter and appear to segregate by sex and size. Marie-Pier was supported by an NSERC PGS-M award at the Université du Québec à Rimouski where she continues to work with her primary supervisor Dr. François Vézina. Marie-Pier continues to also work closely with Snow bunting and Bird Studies Canada Mitacs post-doc Dr. Emily McKinnon.

Mitch Dender

MSc Student
2014 - 2017

Mitch is examining the behavioural and physiological mechanisms underlying optimal growth in Chinook salmon at the Yellow Island Aquaculture Ltd (YIAL) organic salmon research facility on Quadra island, BC. The overall goal of Mitch’s project is to determine the individual and stock-level mechanisms that optimize the balance between aquaculture production and ecosystem integrity in this species. Mitch is part of a recent NSERC SPG project and is based in Dr. Christina Semeniuk‘s lab at GLIER, University of Windsor, by whom he is co-supervised.

Felicia Vincelli

MSc Student
2014 - 2016

Felicia is measuring baseline Cortisol in invasive Round gobies in our lab as part of her wider study examining genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying this species’ invasion capacity within the Great Lakes watershed. Felicia is based at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER) with her primary supervisor Dr. Daniel Heath and is supported by funding from the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network (CAISN).

Sean Power

MSc Student
2015 - Present

Sean recently completed his MSc examining the underlying physiological mechanisms driving energetic gain in two Arctic species: snow buntings and common eiders. Specifically, Sean examined linkages between life-history stage related elevations in baseline corticosterone, testosterone and IgF-1  and their links to changes in both fattening rates and anabolic muscle gain. Sean worked with  a captive population of buntings held at the Université du Québec à Rimouski by his co-supervisor Dr. François Vézina.

Celine Lajoie

MSc Student
2015 - Present

Celine is working in Dr. Trevor Pitcher‘s lab on linkages between growth and flesh quality in farmed organic Chinook salmon as part of the larger NSERC Strategic Projects Grant (SPG) led by Dr. Daniel Heath. Co-supervised by the Love lab, Celine will be examining lipid dynamics in our lab from samples collected at two important life-history stages across the 8 Chinook stocks produced in the SPG. Celine comes to the project from previous work in Dr. Jan Ciborowski‘s lab in the Biology Department. Welcome Celine!

Theresa Warriner

MSc Student
2016 - Present

Theresa examined the interactive impacts of climate change and pre-natal maternal stress on the phenotype, behaviour and fitness of young Chinook salmon. Specifically, Theresa determined whether a signal of pre-natal stress from the mother during her migration can better prepare offspring the following spring when they emerge into the same river. Theresa was co-supervised by Dr. Christina Semeniuk at GLIER and we  worked closely with Dr. Trevor Pitcher of GLIER/Department of Integrative Biology given his facilities and expertise. Theresa is now working as Dr. Semeniuk’s head Research Associate.

Sydney Currier

MSc Student
2018 - 2021

Sydney began as a Research Assistant in the Love lab in 2016 and completed her honours project on sexing Chinook salmon. For her MSc, Sydney examined whether female Chinook salmon can buffer changes in egg quality (egg cortisol) while they simultaneously senescence and must spawn successfully. Sydney then examined the short- and long-term sex-specific effects of the early-life interaction between maternal and environmental stress on offspring. Sydney found that mothers must make key decisions on when to ovulate: too early and they risk losing out on high quality mates; too late and egg cortisol dramatically increases and has negative impacts on offspring survival. Sydney also found that larger, fasting growing males make different and complex developmental decisions compared to females when faced with the combination of environmental and maternal stress. Sydney now works professionally in the field of science communication. Congratulations Sydney!

Colin Finerty

MSc Student
2017 - 2020

Colin worked closely with fellow former Love Lab MSc student Theresa Warriner to examine the interactive effects of climate change and pre-natal maternal stress on the phenotype, behaviour and fitness of young Chinook salmon. Specifically, Colin examined the genomic responses of young Chinook at different developmental stages to both pre-natal stress and elevated water temperatures. The key question was whether early information about future environmental stress (via exposure to elevated egg stress hormones) better prepared offspring for that stressful future world. Colin was co-supervised by Dr. Daniel Heath at GLIER and worked with Reproductive Ecologist Dr. Trevor Pitcher and Predictive Ecologist Dr. Christina Semeniuk. Colin then went on to a paid technical internship at the University of Windsor working with the Love, Semeniuk and Heath labs. He is now working full time with Jamieson Laboratories as a technician. Congratulations Colin!

Kyle Parkinson

MSc Student
2017 - 2020

Kyle examined the carry-over effects of foraging decisions and arrival state in Common eiders breeding at our East bay colony in Nunavut. Working closely with post-doc Dr. Holly Hennin, Kyle combined information from stable isotope data from blood samples to understand how and why population-specific foraging decisions during the pre-breeding stage vary in response to environmental conditions. Kyle came to the Love lab from a diverse background in leading multiple avian conservation projects and a BSc from the University of New Brunswick. Kyle is now back in the Maritimes pursuing a PhD in seabird ecology. Good luck Kyle!

Keta Patel (co-supervised w/ Dr. Daniel Heath)

MSc Student
2017 - Present

Keta completed her undergraduate honours thesis under the direction of Drs. Daniel Heath and Oliver Love by developing and using micro-satellite primers to examine the relationship between male quality and extra-pair paternity in Snow buntings. For her MSc, Keta continued on her genetic work in Dr. Heath’s lab and was co-supervised by Dr. Love. Keta’s thesis examined i) genetic variation across Snow bunting populations worldwide using both SNP and micro-satellite markers developed using a transcitptomics approach and ii) the role of male quality in driving variation in extra-pair paternity. Both projects have uncovered an enormous amount of information about the breeding and population ecology of the little-studied Arctic breeding songbird. Keta is now working as a lab technician for Drs. Heath and Love in the Heath lab, and is helping to solve new questions using genetics tools in Arctic-breeding seabirds. Great to still have you on our team Keta!

Sweetha Samuel

MSc Student
2016 - Present

Sweetha began working with the Love Lab during her undergraduate honours thesis in the Drouillard lab at GLIER examining stress responses to predators olfactory cues in the invasive Round goby. With co-supervision from the Love lab Sweetha is now conducting her MSc at GLIER in the Drouillard lab examining the impacts of genotypic sex (i.e., male vs. female) is driving contaminant dynamics. While traditional models suggest that females should have lower contaminant loads because they can depurate some of their toxins to eggs or offspring during reproduction, Dr. Drouillard and Sweetha are testing whether differences between reproductive hormones have a direct effect. We’re excited to be working on this project with Sweetha and the Drouillard team!

Justine Drolet

MSc Student
2017 - 2019

Justine is based at the Université du Québec à Rimouski with her senior supervisor Dr. François Vézina and is examining the thermal tolerance capacity of snow buntings. Justine is interesting in assessing whether the ability to maintain internal thermal homeostasis in the face of external increases in ambient temperature can affect performance within the context of climate change. To answer this compelling question, Justine is using both wild and captive data to examine whether individuals differ in their capacity to maintain their body temperature during the energetically demanding stage of raising offspring when faced with summer temperatures that continue to climb. Welcome to the team Justine!

Reyd Smith

MSc Student
2018 - 2020

The Arctic is changing rapidly and organisms face multiple direct and indirect effects of warming temperatures. Reyd looked at these direct and indirect effects of climate change on common eiders nesting on East bay island. Specifically, she examined the interactive effects of direct exposure to elevated ambient temperature and circulating contaminants on incubation behaviour, a life history stage when female eiders must fast and remain immobile for up to 25 days in order to hatch ducklings. Reyd found that birds exposed to endocrine-disrupting compounds such as mercury, that are then forced to incubate in high ambient temperatures, showed disruptions to their incubation schedule which will have downstream consequences for duckling fitness. Examining multiple international breeding populations in collaboration with former Love lab MSc student Kyle Parkinson, Reyd also found that including contaminants such as mercury in stable isotope models helps to better predict their released foraging niche. Reyd is now set to begin a PhD with Dr. Jenn Provencher at Environment and Climate Change Canada in Ottawa beginning in the Fall of 2021. Well done Reyd!

Alyssa Eby

MSc Student
2018 - 2021

For organisms to succeed in rapidly-changing environments they must have the adaptive capacity to keep up with the pace of change. To examine whether Arctic seabirds have this degree of capacity to respond to climate change, Alyssa examined whether thick-billed murres have the flexibility in foraging effort and spatial habitat use necessary to keep pace with the effects of climate change. By combining these foraging measurements with data on energetic physiology and energetic expenditure, Alyssa was able to determine whether murres can make flexible decisions that are adaptive at the individual level, which can inform us whether populations will continue to persist in the face of rapid environmental change. Alyssa found that birds were indeed very flexible, both at the colony and individual level. Birds, and colonies, that were better able to respond to fine- and large0scale changes in ice conditions had higher energy gain to use ratios, with an expected downstream benefit to fitness. Alyssa’s highly integrative project was a strong collaborative effort between Dr. Grant Gilchrist of the National Wildlife Research Centre at Environment and Climate change Canada and Dr. Kyle Elliott’s lab at McGill University. Alyssa will begin a PhD with Dr. Elliott in the Fall of 2021 examining the responses of murres to shipping-induced disturbance across the low and high Arctic. Well done Alyssa!

Erica Geldart (co-supervised w/ Dr. Christina Semeniuk)

MSc Student
2018 - 2021

The ability of organisms to respond behaviourally is often their first-line response to rapid changes in their world. Erica’ work combined behavioural and physiological mechanisms to examine whether common eiders have the adaptive capacity to respond to the direct and indirect effects of climate change. Specifically, Erica examined behavioural and heart rate responses of birds during incubation fasting to both natural and simulated polar bear predation on nests. Erica found that female eiders are not prepared to respond adaptively to predation risk from novel polar bear predators compared to evolved predators such as Arctic foxes. Erica was supervised by Dr. Christina Semeniuk at GLIER and worked closely with Dr. Grant Gilchrist of Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Love Lab on her highly integrative project. Excellent work Erica!

Madison Sturba

MSc Student
2019 - 2021

Madison began volunteering with the Love Lab in early 2018, working with MSc student Sydney Currier on developmental plasticity in Chinook salmon. She then conducted her honours BSc project in our lab looking at the phenotypic changes that occur in female Chinook during the senescence that occurs leading up to spawning. Madison built on this work during her own MSc project which examined how and why an increase in environmental stress affects the speed and physiological management of senescence in female Chinook, working alongside Sydney with our industrial partners Yellow Island Aquaculture Limited. Given the dramatic declines in many Chinook salmon populations along the entire West coast of North America, Madison’s work is helping to shed light on the costs of having to migrate and spawn within the new reality of climate change.

Erika Nissen

MSc Student
2020 - 2023

Erika joined our lab in the Fall of 2020 and worked on a long-term GPS movement ecology dataset from East bay common eiders collected by our former PhD student and PDF, Dr. Holly Hennin. Holly co-supervised Erika from Environment and Climate Change Canada where she works with our long-term Arctic collaborator Dr. Grant Gilchrist. Erika  specifically examined where pre-breeding female eiders spend their time foraging around the East bay colony before committing to laying, and also how fine-scale changes in ice cover in the bay impacted foraging and movement decisions of individuals females as they invest in reproduction. Erika’s work has not only been important for discovering that behavioural flexibility can allow eiders to respond to changing energetic demands and abiotic opportunities within a year, but just as importantly for building the rules and and linkages that will allow future researchers to use multi-annual predictive modelling with collaborator Dr. Christina Semeniuk to forecast how eiders are expected to respond to rapidly-changing ice conditions in the Arctic over the next 20-40 years. Immediately following her defense, Erika joined the the Yellowknife office of the Canadian Wildlife Service where she is working as a field technician on waterfowl conservation issues.

Sara Bellefontaine (co-supervised w/ Dr. Paul Smith)

MSc Student
2021 - Present

Sara joined our lab in the Fall of 2021 and came into our team with lots of experience and interest in shorebirds. In trying to help tease apart the many mechanisms that may be driving declines in Arctic-breeding shorebirds, Sara examined the behavioural and physiological responses of multiple shorebird species to variability in weather conditions and nest site quality during incubation. To solve this complex problem, Sara first analyzed a long-term dataset from the East Bay Mainland shorebird research site led by co-supervisor Dr. Paul Smith at Environment and Climate Change Canada. Sara then took an experimental approach with fieldwork at Eat Bay using novel heart rate recording technology pioneered in eiders by our technician Chris Harris and recent MSc graduate Erica Geldart to quantify how environmental conditions and a bird’s choice of where to specifically orient its nest interact to impact the metabolic costs of incubation. Sara’s results indicate that windchill exposure plays a role in nest preferences without detectably influencing behavioural responses. These results were reinforced by new heart rate data suggesting that energetic demands are higher in colder windchill temperatures, and in some species, that greater nest concealment reduced energetic costs during incubation. Overall, these results highlight the variability in nest preferences among shorebird species, and suggest that the mechanisms underlying these preferences may be driven by multiple breeding parameters, including, but not limited to, thermoregulatory demands. Sara defended her MSc thesis in the early Fall of 2023 and is currently in St. Johns Newfoundland splitting time between manuscript prep and working for ECCC. So happy to have had you as an amazing member on our team Sara!

Rachel Hasson

Undergraduate
2012 - 2013

Rachel investigated variation in spring arrival dates of nine passerine species through the study of a 15-year banding dataset from southern Ontario.

Kenneth Sarpong

Undergraduate
2013 - 2014

Kenneth examined the links between glucocorticoids, reproduction, and feather quality in Tree swallows.

Angela Demarse

Undergraduate
2013

Angela examined the links between insect phenology and breeding traits in Snow buntings breeding at East bay, Nunavut.

Amanda Rilett

Undergraduate
2014 - 2015

Amanda began in the Love Lab in September 2014 as a volunteer with MSc student Pauline Capelle working on Chinook salmon egg steroid extractions and assays. Amanda began her honours undergraduate thesis in September 2015 working with Pauline on how the interaction between maternal stress and rearing environment impacts phenotypic development in Chinook salmon. Welcome to the lab Amanda!

Sean Power

Undergraduate
2014

Sean is a co-supervised undergraduate honours student working in Dr. Christina Semeniuk’s lab at GLIER. Sean is examining the hormonal correlates of behavioural phenotypes in Atlantic salmon by linking Cortisol excreted into water from the gills to individual variation in personalities. Sean (foreground) is working in our lab with volunteer Joseph Camaj (background) and Semeniuk Lab Manager Kevyn Gammie-Janisse.

Jason Chappus

Undergraduate
2017 - 2018

Jason is working on his Biology Undergraduate Honours Thesis examining potential drivers of population declines in Arctic-breeding Snow buntings. While buntings breed in the far North, they traditionally spend much of their winter in Southern Canada and the Northern United States in open prairie and meadow habitats. However, over the past 100 years these types of habitats have changed tremendously due to human impacts of intensive agriculture. Using 75 years of Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data, Jason will be examining the links between climate and agricultural changes, and Snow bunting wintering numbers across North America. Jason will be working closely with Snow bunting and Bird Studies Canada Mitacs post-doc Dr. Emily McKinnon. Welcome to our team Jason!

Amera Khalaff

Undergraduate
2017 - 2018

The field of maternal stress research is fairly well split between proximate- (mechanistic) based studies in medicine, and more ultimate- (evolutionary) based studies in ecology. Although evolutionary ecologists have recently generated an evolutionary framework for examining the adaptive potential of maternal stress, it is unclear whether medical researchers have adopted or begun testing this paradigm, or even how readily evolutionary ecologists are adopting the framework. Amera will be reviewing the medical and evolutionary literature to determine just that: are each of these groups beginning to examine the effects of maternal stress on offspring within an evolutionary (adaptive) framework, and if so, to what degree? Results will help to establish whether each research field is moving forward, as well as where the transfer of theory still has room to improve. Welcome to the team Amera!

Holly Mosco

Undergraduate
2022 - 2024

Holly first began working with our team as a lab technician quantifying Arctic invertebrates in support of Alysha Riquier’s MSc project examining the links between environmental variation, invertebrates and Snow Bunting breeding decisions. While continuing to help us with that work, Holly then went on to lead her own biology undergraduate honours thesis investigating the nest-site temperature preferences of Snow Buntings in the Canadian Arctic. Holly used temperature data collected from East Bay Island to determine whether microhabitat variation in operative temperature influenced laying phenology. Her results suggest that the answer is context-dependent and her work is helping us understand how rising arctic temperatures associated with global climate change are affecting breeding behaviours and nest site selection of this arctic species. We’re proud to say that Holly is now conducting her MSc with Dr. Christina Semeniuk in our Department looking at the interactions between environmental temperatures and non-native Smallmouth bass on the health and fitness of Atlantic salmon in Cape Breton.

Evelyn Petro

Undergraduate
2023 - 2024

Evelyn was a Biology Undergraduate Honours Thesis student with our team examining return rates and survivorship of breeding adults across multiple Arctic breeding populations of Snow Buntings. Breeding site fidelity as well as inter-annual survival rates of Snow Buntings are currently under-researched areas in this species, with little data being available. However, these estimates are critical for predicting drivers of population trends in a species declining for currently unknown reasons. As such, Evelyn’s research is helping to fill in much-needed gaps of unknown life history traits relating to migration and breeding for this iconic Arctic species. Evelyn is now an MSc student studying the hormonal basis of reproductive decisions in Bluegill sunfish in Dr. Bryan Neff’s lab at Western University.