All are welsome to the guest seminar on Tuesday, January 12 @ 10AM in the UNB Biology Common Room (B27). The title of his presentation is “Linking land-use, stressor loads, and biological integrity in Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence estuaries”. This seminar is part of the process for an appointment as Adjunct Professor within our department. Dr. Michael R. van den Heuvel's application is available for review in the Biology office.
Linking land-use, stressor loads, and biological integrity in Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence estuaries
Michael R. van den Heuvel
Director, Canadian Rivers Institute
University of Prince Edward Island, Department of Biology, and Biomedical Sciences, Atlantic Veterinary College
Estuaries in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence are under threat from nutrients, sediments and contaminants originating on land. As part of a watershed consortium, we sought to examine what the best monitoring endpoints were for estuary biological integrity. To establish cumulative impacts assessment frameworks that environmental managers can utilize requires monitoring of both the stressor, and the response variables and developing quantitative relationships between them. Nitrogen measurements and models revealed that the majority of nitrogen originates from potato farming on Prince Edward Island. Sediment, monitored using turbidity also shows a strong relationship to agriculture and fuzzy logic models show promise for evaluating sediment load across PEI. Biological response variables examined include oxygen, chlorophyll, eelgrass, and invertebrates. Continual oxygen monitoring using optical oxygen probes shows a clear relationship between anoxia and nutrient loading. Evaluation of eelgrass physiology and distribution suggests that in estuaries, measures of distribution using sonar may provide the best estimate of the plants response to stress. Invertebrate communities also clearly respond to the oxygen gradients in estuaries, but are able to quickly recolonize after anoxic events. At a minimum, it is recommended that oxygen, sediment, and eelgrass monitoring be implemented in a regional monitoring plan.
La FCSA et le CRI auront le plaisir d’accueillir Monsieur André St-Hilaire pour un webinaire
La FCSA et le CRI auront le plaisir d'accueillir Monsieur André St-Hilaire, professeur à l’Institut national de la recherche scientifique, pour un webinaire le 9 décembre à 14 h, HNA (13 h au Québec). Le titre de sa présentation sera : « Outils de modélisation de la température de l’eau. »
L’inscription et la participation sont gratuites. Des directives détaillées seront envoyées par courriel aux participants avant le Webinaire. Vous pouvez participer à partir de votre ordinateur ou d’une ligne téléphonique sans frais.
Vous pouvez vous inscrire à la présentation en suivant ce lien : https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5519995140228884482
Please note: This presentation will only be available in French. The question and answer session will be bilingual.
CRI Science Director Mark Servos contributes to Globe and Mail series on freshwater in Canada
Lakes great again, but new threats loom
A concerted 30-year effort has seen substantial improvement in the health of the largest freshwater habitat on Earth, but persistent and emerging problems exist prompting calls for further investment, legislation and long-term planning, Shawn McCarthy reports
Upcoming webinar: The hidden importance of small coastal streams
Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation and CRI is be pleased to host a webinar on Wednesday, December 2nd at 10:00 am AST - The hidden importance of small coastal streams. The speaker for this webinar will be Professor Ken Whelan, Research Director of the Atlantic Salmon Trust.
Registration and participation in the webinar is free. Detailed instructions will be emailed to registrants before each webinar. You can take part through your computer or through a toll-free phone line, also at no cost to you.
To register, please visit: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4247872281807142402
Veuillez noter que cette présentation sera offerte en anglais seulement.
Biology Seminar Series on CRI Arctic project
CRI Arctic project profiled
Biology Seminar Series – UNB Fredericton
Dr. Jennifer Lento
Event Details:
November 27, 2015 3h00 to 4h00
Building: Bailey Hall
Room 146
The Biology Seminar Series is an event conducted by graduate students in the department of biology - each week, notable researchers from Atlantic Canada and beyond are invited to UNB-F to deliver seminars on their research. This week, Dr. Jennifer Lento from UNB-F will present her talk "Arctic freshwater biodiversity: assessing status and trends in Canada and the circumpolar region".
Refreshments will be served at 2:45 p.m., and the speaker will be taken to the Grad House on the UNB-F campus after the presentation concludes; you are more than welcome to join us there! If you have any questions, please contact us at biologyseminar.unb@gmail.com
We look forward to seeing you there!
News from CRI Training
Some of you may know already but I was offered, accepted, and started a new position as an Assistant Prof in Forestry and Environmental Management at UNB. This is exciting and a huge opportunity for me, so I will be bowing out of the day-to-day CRI Training.
While I will continue to oversee for the next few months the NSERC CREATE WATER program and the online training courses for CABIN, EEM and Water Quality. Anne McGeachy has taken, for an interim period, the role of overseeing the other training products of CRI Training.
Anne is not unfamiliar with CRI, as she has been the Lab Manager for the Stable Isotopes in Nature Lab at UNB for many years!
We are working together to get her up to speed on all sorts of ins and outs of how things have run in the past at CRI Training.
As I was essentially CRI Training on my own, please be patient with me and with her – there is lots of knowledge to translate.
All CRI Training communications continue to be accessible via cricourses@gmail.com.
MICHELLE A. GRAY
Assistant Professor • Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Management
E mgray1@unb.ca
Welcome new Executive Director, Anne Lévesque
I am very pleased to announce that the CRI has hired Anne Lévesque as our new Executive Director.
Anne has over 30 years of experience in leading organizations and charities across Canada, and involvement in national environmental groups such as the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Throughout her career, she has supported dozens of organizations and networks in provincial, federal and international policy discussions and in ecological and broader sustainability initiatives.
Anne has a Master in Business Administration and is known for her expertise in strategy and business planning, organizational positioning, stakeholder engagement, and resource mobilization. She has extensive experience working within corporate, government, and non-profit communities and is bilingual.
Outside of work, you can find her spending time with family and friends, enjoying nature and cultural activities.
Please join me in welcoming Anne.
Michael R. van den Heuvel
Director, Canadian Rivers Institute
Department of Biology
Department of Biomedical Sciences
University of Prince Edward Island
Michelle Lavery wins 2015 Hynes Scholarship
During the recent CRI Days, graduate student Michelle Lavery was presented with the 2015 Hynes Scholarship. Michelle was recognized for her exceptional thesis: “Egg mortality and the development of wild Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi River system.” Michelle is an M.Sc. student supervised by Dr. Rick Cunjak.
Congratulations Michelle!
2015 Annual HBN Hynes Lecturer: Dr. Julian Olden
The CRI is excited to host Dr. Julian Olden, from the University of Washington, as this year’s H.B.N. Hynes lecturer.
Julian Olden is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington and spends his time studying invasive species, ecohydrology, biogeography, and food web ecology of freshwater ecosystems. Growing up on a sailboat on the waters of Lake Ontario, Julian conducted his undergraduate studies in the Department of Zoology at the University of Toronto. It was during this time that his passion for freshwater conservation was first sparked; specifically while hauling nets choked with squirming white suckers. Next, Julian received his Master’s Degree in Zoology at the University of Toronto, his doctorate in the Ecology Program at Colorado State University, and then was awarded a David H. Smith Conservation Post-doctoral Fellowship to work in the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin. Nowadays, Julian and his students are working hard to save the world, squeezing one fish at a time.
He will be speaking at UNB Saint John and Fredericton on how river ecosystems are responding to global change processes, with a specific focus on adaptation to climate change, and in re-evaluating the role of invasive species in maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems.
All are welcome. These events are FREE. For those of you unable to attend, the lectures will also be posted on the CRI website.
If you would like to attend "from away" via webinar, register for one or both using the webinar registration links here: Public Lecture (Oct 29, 7pm AST), Science Lecture (30 Oct 3pm AST).
To see the presentation abstracts, click here:
Science lectures: Racing against extinction: Will freshwater fishes keep pace with climate change?
11.30am, 29 October 3pm, 30 October
UNB Saint John UNB Fredericton
Room 125, Hazen Hall Room 146, Bailey Hall
Public lecture: Invasive species: Staying the course or exonerating crimes to envision a new future?
7pm, 29 October
UNB Fredericton
Room 146, Bailey Hall