Dr. Jennifer Lento

Dr. Jennifer Lento is a Research Scientist with the Canadian Rivers Institute, based in the Department of Biology at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton). Her research focus is diversity and ecological function of freshwater food webs, with an emphasis on benthic communities. Her research evaluates the structural and functional biotic response to natural drivers and anthropogenic stressors as a way to inform practical applications of biomonitoring. This includes the development of biomonitoring designs and testing of appropriate biotic response metrics. Dr. Lento is involved in the eflows, benthic macroinvertebrate, and stable isotope projects in MAES.

Leigh Manley

Leigh is a GIS and data expert, with expertise in ESRI and Oracle geospatial database design, integration, and security. She is proficient in an assortment of technologies, including Access, Oracle, MS SQL Server, ESRI ArcGIS, QGIS, and ArcGIS Online. Leigh has experience in industries including post-secondary and primary school education, government, and utilities. Leigh joined the MAES Project in Phase II, and manages field- and lab-based data for MAES. Her current projects include field and lab database integration, field tablet implementation, and the creation of a cloud-based MAES data archive. Leigh holds a Master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and a BA (Hons) from Mount Allison University.

Dr. Wendy Monk

Research Scientist, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Visiting Research Fellow, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at UNB Fredericton, and Fellow, Canadian Rivers Institute

Wendy’s research focuses on the spatial and temporal integration of ecology and hydrology (ecohydrology), and how we can use this knowledge to better understand our freshwater ecosystems. Her primary research explores the application of environmental flows through the integration of social-cultural and environmental components via data mining, geospatial analyses, multivariate techniques, and novel monitoring methods. Wendy’s research and collaborations includes a national hydrological regime classification, extensive flow-ecology analyses, targeted flow stressor-specific diagnostic indices, and the development and the application of environmental flows frameworks for rivers across Canada.

Dr. Kelly Munkittrick

Kelly Munkittrick is the CAIP Research Chair in Ecosystem Health Assessment at the University of Calgary. Kelly was a Research Scientists with the Federal government for 11 years (6 in Fisheries and Oceans and 5 at Environment Canada), a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Ecosystem Health Assessment at the University of New Brunswick for 14 years, and Director, Environmental Monitoring and Risk Assessment, at Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) in Calgary for 5 years. Most recently, he was the Executive Director of Cold Regions and Water Initiatives at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a co-founder of the Canadian Rivers Institute, was Scientific Director of the Canadian Water Network, and has sat on scientific panels for UNEP, OECD, and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. He has designed monitoring programs in North and South America, and Asia, and has taught environmental monitoring study design in more a dozen countries. Our participation in the MAES projects is focused on trying to develop stronger linkages in the environmental assessment process between monitoring conducted during baseline, construction, and post-operational monitoring programs. The principle is the development of tiered and triggered adaptive monitoring programs that better link retrospective monitoring and predictive modelling in a feedback loop that iteratively improves the role of both in cumulative effects assessment.

Dr. Tommi Linnansaari

Dr. Linnansaari has a M.Sc. in Fisheries Science from University of Helsinki, Finland, and his Ph.D. in Biology from UNB. He currently holds the Atlantic salmon Research Chair and he is the research coordinator of the Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow (CAST) consortium. His main research focus is on understanding the mechanisms of Atlantic salmon population dynamics in natural and hydropower regulated rivers, but he also undertakes research on other migratory fishes (American eel, Striped bass), their habitat and interconnected biota. Dr. Linnansaari is also a member of the Atlantic Salmon Research Joint Venture; a large government-led consortium established to facilitate large collaborative projects to conserve Atlantic salmon.

Dr. André St-Hilaire

His research has focused on hydrological and water temperature modelling for the last 10 years. He has developed and/or adapted several thermal models used to analyse and simulate river water temperature. He participated in a major project that developed a water temperature model for the St.Lawrence River,which wasapplied to additionally develop a fish habitat model. Andre has modelled river temperatures for Hydro Québec/Ouranos to characterize thermal refugia for salmonids and he is currently leading a water temperature forecast modelling project for impounded rivers with hydraulic structures operated and managed by Rio Tinto Alcan. He has also modelled turbidity of the Saint John River for the Saint John Port Authority.

Dr. Scott Pavey

Dr. Scott A. Pavey is broadly interested in ecology, evolution, and conservation. He holds a Research Chair of Aquatic Molecular Ecology and Ecological Genomics that uses the most state-of-the-art technologies and the scientific techniques to address basic and applied questions in conservation, fisheries management, and ecological genomics. By scanning the DNA of wild populations, we can reveal which parts of the DNA are coding for which traits, and what adaptions are most important for persistence in different environments. This research will then be used to better assess and manage regional fish populations and the effects that human-induced and environmental changes have on these species.

Dr. Karen Kidd

Karen Kidd is the Jarislowsky Chair in Environment and Health and a Professor at McMaster University. She moved to McMaster in 2017 after many years at the University of New Brunswick as a Canada Research Chair in Chemical Contamination of Food Webs. Karen is an ecotoxicologist and her group studies the effects of dams, forestry, agriculture, aquaculture and municipal wastewaters on aquatic ecosystems, and the accumulation of contaminants in freshwater food webs. As part of the research on the Mactaquac project, her group is assessing the spatial patterns of metals, hydrocarbons and chlorinated pesticides in sediments from the headpond and assessing the levels of mercury in different fish from sites upstream and downstream of the dam, especially species that are consumed by local communities. More information on her program can be found at www.karenkiddlab.com.

Dr. Katy Haralampides

Katy Haralampides is a professor of Civil Engineering at UNB in Fredericton, NB. She has an active research program in ecohydraulics, participating in multidisciplinary projects using numerical and physical models to understand dynamic river processes, including movement and fate of sediment. Working with biologists to understand the interactions with aquatic species, she and her students have conducted research in the hydrodynamically complex industrial Port of Saint John, the ecologically important and diverse mudflats of the Bay of Fundy, and the sediment laden Petitcodiac River. More recently, her team has been developing hydrodynamic and sediment transport models of the Saint John River as part of the Mactaquac Aquatic Ecosystem Study (MAES). Katy also has interest in developing alternative pedagogies and curricula that incorporate social justice issues into conventional engineering classrooms, with a hope of increasing diversity and equity and reshaping the future of the engineering profession towards one that is positive and ethical.

Dr. Tiger Jeans

Dr. Kurt Samways

Dr. Kurt Samways is Parks Canada Research Chair in River Restoration in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of New Brunswick Saint John Campus. His expertise is in the ecological linkages between freshwater and marine ecosystems, and the sustainability of fish populations.

Dr. Matteo Giacomazzo

Matteo Giacomazzo received his PhD in 2021 under the supervision of Profs. Pierre Magnan and Andrea Bertolo at the University of Québec at Trois-Rivières. He investigated the lack of recovery of a collapsed yellow perch population (lake Saint-Pierre, St. Lawrence River), focusing on the relationship between water quality and aquatic vegetation, affecting yellow perch abundance and growth at different life stages, and how these factors influenced the fish community structure. He is currently working on the determinants of salmon juveniles production in the Miramichi River under the supervision of Profs. Allen Curry and Kurt Samways. By linking environmental variables to primary (i.e. periphyton) and secondary (i.e. invertebrates) productivity, the focus is to implement models to predict salmon juveniles abundance. Matteo is mainly interested in habitat selection, community ecology, and trophic networks, with particular emphasis on network modelling aiming to establish causality between compartments.