December 10, 2009

Dr. Karen Kidd's Paper Featured as the "Hot Paper on Ecology" for December!

Dr. Karen Kidd's paper is featured in the December issue of TheScientist.com.

KA Kidd et al., “Collapse of a fish population after exposure to a synthetic estrogen,” Proc Natl Acad Sci, 104(21):8897–901, 2007. (Cited in 86 papers)

Dr. Kidd is a CRI Fellow and Professor at the Canadian Rivers Institute and Biology Department at the Saint John Campus of UNB. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Chemical Contamination of Food Webs.

Congratulations Karen!

CRI Welcomes Dr. Chris Martyniuk!


Dr. Chris Martyniuk, Canada Research Chair in molecular biology, is the newest researcher to join the CRI and the Biology Department on the UNBSJ campus. He joined our UNB family on November 1, 2009.

Chris has a science degree from Simon Fraser University, has a graduate degree from the University of Guelph, and has a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Ottawa.

Chris's research focuses on the effects of pesticides, herbicides and industrial waste on fish genetics. This leading edge research is critical to understanding the effects of these toxins on human health and fish health which will potentially impact future environmental policy.

Welcome aboard Chris!

Click here for an article on Chris's arrival in the NB Business Journal (Dec 7, 2009)

December 03, 2009

MOvember a HUGE success

Jason Hallett, a CRI grad student, helped to organize a Movember competition (moustache growing competition in November) to help raise awareness and funds for Prostate Cancer Canada. Team BioMOgnification (lots of Biology Dept and CRI members were involved) raised a total of $3,237.25 (!!!) for Prostate Cancer Canada.

- $267.25 from the votes for the Best Mo and Faux Mo competition

- $220 for the original entrance fees and donations specifically from the competition

- The remaining money raised was collected through online donations made to individual competitors

Prize Winners

Best Mo (moustache) - Matt Marleau

Best Faux Mo - Katrina Chu

Most online donations as of the 12:01 AM Dec. 1 cut off time - Aaron Fraser

Jason would like to extend special thanks to David Armanini, Katrina Chu, and Heather McCracken for their help in organising the event, as well as the biology department, participants, and donors that made the competition such a fund raising success.

The boys...



The girls...

October 13, 2009

Fall 2009 sCRIbbles edition


Welcome to the Fall 2009 edition of sCRIbbles. Everyone is back from their busy summer and field seasons and back in the regular grind of the new academic school year.

I wish everyone a productive year and welcome all of the new students to the CRI! I hope everyone plans on attending this year's retreat and gets to mingle and meet as many CRI folks as you can.

Winter came early to us out in Manitoba - the white stuff is coming whether you like it or not, stay warm!

- Michelle Gray 'editor'


Please mark your calendar (if you have not already) to attend both the public and research lectures by this year's HBN Hynes Lecturer - Dr. Faye Hicks.

Public Lecture: Wednesday, October 21st, 7 pm (Rm 146, Bailey Hall, UNB-Fredericton)

Scientific Lecture: Thursday, October 22nd, 11:30 (Rm 115 Ganong Hall, UNB-Saint John.

CRI Funny

This comes to us from a previous lab member for Deb MacLatchy at Laurier, Jen Ings.

She was in the lab one day during working on her project, and a professor was giving a tour to his young son. He pointed out the tanks and said, “In these tanks are fish called mummichog.”

The boy replied: “If these are all the mummichog, where are the daddy-chogs?”

TRUE STORY!

Recent Happenings - Baird Lab


An exciting international SETAC workshop on Trait-based Ecological Risk Assessment (TERA) was hosted by Environment Canada at the CCIW in Burlington from 7th -11th September 2009. Donald Baird, Joseph Culp, Tim Pascoe, Paul van den Brink, Steve Maund and PhD. Student Mascha Rubach organized the workshop because of our realization that taxonomy‐based descriptions of natural systems place limitations on our ability to describe ecological responses to stress. The workshop particularly identified problems associated with potential trait ontologies in order to take the first steps towards developing a collaborative platform for sharing trait information. As a first and immediate result in order to start a web-based ontology for traits in this field, we created an online community at http://new.freshwaterlife.org/web/tera.

Recent Happenings - Courtenay Lab




Allan Debertin is back from working aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Opilio for his field research. The research survey of the Northumberland Strait this year was very successful due to good weather and very few equipment problems. 234 sites were sampled in the Strait this year as far West as Escuminac point, NB to areas East of Souris, PEI. Many thanks extended to the captains, crew and field assistant Jesse Kelly for their help with this project.









Mike Sweezey has been continuing work this summer studying American eel on the Upper Salmon River in Alma, New Brunswick. He has used various telemetry techniques including passive integrated transponder tags and radio tags to track the movements of individual eel in the system throughout the summer. Mike has found that eel captured in freshwater in the spring have migrated to the saltwater estuary which they have utilized as a summer feeding ground. Mike will continue to tag and track individual eel this fall to determine what habitat they will utilize as overwintering grounds (i.e., will the eel stay in the saltwater estuary or move back into fresh water for overwintering). Mike then hopes to again characterize the overwintering microhabitats of individuals in the Upper Salmon River.

Jason Hallett gave a talk at was the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Study Group on Anguillid Eels in Saline Waters from September 3-5, 2009 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He also participated in the joint ICES/European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission (EIFAC) Working Group on Eels from September 6-12. This working group focused on fisheries reporting, stock assessment and management of European eel stocks. This year there was a small delegation from Canada (3 individuals out of 34 participants), so there was a small component on the current status of the American eel.

Erinn Ipsen headed north for the summer as a research assistant in Churchill, Manitoba. In Churchill, she had the chance to further familiarize herself with marine science (and the ever present polar bear!) on the coast of Hudson Bay. Now she is starting research on the Musquash estuary, NB for her MSc project.

Recent Happenings - Culp Lab

Joseph, Donald, David A., Jessica O. and Alexa from CRI Fredericton attended the TERA (Trait-based Ecological Risk Assessment) workshop in Burlington, Sept 7 to 11th, 2009. Thirty, international researchers attended the workshop to develop and discuss the application of trait based approaches. A fun time was had by all! We had beautiful weather, good food and terrific discussions!

Alexa is participating in Envirothon, Canada's largest highschool science competition, again this year with our first workshop at Mactaquac Provincial Park September 22nd, 2009. Persons interested in participating in Envirothon are invited to get in touch with Alexa at their convenience!

Alexa is attending the ATW workshop in La Malbaie, Charlevoix, QC, September 27 to 30th, 2009. If anyone needs a ride, let me know!

Joseph Culp and Eric Luiker from Environment Canada and CRI Fredericton and Daryl Halliwell from Environment Canada’s Saskatoon office spent a week in mid-July collecting algae, invertebrates and water samples from 27 Arctic streams in Sirmilik National Park on Baffin Island. The research is part of the International Polar Year project Arctic BioNet which is a research network focused on increasing our understanding of Arctic freshwater biodiversity along a latitudinal gradient ranging from the eastern Canadian High Arctic to the subarctic.
Dea Chute and Allison Ritcey near a large glacier in the McCornick River valley, northern Labrador.

Allison Ritcey from CRI Fredericton returned to northern Labrador this summer to complete field sampling for her MSc thesis on the ecosystem structure and function of streams in the Torngat Mountains National Park. The aims of her research are to establish patterns in algal biomass production and organic matter decomposition, and to investigate how these processes relate to food chain length, complexity and diversity. Establishing ecological patterns will provide the basic understanding of these systems that is needed to predict climate change impacts that may affect Arctic charr and will also aid development of the Park’s freshwater biomonitoring program. This summer Allison had lots of fun working with Inuit students and Elders and enjoyed running a student workshop on stream ecology alongside Dea Chute from the Curry lab!

• Research is currently being conducted by Dr. Culp and Dr. AdamYates (Environment Canada, Burlington) to evaluate how community structure and function and ecosystem processes in tributaries of the Red river affects the transmission, retention and removal of nutrients. Tributary watersheds of the Red river are heavily used for agriculture and have been hypothesized to be important sources of nutrient input to Lake Winnipeg. Ecological monitoring tools will be developed to allow evaluation of the effectiveness of current and future management activities. Water chemistry, instream metabolism, benthic macroinvertebrates as well as stream and riparian plants are all being sampled in 2009 and 2010 along the longitudinal profiles of two southern Manitoba tributaries to the Red River and a study of approximately 20 Manitoba subwatersheds is being initiated in 2010 to determine how differences in the extent and type of nutrient releasing human activity relate to ecological condition (i.e., instream metabolism, benthic macroinvertebrate community structure, N15/N14 ratios of invertebrates and plants). Together these two research components will enhance understanding of instream nutrient dynamics in the tributary streams of the Red River Basin in support of the Lake Winnipeg Basin Initiative (LWBI) objective of addressing and managing non-point source contributions of nutrients in the watershed and ultimately to the lake.

Recent Happenings - Curry Lab




Dr. Allen Curry taught BIOL 4373 Coral Reef Fishes of Cuba with Drs. Coqui Aguilar Betancourt and Gaspar Gonzalez from the University of Havana (and are also CRI Associates).

The course brings UNB students together with students from the University of Havana for a week long course with snorkeling in reefs around Cuba. This year was a super success, with the main drama being an encounter of a Portuguese Man O' War by two of the UNB participants - both escaped with some nice welts and a great story to tell.

The instructors left the students to snorkeling once in a while to dive down a bit deeper and explore Cuba underwater.
(left to right: Ivan-Dive Master, Mark Gautreau (CRI UNB-F), Michelle Gray (CRI UNB-F), Robyn O'Keefe (Dept of Biology UNB-F), Allen Curry (CRI UNB-F)).

Dea Chute and Allison Ritchey just finished their final field season for their MSc. projects in Northern Labrador

Bear monitor John Anderson keeping watch as Dea and Allison measure and sample juvenile Arctic charr at a stream site in northern Labrador.

Bear monitor Bennett Barbour and Allison Ritcey at one of Andrea Chute's stream sites in the Torr Bay Brook watershed in northern Labrador

Andrea Chute received a poster award at the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) 9th International Student Conference: Communities of Change--Building an IPY Legacy, which took place in Whitehorse, Yukon from October 2-5th.


Bill Tibble
assisted Allen Curry this summer with Allen and Joseph Culp’s ongoing biomonitoring of Arctic rivers project funded by the International Polar Year. This 3-year project is establishing baselines for biological monitoring of Canada’s Arctic river ecosystems.


Allen Curry (CRI Director) sampling Arctic charr on the Koroc River.


Bill Tibble the Bear Monitor

WARNING - not for the squeamish folks...


Bill Tibble sampling his own finger.

NOTE: please see the posting from June 2009 "Recent Happenings Peake Lab" to see more of Bill Tibble's personal field surgery pictures - that time on his thumb (you would think he would learn... one more event and we will have a 'trend'!!)

Recent Happenings - Kidd Lab


The Kidd Lab recently attended the 37th annual Aquatic Toxicity Workshop in La Malbaie, Charlevoix, Quebec. Karen Kidd gave her presentation, entitled “Is the birth control pill an effective form of contraception for wild fishes?” to a conference room so full there was standing room only.

Leanne Baker presented a poster on her Ph.D work for several hours to dozens, if not more, interested and question filled individuals. The remainder of the lab kept themselves busy by attending presentations, and volunteering within the ATW by co-chairing platform sessions, judging posters, etc.

At the Aquatic Toxicity Workshop, Karen Kidd won the highly-coveted Baby Beluga Award for having the funniest title. The award is on display in her office in Saint John.



Heidi Swanson
went to the 6th International Charr Symposium in Stirling, Scotland, in June.

Karen Kidd
gave two plenary presentations at workshops in Toronto and Colorado and two invited presentations in Copenhagen and Quebec City.



Meredith Clayden and Katharina Fischer made four trips to Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia this summer and fall. They battled the black flies in May and collected aquatic invertebrates, sediments and water chemistry samples through the warm and sunny months of summer. There was lots of sunshine and the water was a beautiful temperature. In September they bundled up and collected fish (yellow perch, brown bullhead, white perch, golden shiner, banded killifish, and white sucker). The fish were co-operative, the fall colours were gorgeous, and there were some fun wildlife sightings; overall it was a great field season.

Recent Happenings - MacLatchy Lab (Wilfred Laurier University)

Kelly Roberts has left the MacLatchy Lab at Laurier to take up a full-time job teaching science and math at a high school in Waterloo. We wish her well in the future!
• The Laurier MacLatchy Lab made three successful trips to New Brunswick this summer to stock the lab with fish, and want to thank all involved in making this a success.

Dr. Andrea Lister
has switched from a postdoctoral fellow in the MacLatchy Lab at Laurier to the position of Laboratory Research Coordinator.

Recent Happenings - Peake Lab




Peake Lab

Everyone had a successful and safe field season in Pinawa, Manitoba! The Winnipeg River was quite high for most of the summer, but we managed to get most of the work done anyway. Sweet success!!

Cam Barth is on the road to completing his PhD degree and spent this past summer writing up his dissertation.

Cheryl Klassen has recently wrapped up a third summer of data collection for her PhD degree which included both laboratory studies focusing on the causes of growth rate variability among larval lake sturgeon, as well as, field studies to determine the success of past lake sturgeon stocking events.

Craig McDougall finished his first field season of an MSc degree monitoring the movements of 99 lake sturgeon he implanted with acoustic transmitters. He also collected tissue samples from approximately 180 adult lake sturgeon for a genetics study. It was a busy, but successful, season for Craig!

Recent Happenings - St. Hilaire Lab

Many members of André St. Hilaire's lab participated in the 62nd National conference of the Canadian Waters Resources Association, held in Québec City last June. Valérie Ouellet and André St. Hilaire were members of the organizing committee. The conference was a huge success, with nearly 400 participants.

André St-Hilair
e and Anik Daigle are participating in a project dealing with thermal refugia in salmonid rivers, along with other CRI Fellows (R. Cunjak and A. Curry). Thermographs were deployed in three rivers (Ouellet, Ste-Marguerite and Miramichi) during summer 2009. André is still looking for a student for this project.

Dae Jeong is a post-doctoral fellow working on the development of a statistical downscaling method in order to generate multisite climate information. He has two papers accepted about work he did in South Korea and another paper has been submitted with André and other collaborators.

Anik Daigle is still collaborating with André but for the fall semester she is teaching physics at the François-Xavier Garneau College in Québec City. We hope to see her back for the next semester. She recently published a paper dealing with modelling of the onset of the water temperature annual cycle in rivers and has submitted a paper co-authored by D. Baird and D. Peters on water temperature modelling in the OKanagan Valley.

Update on current students:

• Sandra Proulx-McInnis (MSc candidate) is presently in the field, collecting her data and enjoying surprises that come with working on fen environment! Sandra has designed a lysimeter that is able to take evapotranspiration measurements peatlands.
• Hélène Higgins (MSc candidate) is measuring turbidity at two sites on the Saint John River and waiting for the fall flood. She hopes that her instruments will not travel down to the Bay of Fundy and that they will still be waiting for her when she come back to look after them. She is wrapping up her first paper dealing with the characterization of suspended sediment regime on the Kenebecasis River.
• Mohammed Aziz Es-Salhi (MSc candidate)monitored suspended sediment concentrations downstream of two harvested peat bogs in New Brunswick for two years. He is now analyzing results and will be able to verify the efficiency of settling ponds for holding peat sediments. He is finishing his master and writing his first paper for publication.
• Dan Beveridge (MSc candidate) competed his thesis dealing with the selection of hydrologic indices that best characterise the flow regime of prairie rivers. He has completed his thesis and he will be defending soon.
• Valérie Ouellet (PhD Candidate) is back in the office after a summer in the field studying a lovely fish: carps! Now that she does not smell like dead fish any more, she will begin water temperature simulations for St. Lawrence River. Her first paper, dealing with statistical analysis of extreme water temperature and water levels associated with the 2001 fish mortality has been accepted for publication.
• Simon Tardif (PhD Candidate) compared the degree of wetness of various peatlands on the La Grand River drainage basin. He is finishing his thesis. Two papers are in preparation and one has been already accepted.

New People - CRI

Baird Lab:


Mascha Rubach
– Mascha is a Ph.D. student co-supervised by Donald Baird and Paul van den Brink at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Mascha was a visiting student in Fredericton for August and helped to organise the TERA workshop in Burlington ON.

Her thesis title is ‘Predicting the response of freshwater invertebrates to stress using species traits and stressor mode of action.’

Curry Lab:

Nathan Wilbur - originally from Hampton, NB (BScFE, University of New Brunswick). Co-supervisors: Kerry MacQuarrie and Allen Curry.

Thermal mapping - Cains River. MSc project

Infra-red imagery will be used to map river habitat and locate thermal refugia for Brook Trout and Atlantic Salmon. Facing changes to the climate, a continuing forest industry and clearcutting near rivers, means we must gain an understanding of the cold-water habitat in order to preserve trout and salmon in these remote rivers of New Brunswick.

Jeremy McLaughlin (BSc. University of New Brunswick). Aquatic Technician, August 2009.

Courtenay/Methven Lab:

Erinn Ipsen – originally from Wiarton, ON (BSc University of Guelph)

Investigating the near-shore fish, invertebrate and plant communities in the Musquash estuary. MSc project.

Courtenay Lab:



Mark McGraw
– Originally from Saint John, NB (BSc UNBSJ)

Life history variation of marine teleosts in the North Western Atlantic. MSc Project.

My MSc project focuses on determining optimal suites of life history traits for a given set of environmental variables and is an attempt to clarify existing work by studying a more continuous and homogeneous environment.

Kidd Lab:


Geoff McBriarty
A Saint John local, Geoff completed his B.Sc. at UNBSJ in May of 2009. Starting in September with the Kidd lab he will be looking at the effect of the aquaculture anti-lousing chemical emamectin benzoate on benthic polychaete worms.

Shelley Wellman
Shelley completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Regina, before coming to Saint John to begin her Masters in Biology. She spent the summer between the Fresh Water Institute and ELA studying food web recovery in Lake 375, a former aquaculture site, using C, N and S isotopes.


Heather Loomer

A local to Saint John, N.B, Heather completed her B.Sc. at University of New Brunswick and her M.Sc. at the University of Waterloo. She will be beginning her Ph.D with Kidd lab in January 2010 looking at changes in structure and biomass storage within food webs in watersheds across a landscape based stressor gradient.


MacLatchy Lab (Laurier):



Jeremy Fulton - joined the MacLatchy Lab at Laurier in the summer and is completing his Honours BSc, investigating the ovarian follicular development of mummichog.


Tanya Nadon - worked in the MacLatchy Lab at Laurier in the summer and is completing her Honours BSc, developing a flow-through xenobiotic exposure system for mummichog.


Ibrahim Chehade - completed his undergrad degree at Wilfrid Laurier University (BSc).
MSc Project is the effects of contaminant exposure on embryonic gonadal development in mummichog.


Esteban Gillio Meina - originally from University of Buenas Aires (BSc)
Master’s thesis: the effects of contaminant exposure on steroidogenesis in mummichog.


MacQuarrie Lab:

Graham Bartlett - BScE from UNB (Civil Engineering), started MScE in Civil Engineering in September 2009.

Nathan Green - BSc from University of Calgary (Geology), started MScE in Civil Engineering in September 2009.

Barret Kurylyk - BScE from UNB (Civil Engineering), started MScE in Civil Engineering in September 2009.

Completed students

Baird Lab:

Antonis Gazeas. Incorporation of ecosystem functional assessments into biomonitoring assessments. MSc. 29 Jul 2009.

Courtenay/van den Heuvel Lab:

Allison Schein. Spatial variability and environmental factors affecting the estuarine fish community and food web structure in the Stanley River estuary, Prince Edward Island. MSc. 11 Sep 2009.

Culp Lab:

Laura Grace. Measuring Stream Metabolism: Comparison of Methods and Assessment of Land-Use. MSc. 21 Sep 2009.

Curry Lab:

Rosalyn Smedley. Fish condition and community structure in an agricultural landscape. MSc project. 11 May 2009.

MacLatchy/Munkittrick Lab:

Thijs Bosker. Short term adult fish reproductive tests: evaluation, refinement and application. PhD. 3 Aug 2009.

• Continues at CRI as a post-doctoral fellow

MacLatchy Lab (Laurier):


Allison Van Slack - The mechanism of action of 17alpha-ethynylestradiol on gonadal steroidogenesis in mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus). BSc Honours thesis. April 2009.

MacQuarrie Lab:

Dunbar, R.C.G. An assessment of the economic implications of wellfield protection zones for a rural New Brunswick community. MScE, Department of Civil Engineering (co-supervised with Dr. B. Wilson).

• Ryan defended in late June 2009 and is currently with Dillon Consulting in Fredericton, NB.

Serban Danielescu Nitrogen loadings from two rural catchments to nutrient-sensitive estuaries in Prince Edward Island. PhD, Department of Civil Engineering.

• Serban defended his PhD in July 2009 and has taken a position as Research Scientist with Environment Canada & Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Fredericton, NB.

St. Hilaire Lab:


Nicolas Guillemette. Geostatistical water temperature modelling in multivariate space. MSc student. Summer 2009. INRS.

• Nicolas finished his master during the last summer in and he is now working for Genivar in Québec City. Congratulations Nicolas!

Journal Articles/Books/Conference Proceedings/Reports

Journal Articles

Allen, P.J., C.C. Barth, S.J. Peake, M.V. Abrahams, and W.G. Anderson. 2009. Cohesive social behavior shortens the stress response: the effects of conspecifics on the stress response in lake sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens Rafinesque. J. Fish Biol. 74:90-104.

Barth, C.C., S.J. Peake, P.J. Allen, and W.G. Anderson. 2009. Habitat utilization of juvenile lake sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens, in a large Canadian river. J. Appl. Ichthyol. 25:18-26.

Blanar, C.A., K.R. Munkittrick, J. Houlahan, D.L. MacLatchy, and D.J. Marcogliese. 2009. Pollution and parasitism in aquatic animals: A meta-analysis of effect size. Aquat. Toxicol. 93:18-28.

Blessent, D., R. Therrien, and K.T.B. MacQuarrie. 2009. Coupling geological and numerical models to simulate groundwater flow and contaminant transport in fractured media. Comput. Geosci. 35(9): 1897-1906.

Bosker, T. and K.R. Munkittrick. 2009. Often Overlooked: Biological QA/QC. Learned Discourse. Integr. Environ. Assess. Manage. 5:489-491.

Bosker T., K.R. Munkittrick, and D.L. MacLatchy. 2009. Challenges in current adult fish laboratory reproductive tests: suggestions for refinement using a mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) case study. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. In press - online pre-print.

Buffagni A., S. Erba, and D.G. Armanini. 2009. The lentic-lotic character of Mediterranean rivers and its importance to aquatic invertebrate communities. Aquatic Sciences. In press - online pre-print.

Daigle, A., A. St-Hilaire, V. Ouellet, J. Corriveau, T.B.M.J. Ouarda, L. Bilodeau. 2009. Diagnostic study and modeling of the annual positive water temperature onset. J. Hydrol. 370:29-38.

Danielescu, S., K.T.B. MacQuarrie, and R.N. Faux. 2009.
The integration of thermal infrared imaging, discharge measurements and numerical simulation to quantify the relative contributions of freshwater inflows to small estuaries in Atlantic Canada. Hydrol. Processes. 23(20): 2847-2859.

Guillemette, N. A. St-Hilaire, T.B.M.J. Ouarda, N. Bergeron, E. Robichaud, L. Bilodeau. 2009. Feasibility study of a geostatistical modelling of monthly maximum s stream temperatures in multivariate space. J. Hydrol. 364:1-12.

González-Sansón, G., C. Aguilar, I. Hernández, Y. Cabrera1, and R.A. Curry. 2009. Factors influencing fish assemblages of coral reefs along the Northwestern Cuban shelf. Gulf Coast Res. 21: 13-21.

Irving E., D.J. Baird and J.M. Culp. 2009.
Cadmium toxicity and uptake by mats of the freshwater diatom: Navicula pelliculosa (Bréb) Hilse. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 57: 523-530.

Jardine, T.D., K.A. Kidd, R.A. Cunjak, P.A. Arp. 2009. Factors affecting water strider (Hemiptera: Gerridae) mercury concentrations in lotic systems. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 28(7):1480–1492.


Lopes I., N. Martins, D.J. Baird, and R. Ribeiro. 2009.
Genetic erosion and population resilience in Daphnia longispina O.F. Müller under simulated predation and metal pressures. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 28: 1912-1919.

Marziali L., D.G. Armanini, M. Cazzola, S. Erba, E. Toppi, A. Buffagni, and B. Rossaro. 2009. Responses of chironomid larvae (insecta, diptera) to ecological quality in mediterranean river mesohabitats (South Italy). Riv. Res. Appl. In press - online pre-print.

Pestana J.L.T., S. Loureiro, D.J. Baird, and A.M.V.M. Soares. 2009. Fear and loathing in the benthos: responses of aquatic insect larvae to the pesticide imidacloprid in the presence of chemical signals of predation risk. Aquat. Toxicol. 93: 138-149.

Pestana J.L.T., A.C. Alexander, J.M. Culp, D.J. Baird, A.J. Cessna, and A.M.V.M. Soares. 2009. Structural and functional responses of benthic invertebrates to imidacloprid in outdoor stream mesocosms. Environ. Pollut. 157: 2328-2334.

Pooley, K.E., M. Blessing, T.C. Schmidt, S.B. Haderlein, K.T.B. MacQuarrie, and H. Prommer. 2009. Aerobic biodegradation of chlorinated ethenes in a fractured bedrock aquifer: quantitative assessment by compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) and reactive transport modeling. Environ. Sci. Technol. 43(19): 7458-7464.

Satapornvanit K., D.J. Baird, and D.C. Little. 2009. Laboratory toxicity test and post-exposure feeding inhibition using the giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Chemosphere 74: 1209-1215.

Wyn, B., K.A. Kidd, N. Burgess, R.A. Curry. 2009. Mercury bioaccumulation through the acidic food webs of Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, Nova Scotia. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 66:1532-1545.


Book Chapters

Curry, R.A., R.M. Hughes, M. McMaster, and D. Zafft. 2009. Coldwater Fish in Rivers. Chapter 9. In Standard Sampling Methods for North American Freshwater Fishes. Editors: S. Bonar, W. Hubert, and D. Willis. AFS Publications, Bethesda, MD. pp. 139-158.

Monk, W.A. and R.A. Curry. 2009. Ecological significance of spatial and temporal variability in stream temperatures across north-eastern North America. In Challenges for Diadromous Fishes in a Dynamic Global Environment. Editors: Haro, A. J., K. L. Smith, R. A. Rulifson, C. M. Moffitt, R. J. Klauda, M. J. Dadswell, R. A. Cunjak, J. E. Cooper, K. L. Beal, and T. S. Avery. American Fisheries Society, Symposium 69, Bethesda, Maryland. pp. 139-158.


Peer-reviewed Conference Proceedings


Daigle, A., A. St. Hilaire, J. Diatezua, N. Thiémonge and T. Ouarda. 2009. Multivariate and trend analysis of low flow hydrological indices in Québec (with André St-Hilaire, Jacquie Diatezua, INRS-ETE; Nathalie Thiémonge, Hydro-Québec; Taha Ouarda, INRS-ETE; and Luc Roy, Hydro-Québec). 62nd Annual Conference of Canadian Water Resources Association. June 9-12 in Québec City QC, Canada.

Danielescu, S., K.T.B. MacQuarrie, and R.N. Faux. 2009. Quantification of groundwater discharge to two small estuaries in Prince Edward Island. Proceedings of GeoHalifax - 10th Joint Canadian Geotechnical Society/International Association of Hydrogeologists (Canadian National Chapter) Groundwater Conference, Halifax, NS, September 2009, p. 1281-1288.

Es-Salhi, M.A. 2009. Analyse comparative des concentrations de solides en suspension en aval de tourbières exploitées: Est-ce que l'ajout de structures hydrauliques simples augmente l'efficacité des bassins de sédimentation?62nd Annual Conference of Canadian Water Resources Association. June 9-12 in Québec City QC, Canada.

Morton, S., K.T.B. MacQuarrie, and D. Connor. 2009. Measuring the hydraulic response due to aquifer clogging in the vicinity of municipal pumping wells. Proceedings of GeoHalifax - 10th Joint Canadian Geotechnical Society/International Association of Hydrogeologists (Canadian National Chapter) Groundwater Conference, Halifax, NS, September 2009, p 1323-1330.

Ouellet, V., Y. Secrétan, J. Morin, A. St-Hilaire and M. Mingelbier. 2009. Validation d’un algorithme de modélisation de la température de l’eau pour le fleuve Saint-Laurent. 62nd Annual Conference of Canadian Water Resources Association. June 9-12 in Québec City QC, Canada.

Rohde, H., B. Stewart, J. R. Lawrence, G. Swerhone, L. Wassenaar, D. Korber, P. Medihala, K. MacQuarrie, D. Connor, and S. Morton. 2009. City of North Battleford water well capture zone study. Proceedings of GeoHalifax - 10th Joint Canadian Geotechnical Society/International Association of Hydrogeologists (Canadian National Chapter) Groundwater Conference, Halifax, NS, September 2009, p. 1469-1476.

Tardif S., St-Hilaire A., Ovidio M. 2009. Modélisation statistique des régimes thermiques des affluents de la Meuse. 2nd Annual Conference of Canadian Water Resources Association. June 9-12 in Québec City QC, Canada.

Tardif S., St-Hilaire A., Roy R., Bernier M., Payette S. 2009.
Hydrological comparison of aqualysed fens and lakes in the La Grande Rivière drainage basin. Part.II. 62nd Annual Conference of Canadian Water Resources Association. June 9-12 in Québec City QC, Canada.


Reports


Benyahya, L., A. Daigle, D. Caissie, D. Beveridge, and A. St-Hilaire. 2009. Caractérisation du régime naturel du débit des bassins versants de l’Est du Canada. Québec: INRS - Centre Eau Terre Environnement; Rapport de recherche R-1057. 88 pages.

Bruce, J.P., W. Cunningham, A. Freeze, R. Gillham, S. Gordon, S. Holysh, S. Hrudey, W. Logan, K. MacQuarrie, P. Muldoon, L. Nowlan, J. Pomeroy, S. Renzetti, B. Sherwood Lollar, and R. Therrien. 2009. The Sustainable Management of Groundwater in Canada, Council of Canadian Academies, Ottawa, ISBN 978-1-926558-11-0.

Gautreau, M.D. and R.A. Curry. 2009.
Assessment of COSEWIC species of concern, the redbreast sunfish, and proposed threatened species, striped bass, in Grand Lake Meadow waters. New Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Fisheries Report #03-09.

Luiker, E., J.M. Culp, L. Noel, and R.A. Curry. 2009. Are nutrient criteria protective of ecosystem health of the St. John River? New Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Fisheries Report #01-09.

Monk, W.A. and R.A. Curry. 2009.
Planning and Managing for Surface Water Abstraction on Prince Edward Island. New Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Fisheries Report #02-09.

St-Hilaire, A., A. Daigle, D. Beveridge, D. Caissie, and L. Benyahya. 2009. Analyse multivariée des indices d’altération hydrologique de l’Est du Canada. Québec: INRS - Centre Eau Terre Environnement;Rapport de recherche R-1058. 44 pages.

St-Hilaire, A. 2009. Test préliminaire d’une sonde de mesure de la densité de la neige : Hiver 2008. Rapport de recherche R1039, iii+8pages.

Valois, A., R. A. Curry, and S. M. Coghlan. 2009.
Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) invasion of Gulf Region rivers: evaluating the impact on Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2009/nnn. vi + xx p.

CRI Training - Current Offerings

We have wrapped up most of our training for the 2009 year.

26-30 Oct, 2009: Stream Restoration: Design and Monitoring, Penticton BC - COURSE IS FULL

Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network (CABIN) - the final sessions are happening now and will be wrapped up by December 2009. For training in 2010, contact cabin@unb.ca.

Backpack Electrofishing - the final field practicum will occur in the last week of October - if you are interested in taking the course, you must register by Friday, Oct 16th or wait until Spring 2010 for more training dates.


For more information, click here:

Graduate Student Opportunities

André St. Hilaire is looking for students for two different projects about:

1) Modelling of thermal refugia in salmonid rivers.
2) Modelling of Atlantic salmon habitat suitability using expert knowledge and fuzzy logic.

Click here to learn more about the research done in André's Lab.

Personals


On September 5th, 2009, Heidi Swanson married Erik Allen at a lakeshore ceremony in Alberta. Congratulations Heidi and Erik!!!




Steve Peake and Michelle Gray now have a 4-year old (wait a minute, how did that happen!). Nathan Peake celebrated his 4th birthday on Sep 28th with a few friends in Pinawa MB.

August 13, 2009



Well the CRI cap is making its way around the globe! This is Dr. Jonathan Grey of the University of London in London England - wearing the cap in Africa while hanging out with a few close friends behind him (well too close for my comfort!) - he adds that one should "not try this at home"... he is safe and sound though as he sent us the pic :). Thanks Jon!

June 27, 2009

May/June 2009 edition

The May 2009 edition has come a bit late - time is flying by already - I made the move to Manitoba for the summer and somehow lost track of time in there!

Thanks for all of the many sCRIbes out there that took the time to put their lab's info together. Most people are busy out there in the field these days - so I am hoping that the September '09 issue is full of updates on research projects and lots and lots of great pictures to share.

- Michelle Gray

Recent Happenings - Baird Lab

North American Benthological Society Annual Meeting: May 17-21, 2009.
The Baird lab sent 4 people to the annual NABS meeting in Grand Rapids Michigan. Donald co-chaired a special session with Bernard Sweeney entitled “Environmental barcoding: Genomic Solutions for Biomonitoring” looking at the progress and challenges regarding the use of DNA barcoding in biomonitoring applications. Wendy, David, and Colin also presented their research – everyone’s talks were well received and some valuable research contacts were established.

Recent Happenings - Courtenay Lab

Marc Skinner is back working on his PhD, “Examining the influence of suspended oyster (Crassostrea virginica) aquaculture on estuarine and coastal benthic communities.”

Mike Sweezey did his MSc. proposal presentation on March 31. His project is on “The Importance of Freshwater Overwintering Habitat to the Life Cycle of the American Eel.” Mike has been doing field work with his summer student, Robert Ginson, for two weeks now, fishing eel using the smolt wheel and fyke nets on the Upper Salmon River, Alma, NB. They have PIT tagged almost 200 eel and radio tagged 3 eel.


Robert Ginson releasing an eel upstream

Simon Courtenay spoke on CAMP (Community Aquatic Monitoring Program) at Andre St-Hilaire's NSERC workshop April 23-24.

Jared Tomie
did his MSc. proposal presentation on April 27. His project is on “Substrate preference and burrowing behaviour of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata).” He is now setting up tanks to get started with eel experiments at the Mactaquac Biodiversity Centre.

Allan Debertin
did his MSc. proposal presentation on May 11. His project is on “Predator-prey interactions between planktivorous fish and their prey in the Northumberland Strait.” He is now in the lab sorting through the stomach contents of Northumberland Strait fish.

Sarah Dickison completed her first bioassay looking at the toxicity of dispersed oil for Atlantic herring embryos.

Simon Courtenay, Marie-Helene Theriault, Allison Schein, Jared Tomie, and Allan Debertin attended the Atlantic Canada Coastal and Estuarine Science Society (ACCESS) conference at UPEI in Charlottetown from May 13 – 15. They heard some interesting talks and enjoyed a delicious banquet dinner on the 13th. Allison, Jared, Allan, and Marie-Helene all gave a talk about their projects, and Allison and Jared won first and second place, respectively, for Best Student Oral Presentation. Congratulations Allison and Jared!

Allan won the 2009 Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Coalition on Sustainability Scholarship, valued at $5000. The Coalition offers this scholarship to encourage students to pursue research on environmental and sustainability topics in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence region. Allan will give a talk about his work to the coalition on June 11th, at their annual general meeting in Emerald, PEI. Congratulations, Allan!

Recent Happenings - Culp Lab

On May 17th to 22nd the 57th Annual North American Benthological Society (NABS) meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan was attended by CRI members Joseph Culp, Donald Baird, Kelly Munkittrick, Amanda Valois, Colin Curry, Wendy Monk, David Arminini and Alexa Alexander. The meeting was well attended with more than 800 benthic ecologists present at the very swank Amway Hotel.



Highlights included plenary presentations by Paul Ehrlich and David Allan.

From the Culp lab, a platform presentation was made by Alexa:

Alexander, A.C. and J.M. Culp. Nature versus mixture: evaluating changes in benthic assemblages due to insecticides and nutrients.

Drs Joseph Culp (past President of NABS) and Patricia Chambers organized a well-received special session on the impacts of agriculture on stream ecosystems.

A number of AEIRD scientists and their students gave presentations, including:

Developing sediment targets to prevent excessive sedimentation in
agriculturally-dominated watersheds. Joseph M. Culp, Glenn A. Benoy, Robert Brua, Andrew Sutherland, Patricia Chambers.

• Heidi has accepted a teaching position at ABU in Moncton
• Laura G. has completed a draft of her thesis
• Alexa and Allison are gearing up for another field season
• Allison Ritcey is the recent recipient of a 2009-2010 Garfield Weston Award for Northern Research from the Canadian Northern Studies Trust. The scholarship was awarded for her research involving stream processes and food web structures in northern Labrador and the relevance of the research to northerners and northern scholarship.

Recent Happenings - Kidd Lab

Heidi Swanson (PhD student) won the Best Student Platform award at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry’s Annual Meeting held in Tampa, FL. Her presentation was entitled “Transients in the north: interactions of migratory fish, climate change, and contaminant accumulation in coastal Arctic lakes.” Congratulations Heidi!!!

The first week of May we started our whole pond experiments at CFB Gagetown. Twenty-four ponds have been split into two and we are treating one side with glyphosate either on its own or in combination with N and P to examine the effects of these stressors on wetland communities. Leanne Baker (PhD student) has been in the field most days sampling the aquatic invertebrates and feeding the terrestrial invertebrates!

Recent Happenings - MacLatchy Lab

Kelly Lippert Roberts (research coordinator in the MacLatchy Lab at Laurier) was married in March to Stewart Roberts. She also completed her BEd at University of Western Ontario in April.

Recent Happenings - Peake Lab



Most of the Peake research crew headed out to Pinawa, Manitoba to wrestle sturgeon for the summer field season. However, they seem to catch more weeds than fish.

Bill Tibble recently headed out to Newfoundland to acoustically tag brook trout. Mr. Nice guy wanted to feel what the fishes were feeling and tried to do surgery on himself. It required 4 stitches.



Cheryl Klassen successfully completed her PhD candidacy exam this spring and received a 2-year NSERC Post Graduate Scholarship.

Claire Hrenchuk was successful in receiving an NSERC Industrial Scholarship for her MSc project.

Recent Happenings - UPEI group

The Atlantic Coastal and Estuarine Science Society (ACCESS) Workshop: “Estuaries: A Threatened Resource” was held at UPEI in Charlottetown, PEI on May 13th-15th. The workshop was well attended by CRI folks and several CRI graduate students gave wonderful presentations and posters on their research. Thank-you to the Co-ordinator Mike van den Heuvel and the Organising Committee: Gary Bugden, Simon Courtenay, Martha Jones, Pedro Quijon, Jeff Davidson, Andy Trivett, Kevin Teather, Megan Finley, Christina Pater, Cindy Crane, Mark Hanson, Lori Edwards, and Jon Stackpool as well as the numerous volunteers that helped make this workshop a success.

Allison Schein (MSc candidate co-supervised by Mike van den Heuvel and Simon Courtenay) won 1st place in the Student Platform competition at the ACCESS Workshop for her presentation titled: Effects of agriculturally-derived nitrate and increased sea lettuce growth on the estuarine food web structure of Prince Edward Island. Congratulations Allison!

Monitoring PEI Amphibians for Disease

A collaborative research project led by Natacha Hogan and Kevin Teather (CRI Associate Fellows) and Maria Forzan (wildlife pathologist, Atlantic Veterinary College) will assess the presence and distribution of a chytrid fungus as a potential threat to the health of amphibians on PEI. This fungus and resulting disease outbreaks have been linked to the decline or extinction of up to 200 amphibian species worldwide. Results of this project will be used to foster awareness among the public and special interest groups regarding disease status of amphibians and make recommendations to appropriate authorities, offices and local groups for implementing measures to effectively impede the introduction and/or spread of the fungus. Summer fieldwork is underway and involves swabbing frogs at sites from across PEI for diagnostic testing for the fungus. This project is funded by the PEI Wildlife Conservation Fund and a UPEI Major Research Grant.

New People - Baird Lab


Jessica Orlofske – originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA (M.S. Iowa State University, B.S. University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point)

Jessica is a new PhD student in the Baird Lab. She has has a combined interest in ecology and entomology and plans to investigate aquatic insect communities and their application for biomonitoring.

New People - Culp Lab


Adam Yates – originally from Southwestern Ontario (BSc Env University of Guelph, MSc and PhD University of Western Ontario).
Effects of nutrient enrichment on ecological condition in Southern Manitoba streams.
PostDoctoral Project.
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