Congratulations
Congratulations to fourteen of Biology's professors and students who have received Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grants and awards.
Discovery Grants:
Peter Ryser - Ecological significance of plant biomass turnover
Brandon Schamp - Patterns in plant community assembly
Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde - Consequences of sexual selection in mammals
Leslie Sutherland- Apoptosis regulation by RNA binding proteins
Research Tools and Instruments Grant (RTI):
Eric Gauthier, Céline Boudreau-Larivière, and Thomas Merritt - Nucleofector Device
Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA - summer):
Jaimee Bradley (supervised by Charles Ramcharan)
Jennifer Brooks (supervised by David MacLean)
Harneet Gill (supervised by Peter Ryser)
Mikael Levesque (supervised by Mery Martínez-Garcia)
Matthew Piché (supervised by Tze-Chun Tai)
Marisa Talarico (supervised by Charles Ramcharan)
Kara-Anne Ward (supervised by Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde)
Please download this pdf file for a list of all the recipients.
Vale Inco Living with Lakes Centre receives over $5 million in funding from the federal government
Vale Inco Living with Lakes Centre has received $5,152,676 from Industry Canada's Knowledge Infrastructure Program. All funding has now been secured for the $20 million project, and construction should start as early as August, 2009.
The Living with Lakes Centre will provide a new home for the growing Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit as it continues to develop as a centre of excellence in freshwater restoration. It will eventually house research chairs, professorships, technical experts, post doctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students.
Graduation Spring 2009
The Department of Biology congratulates those Biology students who graduated this spring and wishes them much success in their future endeavours.
Theses defended
Congratulations to the following graduate students who successfully defended their theses:
Brian Wesolek (M.Sc. - May 12) - Spatial patterns in the recovery of littoral benthic invertebrate communities of acid and metal damaged lakes (Supervised by Dr. J. Gunn)
Natalie Webster (M.Sc. - May 22) - Temporal changes in crustacean zooplankton communities in Sudbury lakes related to metal contamination and fish predation (Supervised by Dr. C. Ramcharan and Mr. B. Keller)
Gino Ubriaco (M.Sc. - May 27) - Elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase gene is regulated by hypoxia (Supervised by Dr. T.C. Tai)
Tyler Kirwan (M.Sc. - June 10) - Characterization of STAT, IRF, and NF-KB signalling pathways involved in sepsis (Supervised by Dr. A. Kumar)
Megan Rasmussen (M.Sc. - August 17) - Habitat selection, foraging ecology, and maternal investment in a Lake Huron population of Spotted Turtles (Clemmys guttata): Implications for conservation and management (Supervised by Dr. J. Litzgus)
Amanda Bennett (M.Sc. - August 20) - Effects of habitat fragmentation on the spatial ecology and genetics of Northern Map Turtles (Graptemys geographica) (Supervised by Dr. J. Litzgus)
Seminars and Conference Presentations
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution meeting in Halifax
Students and faculty (Drs A. Schulte-Hostedde and D. Lesbarrères) from the Department of Biology participated in the the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution meeting in Halifax (Dalhousie) this past week (May 14-17). Several talks and posters (see below) were presented. The meeting was excellent with time for developing collaborations at the many pubs. Next year's meeting will be at Laval in Quebec City.
Bottom (L to R) David Lesbarrères, Michelle Zanuttig (now at Carleton), Sophie Laurence, Sarah Castillo (now at Trent), Darryl Edwards, Jenny Fortier (now at Trent), Pierre Echaubard, Evan Fairn (now at Dalhousie), Jeff Bowman (Trent and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources), Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde
Top (L to R) Katie Herlihy (now at Ottawa), Anne Kidd, Courtney Andrews, Lucy Patterson, Jamie Gorrell (now at Alberta)
Missing is Patricia Summers (now at Carleton).
CSEE talks
Echaubard, P., K. Little & D. Lesbarreres. Context-dependent effects of ranaviral infection on life history of the northern leopard frog.
Lesbarréres, D. and L. Fahrig. Measures to reduce population fragmentation by
roads: what has worked and how do we know?
Laurence, S., D.W. Coltman, J.C. Gorrell & A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. Genetic structure and subspecific status of muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus, across Canada.
Patterson, L. & A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. Personality and reproductive success in male Eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus).
Edwards, D.B., E.H. Chin, H.G. Gilchrist & A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. Incubation, nest attentiveness and the adreno-cortical stress response in two species of Arctic breeding shorebird.
Nituch, L.A., J. Bowman, A.I. Schulte-Hostedde & P.J. Wilson. Assessing risks of Aleutian disease transmission from mink farms to wild American mink (Neovison vison) populations.
Schulte-Hostedde, A.I. and S. Elsasser. Body condition and parasite richness predict spleen mass in American mink (Neovison vison).
CSEE posters
Andrews, C.K., S. Laurence & A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. Reproductive success is related to baculum size in muskrats.
Kidd, A.G., J. Bowman, P.A. Martin, T.V. McDaniel & A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. Mink ranch escapees may introduce bias in studies of contaminant body burden in wild populations.
The 59th annual conference of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists (CSM) 2009
Dr. M. Saleh and several graduate students from the Department of Biology attended the 59th Annual Conference of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists which was held at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, June 15-18, 2009. Graduate students Jana Bélanger and Nadia Mykytczuk (supervised by Dr. Leduc and Dr. Ferroni), as well as Johanna Delongchamp and Amanda Voros (supervised by D. M. Saleh), presented posters (see poster titles below) at the conference.
CSM posters presented:
Jana Belanger, L.G. Leduc. G.D. Ferroni. Antimicrobial potential of naturally-occurring substances.
Nadia C.S. Mykytczuk, J.T. Trevors. G.D. Ferroni, L.G. Leduc. Cold Shock Response in the Acid Mine Drainage Bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans.
Johanna Delongchamp, M. Saleh, and G.D. Ferroni. Cloning and characterization of a functional Mycobacterium tuberculosis laccase
Amanda Voros and M. Saleh. The Acid pH response of Mycoplasma capricolum at the secretome level
Jana Bélanger could not attend the conference, but her poster was displayed.
Nadia Mykytczuk
Johanna Delongchamp
Amand Voros
7th Annual Turtle Survival Alliance Conference
Congratulations to Megan Rasmussen (M.Sc. student supervised by Dr. J. Litzgus) who was among the winners of the Student Presentation Awards at the 7th Annual Turtle Survival Alliance Conference held August 5-8 in St Louis, Missouri.
2009 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA)
Biology students Tamara Posadowski and Kierann Santala were among the winners of the "Best student presentation" awards at the 2009 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA) in Quebec City, Quebec, August 23 to 25. Congratulations!
Publications
Elsasser, S.C., R. Floyd, P.D.N. Hebert and A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. 2009. Species identification of North American parasitic guinea worm species (Nematoda: Dracunculus spp.) with DNA barcoding. Molecular Ecology Resources 9: 707-712.
Santala, K.R. and Ryser, P. 2009. Influence of heavy-metal contamination on plant response to water availability in white birch, Betula papyrifera. Environmental and Experimental Botany 66: 334-340.
Ryser, P. and Kamminga, A.T. 2009. Root survival of six cool-temperate wetland graminoids in autumn and early winter. Plant Ecology & Diversity 2: 27-35.
Kidd, A.G., J. Bowman, D. Lesbarrères, and A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. 2009.Hybridization between escaped domestic and wild American mink (Neovison vison). Molecular Ecology 18: 1175 -1186.
Lesbarrères, D. 2009. New insight into an old story: The post-glacial recolonization of European biota. Heredity 102: 213.
Hartel, T., S. Nemes, D. Cogãlniceanu, K. Öllerer, C. I. Moga, D. Lesbarrères and L. Demeter. 2009. Pond and landscape determinants of Rana dalmatina population sizes in a rural landscape from Romania. Acta Oecologica 35: 53-59.
Laurence, S., Bewick, A., Coltman, D., Davis, C., Kidd, A., Lesbarrères, D. and Schulte-Hostedde, A. 2009. Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci in muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus. Molecular Ecology Resources 9: 654-657.
Martínez, M.L., Chapman, L.J., and Rees, B.B. 2009. Population variation in hypoxic responses of the cichlid Pseudocrenilabrus multicolour victoriae. Canadian Journal of Zoology 87:188-194.
Vernescu, C. and Ryser, P. 2009. Constraints on leaf structural traits in wetland plants. American Journal of Botany 96: 1068-1074.
Edge, C.B., B.D. Steinberg, R.J. Brooks, and J.D. Litzgus. 2009. Temperature and site selection by Blanding’s Turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) during hibernation near the species’ northern range limit. Canadian Journal of Zoology 87: 825-834.