Science + Nature UNtapped

Changes in the natural history of Lake St Francis – 80 years of experience

Norm Seymour, PhD, Author, hunter and retired professor

Our speaker series, Science & Nature, is back for its 16th season! We’ll be kicking off with a talk reflecting on changes in the natural history of Lake St. Francis with Norm Seymour, a local hunter, fisherman, author, and retired professor.  

Norm Seymour lives and breathes ecology. He’s spent a lifetime studying it, teaching it, and writing about it. Join us September 13th from 7-8PM to hear his stories on Lake St. Francis about yellow perch, osprey, eels, the history of the seaway and so much more! 

River Institute Annual Year in Review presentation: A Year of Inspiration

Presented by the River Institute Staff

The 2022 Annual Report shares our stories of inspiration, impact, and collaboration over the last year. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of the staff, Board of Directors, volunteers and supporters, the past year was one of significant achievement and growth for the River Institute. We invite you to explore this year’s annual report which provides highlights from the year and a look at what’s on the horizon through the themes of ‘informing conservation action,’ ‘learning together,’ making connections,’ and ‘ways of knowing.’ We hope that you are inspired by these stories and continue to follow us on our journey.

Algonquin Wild 

Michael Runtz, Author and Instructor, Carleton University 

Algonquin Wild is Michael Runtz’s highly visual look at Nature in Algonquin Park through the seasons.  From howling wolves to stunning warblers, there is much that makes Algonquin an unforgettable experience. 

Michael Runtz is recognized for his outstanding work as a naturalist, biologist, educator, author and photographer—work that has inspired thousands. An author of 15 bestselling books, an active nature photographer, natural history consultant, nature guide in Algonquin park and television presenter, Michael is a familiar face and voice to many. His television series, Wild by Nature has garnered an international audience. In Canada, Michael is known as the founder of the 1000-member strong Ontario Field Ornithologists group. Michael embraces both traditional and new media, with active engagement, especially during COVID, on social media platforms, to ensure people can continue to be inspired by nature and learn—even from their homes.

Kanietarowanenen– the Great River: her health and the health of the future 

Ojistoh Horn, MD, Akwesasne Medical Clinic

The St. Lawrence River, also known as Kaniatarowanenen, the “Great River’, drains a quarter of the earth’s freshwater.  In the mid 1980’s, around Akwesasne, she was found to be so polluted that many restrictions were placed on the Peoples’ ability and safety to interact with her and the lands and air around her.  Today, many of our people are not healthy. 

The story of the quest to keep this vibrant river healthy, to monitor her health and the health status of the people who engage with her, are the basis for a discussion about ecological and planetary health.  

As a traditional minded Haudenosaunee woman, mother, western-based physician, having immersed myself in the understandings of the sciences including epidemiology and biostatistics, I would like to discuss the largest health crisis of this century.  The dysregulation of the homeostasis of Iethinisthena Ohontsa – Mother Earth.  Also known as Climate Change. 

Let’s think Seven Generations into the future, by looking back into the past.  Let us join the discussion about what we can do today to ensure the continued existence and thriving of all the parts of creation that exist in and around Kanietarowanenen.

Ojistoh is a Mohawk / Haudenosaunee woman whose mother is from Kahnawake, and father is from Akwesasne. She works as a family physician taking care of her people through all stages of the lifecycle.  She teaches medical students and family medicine residents the complexities of providing primary care to Indigenous peoples and their communities.  Drawing on both Western and Traditional paradigms, working with like-minded physicians across the country, with a focus on the effects of the environment and pollution on health, she promotes the inclusion and support of traditional knowledge and ‘ways of being’ into a framework for providing wholistic and primary care to her people.

Fish Inclusion for Hydropower

Abe Schneider, CTO & Co-founder & Sterling Watson, Staff Engineer & Fish Passage Lead 

Migration corridors for riverine species tend to overlap with valuable hydropower resources. Supporting clean hydroelectric power generation while also protecting freshwater diversity is in many cases an unmet challenge. Exclusion infrastructure (i.e., fine fish screens, behavioral guidance infrastructure, and bypasses) can protect fish from turbine entrainment when it is feasible, but also limits the available passage routes for fish and constrains hydropower generation. Alternatively, turbines designed to pass fish downstream safely can maintain connectivity for downstream migrating species while also enabling uninterrupted hydropower operation. Integrating safe downstream passage into normal hydropower operations through the use of fish-safe turbines (fish inclusion) can reduce cost and complexity while facilitating downstream migration. We will describe the function and application range of a new propeller-style turbine, called the Restoration Hydro Turbine (RHT), as well as passage testing learnings and results for American eel, Alewife, and Rainbow trout.

Abe Schneider is cofounder and Chief Technology Officer of Natel. Abe creates hydraulic designs for Natel’s turbines, and works at the intersection of science, R&D, product and project development, and communications. Abe holds bachelors and masters degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT. Abe enjoys SUP surfing, wing foiling, rock climbing and building things with his wife and 2 children.

Sterling Watson is a Staff Engineer and leads fish-safe turbine design at Natel Energy. Her technical focus includes turbine performance assessment, fish passage test design and data collection, engagement with the scientific and stakeholder communities, and model development to inform high-performance, fish-safe turbine and hydropower plant designs. Sterling holds bachelors and masters degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT. Her passion for everything aquatic extends beyond the office and she can be found swimming, surfing, and sea foraging in the waters of San Francisco during her free time.

Think like a Muskrat: Recognizing & loving Eastern Ontario’s largest Invertebrates.

Fred Schueler, Research Curator at Fragile Inheritance Natural history 

Native Unionoid Bivalves – mussels, clams, or naiads – are an ancient freshwater lineage with some 300 species in North America, of which a couple of dozen species colonized eastern Ontario after deglaciation. We have 3 abundant genera, which hybridize between stocks from Mississippian & Atlantic refugia, and a wide range of other species. Despite the abundance with which they lined the beds of our streams and lakes, and their constant filtering of the water, they are generally ignored. Unionids were already threatened by sedimentation & pollution before invasive Zebra Mussels arrived in the 1980s, but Zebras clustered on Unionids, and whole faunas became extinct. As we gathered the lovely shells which documented these lost populations, some of us predicted that natural selection would produce adaptations, and there are situations where this is happening. We now need to get out into the St Lawrence and other Zebraed waterbodies to see where Unionids have recovered, after whatever adaptations they’ve evolved, and whatever has happened to Zebra numbers. 

Having learned, as an undergraduate, that “ecology is the science of where organisms are found,” Fred Schueler has spent half a century in the museum mission of finding & documenting where species occur. He and his wife Aleta Karstad have promoted, illustrated, and studied a series of conspicuous groups that weren’t popularly recognized as species: reptiles & Amphibians, Crayfish, slugs & land snails, invasive plants, and aquatic Molluscs, especially the native Unionid mussels. From their home base in Bishops Mills, in Grenville County, they survey the occurrence of their species of interest east & west across Canada. Fred’s academic tradition emphasises the collection of specimens & data that can be used to document ecological & evolutionary change, and since the incursion of Dreissenid Zebra & Quagga Mussels has been the biggest challenge faced by aquatic ecosystems in Ontario, they’ve been working on it since the early 1990s. 

In the forest, the fields, and by the waters: creating a Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg Ethnobotanical Atlas and Field Guide to Southern Ontario  

Jessica M. Dolan, Ph.D.  – Mitacs Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Guelph and Plenty Canada  

This talk is about my current research on Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg Ethnobotany in partnership with Plenty Canada and the University of Guelph. We have built a team of students and community members who are working to combine historical data from museum archives, with cultural knowledge and biological field research to create an Indigenous digital atlas and printed ethnobotanical field guide. Our aim is to do work that will uplift Indigenous relationships with the plant relatives in Southern Ontario’s Greenbelt and along the Niagara Escarpment. The goals of this multi-year project are to generate digital and printed publications that will integrate Indigenous and Western sciences, in support of culturally-grounded learning about plants used for food, medicine, utility, and craft. We intend for the field guide and Indigenous atlas to serve as tools that will accompany public, place-based education, that will enable people re-envision familiar, peri-urban landscapes as Indigenous homelands. Our work supports Indigenous treaty rights through multiple pathways of bio-cultural conservation and the development of co-management within the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Network.   

Dr.  Jessica Dolan has a B.A. in History and Social Sciences from The New School for Social Research; an MSc in Ethnobotany from the University of Kent at Canterbury; and a Ph.D. in Environmental Anthropology and Indigenous Studies from McGill University. She is currently a Mitacs Post-doctoral Fellow at Plenty Canada and the University of Guelph Department of Geography, Environment, and Geomatics. She has also worked as an Environmental Science Officer for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Environment Program, and as a consultant for Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe Environment Division.  

Big Fish, little fish: the ups and downs of Yellow Perch and Northern Pike in the Great River

Dr. Mary Ann Perron, Mitacs Postdoctoral Fellow – The River Institute & University of Ottawa 

As River People, we all love and care for our fish. They are a key part of livelihoods and ways of life along the Great River. The St. Lawrence River has experienced major human-driven degradation that has fundamentally altered the food web. Yellow Perch are a sentinel species in the region with a culturally rich history. Northern Pike are top predators in the ecosystem and contribute to its natural regulation and equilibrium. The importance of both species, and their responses to environmental change, make them good indicators of the health of the Upper St. Lawrence River. As part of the Great River Rapport, we explored abundance indicators of Yellow Perch and Northern Pike in the Upper St. Lawrence River along with the major drivers of trends in abundance over the past 100 years. Join us on September 7th at 7pm at Schnitzel’s in Cornwall to learn more about these important fish! 

Dr. Mary Ann Perron completed her BSc at Laurentian University in Biology with a specialization in Restoration and Conservation Ecology. She then went on to complete her PhD in Biology at the University of Ottawa, specializing in freshwater ecology with a focus on wetland ecosystems and dragonfly science. Dr. Perron joined the River Institute in 2020 as a Mitacs postdoctoral fellow where she leads the scientific component of the Great River Rapport. She is currently leading a team of scientists to complete a series of technical reports on the 35 ecological indicators for the project. 

Stories of Coastal Resistance and the Climate Crisis

Philip A. Loring, author of Finding Our Niche and associate professor at the University of Guelph 

Coastal communities are often described as being on the front line of climate change impacts. In this talk, Loring explores also how they can be the front line of active and innovative responses to climate change. He explores the deeply rooted but often overlooked injustices involved when communities are asked to be resilient or to adapt to changes and disasters over which they have no control or responsibility. With lessons from how fishing communities responded to the first year of closures of COVID19, Loring explores opportunities for communities to “bounce forward” in the face of change, mitigating carbon dioxide while also reducing vulnerability and building community well-being.

Dr. Philip Loring is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Geomatics at the University of Guelph, where he holds the Arrell Chair in Food, Policy, and Society. A human ecologist, his work focuses on the intersection of sustainability, food systems, and social justice, primarily in coastal settings. An avid science communicator, Loring emphasizes writing, film, and other forms of storytelling to reach diverse audiences. His book, “Finding Our Niche”, won a gold medal from the Independent Publisher’s Awards and a silver medal from the Nautilus Book Awards, and his TEDx talk, “No More Heroes”, has received over 100,000 views.

Breeding Bird Atlases: Putting Canada’s Birds on the Map 

Dr. Catherine Dale, Newfoundland Breeding Bird Atlas Coordinator, Birds Canada

Having solid baseline data about the distribution, abundance, and health of bird populations is essential for sound conservation and management decisions: we can’t know what we’re losing if we don’t know what’s out there! Breeding bird atlases are multi-year citizen science projects that aim to provide this baseline data by combining the efforts of scientists and birders to map the bird species breeding in a province. The data collected are used by governments, academics, industry, and conservation experts, and inform decisions about land and resource management to minimize the impact of development on biodiversity. Currently, there are 2 breeding bird atlases under way in Canada: the Ontario and Newfoundland Atlases. Come out to this talk to learn about how these ambitious projects are set up, what we can learn from them, and how you can join the fun and survey birds for science! 

Bio: Dr. Catherine Dale began her ornithology career studying tree swallows near Chaffey’s Lock, Ontario as an undergraduate student at Queen’s University, and has been fascinated by birds ever since. She completed a PhD in Biology at Queen’s in 2018, studying migration patterns of Western Bluebirds, and is currently employed by Birds Canada as the Coordinator of the Newfoundland Breeding Bird Atlas. 

Rethinking urban planning: Why sustainable cities are important

Angela Parker – Sustainability Project Coordinator, City of Cornwall 

Urban growth shows no signs of slowing and more than half of the world’s population live in cities. This is set to rise over 70% by 2070. Urban infrastructure today is built for yesterday’s climate, not tomorrow’s. If the future is going to be different because of climate change, then the past isn’t so helpful. Systematically integrating technological, nature-based, and social solutions is key. Strengthening urban climate resilience and lowering greenhouse gas emissions is crucial and needs to be considered in transportation and buildings, the two main emitters of greenhouse gases. This talk will discuss cities as a cause of and solution to climate change, and how the City of Cornwall, Ontario is taking action.

Angela holds a master’s degree in Geography, Urban and Environmental Studies from Concordia University, Montreal. Her research focused on human/animal interactions within particular spaces, including road ecology. She has since expanded from that research to contemplate how human-induced extreme weather events are impacting both domesticated and feral nonhuman species. 

Native Insects and Invasive Molluscs:

Rivals for Domination of the Depth

Dr. David Bruce Conn

A river as large and complex as the mighty St. Lawrence entails a diversity of underwater habitats, each supporting a distinctive biota. The vast size and significant depth of the river, combined with frequent turbulence and powerful currents, create a dynamic environment that is difficult and hazardous to study. For 35 years, our teams have undertaken numerous projects, employing a range of methodologies to shed light on the animals that dwell on the river’s bottom and in many cases define the living communities of the deep. From scuba diving, to dredging from research watercraft, to examining animals that attach to navigational buoys, among other techniques, we have pieced together a growing body of information on the invertebrate bottom biota of the upper river, from Lake Ontario to Montreal. This benthos is very diverse, but in many locations is dominated by a small number of keystone species that define the communities of the deep. From native species such as filter-feeding caddisflies, to invasive species such as zebra mussels, this talk will explore the ever-changing life in the river’s depths.

Dr. David Bruce Conn is Gund Professor of Biology at the Berry College One Health Center, Associate of Invertebrate Zoology at Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Senior Scientific Advisor on international issues for the U.S. State Department, while serving as a member of the White House national security subcommittee on foreign animal threats.

The FINS project: Little Fish, Big River 

Matt Windle

In 2015 the River Institute and the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne’s (MCA) Environment Program staff began a project with a simple goal: to describe the nearshore fish populations of the Akwesasne and Cornwall section of the St. Lawrence River. Under the moniker FINS (Fish Identification Nearshore Survey), the project was initially designed to fill in knowledge gaps and address community concerns regarding the state of small fish populations in the area, which were perceived to be declining. Since 2015 the FINS Project has grown considerably in terms of geographic scope, research focus, technological tools, and collaborative relationships. It has developed into a platform that has provided numerous local and regional benefits: high quality training opportunities for young professionals and volunteers; continuity of research and strengthening working partnerships between the River Institute and the MCA; filling in critical knowledge gaps for species at risk; monitoring the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS); developing the use of new technologies such as Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and environmental DNA (eDNA); providing public outreach and education on fish species and their habitats; providing opportunities for university graduate students and collaborations; and identifying areas for restoration and conservation activities. To date the project has surveyed over 200 sites from Kingston to Montreal and documented over 155,000 fish from 67 species, and has built one of the largest and most unique baseline datasets of the Upper St. Lawrence River nearshore habitats. This presentation will focus on the highlights, successes and challenges of the FINS Project, with insights into plans for future directions and goals.

Matt is a biologist at the River Institute with experience in environmental science, freshwater ecosystem ecology, spatial analyses, contaminant analyses, and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).

Conserving little brown bats in Ontario

Brian Hickey

Brian received both his M.Sc and Ph.D. from York University where he specialized in the foraging and thermoregulatory behaviour of red and hoary bats in southern Ontario. His bat research has brought him to Zimbabwe, the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and Ontario, Canada. While Brian is well known for his bat research, he has studied a wide range of taxa including birds, fish, reptiles, and invertebrates.

The unifying theme throughout his research has been an interest in understanding the role that environmental variation and individual behavioural variation has on the structure of animal populations and communities. Most recently, Brian has been investigating contaminant burdens (particularly mercury) in bats as well as monitoring the status of bat declines due to white-nose syndrome. In an effort to support bat populations, Brian has built and deployed over 170 artificial roosts across Ontario. As part of this effort, his team is currently documenting the recovery and growth of several colonies of endangered little brown bats.

In addition to his role as a research scientist, Brian oversees the River Institute’s education and outreach programs, which in 2019 received a national award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), for their excellence.

Bats in North America face numerous threats including loss of habitat (especially roosts), reduced prey populations due to excessive use of insecticides, exposure to contaminants including mercury, mortality caused by wind turbines, and the devastating effects of the introduced fungus that causes white-nose syndrome.

This fungus, which was first identified in New York state in 2006, is now found throughout Canada (and most of the US) and has resulted in population declines in bat hibernacula of more than 99%.  These massive declines might represent the largest decline in a mammalian population since biologists began tracking these types of events and has prompted some experts to predict the extinction of some species of North American bats.

A St. Lawrence River Odyssey on board the Lampsilis research vessel

Francois Guillemette

Riverine population identify with and use the St. Lawrence for food, transport, recreation and culture, but in turn significantly modify the sustainability of these ecological services. For example, the acceleration of human activities in recent decades has depleted some economically important fish stocks, destroyed wetland habitats, degraded water quality and accelerated invasions of unwanted species. However, at the local and regional levels, these impacts vary in their nature and intensity due to the complex hydrology of the St. Lawrence and the presence of different sources of pollution (urban and agricultural) along the river. Come aboard the Lampsilis research vessel to discover the fragile nature of the river and the most recent research results concerning its health.

François Guillemette is a Professor at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Quebec and currently holds the UQTR Research Chair on the Ecology of the St. Lawrence. His research interests revolve around the fields of aquatic carbon biogeochemistry and microbial ecology. Of particular interest is the export, transformation and fate of organic matter from land to rivers, and the understanding of the metabolic response of microbial communities to changes in the supply, source and composition of organic material. His work also focuses on how urban and agricultural pollution affect the composition of microbial communities and the role they play in the functioning of river ecosystems and the services they provide to the society. Aside from his research program, he also has great interests in public education for the preservation, valuation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.

Water, Fish, & Community

Barry N Madison, Ph.D

I take an integrative molecule-to-population level approach to my research. I draw on my broad research experience employing techniques from physiology, endocrinology, and toxicology to study animal responses to environment and climate change. In this presentation, I will provide some perspective on my background and approach to research, as well as the story of why Water, Fish, & Community represents a new age of integration in my scientific journey. Recent events have caused many scientists to reflect on what is important to us, and my hope is to demonstrate how COVID has made many of us rethink our approach to research. Instead of a detailed presentation of data, I hope to share my experiences and highlight the importance of flexibility in scientific research. I will offer some examples of this in practice using my own experience with recent collaborations with the River Institute. I will close with what I see as the opportunities, and their challenges for this way forward ahead. 

Originally from Kenora, ON, Barry pursued his passion for aquatic biology at Queen’s University and completed his PhD at the University of Guelph, where his research focused on the endocrine mechanisms of stress and growth in salmonids. A post-doc placement at the Royal Military College of Canada furthered his expertise in ecotoxicology in his work studying the effects of petrochemicals and novel watershed contaminants. As a Research Associate and Adjunct Professor at Queen’s University, he expanded his research into oil sands wastewater decontamination processes; explored modern methods for monitoring contaminants and indicators of ecosystem health; and studied novel bioremediation methods for harmful algal blooms. 

Permaculture: An Introduction to Going Beyond Sustainability

Audrey Constance Wagner

MSc. candidate in Environmental Change and Management | University of Oxford BSc. Environment and Food Production | McGill University

In this Introduction to Permaculture, speaker Audrey Wagner lays out the foundation of permaculture theory and showcases some specific techniques and tools typically used in permaculture, before illustrating some examples from around the world. Permaculture (from permanent-culture or permanent-agriculture) is a system of design based on the observation of nature to create human societies which are beyond sustainable, abundant and regenerative. Emerging from the disciplines of ecology, systems thinking and traditional indigenous knowledge, permaculture guides us to work with nature to meet human needs while regenerating the environment at the same time. 

Audrey Wagner is an expert in the intersections between sustainability and food systems. Having conducted research on agroecological farms across the world, from Belize and India to Panama and Portugal, she is particularly well-versed in Permaculture. From Montreal, Canada, she holds a BSc. in Environment and Food Production, with a minor in International Agriculture, from McGill University. She is the co-founder of four organizations including the Macdonald Permaculture Showcase Garden and McGill Permaculture Club, and has worked as Sustainability Coordinator for McGill’s Food and Dining Services, researcher for the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Canada and for the United Nations World Food Program in Havana, Cuba. Currently studying an MSc. in Environmental Change and Management at the University of Oxford in the UK,

Exotic invasion of the Upper St. Lawrence River: Moderating Factors and Emerging Questions

Dr. Alison Derry
Associate Professor Université du Québec à Montréal

Alison Derry received a BSc in zoology/environmental biology (University of Guelph), a MSc in limnology (University of Alberta), and a PhD in ecology and evolution (Queen’s University). She is presently an associate professor in the department of biological sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Her research program applies ecological and evolutionary theory to aquatic field ecosystems to address adaptive responses to environmental disturbance from populations to communities to ecosystems.

Michael Twiss is Yankee who grew up in northern Ontario, and arrived at Clarkson in 2002, following a brief tenure at Ryerson University (Toronto). Twiss’s expertise is in limnology of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system. His research focuses on aquatic biogeochemistry and plankton ecology and he has published over 75 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts. Over the past seven years, he has increasingly become involved with Great Lakes environmental policy. He is an appointed member of the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission (Canada/USA), past member of the Great Lakes Advisory Board – Science and Information Subcommittee of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and currently serves as the US co-chair of the Smart Great Lakes Initiative Steering Committee.

Philip is a nature bug, electrical engineer, clean tech entrepreneur and philanthropist, and believes in leading by example. Twenty-five years ago he co-founded Powersmiths, a manufacturer of energy saving power systems for clients across North America, which he sold in 2018. He is involved in his community, serving on several environmental committees. In 2012, Philip took his Biomimicry specialist certification with the Biomimicry Institute, where he studied how nature can inspire regenerative solutions to design problems. His family has a conservation agreement for their 400 acres of provincially significant wetlands, and were Markham Hydro’s first solar-powered home.

Sreeman Mypati graduated with a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University in 2020, and joined Grafoid Inc. in 2020 as an Environmental Scientist with a focus on developing decentralized water treatment technologies.

Cameron graduated with a M.Sc. in Microbiology & Immunology from Dalhousie University in 2017 prior to joining Grafoid in 2018 as a Business Development Associate. Now as VP Product Commercialization, Cameron is focused on a collaboration-based approach to developing commercial markets and moving the company’s emerging technologies through the product development pipeline.

REASON d’être: The St. Lawrence River Environment and Sensor Observation Network

Dr. Michael Twiss
Chair of Biology Clarkson University

The REASON Project is focused on accessing water quality of the St Lawrence River. This multinational partnership serves many needs – long-term data set to observe climate change effects and policy impacts on water quality, a learning tool, a platform for developing and applying emerging technologies, and an early warning sentinel of changing water quality. In this talk, Twiss will present a variety of approaches used to assess water quality and the challenges of doing this in a large river system.  The design of the REASON project sensor platforms will be shared and interesting phenomena revealed by its operation.  In addition, recent applications for protecting water quality in the St. Lawrence River-Kaniatarowanenneh are illustrated. 

Michael Twiss is Yankee who grew up in northern Ontario, and arrived at Clarkson in 2002, following a brief tenure at Ryerson University (Toronto).  Twiss’s expertise is in limnology of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system. His research focuses on aquatic biogeochemistry and plankton ecology and he has published over 75 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts.  Over the past seven years, he has increasingly become involved with Great Lakes environmental policy.  He is an appointed member of the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission (Canada/USA), past member of the Great Lakes Advisory Board – Science and Information Subcommittee of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and currently serves as the US co-chair of the Smart Great Lakes Initiative Steering Committee. 

Smart Bioplastics Products

Dr. Prashant Agrawal
Chief Scientific Officer Plantee Bioplastics

Plastics have varied application and have become an essential part of our daily lives. The use of the plastics has increased twenty-fold in the past half-century and is expected to double again in the next 20 years. As a global estimate, around 330 million tonnes of the plastics are produced per annum. The production, use and disposal of the plastics emerged as a persistent and potential environmental nuisance. The improper disposal of the plastics ends up in our environment, resulting in the deaths of millions of animals annually and also the reduction in fertility status of the soil. The bioplastics products are manufactured to be biodegradable with similar functionality to that of conventional plastics, which has the potential to reduce the dependence on petrochemicals based plastics and related environmental problems. The talk will focus on Plantee’s innovative technologies to make bioplastics more accessible. 

Otters and Contaminants from the Oil Sands

Dr. Philippe Thomas
Wildlife Biologist, ECCC – National Wildlife Research Centre

River otters are sentinel species of aquatic ecosystem health. In areas like the Athabasca oil sands, environmental loadings of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) and trace elements are increasing in areas of oil and gas extraction. Some of these chemicals have potential to affect reproductive health in river otters. Dr. Thomas’ research is investigating the toxicological impacts of PACs and trace metals on otters and developing unique methods to assess reproductive health. 

Dr Philippe Thomas is a wildlife toxicologist at ECCC with significant expertise in the biology of semi-aquatic mammals and migratory birds, field studies, impacts of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metal exposures and complex mixture assessments. He has more than 10 years of experience working with local stakeholders and Indigenous communities in and around the oil sands and the Canadian Arctic. Additionally, he is the project lead for the Arctic Seabird Monitoring Program, the federal/provincial oil sands monitoring program: hunter/trapper-harvested wildlife and toxicology project, and a community-led waterbird egg collection program part of the St Lawrence Action Plan.

Why do Landowners Restore Wetlands, and how does the Community Benefit?

Tom Langen
Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University

The greatest opportunities for conservation of biodiversity and enhancement of ecological services are found on private property. In the St. Lawrence Valley and eastern Lake Ontario region of New York State, over 250 landowners have partnered with governmental agencies to restore and enhance wetlands on their property. What are the objectives of wetland restoration programs for the governmental agencies? Why do landowners chose to restore wetlands? Are wetland restorations similar to natural wetlands in terms of hydrology and water quality? Do they provide quality habitat for wetland-associated plants and animals? Tom Langen and his team’s research aimed at answering these questions, and providing best practices for public-private partnership wetland conservation programs.

Dr. Tom A. Langen is the Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University. Dr. Langen conducts research on the environmental impact of roads, and on the effectiveness of public-private partnerships for wetland restoration. He leads professional development workshops in Latin America and North America on the environmental impact of roads and other infrastructure, and on wetland restoration. Prof. Langen teaches courses related to ecology, conservation, and animal behavior, and has published pedagogy research on innovative college teaching activities. He is also involved in local river conservation, public access, and village revitalization as a board member of Grasse River Heritage and the St. Lawrence Land Trust.

The Great River Rapport: What’s the State of the St. Lawrence River?

Leigh McGaughey
Research Scientist at River Institute

Join us on the 2nd September to learn more about the Great River Rapport. A work framed in the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen (Thanksgiving Address) of the Mohawk Nation, the project is finding ways to communicate the health of the St Lawrence River system through ecological indicators. We will share with you what we have learned about the concerns of the communities along the Upper St Lawrence River, and what information we are gathering to provide answers to your questions.

Leigh has a PhD from the University of British Columbia, and has worked as an ecologist on five continents: Africa, Australia, Antarctica, Europe and North America. Her career started in invertebrate biology, and has expanded to include fisheries science, satellite remote sensing, ecosystem modelling and developing ecological indicators. Leigh currently leads the Great River Rapport – a conversation about the health of the St. Lawrence River – as a Research Scientist at the River Institute.

Standing on the Dock in the Rain: Landscaping your Shoreline Property for Wildlife and Water Quality

Barbara King
Executive Director of Watersheds Canada

Brian, Bailey and the Bats

Dr. Brian Hickey & Bailey Bedard
Reaserch Scientist at River Institute & MSc Candidate, University of Ottawa

The Aquatic Rollercoaster: How the River’s Ups and Downs Impact Biodiversity

Matt Windle
Research Scientist at River Institute

Effects of Legacy Contaminants on the Great Lakes Ecosystem: A Proteomic Approach

Emmalyn Dupree
Chemistry PhD Candidate at Clarkson University