New lab member!


Welcome Jennifer Gleason! Jennifer recently finished her MSc with where she looked at aquatic macroinvertebrate community composition:
“The Northern Prairie Pothole Region (NPPR) of Alberta, Canada contains numerous shallow marshes that serve as important habitat for wildlife and provide many essential ecosystem services. Many of these pothole wetlands have been destroyed or degraded by agricultural activity, prompting research into their condition and management. Aquatic macroinvertebrates are frequently used as indicators of environmental condition in rivers and lakes, but their effectiveness as indicators in prairie pothole marshes is not clear. I discovered that, contrary to my predictions, macroinvertebrate richness and community composition at family-level resolution do not respond to land use. Instead, macroinvertebrate community composition in pothole marshes is structured primarily by hydroperiod, which ranges from temporary, through seasonal and semi-permanent, to permanent marsh classes.”
 After her undergrad degree, she worked at BIO, and for her PhD she will combine both expertises (molecular identification and macroinvertebrate community composition) to investigate anthropogenic influences at the landscape scale. Very exciting!

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Karl Cottenie
Associate Professor in Community Ecology

I am a community ecologist with a broad interest in data analysis.