John Benson, Trent University, (PhD Candidate) is examining hybridization between eastern wolves, gray wolves, and coyotes in the Algonquin Provincial Park and region. His work will help guide wolf conservation efforts in this region.
Kathryn E. Hargan, Queens’ University (PhD Candidate), is studying the ecological communities captured in fossil records in peatlands in the Hudson Bay Lowlands to understand how these communities have evolved and adapted over thousands of years of climate change to support adaption and mitigation strategies in northern Ontario.
Shirley Roburn, Concordia University (PhD Candidate), is examining a conservation campaign in support of the Porcupine caribou herd, whose range encompasses a large swath of boreal forest and arctic tundra in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Her goal is to identify those features of a conservation campaign (scientific data, story-telling, artistic involvement, political lobbying) that contribute most to the campaign’s success.
Krista Sittler, University of Northern British Columbia (MSc Candidate), is studying the influences of prescribed fire on habitat choice and risk of predation to elk and thinhorn sheep in the Muskwa-Kechika region of the northern Rocky Mountains in British Columbia. Her goal is to gain knowledge of how often and where this management technique should be applied for conservation ends.
Guilherme Verocai, University of Calgary (PhD Candidate), is conducting an inventory of parasites in woodland caribou across boreal Canada. His work will increase our understanding of the distribution, prevalence and ultimately population effects of these parasites, whose effect on caribou may be changing as parasite ranges shift with climate changes.