CURRENT RESEARCH

 

Agricultural pesticides and aquatic ecosystems:

• Direct and indirect effects of agricultural pesticides on avian and invertebrate communities in agricultural wetlands with special emphasis on the neonicotinoid insecticides widely used in the Prairies. Click on the image for more information.

 

Factors influencing declines of Aerial insectivorous birds:

• Identifying large scale factors driving population trends in aerial insectivorous birds on the breeding and wintering grounds in the Americas.  Click on the image for more information.

 

 

Contaminants and Avian Migration:

• Investigation of the link between shorebird (Calidris spp) migratory patterns and risks of exposure to industrial pollutants at migratory stopovers and winter grounds. Click on the image for more information.

 

• Investigating changes in migratory and learning behaviour in birds exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals or neurotoxic pesticides.   Many thyroid hormone disrupting chemicals can cause subtle neurological changes during development  or pesticides could impair cognitive ability which may lead to effects on learning and migratory behaviour. Click on the image for more information.

 

Stressors affecting urban and remote river food webs:

• Multiple stressors affecting American dippers in British Columbia streams: potential impacts from  “Run of the river” hydroelectric developments and mercury pollution. Click on the image for more information.

 

• Developing biomarkers of exposure to sewage (using stable isotopes and hormone assays) and investigating individual and population level effects in European dippers exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals on rivers containing urban and industrial discharge in the U.K.