Aquatic Science Conference Highlights
A handful of Environmental Change and Aquatic Biomonitoring (ECAB) Lab members headed to Halifax, NS, at the start 2020 to take part in the Aquatic Science in Changing Habitats conference. This 73rd annual gathering hosted by the Canadian Conference For Fisheries Research and the Society of Canadian Limnologists (CCFFR-SCL) is “a national conference bringing together diverse research on a variety of topics and projects within Fisheries including the science, management, and issues facing our waters and resources today”.
The four-day conference enabled those in attendance to engage in a variety of interesting workshops, presentations and informal discussions about aquatic science. ECAB Lab students all participated in the Science Communication workshop—it’s always important for scientists to be able to communicate their findings with the general public, industry, NGOs, and decision makers in an easy-to-understand, meaningful way. This workshop was led by experts Drs. Marty and Thienpont of the Executive Committee of SCL.
ECAB Lab students also took the chance to share their exciting research results with many other conference attendees, including some of Canada’s leading aquatic scientists. Master’s students Julia Campbell and Jacob Demers gave compelling research talks on lake eutrophication and wetland macroinvertebrates; whereas, master’s student Alex Di Lonardo, presented an informative poster about her research on nuisance algal blooms in remote rivers from Vancouver Island, BC.
Julia’s presentation “Using Midge Remains to Assess the Impacts of Mink Farming on Hypolimnetic Oxygen in Lakes from Southwestern Nova Scotia”.
Jacob’s presentation “Aquatic Ecosystem Senescence of Wetland Impoundments in the Upper Bay of Fundy”.
Alex with her poster, “Lake sediments help recognize the historical presence of a nuisance algaon Vancouver Island, British Columbia”
Conferences such as CCFFR-SCL 2020 provide researchers and students an excellent opportunity to learn more about recent advances in freshwater and marine science, while promoting information sharing and collaboration. The ECAB Lab looks forward to participating in next year’s CCFFR-SCL taking place in Winnipeg, Manitoba.