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Environmental Analysis

Assessing forest disturbance and recovery with spatial and temporal structural morphology

Assessing forest disturbance and recovery with spatial and temporal structural morphology

Principal Investigator: Tarmo Remmel. Funding: NSERC Discovery Grant. Term: 2021-2026. The project is developing an explicit logic and corresponding software to extend morphological segmentation to depict a true 3D characterization of landscapes. Methods will be subject to sensitivity analysis and will be used to compare the effects and recovery of landscape processes such as fire,

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Drivers and consequences of individual specialization in an Arctic marine top predator

Drivers and consequences of individual specialization in an Arctic marine top predator

Principal Investigator: Gregory Thiemann Funding: NSERC Discovery Grant. Term: 2021-2026. The proposed research involves testing hypotheses around the environmental drivers and ecological consequences of individual specialization, using the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) as a model species and target for conservation. As a long­-lived top predator in a dynamic habitat, polar bears demonstrate several characteristics that

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Interdisciplinary Conservation Science

Interdisciplinary Conservation Science

Principal Investigator: Sheila Colla Funding: York Research Chair Term: 2020-2025 The research program over the next five years continues to combine ecology, citizen science, policy and biocultural understanding to better address pollinator conservation and management challenges. The broad objectives are to: investigate differential success of native pollinators subject to multiple environmental stressors; develop new conservation

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A biocultural and interdisciplinary approach to pollinator conservation through ecology, art and pedagogy

A biocultural and interdisciplinary approach to pollinator conservation through ecology, art and pedagogy

Co-Principal Investigators: Sheila Colla and Lisa Myers. Funding: SSHRC New Frontiers in Research Fund. Term: 2020-2023. Dubbed as Finding Flowers, this interdisciplinary research project integrates art, ecology and education. Inspired by the work of the late Mi’kmaq artist Mike MacDonald, Finding Flowers grows, revitalizes and cares for native pollinator gardens as art installations, and as spaces for

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Rubble to Refuge: Toronto's Leslie Street Spit

Rubble to Refuge: Toronto's Leslie Street Spit

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Foster/Co-Investigator: Gail Fraser. Funding: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant. Term: 2020-2025. The project unites established researchers from York University with conservation managers from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and students to address pressing issues on Toronto's Leslie Street Spit, one of Canada's most celebrated "urban wilderness" landscapes. It combines innovative methodologies

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Dependence of cyanobacteria bloom formation and maintenance on anoxia and trace metals in eutrophic lakes

Dependence of cyanobacteria bloom formation and maintenance on anoxia and trace metals in eutrophic lakes

Principal Investigator: Lewis Molot Funding: NSERC Term: 2018-2022 The key driver of cyanobacteria bloom formation is the onset of anoxia (defined as complete loss of dissolved oxygen and nitrate) at the sediment/water boundary which results in release of ferrous iron into overlying water. The discovery of this formation has important management implications because blooms can

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An Interdisciplinary Approach to Native Pollinator Conservation in Southern Ontario: A Case Study from Norfolk County

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Native Pollinator Conservation in Southern Ontario: A Case Study from Norfolk County

Principal Investigator: Sheila Colla. Funding: W. Garfield Weston Foundation. Term: 2016-2022. Interviews and farm tours were done with conservation program Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) participants. These interviews took place in Norfolk County, Ontario where previous work showed bee richness to be positively impacted on the land of ALUS farmers when compared to non-ALUS sites.

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Understanding differential vulnerabilities to environmental stressors among native North American bumblebee species

Understanding differential vulnerabilities to environmental stressors among native North American bumblebee species

Principal Investigator: Sheila Colla. Funding: NSERC Discovery Grant. Term: 2017-2026. The savethebumbblebees lab is com prised of members from both the Department of Biology and the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. As a lab, the project team is interested in all aspects of native pollinator conservation. Research is interdisciplinary, including ecology, conservation biology, policy

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