How bioenergetics models can inform the conservation and management of aquatic organisms
Bioenergetics models aim to facilitate our understand of organismal growth and trophic interactions based on basic physiological principals. In this presentation, I will give examples of bioenergetics model applications for the conservation and management of fresh- and marine water animals. In particular, I will present information collected over the past 10 years on North American sturgeon, and more recently, on marine invertebrates in the Canadian Arctic. The intent of the talk will thus be to demonstrate the versatility of bioenergetics models, which can be used to study a wide array of systems due to their sound theoretical structure.
Dr. David Deslauriers is a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada working on trophic interactions in the Arctic ecosystem. His work aims to understand how environmental conditions affect the eco-physiological requirements of organisms and how this information can be applied to develop sustainable fisheries in the North.
Dr. David Deslauriers
Freshwater Institute,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Talk scheduled for:
Thursday February 21
17:15-18:00, Shultz Theatre
The effects urbanization on biodiversity - species establishment, genetic diversity, and local adaptation
Human’s are degrading the environment and this is causing a significant reorganization of global biodiversity. In this talk I'll explore the life history traits of species that predict persistence following rapid environmental change, the consequences of such change for genetic diversity and evolutionary potential, and the nature of adaptive responses to human activities.
Dr. Colin Garroway
University of Manitoba
Talk scheduled for:
Friday February 21
9:00-9:45, Shultz Theatre
Dr. Colin Garroway is an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba. His research explores the processes that cause and constrain evolution following rapid environmental changes. This typically involves studies of urban evolution, invasive species, and climate change related range movements.
Dr. Charlene Berkvens
Assiniboine Park Zoo,
Conservation Manitoba
Talk scheduled for:
Friday February 21
17:15-18:00 Shultz Theatre
Dr. Charlene Berkvens is a veterinarian specialized in wildlife health currently working for Manitoba Sustainable Development while on leave from the Assiniboine Park Zoo. She has a diverse interest in the health and balance of ecosystems and believes that wildlife health, human health, domestic animal health and planetary health are intimately intertwined. Her career journey and efforts have spanned much of Canada in addition to numerous native and non-native species. She also has a strong interest in regenerative agriculture and approaches to grow food that benefit soil health.
One Veterinarian’s Career Path and Work in Wildlife Health and Conservation
There are numerous approaches to a career working with wildlife. Charlene will speak about her career in veterinary medicine and the path she has taken to date to build a career focusing on wildlife health and conservation. She will speak about the various volunteer and employment opportunities she has had with organizations in Canada and abroad. She will also speak about many of the research projects she has assisted with while working with captive and free-ranging wildlife species.
Dr. Susan Lingle
University of Winnipeg
Talk scheduled for:
Saturday February 23
9:00-9:45 Shultz Theatre
Dr. Susan Lingle is a behavioural ecologist in the Department of Biology at the University of Winnipeg. Although her earlier work focused on predator-prey interactions, she and her students currently work on topics ranging from the evolution of animal vocalizations to mating tactics and hybridization of deer. Most of this research has been done with mule deer and white-tailed deer at a wonderful prairie field site in southern Alberta.
Deer mothers are sensitive to infant cries of diverse mammalian species — are humans?
The behavioural contexts in which infants cry, the acoustic structure of cries, and caregiver responses to these cries are similar across mammals, including humans. Are these similarities enough for animals to respond to cries of taxonomically and ecologically distant species? I will describe our lab’s research that shows that mule deer and white-tailed deer mothers approach a speaker playing cries of infant marmots, seals, domestic cats, bats, humans, and other mammals if the fundamental frequency (F0, or pitch) falls within the frequency range to which deer respond to young of their own species. Our more recent playback experiments with humans suggest that humans display similar emotional responses to cries of human and non-human infants, although certain acoustic traits were correlated with the intensity of these responses. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that mechanisms underlying the production of cries by infants, and the responses of caregivers to these cries, may be shared and evolutionary conserved across diverse mammals. I will discuss a few applications of this line of research for the health and welfare of human and non-human animals, including animal assisted therapy and developing interventions to facilitate caregiver-infant relationships.
Dr. Jake Stout
University of Manitoba
Talk scheduled for:
Saturday February 23
17:15-18:00 Shultz Theatre
Super-duper fun with plant polyketides!!
Plant type III polyketide synthases first arose when plants colonized land. In this talk, I’ll discuss the original functions of these enzymes in producing UV- and anti-herbivory molecules, and how lignin biosynthesis arose from the core phenylpropanoid pathway. I’ll also discuss how functional divergence in plant polyketide synthases in different evolutionary lineages gave rise to novel biosynthetic functionalities, including how plants produce medicinal compounds such as the cannabinoids in Cannabis sativa, the kavalactones in Piper methisticum, and the piper alkaloids in other Piper species. Super fun!!
Dr. Jake Stout's has studied the genetic control and biochemistry of specialized metabolism in plants for over twenty years. His PhD work at Purdue University identified a new role of the Mediator complex in the transcriptional control of phenylpropanoid metabolism in plants. Through his work as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Research Council of Canada, Jake is now internationally recognized as an expert in cannabis biology and biochemistry. He was part of a team that published the first cannabis genome, and has identified and characterized key genes that operate in the biosynthesis of cannabinoids. After his cannabis research work Dr. Stout formed and obtained licensing for a cannabis production company, which is now operating as the TSXV-listed company WeedMD. He currently holds an assistant professor position at the University of Manitoba, where his lab is focused on elucidating the biosynthetic pathway of monoterpene indole alkaloids in Tabernanthe iboga and piper alkaloids in Piper spp.