Many Canadian reptile populations are declining and need help overcoming the challenges of the modern world. For this reason, numerous organisations and community groups have become involved in conservation actions, often intervening to safeguard eggs and hatchlings from the threats posed to these early life sages (e.g., predators, degraded habitat, roads and traffic). This project brings together experts in conservation actions with leading researchers in reptile biology to examine how we can improve the success of ‘incubation and release’ conservation interventions.

This project aims to build strong collaborations with Indigenous communities across Manitoba to monitor large mammals using camera traps. The goals of this study are to facilitate Indigenous co-management of wildlife with the provincial government in Manitoba and to inform management of declining species, especially moose, with regards to the factors which are driving decreasing population sizes and distributions.

Through analysis of vegetation data collected between 1991 and 2021 in Long Point National Wildlife Area, it is the goal of the research to identify trends and changes in sand dune vegetation communities following a reduction of white-tailed deer browsing pressure. By evaluating the rate and level of change in vegetation diversity, structure, and composition, recommendations can be identified for land managers to assist in achieving effective management of protected areas in relation to deer populations and resulting community impacts.

This project aims to bring Indigenous and Western ways of knowing together to generate actionable community-based data and information to influence local and regional water management and related decisions in the St. Marys River Area of Concern. Led collaboratively by the Garden River First Nation, NORDIK Institute (Algoma University), and Waterlution, delivered in partnership with four other organizations, we propose a pilot project that will train Indigenous community members to monitor water quality over a condensed monitoring season (i.e., as a proof of concept).

Off the east coast of Canada we observe some marine ecosystems that are still recovering from prior overexploitation, such as the Newfoundland sh elf, while other regions have witnessed recent expansion of fishing industries, such as the waters off of Nunavut. This project seeks to analyze trends in overall ecosystem health and to assess the overall impacts fishing acti vit ies have on fish and invertebrate communities from the southern Grand Banks to northern Nunavut using a technique called size spectra modeling.

Complex gill disease affects millions of farmed Atlantic salmon on the Pacific coast of North America, each year. This disease results in hundreds of millions of dollaras in lost revenue for the industry, yet there are few tools for early diagnosis of the disease/syndrome and no current treatment/intervention strategies that work to control it. The CGDI project aims at developing tools for early diagnosis and testing of new intervention and management strategies to resolve and control the disease.

Adult Chinook and Coho Salmon migrate to a variety of marine regions around the North Pacific. Along these migration routes, the contaminants they encounter and consume will vary. These returning salmon are consumed by humans and Southern Resident Killer Whales, and the health risk they pose will be dependent on their migration routes and diets. Otolith microchemistry provides a record of where salmon have been throughout their lives.

This Mitacs proposal tackles several outstanding issues that must be addressed to complete development of a widely applicable pipeline for quantitative analysis of 3D facial shape in medicine. Here, we focus on specific applications of imaging pipelines in genetic syndrome diagnosis and facial surgery visualization and planning.

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common childhood brain cancer. Current treatment for these tumors is invasive involving irradiation of the entire brain and spine. Although some types of MB respond well, others have an abysmal prognosis, and the lack of less invasive therapies means that children undergoing treatment suffer from severe developmental defects and reduced quality of life.

Great Lakes coastal marshes are economically and ecologically important ecosystems that purify water, reduce flooding risks, and provide habitat for the most diverse community of plants, reptiles, and fish along the shoreline. Most of the coastal marshes in Lakes Ontario and Erie have been destroyed or degraded by land-use changes, but those in eastern Georgian Bay are still in pristine condition; however, water-level fluctuations associated with global climate change and human activities are threatening their ecological integrity.