Assessing habitat-dependent variation in distribution and abundance of aquatic Invertebrates in Alberta wetlands

This study examines the effect of human footprint and habitat characteristics on aquatic invertebrate abundance and distribution among wetlands across the province of Alberta. This study will contribute to ABMIs work which aims to monitor species and their habitats to support decision-making about the protection and restoration of provincial biodiversity.
More specifically, the research will: 1) focus on differentiating the effects of different wetland types and different natural and human created habitats on the distribution of aquatic invertebrates; 2) incorporate the effect of spatial scale in assessing aquatic invertebrate diversity. The three main scales are water characteristics, habitats immediately around the water and catchment characteristics; and 3) addresses the relationships for each natural region, or for two broad areas i.e., forested area vs non-forested area i.e., prairie/parkland/dry mixed wood.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jan Ciborowski

Student:

Martin Jeanmougin

Partner:

Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Natural resources

University:

Program: