Students
Graduate Students
Christina Bourne, M.Sc. student
Christina is investigating the effects of culverts on fish passability in 4 Atlantic region national parks. She is using this information to measure overall stream network connectivity as a measure of aquatic ecological integrity. She is co-supervised by Dr. Steve Peake at UNB. Read about Christina's work in the local paper.
Julie Andersen, PhD. student
Julie is investigating factors influencing movement dynamics, habitat use and diving behaviour in hooded seals in the North Atlantic. She is co-supervised by Dr. Garry Stenson of DFO.
Stacey Camus, MSc student
I will be researching one of the island of Newfoundland's non-native species, the moose. I will be investigating the browsing impacts that current varying moose densities across the island and its influence on forest regeneration.
I am co-supervised by Dr. Luise Hermanutz.
Nyssa Trip, MSc Student
My Project: I am investigating the impacts of ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) on the Maritime Barrens Ecoregion in Newfounland; speficially within the Avalon Wilderness Reserve and surrounding area.
Other points: I only moved my life 3,000 km to come here, so I haven't come the farthest distance geographically, but I am originally from south-eastern Ontario, so I have come from the biggest population centre.
Troy Davis, MSc Student
Hometown: Most recently Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming,
Estimated Completion date: I’m halfway though my expected lifespan, kids. If I ain’t completed by now, I never will be.
About myself: I’m that guy not working with marine wildlife or seabirds.
Distinctive Skills: Stringing together tenuous seasonal employment gigs for the last 13 years, including the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service; comfortable in the presence of bears, bison, rutting elk, snakes, horses, cougars and other neotropical felids; intimidated by mules, academia generally and stats particularly; no skills involving R
Education: Bachelor’s in Biology, University of Texas at Austin (they kicked me out into the world with nary an ‘Hons’ to my name)
What he does when he is not doing science: Excitedly examining tracks and scat; exploring (including the cumulative hours spent lost in St. John’s); trying to adapt my rural Rocky Mountain sensibilities to the metropolis and climate of St. John’s; trying find places to hike; trying to find time to write; trying to re-learn gull identification . . . trying . . . trying . . .
Achievements of Note: I jammed my entire life into a 1994 Toyota pickup and drove 6000 km to get here from Montana. In February.
E-mail: tld708@mun.ca
Office (and possible student residence): SN 4116E
Shad Mahlum, MSc student
For my masters, I will continue recent work on the dendritic connectivity index (DCI) trying to prioritize stream barriers for restoration. I hope to be able to validate the current DCI model and identify alternate measures of passability. This will allow managers to choose an appropriate method to fit individual management goals.
Shad's website
Kalra Letto, MSc student
I am investigating the impacts linear features, including trails, powerlines and highways, have on Newfoundland's small mammal abundance and movement patterns.
Undergraduate Students
The objective of my research is to test the reliability of citizen-based bird observation networks, such as eBird and nlnature. Through comparison of my own sightings of birds within Pippy Park, St. John's and bird sightings reported by citizen birders, I hope to determine whether citizen reports are accurate and representative of the birds actually present within the park.
Former Students
Tony McCue, M.Sc. student Tony developed spatial models to investigate coyote space use on the island of Newfoundland. He is currenlty on contract at DFO working on a project investigating Ecologically and Biologically Sensitive Areas off the coast of Labrador.
Randy Skinner, M.Sc.(Env.) student
Randy developed a model of habitat suitability for Boreal Felt Lichen (Erioderma pedicellatum), a critically endangered species worldwide.The island of Newfoundland holds 99.9% of the world population of EP, and understanding and researching the spatial destribution,a nd predicting suitable habitat for this species may help landscape management and resource management relating to Ep. The ultimate goal in developing the predictive habitat model is to help research in the predictive occurrence of rare species that are hyper-sensitive to global anthropogenic changes.
Randy is now working as a Lab Instructor at Memorial University's Corner Brook campus.
Patricia Howse, Honours Student
Patricia investigated the effect of hare browsing on balsam fir and black spruce, and the interactions in stand with and without moose browsing. Patricia presented her Honours work at the APICS conference in Halifax in March 2011 and was awarded 3rd place in the poster competiton. She is recently completed her Honours BSc degree.
Karla Letto, Honours Student
Karla investigated nest success as a function of nest location for bald eagles in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. Karla carried out her research in collaboration with the provincial Wildlife Division. She is currently an MSc student in the lab.
Allysia Park, Honours Student
My project is the comparison of density and the ideal-free distribution of foraging bat species among three selected habitats of western Newfoundland. The habitats consist of an urban influenced site, an agricultural site and a forested site. My project entailed spending two hour intervals at each of these sites with a bat detector set to pick up bat calls at a frequency specific to their species. The bat calls will then be studied to determine the activity of bats at each location, which will be compared to the characteristics of each habitats, as well as the time of the night. To determine the ideal-free distribution, insect traps were set out at each site as well which will also be compared spatially and temporally with bat abundance. I also had some experience identifying bats via live trapping efforts. Overall, the research was extremely interesting and fun.
Allysia's work was recently profiled in the Western Star. Click here to read about it. Anyone in the province who finds a dead bat should contact the wildlife division. This press release has information about the larger study. Allysia completed a Master's degree with Dr. Hugh Broders at St. Mary's University with her field work in Newfoundland and is now back in the province working as a contractor with the Wildlife Division.
Christa Simonson, Hounours Student
Christa worked on a GIS-based project that investigated the effects of human impact in and around Canada's national parks on species losses at a variety of spatial scales. Christa's worked was recently published in Parks Science.