The first speaker is Alison Derry, who will speak on Biodiversity in Aquatic Ecosystems in reference to Lake Manitou.

Professor Alison Derry is a tenured associate professor in the department of biological sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She received a BSc in zoology / environmental biology from the University of Guelph, a MSc in limnology from the University of Alberta, and PhD in ecology and evolution from Queen’s University. Between degrees, she worked in environmental consulting with Golder & Associates in Edmonton, AB and as a freshwater research biologist for the environmental monitoring and research branch of the Ontario Ministry of Environment in Toronto, ON. She held a two-year NSERC post-doctoral fellowship in the biology department at McGill University before accepting her present faculty position at UQAM in 2011.

Alison Derry’s research focuses on how evolutionary changes in populations, often as a response to human environmental disturbance, can potentially have rippling effects at higher biological levels in communities and ecosystems (‘eco-evolutionary dynamics’). All of the research is done in freshwater ecosystems, and her students work in lakes and streams across Canada. Her lab specialises on lower trophic levels such as invertebrates and aquatic primary producers, and she collaborates extensively with fisheries ecologists to do integrative food web studies. Alison’s talk will present a combination of published studies and works in progress that address the effects of climate change, size-selective fish harvesting, and historical acidification on eco-evolutionary dynamics in Canadian aquatic ecosystems.

More information on her research lab at UQAM can be found at this website:

http://aquaticecoevo.uqam.ca/English/Homepage.html

The second speaker is Tim Lynham. His topic is “It’s Hard to Keep a Good Pine Stand Down” OR  “The Tall Pines of Ontario.”

From 1981-2017, Tim Lynham worked as a Forest Fire Research Project Leader for Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service (CFS) in Sault Ste. Marie ON where he conducted research on remote sensing applications for fire science, fire behaviour modelling, and fire ecology.

Tim’s fire career started in 1975 when he managed a Canso water bomber program for the Manitoba government.  In 1976 he worked as a helitack technician for MNR in Geraldton, then as an Ontario forest fire fighter in 1977 and from 1978-1979 he installed and researched MNR’s first computer lightning detection system in Dryden ON.

Tim was part of the Canadian Forest Service fire research team that developed the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction System.

Since 2005, Tim liaised with fire management agencies, Canadian and international space agencies, and King’s College London UK, to conduct research on thermal Infra-red remote sensing and he advised on the development of satellites that can be used for tracking forest fires.  Tim led the User & Science Team  for a proposed Canadian forest fire monitoring satellite (to be built by the Canadian Space Agency).  It will be launched in 2023.

Tim’s topic is about forest fire ecology.  He’ll focus on the Tall pines of eastern Canada by exploring the ecology of the pines and how their growth depends on forest fires.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

The third speaker is John Reid, Fire Chief for Central Manitoulin. 

Topic to be announced

Note: Please click here to view clothing available for purchase at the meeting.