RESEARCH

Mangrove forests are the primary habitat of many migratory birds travelling through Grenada; however, this essential habitat is being threatened by urban development. Mangrove restoration and preservation is used to combat habitat loss, but these efforts have been plagued with suboptimal success rates. In most cases, failure is because the environmental requirements of the mangrove seedlings cannot be met where they are replanted. These poor success rates are not endemic to Grenada. However, by using mangrove ecology to guide restoration efforts, Grenada can join the numerous countries that have experienced vast improvements in success rates.

Currently, I am leading this project, and two of our goals are to: 1) establish reference conditions for mangrove forests in Grenada by surveying environmental conditions and biological communities at four sites and 2) revise the current mangrove restoration protocol for Grenada.

COMMUNITY COMPOSITION & CLIMATE

I am currently looking at how differences in precipitation timing could influence bird, plant and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in southern Albertan wetlands. We understand that because of climate change, surface air temperatures will increase, but there is not consensus on how precipitation patterns may shift. Between 2014 and 2015, there were vast differences in wetland hydroperiod (length of time they contain ponded water), caused by a delay in summer precipitation in 2015; total precipitation was the same between both years. I will determine whether there were differences in community composition and if communities responded similarly or dissimilarly to the drought-like conditions.

COMMUNITY COMPOSITION AND HYDROPERIOD

As part of my dissertation, I am examining how community composition is structured by wetland hydroperiod. Based on previous analysis I conducted on my data, we know that communities are more similar in wetlands that have longer hydroperiods versus those that dry up within the summer. I am looking at whether these trends in similarly result in permanently-ponded wetlands having more agreement (congruence) in their community compositions over those that dry up.

WETLAND PERMANENCE CLASS, LAND USE, CLIMATE & TOPOGRAPHY

Wetlands in the south west of Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) are forecasted to experience vast changes in their hydroperiods. However, because wetlands belonging to the same class can differ in surrounding land use and topography, those in different regions might respond dissimilarly to climate change. Here, I am investigating whether we can use topography, land use and climate to predict wetland permanence class in the Grasslands and Parklands of southern Alberta. If we can, it may be possible to better predict how these wetlands will be affected by climate change.