The Department welcomes our new faculty member Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde. Dr. Schulte-Hostedde comes to us from Queen’s University and specializes in Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology; fitness consequences of phenotypic and genetic variation in vertebrates; population and conservation genetics as it relates to gene flow, inbreeding and population structure.
The Department welcomes Dr. John Gunn, a long time associate of the Department through partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources, who takes up a position as a full-time faculty member with a Canada Research Chair Tier I in Stressed Aquatic Systems.
Seminars
On January 26, Dr. Karen McCoy, of the Department of Biology at Queen’s University, presented a seminar entitled “Population isolation and the evolution of host specialization in a globally-distributed seabird parasite.” Dr. McCoy was invited by Dr. A. Schulte-Hostedde.
NOTE: Because of the large number of graduates since the last newsletter, the remaining graduates will be featured in next month’s newsletter.
On May 8th, 2003, Ms. Angélique (Brazeau) Bonneau successfully defended her Master’s thesis entitled “HIV-1 Tat: It’s effects on CD 34+ hematopoietic human stem cell differentiation and death/apoptosis.” Her supervisors were Dr. R. Lafrenie and Dr. L.G. Leduc. Currently, Ms. Bonneau is teaching at College Boreal.
On June 4th, 2003, Ms. Caroline Hunt successfully defended her Master’s thesis entitled “Element concentrations and algal microfossil diversity in preindustrial (pre-1880) sediments of lakes in mineralized and non-mineralized areas of Sudbury, Ontario.” Her supervisor was Dr. Patrice Couture. Currently, Ms. Hunt is employed by the Environmental Department of INCO in Sudbury.
On June 17th, 2003, Ms. Danielle (Monette) Waltenbury successfully defended her Master’s thesis entitled “The use of RAPD genomic fingerprinting to study relatedness in strains of Acidithiobaccilus ferrooxidans.” Her supervisors were Dr. L.G. Leduc and Dr. G.D. Ferroni. Currently, Ms. Waltenbury is a staff scientist in the Humanosphere at Science North, Sudbury.
On June 12th, 2003, Mr. Jonathan Leggo successfully defended his Master’s thesis entitled “Developmental morphology of a rose stem gall induced by Diplolepsis triforme (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) and its modifications by parasitoids.” His supervisor was Dr. J.D. Shorthouse. Currently, Mr. Leggo is applying to Ph.D. programs.
On January 20th 2004, Ms. Samantha Kinoshameg defended her Master’s thesis entitled “The effects of a simulated geomagnetic sudden storm commencement complex magnetic field treatment on experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in female Lewis rats.” Her supervisor was Dr. M.A. Persinger. Ms. Kinoshameg was our two-hundredth successful M.Sc. graduate.
Mr. Mehran Bahktiari was awarded a prize of $1500 in the Ruffed Grouse Society Wildlife Conservation Bursary competition.
AK.M. Ma, B.-J. Fu, S.L. Liu, W.-B. Guan, G.H. Liu, Y.H. Lü, and M. Anand.2004. Multiple-scale soil moisture distribution and its implications for ecosystem restoration in an arid river valley, China. Land Degradation and Development 15: 75-85.
Tucker, B.C. and Anand, M. 2003. The use of matrix models to detect natural and pollution-induced forest gradients. Community Ecology 4: 89-100.
Anand, M. and Tucker, B.C. 2003. Defining biocomplexity- an ecological perspective. Comments on Theoretical Biology 8: 497-510.
Anand M., Ma, K.M., Okonski, A, Levin, S. and McCreath, D. 2003. Characterizing biocomplexity and soil microbial dynamics along a smelter-damaged landscape gradient. The Science of the Total Environment 311: 247-259.
Desrochers, R. and Anand, M. 2003. The use of taxonomic diversity indices in the assessment of perturbed community recovery. In: Ecosystems and Sustainable Development, WIT Press.
Anand, M., Ma, K.M., Okonski, A. and Levin, S. 2003. Modeling recovery rules of soil microbial assemblages using matrix methods. In Ecosystems and Sustainable Development, WIT Press.
Güsewell S., Bollens U., Ryser P. & Klötzli F. 2003. Contrasting effects of nitrogen, phosphorus and water regime on first- and second-year growth of 16 wetland plant species. Functional Ecology 17: 754-765.
Parker, G.H. 2004 Tissue metal levels in Muskrat (Ondatra zibethica) collected near the Sudbury (Ontario) ore-smelters; prospects for biomonitoring marsh pollution. Environmental Pollution 129: 23-30.
Schulte-Hostedde, A.I., and J.S. Millar. 2004. Intraspecific variation in testis size and sperm length the yellow-pine chipmunk (Tamias amoenus): implications for sperm competition and reproductive success. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 55: 272-277.
Barker, J.M., R. Boonstra and A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. 2003. Age determination in yellow-pine chipmunks (Tamias amoenus): a comparison of eye lens masses and femur and mandible sections. Canadian Journal of Zoology 81: 1774-1779.
Schulte-Hostedde, A.I. 2003. Sex, size, and sperm: the secret life of the yellow-pine chipmunk. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta. Edmonton, Alta.
Schulte-Hostedde, A.I. 2003. A sperm's tale: causes and consequences of variation in ejaculate quality. Department of Biology, University of Toronto-Mississauga. Toronto, Ont.
Schulte-Hostedde, A.I. 2003. Fitness consequences of phenotypic traits: from chipmunks to sperm and beyond. Department of Biology, University of Ottawa. Ottawa, Ont.
Dr. Madhur Anand was invited to organize a special symposium entitled “Quantification of complexity in ecological recovery and restoration” at the International Conference on Eco-Restoration held in Dehra Dun, India October 14-23, 2003. Participants in the symposium included scientists from Laurentian (Brian Tucker, graduate student), University of Guelph, University of Rome, and Delhi College. The conference itself attracted over 500 scientists from all over the world. During this recent trip to India, Dr. Anand also presented lectures to faculty and graduate students at Jawarhalal Nehru University (New Delhi) and to high school students at the Touchwood Academy (Dehra Dun).
Laurentian University's Herbarium recently joined forces with Algoma University College, Nipissing University and the Royal Ontario Museum's Herbarium to undertake the Northern Ontario Plant Database. This database project is primarily funded by the Living Legacy Trust and with in-kind contributions valued at $200,000. The project seeks to compile data from plant specimens located in the herbaria, where collections of dried plants are systematically arranged, of several Northern Ontario educational institutions and government agencies, including the Great Lakes Forestry Centre and the Ontario Forest Research Centre in Sault Ste. Marie. This funding will also allow Laurentian to renovate its Herbarium, which presently contains about 19,000 plant specimens.
The partners are developing the website to present this information to the public. This site will include a new species list for Northern Ontario with current nomenclature, and an extensive list of synonyms to ensure that searchers can reach information on a selected species, even if the current name is not known. Links to descriptive information on some species will also be provided to assist researchers and the public in plant identification.
Laurentian's Herbarium, located on the 6th floor of the Science II Building , was created in the early 1960s by Dr. Yvan Carrier, s.j., and Dr. Wyn Y. Watson, the first Chairs of the University's Department of Biology. In 1964, Captain Edmund Turnau joined the Department, and contributed an extensive collection of Malayan ferns, as well making significant local collections. Over the past 40 years, the herbarium has expanded through collections from the Great-Lakes-St. Lawrence Forest , Boreal Shield, James Bay Lowland and High Arctic ecozones by various biology professors. The worldwide flora, including Australia, Europe and South America, is also represented by faculty collections.
The herbarium has received many gifts, including the collections of Gerard Gardner (Northern Quebec and Labrador), Dieter Ropke (Northwestern Ontario), and R.S.W. Bobette (Ontario and North America). Specimens have been exchanged with herbaria from Queen's University, Carleton University , the National Herbarium in Ottawa , the Université de Sherbrooke and Torino , Italy . The Herbarium regularly lends specimens and provides information to researchers, and has participated in the "Rare Vascular Plants of Ontario" project and the "Flora of Manitoulin Island."
Students and amateur botanists interested in obtaining more information or in assisting Laurentian's Herbarium in creating an electronic database of the LU specimens are invited to contact Dr. Madhur Anand, Director of the LU Herbarium and Biology professor, at (705) 675-1151, ext. 2213 or manand@laurentian.ca .