Food Web Ecology Lab: New Graduate Students!

Aquatic Food Web Ecology Lab, Dalhousie University

Research in the Aquatic Food Web Ecology Lab based at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, focuses on the consequences of biodiversity loss to the functioning and stability of aquatic food webs. All of our work is done in a food web context, which means that its not just the numbers of species that we are interested in, but also the structure of the food webs in which those species are embedded. Most of our work is done in aquatic microcosms, small container ecosystems in which we can assemble food webs and then subject them to various types of disturbance regimes . We also use mathematical models to run "in silico" experiments, otherwise known as computer simulations, to study problems that are too complex or just not possible to conduct in natural systems.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

New Graduate Students!

Constance Tuck and Veronik Campbell are starting their masters programs with me at the foodweb lab this September. Constance (or Connie) was a 4th year honors student in my lab back in 2006/2007 and also did a special topics project with me in Fall 2007. Connie will be looking at how temperature variability affects food web structure and stability.

CAPTION: Tamara, Connie, Veronik, and April at Prospect Point, Nova Scotia

Veronik came to out to visit from McGill University this past Spring and decided to join the Foodweb lab. We think it was because of the amazing trip we took out to our rock pools at Prospect Point, about 40min from Halifax. Veronik will be looking at the consequences of species loss in food webs, specifically at whether it matters what trophic role a species plays in the food web in terms of how stable that community is over time.