Adam Yates

Professor Yates is an aquatic ecologist whose research blends aquatic and landscape sciences to generate the knowledge and tools to help solve critical issues threatening the health and sustainability of freshwater ecosystems.

He leads the StrEAMS Lab (Stream Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring Sciences) lab, which is home to a diverse group of post-docs, technicians as well as graduate and undergraduate students who work together with government and non-government agencies to enhance society’s ecological knowledge of river and stream ecosystems and ensure these critical ecosystems are sustainably managed.

Professor Yates leads research in the StrEAMS Lab that integrates methods and theory from the fields of landscape and aquatic ecology to study the connections between landscape patterns and processes and the ecology of stream ecosystems.

Primary research goals include:

- understand the limits and controls of ecological communities and processes in stream ecosystems in landscapes dominated by human activities

- apply ecological knowledge to generate tools used by government and non-government agencies to conduct effective aquatic monitoring and assessments that enable informed and effective management decisions

• Spatial ecology of stream communities and processes

• Response of stream communities and processes to human activities

• Assessment and monitoring of stream ecosystems

• Threats to aquatic ecosystems and their interaction

• Contamination & remediation: water, soil, air

• Ecology and environmental biology

• Managing the risk of human activity in aquatic ecosystem

• 2008, PhD Biology with Environment and Sustainability, University of Western Ontario, Canada

• 2004, MSc Zoology, University of Western Ontario, Canada

• 2002, BSc Environmental Science, University of Guelph, Canada

• BIOL 351 - Aquatic Ecology
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
• BIOL 455 - Ecological Risk Assessment and Management
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• BIOL 606 - Advanced Aquatic Ecology
  • Taught in 2022, 2026
• WATER 601 - Integrated Water Management
  • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• For the full list of Adam Yates's publications, please see Google Scholar.

• Adam G. Yates, Robert B. Brua, Joseph M. Culp, Francisca C. Aguiar, Anila P. Ajayan, Thomas Aspin, Mirco Bundschuh et al. (2025). Charting a course for freshwater biomonitoring: The grand challenges identified by the global scientific community. Ecological Indicators. Volume 176, 113646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113646

• McLay, S., M. R.Servos, L. M.Bragg, et al. (2026). Benthic Macroinvertebrate Recovery After Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrades: Implications for Biomonitoring. River Research and Applications1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.70112.

• White, A.B., Brua, R.B., Friesen, A. et al. (2026). Spatial patterns in long-term nutrient concentration and stoichiometry trends in northern Prairie rivers. Biogeochemistry 169, 7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-025-01302-y

• Yates, A.G., Bailey, R.C. (2024). Using land cover information in assessing the ecosystem health of streams. Landsc Ecol 39, 17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-01831-1

• Pearce, Nolan J. T., Parsons, Chris T., Pomfret, Sarah M., Yates, Adam G. (2023). Periphyton Phosphorus Uptake in Response to Dynamic Concentrations in Streams: Assimilation and Changes to Intracellular Speciation. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c06285