Hillary Quinn-Austin (Supervisors: Mark Servos and Rebecca Rooney) is a graduate student in the Department of Biology and a member of the Water Institute at the University of Waterloo. Currently she is part of the Global Water Futures research initiative working within the Lake Futures Ecosystems project.
Hillary studies the impact of dams as barriers to fish movement and reproduction in a tributary of Lake Erie, with special relevance to the highly valuable mixed-population walleye fishery.
She uses stable isotope analysis to investigate how the walleye food web structure changes in the southern Grand River both spatially and temporally, and to use acoustic telemetry to investigate how walleye make use of potentially available habitat in the southern Grand River above and below the Dunnville dam.
Hillary hopes this research will contribute to achieving goals outlined by Lake Erie fisheries and habitat managers, such as restoring self-sustaining river spawning populations of eastern basin walleye and enhancing riverine and estuarine habitats in order to maintain sustainable walleye fisheries.
Hillary is interested in aquatic ecology and enjoys all time spent outdoors, including hiking, skiing, and canoeing. She completed her BSc in Environmental Biology at Queen’s University in 2017.