Project:
Determining the effect of Municipal Wastewater Effluent on the growth rates of Rainbow Darters.
Research Interests:
I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo, specializing in Ecology and Environmental Biology. I was drawn to ecotoxicology, and in my fourth year I began my undergraduate thesis project in the Servos Lab, studying the effect of Municipal Wastewater Effluent on the spawning behaviour of male rainbow darters.
My current research focuses on the impacts of Municipal Wastewater Effluent on rainbow darter growth rates. Several of the treatment plants in the watershed are currently undergoing major (>$700M) upgrades which may reduce or even eliminate the effects observed, providing a unique opportunity to study how effluent exposure alters fish growth. Fish growth has been used as an indicator of fish health in population monitoring programs, and although extensive research on this species exists, a comprehensive growth study has not been conducted. A better understanding of growth in small-bodied fish species will greatly enhance our ability to use them in regional and national monitoring as well as cumulative effects assessments. Growth may be a sensitive endpoint that will allow water managers to better assess the impact of environmental changes such as those created by major infrastructure investments being made in the Grand River.
Questions:
(1) Can rainbow darter otoliths be used to estimate fish age?
(2) Does growth differ among rainbow darter populations across the watershed?
(3) Have recent upgrades in the Kitchener wastewater treatment plant altered growth rates of exposed fish?
After being a biologist with the Arctic Research Group at UW she moved to becoming a Biologist with Minnow Environmental in BC.