News Articles
Talks to Focus on Invasive Species
Tackling harmful invasive species will be the focus of a week-long environmental work- shop to be held at the Arboretum March 12 to 16. Researchers from Canada and the United States will discuss “Managing the Effects of the Spatiotemporal Spread of Harmful Species in Ecosystems: The Integration of Theoretical and Empirical Approaches.”
From Dutch elm disease to purple loosestrife to zebra mussels, more harmful species are invading ecosystems weakened by such factors as climate change and human development, says Michael Golinski, a post-doctoral researcher in the departments of Mathematics and Statistics and Environmental Biology.
He uses math models to predict invasiveness and to help develop ways to manage invasive species.
The workshop is intended to foster research links and projects in the physical, life and social sciences in Canada and abroad, and to develop management strategies to protect ecosystems that are vulnerable to invasion. Organizers, who include Profs. Madhur Anand, Environmental Biology, and Chris Bauch, Mathematics and Statistics, aim to help students learn about research in the field.
Keynote speakers are Mark Lewis, Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Biology at the University of Alberta; University of Toronto spatial ecologist Marie-Josée Fortin; McGill University biologist Frédéric Guichard; and Brian Maurer of Michigan State University's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.
This event is part of the Environmental Science Research Initiative funded by U of G's Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Office of Research. That initiative provides seed funding for researchers to develop interdisciplinary environmental projects.
For more information, visit www.envsci.uoguelph.ca or send e-mail to golinski@uoguelph.ca.