Oceans

U of T marine biologist dives deep in pursuit of ocean conservation data

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 13:50:07 +0000

U of T marine biologist dives deep in pursuit of ocean conservation data

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 09/14/2023 - 09:50

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U of T Mississauga Assistant Professor Cassidy D’Aloia, right, and PhD student Taylor Naaykens, left, take a selfie underwater after completing a successful field season (photo by Cassidy D’Aloia)

Ali Raza

Topic

Our Community

Biology

Marine

Oceans

Sustainability

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

Cassidy D’Aloia studies the population impact of larvae that travel far from their place of birth via ocean currents

Cassidy D’Aloia dives deep to learn about life under the sea, yielding critical data and research for marine conservation efforts.

An assistant professor of biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, D’Aloia studies the molecular ecology of coastal fishes and invertebrates and tries to understand the patterns, causes and consequences of dispersal and gene flow in the ocean.

Put simply, she tries to understand where the offspring of sea organisms wind up – whether fish, molluscs or echinoderms – and how larvae move around in ocean currents.

“Do you eat fish? Do you want to keep eating fish? Then dispersal data is important if you want to predict how fish populations will fare for the future,” says D’Aloia, who joined U of T Mississauga last year after completing her postdoctoral work.

As part of her research, she runs the D’Aloia Lab, where she and a team of graduate students work at the intersection of marine ecology, evolution and conservation biology, asking many interdisciplinary questions with answers that have profound implications for the future of marine life and conservation efforts.

D’Aloia examines the sea floor on the hunt for fish (photo by Taylor Naaykens)

Scuba diving in the coral reefs

D’Aloia and her team often collect ocean life data by scuba diving. Dives have taken place in the southern Caribbean Sea off the coast of Belize or Curaçao, or in the North Atlantic off the coast of eastern Canada. Because much of their field work focuses on organisms living in coral reefs, they see firsthand the effects of climate change on the health of these ecosystems.

Diving off the coast of Belize this past summer, D’Aloia says she saw how damaged coral reefs have become.

“Corals are critical to marine biodiversity,” she says. “Rising ocean temperatures are a huge problem for coral reefs because of the impact. We study a lot of things that live on corals and this year the coral bleaching was bad.”

Coral bleaching happens when the water becomes too warm and corals expel algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white. While the bleaching doesn’t necessarily kill the corals, it places them under more stress and makes them vulnerable to disease. That, in turn, can impact other species that are dependent on them, including humans that rely on the ocean for their livelihoods.

A healthy reef with high cover of living coral off the coast of Curaçao (photo by Cassidy D’Aloia)

An average day in the field in Belize involves waking up at 6 a.m. to eat breakfast and ready the scuba equipment before getting to the water by 8 a.m. From there, D’Aloia and her team swim out to the coral reef and begin diving where they record data, map populations and collect tissue samples from tiny organisms for genetic analysis.

With a few breaks in between, the team makes deep dives three times a day before heading back to the field station by 4 p.m. to clean the gear, back up data, make dinner and sleep. The field work goes on six days a week for a month or two.

“Our field work is gruelling,” D’Aloia says. “But I just love it. Being in the field is by far the best part of the job. It’s a very special feeling being underwater – like visiting another planet. It’s a real privilege to be able to do that.”

D'Aloia has worked in Belize for many years, building and strengthening relationships with local fishers, the University of Belize and other researchers. Her work has led to several partnerships, including Fisheries and Oceans Canada. She works with the federal government department to develop science-based management plans for Canada’s fish stocks.

D’Aloia’s current research in Belize is funded by the Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future and U of T Mississauga, in collaboration with the University of Belize’s Environmental Research Institute.

A coral-dwelling fish (Elacatinus evelynae) sitting atop a healthy coral (photo by Cassidy D’Aloia)

The importance of data

To understand how larval development of marine life is connected to conservation efforts, D’Aloia explores the consequences of larvae travelling far from their place of birth on ocean currents.

“We’re interested in how organisms move in the very early part of their life cycle,” she says. “It sounds simple, but it’s a tricky problem in marine biology.”

Larval dispersal determines how populations change over time and how they evolve. Species studied include snails, gastropods, cod, American lobster, sea cucumbers, hogfish and conch fish.

“Fish and harvested invertebrates are one of the last wild animals we still harvest in their natural environment, so I think it lends itself well to the integration of science and policy and trying to work together to give the fundamental scientific data that can help us make sustainable choices,” D’Aloia says.

“If we want to make decisions on spatial conservation, then you need this data.”

D’Aloia grew up in New York state, away from the ocean, but says she always loved science and biology. As a result of great high school teachers and encouraging university professors, she sought to become a marine biologist and “fell in love with the ocean.”

PhD student Taylor Naaykens runs surveys and counts fish underwater (photo by Cassidy D’Aloia)

Now an assistant professor overseeing a team of graduate students, she offers training and support for students to conduct research and build their careers as marine biologists. That includes learning how to scuba dive.

“Research that can support the conservation of those ecosystems is so important,” D’Aloia says. “I think supporting students who are trying to pursue good research and want to make a difference in the world is a good thing.”

The Dungeness crab is losing its sense of smell, putting it at risk – and climate change may be to blame

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 09 May 2023 14:59:11 +0000

The Dungeness crab is losing its sense of smell, putting it at risk – and climate change may be to blame

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/09/2023 - 10:59

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U of T Scarborough researchers found that the Dungeness crab, popular among diners, is losing its sense of smell due to ocean acidification, which may explain why its numbers are thinning (photo by San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst via Getty Images)

Topic

Research & Innovation

Sustainability

U of T Scarborough

A new study by researchers at the University of Toronto finds that climate change is causing a commercially significant marine crab to lose its sense of smell, which could partially explain why their populations are thinning.

The research was done on Dungeness crabs and found that ocean acidification causes them to physically sniff less, impacts their ability to detect food odours and even decreases activity in the sensory nerves responsible for smell.

Cosima Porteus

“This is the first study to look at the physiological effects of ocean acidification on the sense of smell in crabs,” says Cosima Porteus, an assistant professor in the department of biological sciences at U of T Scarborough and co-author of the study along with post-doctoral researcher Andrea Durant.

The Earth’s oceans are becoming more acidic because they are absorbing increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Such ocean acidification is a direct consequence of burning fossil fuels and carbon pollution – and several studies have shown it’s having an impact on the behaviour of marine wildlife.

Dungeness crabs are an economically important species found along the Pacific coast, stretching from California to Alaska. They are one of the most popular crabs to eat and their fishery was valued at more than US$250 million in 2019.

Like most crabs, they have poor vision, so their sense of smell is crucial in finding food, mates, suitable habitats and avoiding predators, explains Porteus. They sniff through a process known as flicking, where they flick their antennules (small antenna) through the water to detect odours. Tiny neurons responsible for smell are located inside these antennules, which send electrical signals to the brain.

The researchers discovered two things when the crabs were exposed to ocean acidification: they were flicking less and their sensory neurons were 50 per cent less responsive to odours.

“Crabs increase their flicking rate when they detect an odour they are interested in, but in crabs that were exposed to ocean acidification, the odour had to be 10 times more concentrated before we saw an increase in flicking,” says Porteus.

There are a few potential reasons why ocean acidification may be impacting sense of smell in crabs. Porteus points to other research done at the University of Hull that showed ocean acidification disrupts odour molecules, which can impact how they bind to smell receptors in marine animals such as crabs.

For this study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, Porteus and Durant were able to test the electrical activity in the crabs’ sensory neurons to determine they were less responsive to odours. They also discovered that they had fewer receptors and their sensory neurons were physically shrinking by as much as 25 per cent in volume.

“These are active cells and if they aren’t detecting odours as much, they might be shrinking to conserve energy. It’s like a muscle that will shrink if you don’t use it,” Porteus says.

Porteus says reduced food detection could have implications for other economically important species such as Alaskan king crabs and snow crabs because their sense of smell functions the same way.

“Losing their sense of smell seems to be climate related, so this might partially explain some of the decline in their numbers,” Porteus says.

“If crabs are having trouble finding food, it stands to reason females won’t have as much energy to produce eggs.”

The research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Some of the analysis was performed at U of T’s Centre for the Neurobiology of Stress.

Microplastic pollution is everywhere, but scientists are still learning how it harms wildlife: U of T experts

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 19:57:51 +0000

Microplastic pollution is everywhere, but scientists are still learning how it harms wildlife: U of T experts

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 01/28/2020 - 14:57

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Large plastics break up into tiny particles called microplastics that can persist in the environment for hundreds of years (photo via Shutterstock)

Chelsea Rochman

Kennedy Bucci

Topic

Our Community

Ecology & Environmental Biology

Faculty of Arts & Science

Plastic pollution is a growing global concern. Large pieces of plastic have been found almost everywhere on Earth, from the most visited beaches to remote, uninhabited islands. Because wildlife are regularly exposed to plastic pollution, we often ask what effects plastics have on the animals.

Over time, macroplastics (plastic debris larger than five millimetres in size) break up into tiny particles called microplastics (smaller than five millimetres), which can persist in the environment for hundreds of years.

Macroplastics are known to cause detrimental effects for wildlife. Individual animals can ingest large pieces or become entangled in plastic items, such as fishing gear, and suffocate or starve to death. Although there is no question that macroplastics are harmful to wildlife, the effects of microplastics are not as straightforward.

While many studies find microplastics can affect the gene expression, growth, reproduction or survival of an animal, others conclude that microplastics have no negative effects. The lack of clear consensus makes it more difficult for decision-makers to enact effective policies to mitigate plastic pollution.

Not all plastics are the same

We recently took a deep dive into the research that has looked at how plastic pollution affects aquatic and terrestrial wildlife.

We found that while macroplastics continue to cause detrimental effects to individual animals, they are also causing larger-scale changes to populations of animals, communities and ecosystems. For example, plastic pollution can introduce invasive species to new habitats by transporting organisms hundreds of kilometres from their native range, changing the composition of species in a community.

The effects of microplastics, however, are much more complicated. Of the studies we included in our review, nearly half (45 per cent) found that microplastics caused an effect. Some studies saw that microplastics caused animals to have shorter lives, eat less or swim slower, and others saw changes in the number of offspring produced, and changes in the genes being expressed. Yet, 55 per cent of the studies didn’t detect any effects.

Why do some studies detect effects while others do not? There are several possibilities. For one, the researchers used different experimental designs in their lab experiments.

There’s also the issue of using the term microplastics, which refers to a complex mixture of plastics that vary in material (such as polyethylene, polystyrene or polyvinyl chloride), the chemicals associated with them (including additives, fillers and dyes), as well as their size and shape. Each of these characteristics, along with how much plastic the animal is exposed to in the experiment, could affect their potential to detect an effect.

Microfibres and microbeads

For example, we saw that when studies exposed crustaceans to polystyrene, a type of plastic used to make disposable containers, lids and cutlery, the crustaceans generally produced more offspring. But when they were exposed to polyethylene or polyethylene terephthalate, which is used to make plastic bags and beverage bottles, the crustaceans produced fewer offspring.

We also found that studies using smaller particles are more likely to detect an effect. This may be because smaller particles are more easily consumed by small organisms, or because they can move across the cell membrane and cause harmful effects such as inflammation.

Microbeads are found in exfoliating products such as face cleansers and toothpaste. Several countries have banned their production and sale (photo by Shutterstock)

When it came to the shape of the plastic, microfibres (from clothing or rope) and fragments were more likely to have a negative effect on the organism compared to spheres (from facial cleansing products). For example, one study found that microfibres were more toxic to a species of marine shrimp than microplastic fragments or spheres.

Finally, one might expect animals to be more harmed when they are exposed to higher concentrations of microplastics. While it’s true that crustaceans were more likely to die when exposed to increasing doses of microplastics, the effect on reproduction was more complex. The number of offspring increased with extremely high doses, but decreased at lower doses, similar to what is seen in the environment.

Many types, many outcomes

Based on our review, we believe future research needs to recognize the complexity of microplastics and scientists need to design their tests strategically so that we can really understand how the different types, sizes, shapes, doses and the duration of exposure to microplastics affect wildlife.

Several countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom and United States have recently banned plastic microbeads – the spherical beads and fragments in face wash, body scrubs and toothpaste – because they were contaminating the environment and could cause negative effects in aquatic animals. Although this legislation reduces one type of microplastic in the environment, it is irrelevant to countless others.

Only if we have a better understanding of how the different types, shapes and concentrations of microplastics affect wildlife can we make better policy decisions. If, for example, microfibres are indeed found to be more harmful than spheres, we could focus our attention on keeping these fibres from entering our waterways from known sources, such as from washing machines.

Chelsea Rochman is an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto. Kennedy Bucci is a PhD student in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

More plastic than fish? Business leader and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt talks ocean health at U of T event

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 13:58:43 +0000

More plastic than fish? Business leader and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt talks ocean health at U of T event

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/21/2019 - 08:58

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The Schmidt Ocean Institute, founded by Wendy and Eric Schmidt, former CEO and chair of Google, was established to accelerate ocean research and conservation through data and technology (photo by Salvatore Laporta/KONTROLAB/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Sean McNeely

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Arts & Science

Oceans

Rotman School of Management

School of the Environment

Sustainability

By 2050, there could be more plastic in the world’s oceans by weight than fish.

This was just one of many shocking statistics philanthropist Wendy Schmidt presented at a recent University of Toronto School of the Environment lecture titled “What We Don’t Know About the Oceans Can Kill Us.”

“I'm worried that growing populations are failing to understand how intimately the future of humanity is tied to the living systems around us, including the ocean,” said Schmidt, the president of the Schmidt Family Foundation and co-founder of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

She added that she hoped to “offer new ways of thinking about the human impact on ocean health and to encourage public changes in behaviour.”

Schmidt explained that, despite all of today’s technology and exploration of other areas, such as outer space, we still know relatively little about the ocean.

What we do know is that our oceans are under attack.

“We couldn't be harming the ocean more if we tried,” said Schmidt.

Oceans are being threatened on several fronts – from environmental disasters and plastic waste to the changing composition of the ocean’s water, which makes it inhospitable to marine life.

Schmidt alluded to several disastrous oil spills, including “the worst oil disaster in the history of the United States that nobody knows about.”

In 2004, Hurricane Ivan swept across the Gulf of Mexico, bringing with it waves over 20 metres high and 230-kilometre-per-hour winds that toppled an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana.

Six years later, scientists were monitoring the aftermath of the better-known 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill a few kilometres north and discovered that the 2004 spill was still going on relatively unchecked, with thousands of litres of oil leaking into the ocean every day.

“Multiply this by 15 years and you have one of the worst disasters in history with no fix in sight,” said Schmidt.

Schmidt offered equally alarming facts about plastics at the Nov. 13 event.

“By 2015, the world was producing 322 million metric tons of plastic every year. How much is that? Picture 900 Empire State buildings of plastic waste being produced every year.”

Not surprisingly, that has led to enormous islands of floating plastic.

“You've heard about the great garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean, but there is plastic in every ocean with billions of pieces of children's toys, household goods and medical equipment. And 40 per cent of what we find is food packaging.”

Wendy Schmidt delivers a lecture at a recent U of T School of the Environment event (photo by Justine Apple Photography)

Those are the threats we can see, but the ones we can’t – changes at a chemical level – are just as devastating. “We’re rapidly altering the basic chemistry of the ocean,” said Schmidt (left).

Pollution leads to the rapid growth of algae blooms, restricting sunlight into the water, which, in turn, interferes with photosynthesis. When that happens, oxygen isn’t created and “dead zones” appear.

“In 2017, we saw the largest dead zone ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Schmidt. “It was the size of New Jersey. Some dead zones occur for days and even months at a time, showing up like the flip of a switch, killing everything that can't swim away.”

Last year, more than 500 low oxygen zones were recorded around the world’s coastlines, a number that has multiplied tenfold since the 1950s, according to Schmidt.

Despite the myriad threats and damage, there’s reason for optimism. The Schmidt Ocean Institute is supporting projects and technologies that it says have the potential to reverse the damage. In 2013, Schmidt introduced the institute’s vessel, Falkor – a floating lab that has welcomed more than 850 scientists and student researchers and traveled a distance equal to 10 times around the world.

“We offer science teams access to our ship’s computing laboratories, growing suite of robotic and mapping tools and a testing ground for new marine technology, all in exchange for one thing: the real time sharing of data,” said Schmidt.

“Our expeditions are multidisciplinary, bringing together mapping, morphology, geology, microbiology, chemistry and even art. Their combined work is accelerating our understanding of ocean systems and leading to their increased protection.”

Back on the water’s surface, the Schmidt Ocean Institute is also supporting promising marine technologies like saildrones – small wind- and solar-powered vessels that can generate ocean data collection at a low cost.

The institute is also supporting the work of scientists who are developing techniques to plant coral and rapidly accelerate their growth with genetic strands resilient to future ocean conditions.

Another promising technology is the “bubble barrier,” which is designed to stop plastic waste from traveling from rivers into oceans. It consists of a tube placed on the bottom of a river to pump air and create a curtain of tiny bubbles that blocks plastic items but not the passage of fish or ships.

Schmidt’s organization has also created partnerships with international sailboat racing organizations, “taking it from a sport without awareness, to one that is a leading advocate for ocean health and material responsibility.”

“We're doing this through grants and sponsorships for teams and race organizers, as well as local organizations working to clean up waterways, deliver clean drinking water without plastic bottles and educate young sailors about their responsibilities on the water,” said Schmidt.

Graham Huber, a marketing and communications manager with U of T’s Rotman School of Management, praised Schmidt’s presentation.

“I thought it was the right mix – a balance between being truthful about the current state as well as projecting a future in which there is much opportunity,” he said.

Toronto artist, Linda Semple, attended the lecture with a newfound interest in environmental issues, thanks to her son’s involvement with the Green Party of Canada.

“I’m fairly aware, but some of the information was really eye-opening,” she said. “I feel there’s some doom and gloom about our planet, and our wasteful ways. We need to have people with money to put into research.”

Schmidt is answering that call. She began her presentation by announcing a $1 billion philanthropic commitment, on behalf of herself and husband Eric Schmidt, a former CEO and chair of Google (now Alphabet), to identify and support talent across disciplines and around the globe to help address the world’s most pressing problems, including ocean health.

She concluded her talk by saying, “Think of the ocean as your life support system and think about how it connects to your life. Never forget the primal power of the ocean system, the one that keeps us all alive.”

Plastics: this U of T ecologist is working to save the world's oceans and lakes from garbage

lanthierj — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 14:36:10 +0000

Plastics: this U of T ecologist is working to save the world's oceans and lakes from garbage

lanthierj Fri, 10/07/2016 - 10:36

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(photos by Diana Tyszko)

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Arts & Science

Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research

Pollution

Subheadline

“The next generation is ultimately going to inherit our lakes and oceans, so I hope to inspire them to protect it better than we have in the past and present”

One of the most memorable and defining moments in Chelsea Rochman’s career occurred during her first research expedition to see what has been referred to as the garbage patch in the North Pacific Ocean.

After five days at sea the expedition reached the area where plastic accumulates. It was a calm day, and on deck two of her colleagues were counting large pieces of plastic as they floated by the boat. All of a sudden the duo called down to Rochman and others for assistance.

“There was suddenly more plastic floating in the ocean than they could count but it was an accumulation of many small pieces,” said Rochman, a new assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto.

Although she expected to see large piles of floating garbage, Rochman was shocked by what she was seeing.

“When I looked over the bow of the ship, it looked like someone had sprinkled confetti all over the surface of the ocean,” she said. “The plastic pieces were the size of a pencil eraser and smaller.

“We quit trying to count and stood there stunned,” said Rochman. “I sank down to the ground and reflected on the moment.”

As an ecologist, the significance of what she was witnessing was striking.

“Now I could see that plastic debris was not just available to large animals, plastic debris was available to all animals in the food chain. That day it was also clear to me, this debris could not be cleaned up from the middle of the ocean, but only prevented from getting worse.”

Rochman’s research at the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of California, has shown that fish that ingest plastic debris from the ocean suffer a “double whammy” – the plastic itself combined with the pollutants absorbed by the plastic while it has been floating in the sea.

“We found some toxic effects associated with the ingestion of clean polyethylene plastic, but we also found even greater impacts when the plastic had been in the ocean where it accumulated other chemical pollutants,” said Rochman. “This means that plastic debris acts as a multiple stressor.”

Her other work has found that plastic that made its way into oceans is finding its way up the food chain. In one study, Rochman found that one in four fish purchased from fish markets in Indonesia and the USA had anthropogenic debris, including plastic and microfibres in their guts.

“We were certainly surprised to have found debris in so many fish and no pattern among species,” said Rochman. “We were interested in whether the mismanagement of our waste had come back to us in our own food chain. I think demonstrating that opens up many questions about health and food security.”

Rochman shared her scientific evidence at the Our Ocean conference last week in Washington DC. The conference brought world leaders together to learn about key issues in ocean conservation and to make real commitments to help conserve ocean resources.

She says it’s important that scientists be included in policy-making discussions, so that scientific findings reach an audience outside academia.

“I have found that when I put myself out there and make my work accessible to policy-makers, they are eager to hear what I have to say,” said Rochman.

“I fear that if I do not take that extra step to reach out and share my work more broadly, and that if others don't do the same, the scientific evidence may not be used in decision-making simply because it is less accessible.”

In addition to teaching and research at the University, Rochman has also created an outreach program about plastic debris, which she shared with young people around California during her graduate studies and her postdoc. She plans to do the same here in local communities.

“The next generation is ultimately going to inherit our lakes and oceans, so I hope to inspire them to protect it better than we have in the past and present,” said Rochman.

At U of T, Rochman is planning new projects related to microfibres entering the Great Lakes from our washing machines, plastic in seafood, microplastic in the Arctic and designing environmentally and ecologically relevant experiments to ask questions about how microplastic pollution impacts populations and communities of wildlife.

Thinking back to that day on the ocean, Rochman says there are actions everyone can take today and in the future to mitigate the effect of plastic in the environment.

“Solutions are diverse,” she said. “Some examples include the production of more sustainable and safer plastics, reduction in the use of single-use plastic products, more advances and regulated waste management systems globally and to clean up litter on beaches and in the streets.”

“We can reduce our use of single-use plastic by refusing to buy products with plastic microbeads, carrying a water bottle, using tupperware and bringing our own bags to the grocery store,” said Rochman. “We can also carry around our own cutlery and refuse the use of plastic straws. Cleaning up litter in the streets or on the lakeshore helps prevent debris from entering our local watershed.”

Rochman says that even though many of us don’t live near a lake or ocean, that we are all connected to water. Every time we run our sinks, use a toilet, or wash our clothing we are contributing to what goes into our watersheds. She says it’s important to understand how we can protect our local and faraway waterbodies, as they provide major resources to everyone.

“Aside from beauty and recreation, lakes and oceans provide food, energy and even medicine,” said Rochman. “Taking care and thinking about our oceans and lakes is a priority for assuring we have the resources we need to sustain our growing population. As we try to figure out how to feed the people on this planet, food from the sea is often considered as one of the major solutions.”

Read about peak garbage clogging oceans and rivers

Rising-star ocean scientist Martin Krkosek awarded Sloan Research Fellowship

sgupta — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 09:08:37 +0000

Rising-star ocean scientist Martin Krkosek awarded Sloan Research Fellowship sgupta Tue, 02/18/2014 - 04:08

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Assistant Professor Martin Krkrosek is an ecologist researching infectious diseases in oceans (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Kim Luke

Author legacy

Kim Luke

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research

Global

Subheadline

Sloan fellowship

Martin Krkosek, an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, is one of 126 outstanding U.S. and Canadian researchers to receive a 2014 Sloan Research Fellowship. Only two fellowships were awarded this year to researchers at Canadian universities.

Awarded annually since 1955, the $50,000 Sloan fellowships are given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars, the next generation of scientific leaders.

Krkosek is an ecologist whose work on infectious diseases in the oceans addresses problems of sustainability in fisheries, aquaculture, and biodiversity conservation. As a Sloan Research Fellow his lab will study how infectious diseases may be a major emerging factor that can constrain the productivity and conservation of ocean ecosystems and resources – a consequence of humanity transitioning from hunting to farming coastal seas.

“I was surprised and thrilled to have been selected,” said Krkosek. “It’s a great recognition for the work that we do in my lab, and it will enable us to expand our work in marine epidemiology. In particular it will enable us to look, in a much more detailed way, into the transmission dynamics of disease between wild and farmed fish, and use that knowledge to help understand the options for management and policy of aquaculture, fisheries, and biodiversity conservation in coastal marine areas of Canada.”

“Martin’s work is critical to the development of informed and rational policy by various governments, industry and conservation organizations,” said Don Jackson, a scientist in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology who nominated Krkosek for the fellowship. “There is a relentlessly increasing demand on natural wild fisheries, as well as the need to produce fish through aquaculture in order to feed humanity, yet we are only beginning to understand some of the linkages between these two sources and that they cannot be managed independently of one another.

"Given the ability for pathogens to be transmitted great distances by fish and currents, individual localities and countries cannot manage these issues in isolation. The issues are complex and often require a multidisciplinary approach, they are important globally and becoming more so over time, and their impacts range from the academic community to major Canadian economic sectors, and ultimately may influence what is availableat our local grocery store.”

“Congratulations to Professor Krkosek, on behalf of the University of Toronto research community and thanks to the Sloan Foundation for honouring one of our rising research stars,” said Professor Peter Lewis, U of T’s associate vice-president, research and innovation. “At any time, our global society and the planet itself face a variety of challenges. University researchers like Professor Krkosek play a vital role in helping society to deal with these problems.”

Sloan fellowships are awarded in eight scientific and technical fields – chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, evolutionary and computational molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics.

“For more than half a century, the Sloan Foundation has been proud to honour the best young scientific minds and support them during a crucial phase of their careers when early funding and recognition can really make a difference,” said Dr. Paul L. Joskow, President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “These researchers are pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge in unprecedented ways.”

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