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what Caron calls “real-time science” on site will
enable Heath to take the $10,000-to-$20,000 a
year he would otherwise spend on travel and
logistics and apply it directly to research.
“It will be wonderful to have students
and be out in the field where we can actually
look at the close interactions between the
environment and the genetic response of the
animals and the plants,” says Heath.
He says his own research can help define
population structures in fish, leading to catch
limits for fisheries managers. And because
the property is in the middle of some of the
most intensive agricultural land in Ontario, he
says it will help such UWindsor researchers
as entomologist Dr. Sherah VanLaerhoven
evaluate ecological processes in farmland and
greenhouses.
Heath says he expects that the new centre
will lead to multi-disciplinary research, as
part of a trend reported recently in
The New
York Times
. The newspaper said an increasing
number of universities are developing
environmental centres involving such
disparate disciplines as economists, chemists
and political scientists.
“It’s so easy to become biologically centred,”
said Heath. “We know what environment is,
we know what kind of research should be
done. But we’ve got people from all areas of
science involved, and… the trick is going to be
to get outside of the science envelope and get
other people interested.”
Ultimately, the new research centre will
benefit multiple generations of students and
others in the community, says Mennill. In
about 30 years when he retires, he figures it
will be established as the world-leading centre
its founders already foresee.
“The development of this research
centre will draw the world’s attention to our
University’s outstanding research and teaching
programs. It is a really exciting time to be a
researcher at the University of Windsor and
to watch this environmental research station
take flight.”
THE CO-CHAIRS
Dr. Daniel Heath
, Canada Research Chair in
Conservation Genetics, helped further establish
his reputation and that of GLIER when he
published his research on captive salmon in the
journal
Science
. Conservation genetics is aimed
at providing a clearer understanding of factors
operating at the individual and population levels
before drawing any meaningful conclusions at
the eco-system level.
Dr. Dan Mennill
, who specializes in behavioural
ecology and animal communication, runs
Canada’s largest laboratory devoted to the study
of animal sounds. Mennill has developed many
new technologies for conducting field studies
of wild birds, and published his research on bird
songs and mating behaviour
Science
in 2002.
Mennill made news last year when he and his
team of researchers published evidence of the
existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker, an
animal considered by many to have become
extinct in the 1940s.
Field trip: Dan Mennill and Daniel Heath scoping the site. top centre two five-day-old bluebirds and three unhatched eggs, and bottom right marsh wren.
Bluebirds nest courtesy Julie Zickefoose; marsh wren courtesy Parks Canada; other photographs by Kevin Kavanuagh
