Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Hundreds of abandoned mines occur across northern Canada, places where human activities from decades ago continue to have environmental impacts in the present. Little work has examined the contemporary ecology of subarctic lakes as they rebound from historical mining pollution. Most ecosystem restoration or recovery frameworks have focused on biodiversity at the species level. Yet, interactions between adaptive intraspecific variation in populations, communities, and environmental change in ecosystems can modulate eco-evolutionary dynamics (reciprocal feedbacks between ecology and evolution), which may help explain ecological resilience in face of environmental change.  My long-term research objective is to integrate an eco-evolutionary framework for understanding biological impact and recovery in aquatic food webs challenged by anthropogenic disturbance. The goal of the Discovery Grant (DG) is to integrate an eco-evolutionary framework for addressing contemporary biological recovery in arsenic-contaminated lakes surrounding Yellowknife, NWT that were historically polluted by gold mining.  The short-term objectives are to evaluate: 1) Evolutionary responses to arsenic contamination. No studies have addressed evolutionary responses in aquatic organisms to arsenic pollution. My lab will use whole genome sequencing and laboratory experiments for A) a key pelagic grazer, Daphnia pulex, and B) an important emergent insect, chironomids, to test for adaptive evolution to historical arsenic exposure along a lake contamination gradient. 2) The extent to which evolutionary processes influences the ecology of biological recovery. There is a paucity of information regarding the extent to which evolutionary processes in populations can influence the ecology of communities and ecosystems. A) We will investigate the role of evolution in Daphnia pulex in zooplankton community re-assembly in arsenic-recovering lakes with field enclosure experiments and DNA metabarcoding. B) We will investigate the role of evolution in chironomids on cross-ecosystem subsidies of contaminants and essential fatty acids from aquatic habitats to the riparian food web. Understanding processes that facilitate or limit biological recovery of lakes impacted by historical mining emissions is essential for regaining benefits provided by these freshwater ecosystems to the livelihoods of Canadians, many of which influence most directly vulnerable groups of people. The research will evaluate the potential of intraspecific variation and eco-evolutionary dynamics to be integrated for the improved recovery and restoration of aquatic ecosystems challenged by human disturbance. It will provide advanced skills training for 3 PhD students and 5-10 undergraduate students, and experience working in the Canadian North. The DG responds to Canadian needs for HQP that are trained to solve global challenges that threaten freshwater ecosystems through integrative approaches from genes to ecosystems.