Challenges to Aquatic Animals in a Changing Environment

The broader goal of the Madison ECOPET Lab is to gain a better perspective of how aquatic animals respond to rapidly changing environmental conditions. This encompasses how populations of fish are changing with respect to their seasonal distribution patterns, trophic interactions, diet, and resulting complements of beneficial nutrients (e.g., polyunsaturated fatty acids, PUFAs), and whether these changes are associated with climate change- and anthropogenic-related shifts in their environments.

We are currently observing unprecedented shifts in global climate, affected by abiotic changes (e.g., temperature, carbon dioxide levels, acidity, eutrophication, salinity, habitat loss, shoreline erosion) and biotic pressures (e.g., declining species abundances and loss of biodiversity, increasing numbers of aquatic invasive species, altered trophic relationships, harmful algal blooms, etc.) to our natural resources. This is particularly salient in Central Canada, the Prairie provinces, and in Western Manitoba.

Anthropogenic factors complex these challenges in the form of aquatic contamination, from such contaminants as mercury (Hg), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs), illicit and licit drugs (ID/LDs), organic pesticides (OCP/OPPs), perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), plastics, and a variety of endocrine disruption compounds (i.e., EDCs).

Uncovering the relationships between climate change, anthropogenic contaminants, and fish health and biodiversity will provide an understanding of what factors need to be considered when adapting environmental policy for critical regional watersheds – including habitat restoration and conservation efforts. By focusing on the Assiniboine River Basin (ARB), Central Assiniboine River Watershed (CAW), the City of Brandon, and surrounding rural areas, the Madison ECOPET lab will provide local, meaningful data for regional communities about the state of the watershed and the biota that live within it.

The MADECOPET Lab researches these questions using an integrative and multidisciplinary approach, drawing applied and theoretical research experience, and strives to better understand the context of animals in their (changing) environments.