Sustainability at the University of Guelph

Students arguably shape attitude and policy on university campuses, and rightly so. Universities have much to offer students: an open learning environment, mentors a plenty and a world of resources. Universities also offer a platform where students can organize themselves around interests and issues. Sometimes these issues involve the University itself. Sustainability and climate change are two such issues.



In late January, the University of Guelph's President's Task Force on Sustainability released an interim report on the state of sustainability issues and views on campus. As a response to this report as well as coverage by the local press, here is a letter myself and a few friends wrote to the Guelph Mercury.

Needless to say, I feel that the U of G has a long ways to go in terms of facing climate change issues and reducing negative impacts. The good news is I firmly feel that the University has the resources and motivated individuals to do so, but we can't be complacent. Just thinking about this is not enough, we need to move forward with actions.

A school for Attawapiskat

This blog started as a collection of stories from my first field season in Churchill, continued onto a 2nd field season and now is a bit of a forum for sharing news related to my MSc and the activities of the other Planktoneers. I've come across an article that I wish to share and I feel it is appropriate to use as many channels as possible, hence this posting.

This article is about the Cree community of Attawapiskat and their fight for a new elementary school.

Additional information can also be found here.

We talk a lot about education in my lab and usually we focus on education at the post-secondary level, debating the merits of new methods in undergraduate education and perhaps sometimes lamenting resistance we may face in our departments and from students when confronted with new ideas in teaching. However, we take for granted the base education that has gotten all of us to this post-secondary level; our time spent at the elementary and high school levels. However we feel about the education we have received in the past, or the direction we feel the education system is going...we can't deny that many of us have been very fortunate. During the holiday season we often think more about inequality in the world (and rightly so), but let's not forget about similar issues facing people in our own backyard.

Applied science

Maybe the idea of "applied" science is a bit of a buzz phrase...like "sustainable" or "green". But I think that it is pretty clear when some research or an idea comes along that has important implications for a community, area, demographic etc. That is why I would like to introduce this article (from Science) on fog harvesting. I believe that anyone can access this article though I am doing so through an university internet connection, so if you cannot, let me know and I would be happy to send it along (we'll save the discussion over public access literature for a later blog!). I'm becoming increasingly interested in water resources and think this is an interesting example of ingenuity...of course it also highlights how desperate the water situation has become in many parts of our world (and in Canada...).

What do we do with all that science?

One of the great things about being a grad student in a lab or research group is the dialogue you have with other grad students. Ingrid (one of the original planktoneers), has been away at Lakehead University this semester planning her PhD project and taking an environmental ethics course. She has provided some initial insights here. I enjoyed reading this post and thought I'd write a response or perhaps more of a continuation.

I think that another aspect that we have to consider in science is really how we do it and what we do with it once it has been done. I agree with Ingrid that we need to think carefully about what we are studying and why, because ultimately our science is going to have to stand for itself in the world and it is true that breaking down natural systems into measurable units may indeed detract from their instrinsic value.

However, I too feel that scientists have a role to play in environmental decision making and I think part of that lies not only with the ecology and the thinking behind it but also in the methods and application. The world is complicated. There are a lot of problems. We can discuss that forever and not get closer to solutions (we could probably also debate the meaning of the word "solution" for an infinite amount of time as well...), but there comes a point in time where we make a decision to study a problem and maybe even make recommendations. Regardless about where you stand on the second point, I think many of us can agree that all science has an impact. By impact I don't necessarily mean the impact that we want our research to have (ex. curing cancer, protecting an endangered species etc etc). I mean, obviously that is an end goal, but along the way our research will have other impacts: social, economic, environmental...impacts that we haven't even thought of.

I have been fortunate enough to work in the north for my MSc. I think the system I work on (aquatic rock pools) is important and that the problem I am interested in is equally applicable. But I also know that for every small bit of research I do, for every spreadsheet I have compiled and for every p-value I have gained through R there has been a train or plane that I took to Churchill and some soft tundra that I have repetitively compressed with my truck. This is why I think it is important for scientists to think more broadly about their research and ask important questions, not just research questions, but questions about how they are going to do research with the least amount of negative impact possible, and how they will ensure that their research reaches the audience it needs to after the fact (or during).

Alas, not sure if I have a picture that goes with this posting...

Let's Talk Science

There are many opinions on the role of scientists in education and outreach programs. This is a discussion that happens routinely in my lab, and the Cottenie lab website has postings that cover several topics of science and education. I think that these discussions are important to have and I have certainly changed the way I view science education over the last few years because of them. But sometimes, we have to abandon the discussion (or put it on hold for a while) and just get out there and do something.



Marina and I recently started volunteering with the program Let's Talk Science. This organization runs may different education and outreach activities and is unique in that it is powered almost solely by graduate students! Filled with ideas of things we would like to do with LTS, we realized that we needed a small project to start with. Enter Karl's oldest son's first grade science class! Next week, we will be facilitating a workshop for four grade 1/2 french immersion classes (don't worry we are permitted to talk in english- we double checked!) at a local Guelph public school.



Our theme is "The Wonderful Word of Microbes" or all things small, and one of our main focuses is on bacteria and viruses, both good, bad and just plain germy. In preparation we have been testing some interactive activities, mostly involving UV lamps and we are looking forward to the real deal next week.

So whether you believe promoting science education is important, or think interactive learning is the way to go, stay tuned for an update how our session with the students goes!

Planktoneer's write too? Well. We'll see about that.

My first experience in the Cottenie lab started 2nd semester of 3rd year when I worked on a semester long research project using data collected in Churchill that previous summer (2007). While I finished that research project course what seems like ages ago...I should have known that just as nothing in ecology is cut and dry, neither is the process of academia.



Academia, now there is a word that I don't slip into casual conversation everyday (well actually I probably use it far too often...something I'm sure my housemates could attest too). Now according to Wikapedia, "Academia" refers to "the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research." Well I've always known that there was a lot of that going on on the 2nd floor of the science complex, and beyond...but Monday I officially entered the world of academia...well at least I sent in my membership application, i.e. I submitted my first manuscript.

So now I am waiting to find out if I will get to undergo the initiation ritual of the peer review process, or if my membership card will get "lost" in the mail...

Stay tuned for updates and perhaps a summary of the manuscript, so that students I have been working with for the last few years no longer have to ask, "so what do you do again?".

As the dust settles...

If there is one thing I am learning throughout my MSc it is that science doesn't always go the way you expect it to. Personally, I think that is half the fun but when I think about some of things I have done over the last few years and some of the results I have generated (sometimes in error) as I learn this process called science I can't help but think that maybe this is why scientists are sometimes viewed as "crazy" by the general public.

Well in the interest of pointing out that science is a process; a long, tedious but fascinating process and to show that those who work in science make mistakes, I have 2 images to share today.

These are the first two exhibitions in a series I'd like to call "hmmm, something seems off here...?".

Making mistakes, doing things the hard way etc is part of the process. It is what makes grad students into future scientists (ahem hopefully filled with integrity and critical thinking skills) and threatens our insanity all at the same time.

Exhibit 1: One of my favourite R outputs

I like stats, I'll say that right now. I dislike learning R and I'm ok with admitting that. But even in this cloud of bitterness I can see its utility and have warmed to it. My "favourite" warning message ever went something along the lines of: "Warning message- results may be meaningless in Bray". Well thank you R for completely dashing my aspirations of statistical signifiance. At least when you fall in R you fall hard and this makes you determined to not make the same mistake again. This means I will never forget to check for colinearity again, and because of this I'm sure that one day R will say "Your data is just perfect, great job!". Ok maybe not...perhaps this will inspire me to one day have the skills to write my own package that will say just that.

But even this warning message was beat this summer when I began to experiment with the commerical version of R. One of the first things I was working on in R was making a simple boxplot for my cosm experiment. On the x-axis I wanted experimental treatments and the Y I wanted emergence success. Here is what I got the first time around:

Intriguing though right? Like I would hang this on my wall as an abstract piece. Would you believe that all I had to do to create this (absolutely useless) masterpiece was to switch the x and y axes? Once I switched them back this transformed into a readable boxplot.

Exhibit 2: And then there were worms...

As part of my colleague Anne's (the shore bird researcher from Trent) work this summer she was measuring invertebrate biomass in the mudflats where SEPLs were foraging, to see if peaks in biomass conincided with chick hatching. This may sound simple, but when you are identifying insect larva to family level and then using specific equations based on individual measurements of individual specimens to calculate said biomass you end up with something that looks like this:

Now this is for 5 individuals of a single sample. Tedious? Yes. Accurate? Yes, and probably more so than drying and weighing the samples. I'll look forward to featuring this publication once this work at Trent University is done.