News

Love Lab thesis students present at the undergraduate colloquium

April 26, 2018

Congratulations to the Love Lab’s three 420 (undergraduate thesis) students who presented their work at the Biology Department’s undergraduate colloquium today. Sydney Currier (co-supervised by Dr. Daniel Heath), Jason Chappus (co-supervised by Dr. Emily McKinnon), and Amera Khalaff all gave engaging overviews of their research. We’re proud of all they have accomplished over the past two semesters!

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February 22, 2018

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Sean Power successfully defends his MSc!

January 15, 2018

Congratulations to Sean Power who successfully defended his MSc thesis entitled “Endogenous regulation of seasonal energetic phenotypes: investigating the hormonal mechanisms of fat gain and muscle growth across avian life-history stages in two Arctic birds”. Sean’s project was co-supervised by Dr. Francois Vezina at UQAR and included an impressive review of the hormonal controls of energetic stores in birds. Along with this, Sean also investigated a number of hormones that may regulate fat and muscle gain prior to energetically demanding life history stages in Snow Buntings and Common Eiders. Congratulations, Sean!

Mitch Dender successfully defends his MSc!

March 17, 2017

A big congrats goes out to Mitchel Dender today for successfully defending his MSc thesis entitled “Using phenotypic integration to explain inter-population variation in growth rates of Chinook salmon” from Christina Semeniuk’s lab. Co-supervised by our lab, Mitch’s thesis explored the applicability of using the framework of phenotypic integration to optimize complex phenotypes in aquaculture settings to maximize production value. Mitch’s work has broad-scale applications for both evolutionary ecology as well as applied aquaculture and was part of a large NSERC Strategic Partnership Grant (SPG) led by Dr. Daniel Heath to examine the performance impacts of outbreeding captive chinooks stocks with locally-adapted wild populations. Congratulations again Mitch.

Emily publishes in Ecology!

February 17, 2017

A huge congratulations today goes out to Love Lab Mitacs post-doctoral fellow Dr. Emily McKinnon for publishing a groundbreaking paper with Bird Studies Canada co-supervisor Dr. Christina Artuso on the previously unknown migration of the elusive Connecticut warbler in the journal Ecology. Entitled “The mystery of the missing warbler” Emily’s work used micro-geolocator technology to track the Fall migration of a warbler species for which, even to this day, we had almost no life-history information on to begin with. Emily found clear evidence that Connecticut Warblers migrate over the Atlantic Ocean in fall by using a minimum 48-hr non-stop flight from the eastern coast of the US to landing points on Cuba or Hispaniola, a distance of 1700-2400km. She also found the surprising result that, after a stopover of 5-7 days, Connecticut Warblers again traveled over open water (the Caribbean Sea) in a single flight covering 600-800km before travelling to their final winter sites in the Amazon basin. Along with recent data on Blackpoll warblers, this is the first direct evidence of any other songbird species using an open-ocean strategy to reach winter sites in South America. Of course, solving one mystery with respect to fall migration routes of this species has opened up perhaps an even more pressing issue: exploring their non-breeding habitat usage to ensure the conservation of this little-known warbler before it disappears altogether. Fantastic work Emily.

Rolanda wins it all at the 6th International Seaduck Meeting in San Francisco!

February 10, 2017

Congratulations to co-supervised PhD student Rolanda Steenweg for winning three student awards at the recent 6th International Seaduck Meeting held in San Francisco. Rolanda won the PhD Presentation award, the Best PhD Poster award and a student travel award for all of her efforts. Rolanda and fellow Love Lab member Dr. Holly Hennin were in California to present all of their recent Common eider results, and to represent both the lab and Team East Bay. Although the two endured days of rain at the meeting, the conference was a huge success overall. Great work Rolanda and Holly!

Chris publishes his second MSc chapter in Oecologia!

February 7, 2017

Congratulations to Chris Harris and co-author Christine Madliger for having Chris’ second data chapter entitled “An evaluation of feather corticosterone as a biomarker of fitness and an ecologically-relevant stressor during breeding in the wild“ recently accepted in Oecologia. The field of using feather corticosterone as a biomarker of individual responses to environmental stressors in rapidly taking off, and yet has received fairly little critical evaluation with regards to its links to performance and fitness. Chris’ work used a manipulative, multi-year dataset tracking individuals across stages and years to ask whether fCORT provides a reliable, easy-to-interpret measure of stress during reproduction. Perhaps not surprisingly, Chris found very context-dependent answers to these questions and little support for fCORT being able to pick up a major stressor during breeding. We hope this work will enable researchers to start to better appreciate the capability of  this trait as a  biomarker of environmental stress. Great work as always Chris.

Christine and Chris welcome new baby Elliot!

January 10, 2017

Wonderful news just before Christmas and the New Year as Love Lab post-doc Dr. Christine Madliger and her husband and Love Lab manager Chris Harris welcomed their first child into the world on December 22nd. Elliot Clifford Harris was born healthy and happy, and Christine and Chris are doing fantastically in their new jobs as parents. As Elliot gets bigger and bigger I’m sure we’ll be posting lots of update photos with him and Love lab extended aunties and uncles.

Pauline publishes her first data chapter from her MSc!

January 4, 2017

Congratulations to Pauline Capelle whose first data chapter entitled “Pre-natal stress exposure generates higher early survival and smaller size without impacting developmental rate in a Pacific salmon” was just accepted for publication in the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology. Working with co-supervisor Dr. Christina Semeniuk, Semeniuk-Love lab post-doc Dr. Natalie Sopinka and Dr. John Heath of Yellow Island Aquaculture Ltd, Pauline’s results demonstrate that elevations in egg cortisol can positively influence offspring fitness through an increase in early survival while also altering phenotype at a critical life-history stage. Overall, her work suggests that exposure to pre-natal stress may not always produce apparently ‘negative’ impacts on offspring fitness and further proposes that complex phenotypic responses should be examined in relevant environmental conditions. Tremendous work Pauline.

Christine publishes a review on the role of Conservation Physiology in the “Good” Anthropocene

January 3, 2017

Congratulations to post-doc Dr. Christine Madliger for publishing her recent review “Conservation physiology and the quest for a “good” Anthropocene” in the journal Conservation Physiology. Along with co-supervisor Dr. Steven Cooke from Carleton University, Christine worked with a diverse team of conservation-minded physiologists to examine the positive role that physiology can play in exploring complex issues within the current ‘Anthropocene’ era. As the review notes, while the narrative surrounding the fate of the world’s species and ecosystems is often negative, the field of conservation physiology can infuse optimistic perspectives, pragmatic approaches, and heightened public engagement into this pursuit. Fantastic achievement Christine on working to make a difference!

Emily and David deploy MOTUS tags on Snow buntings!

December 23, 2016

The Love Lab recently got an early Christmas research present when Mitacs Snow bunting post-doc Dr. Emily McKinnon teamed up with long-term CSBN bander Mr. David Lamble (pictured with a tagged bunting) at his Fergus banding site to deploy 20 new avian nano-tags on wintering Snow buntings using the widespread MOTUS tracking network. Emily began the successful pilot project last year by deploying 20 units near Bird Studies Canada headquarters in Port Rowan, Ontario. With the early winter in SW Ontario, Emily and David were able to get a great start this winter on tracking the real-time, fine-scale movement patterns of individual birds as they respond to varying weather conditions. The project aims to reveal how the species makes behavioural decisions about optimal wintering locations in response to both regular and extreme weather events, as well as track the timing of migration through Québec, to Newfoundland/Labrador and onto breeding grounds in Western Greenland in the Spring. Well done guys!

Pauline Capelle successfully defends her MSc!

December 15, 2016

Congratulations to Pauline who successfully defended her Master’s thesis entitled “Interactive effects of pre- and post-natal stressors on Chinook salmon performance and fitness”. Pauline’s thesis focused on manipulating a maternal stress signal (at the egg stage) and measuring subsequent offspring performance and fitness to test for adaptive maternal effects and environmental matching. Her project was highly integrative and has important implications in the context of the effects of climate change on wild populations, and for aquaculture practices. Pauline was co-supervised by Dr. Christina Semeniuk, and her collaborative fieldwork took place at YIAL. The Love and Semeniuk Labs are very proud of Pauline’s accomplishments!

Graham publishes a meta-analysis in Oecologia

November 11, 2016

Congratulations to Graham Sorenson whose first data chapter from his thesis was just accepted to Oecologia! Working with Dr. Cody Dey and Dr. Christine Madliger, Graham performed a meta-analysis to determine whether baseline glucocorticoids reliably predict environmental and fitness-related traits across seabirds. Graham found that while baseline corticosterone may be a useful predictor of larger-scale environmental traits (e.g., food availability) and some fitness-related traits (e.g., reproductive success), it may not be sensitive enough to detect variation in body condition, foraging effort, and breeding effort. This work contributes to our growing understanding of corticosterone as a highly context-dependent hormone, having important implications for its use in ecological and conservation-based monitoring of seabird populations.

Natalie and Pauline publish a new review!

October 24, 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Natalie Sopinka, Pauline Capelle and their co-supervisor Dr. Christina Semeniuk for recently having a review entitled “Glucocorticoids in fish eggs: variation, interactions with the environment, and the potential to shape offspring fitness” accepted in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. This invited paper details the hows and whys of variation in egg cortisol within and across fish species, examines the impact of this maternal effect on offspring phenotype and fitness, and hypothesizes how both are affected by future environments faced by offspring. Great work team.

Chris and Christine Publish in Conservation Physiology

October 12, 2016

Congratulations to Chris Harris and Christine Madliger for publishing one of Chris’ three MSc chapters examining variation in feather corticosterone as a biomarker of environmental change in Conservation Physiology. Entitled “Temporal overlap and repeatability of feather corticosterone levels: practical considerations for use as a biomarker” the paper tested the prediction that for feather corticosterone to be a valid biomarker of exposure to environmental stress, feathers which share spatial and temporal overlap should show similar levels of this glucocorticoid. Chris’ results show that feathers moulted at the same time across the body do not show any similarity in fCORT levels. Along with these results and other experimental work from his thesis, Chris’ results call into serious question whether fCORT can be used as a reliable biomarker of environmental stress.

Felicia Vincelli successfully defends her MSc!

September 20, 2016

Congratulations to Felicia Vincelli who successfully defended her Master’s thesis entitled “Transcriptomic and Physiological Variation as Mechanisms of Colonization Success in the Round goby (Neogobius melanostomus)” today! Based at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER), Felicia was co-supervised by Dr. Daniel Heath. Felicia’s thesis examined the genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying Round goby invasion capacity across the Great Lakes watershed. Her multi-disciplinary project included an experimental manipulation of water temperature and substantial field and lab work. Congratulations, Felicia!

Christine publishes in Conservation Physiology!

September 17, 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Christine Madliger for having her recent paper “Employing individual measures of baseline glucocorticoids as population-level conservation biomarkers: considering within-individual variation in a breeding passerine” accepted to Conservation Physiology. The impetuous for Christine’s work was the observation that while the application of glucocorticoids (GCs) as conservation biomarkers has seen a huge increase, few studies have explicitly investigated whether baseline GC levels respond to disturbances consistently across individuals. Following individual female Tree swallows across multiple years, Christine’s work suggests that baseline GCs measured on a sub-set of individuals may not provide a representative indication of responses to environmental change at the population level and multiple within-individual measures may be necessary to determine the fitness correlates of GC levels. Fantastic work Christine.

Dr. Christine Madliger is awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal

September 14, 2016

An enormous set of congratulations today for Dr. Christine Madliger who was just awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal for best PhD thesis at the University of Windsor for 2016. One Gold Medal recipient is recognized each year for the most outstanding PhD thesis within a University. Christine’s PhD examining committee were overwhelmingly in favour of the nomination leading to the award. Moreover, Christine has now published all five data chapters from her thesis entitled “Assessing baseline glucocorticoids as conservation biomarkers in a declining aerial insectivore“, and during her time as a PhD student she also led or was a sole/co-author on an additional 6 publications. We couldn’t be more proud of you Christine. Congratulations from all of us.

The Love Lab Welcomes Theresa Warriner!

September 1, 2016

Theresa has just begun her MSc in our lab co-supervised by Dr. Christina Semeniuk and is examining the interactive effects of environmental and maternal effects on offspring phenotype and performance in Chinook salmon. Theresa completed her BSc at McMaster University and her honours work with Dr. Sigal Balshine. Theresa comes from a strong pedigree which also thankfully brought us Pauline (Capelle) and Natalie (Sopinka). We are looking forward to lots of great research, new discoveries and fun with the lab. Welcome Theresa!

Graham successfully defends his MSc!!

August 26, 2016

Congratulations to Graham Sorenson for successfully defending his MSc thesis yesterday entitled “Assessing physiological and behavioural energetics as biomarkers of environmental change in seabirds“. Graham’s thesis explored the use of physiological and behavioural biomarkers in assessing the response of seabird species to rapid environmental change. The thesis combined a meta-analytical approach to assess the strength of corticosterone-fitness relationships in seabirds, as well as a field-based empirical study of the mechanisms underlying individual- and population-level responses of Arctic-breeding thick-billed murres to changes in sea ice conditions. Fantastic work Graham. We’re all very proud.

Kenneth has his White Coat Ceremony at Loma Linda Medical School!

August 22, 2016

We are happy to announce that former undergraduate honours student Kenneth Sarpong just completed his White Coat Ceremony at the Loma Linda Medical School in California. Kenneth worked closely with Dr. Christine Madliger and Chris Harris in our lab examining links between plumage ornamentation, stress physiology and fitness in Trees swallows. Congratulations Kenneth on a huge achievement. The Love Lab misses you and is cheering you on!

Holly’s Third PhD Chapter published in American Naturalist

August 1, 2016

Congratulations to Holly Hennin who’s third PhD thesis chapter entitled “Energetic physiology mediates individual optimization of breeding phenology in a migratory Arctic seabird” has just been accepted in the journal American Naturalist. Outlined here in a recent Press Release, the paper uses over a decade of energetic physiology data to field-test a condition dependent optimization investment model and found that Arctic-breeding female eiders able to fatten at high rates while maintaining lower energetic demand have the earliest laying dates, a critical life-history trait in this species when breeding in short-season Arctic environments. Well done to Holly and her co-authors on a great paper.

Pauline Capelle awarded the Chris Wysiekierski Memorial Scholarship!

July 15, 2016

Pauline recently won the Chris Wysiekierski Award which is given to a graduate student in the Biology Department at the University of Windsor that displays research excellence in the area of Ecology or Experimental Biology. Pauline’s nomination package included many letters of support from her committee and colleagues highlighting her commitment to fieldwork, inter-disciplinary research, teamwork, and departmental service. Here Pauline is being presented with the award from the Head of Biology, Dr. Dennis Higgs. Congratulations, Pauline!

Christine publishes in Ecological Applications!

July 13, 2016

Wonderful news today in that Dr. Christine Madliger’s paper entitled “Conservation implications of a lack of relationship between baseline glucocorticoids and fitness in a wild passerine” was just accepted for publication in Ecological Applications. To test whether baseline glucocorticoids are the simple biomarker of environmental change we assume they are, Christine set out to examine the relationship between baseline plasma corticosterone at two different breeding stages and three metrics of fitness (offspring quality, reproductive output, and adult survival) in wild female tree swallows. Importantly, Christine investigated these relationships in both natural conditions and under an experimental manipulation of foraging profitability. She found a lack of relationship between baseline GCs and both short- and long-term metrics of fitness in control and experimental birds, suggesting that baseline GCs cannot be easily employed as conservation biomarkers across some species and life history stages. Taken together, Christine’s work stresses the importance of ground-truthing GC-fitness relationships before making broad assumptions. This paper is a very important and continuing step in testing and therefore establishing the underlying relationships between environmental variation, baseline GCs and fitness. Wonderful work Christine.

Christine Madliger wins the Graduate Research Excellence Award!

July 12, 2016

Our very own Christine Madliger recently won the distinguished Graduate Research Excellence Award from the Office of Research Services and Innovation at the University of Windsor. The award, given to one PhD student within the University a year, recognizes significant commitment and excellence in research and service. Given Christine’s publication record, her long list of service commitments at both the departmental and university level, as well as her strong support of teaching, her supportive committee and the University suggested she was the perfect candidate. Well deserved recognition Christine and thank you for working so hard to represent our lab and our University in research excellence.

Oikos blogs about Christine’s recent paper!

July 5, 2016

The journal Oikos has just blogged about Dr. Christine Madliger’s new  paper entitled “Do baseline glucocorticoids simultaneously represent fitness and environmental quality in a declining aerial insectivore?” Christine’s results are some of the first to combine an examination of environmental variation and fitness to assess whether baseline glucocorticoids are the potent biomarkers they are always assumed to be. Researchers often simply assume that a causal link exists between the two, but Christine’s correlative and experimental work in free-living Tree swallows now calls this simplistic prediction into question. Great to see the world is beginning to look at this trait with a more complex eye. Great work Christine!

Amanda wins honourable mention for her Biology Colloquium talk!!

April 29, 2016

The Love Lab is very proud to report that our very own Amanda Rilett won third place in the Ecology and Evolution section of the Biology Department’s annual Undergraduate Honours Colloquium on Friday. Amanda’s project examined whether the interaction between early-life maternal stress and rearing environment interact to shape the behavioural and physiological outcome of offspring in Chinook salmon. As expected, Amanda’s results confirmed that rearing environment has a strong effect, but that maternal stress may alter the phenotype of fish depending on which environment they are raised. The next step will be to work with fellow collaborators Pauline Capelle (MSc in our lab) and Dr. Natalie Sopinka (PDF in our lab) to submit Amanda’s work for publication. Excellent work Amanda and congratulations!

Christine’s paper is accepted to Oikos!!

April 17, 2016

Congratulations to Christine Madliger for having her most recent paper entitled “Do baseline glucocorticoids simultaneously represent fitness and environmental quality in a declining aerial insectivore?” accepted for publication in the highly-regarded Ecological journal Oikos. Christine’s paper is one of the very first to combine an examination of environmental variation and fitness to examine whether baseline glucocorticoids have the potential to link the two. To date most researchers had simply assumed a causal link between the two, but Christine’s correlative and experimental work in free-living Tree swallows now calls this simplistic prediction into question. Excellent work Christine!

Holly Defends her PhD!!

April 1, 2016

A big set of congratulations go out to Holly Hennin who successfully defended her PhD entitled “Energetic physiology mediates reproductive decisions in a long- lived, capital-income breeding seaduck“. Holly used datasets begun back in 2003 by her team members Dr. Joël Bêty, Dr. Grant Gilchrist and her supervisor Oliver to successfully examine energetic physiology as a correlative and causal driver of variation in breeding phenology decisions in Arctic-breeding common eiders. Well done Holly! We are all very proud of you.

Dr. Tony Williams from SFU visits the Love Lab

February 29, 2016

Dr. Tony Williams from the Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University visited the Love lab this past week to talk research and to give a departmental seminar in Biology. Tony studies Evolutionary and Ecological Physiology, with a particular focus on the mechanisms underlying life-history trade-offs and decisions. Tony was Oliver’s PhD supervisor at SFU and he has been an ongoing collaborator on a number of our projects since then, so it has been great hosting him in our lab. The Love and Semeniuk labs in particular had some great meetings with Tony to talk about the role of physiological mechanisms in shaping organismal function, the importance of flexibility in these traits and just what it’s all like mixing field and lab biology. Thanks for a great visit Tony.

Emily and Christie publish in the Journal of Ornithology!

February 17, 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Emily McKinnon and former Love Lab MSc student Christie Macdonald in having their paper entitled “Spring and fall migration phenology of an Arctic-breeding passerine” accepted for publication in the Journal of Ornithology. Using a combination of long-term banding data and recent migratory data from small, light-level geolocators, Emily and Christie examined sex- and age-specific patterns of migratory and breeding site arrival phenology in Snow buntings. Banding data indicate that during fall migration, hatch-year birds precede adults, and adult males tend to precede adult females; however, there still remained extensive inter-annual variation. Interestingly, males and females tracked directly with geolocators arrived at winter sites at approximately the same time. During early spring migration, buntings exhibited moderate protandry, where after-second-year males preceded all other age-sex classes by ~6 days, on average. These results provide key baseline data for monitoring ongoing changes in migration phenology of this important Arctic-breeding songbird, as climate change effects become more pronounced across temperate and Arctic regions.

Emily deploys 20 Avian Nano-tags on Buntings!!

February 16, 2016

Fantastic news this week coming from our winter snow bunting work in South Western Ontario. MITACS bunting post-doc Dr. Emily McKinnon travelled up to Bird Studies Canada to work with Stu Mackenzie, our lab manager Chris Harris and CSBN bander David Okines to deploy 20 avian Nano-tags on birds caught at David’s St. Williams’ site. The digital tags are already being picked up by antennas within the MOTUS network, and we are hoping to use the fine-scale, real-time data to assess individual movement patterns across the winter in response to changes in weather. With help from the Love Lab, the MOTUS network is also deploying five new towers along the Saint Lawrence river in Québec, as well as in Newfoundland and Labrador. We hope to use these towers to look at the timing of spring migration in our SW Ontario birds as they travel over to Western Greenland to breed.

Christine defends her PhD!!!

February 5, 2016

A huge set of congratulations goes out to Christine Madliger for successfully defending her PhD thesis entitled “Assessing baseline glucocorticoids as conservation biomarkers in a declining aerial insectivore“. Christine is the first PhD student to defend from the Love Lab and her committee were so impressed by her thesis and the publications from her time as a PhD student that they nominated her thesis for a Governor General’s Gold Medal. Congratulations Christine. We are all very proud of you.

Emily and Christie land the cover of the Journal of Avian Biology!!

January 21, 2016

Congratulations to Christie Macdonald and Emily McKinnon for landing the cover of the first 2016 issue of the Journal of Avian Biology. The photo was taken by Marie-Pier LaPlante’s father no less! The cover is based on Christie and Emily’s paper entitled “Cold tolerance, and not earlier arrival on breeding grounds, explains why males winter further north in an Arctic-breeding songbird” published with Environment Canada collaborator Dr. Grant Gilchrist. The paper uses band return and geolocator data to examine the mechanisms behind sex-segregation of snow buntings on their wintering grounds. Fantastic work you guys!

Holly publishes her third chapter in Ecology & Evolution!!

January 18, 2016

Congratulations to Holly Hennin for having her third PhD thesis chapter accepted in Ecology and Evolution. Entitled “Baseline glucocorticoids are drivers of body mass gain in a diving seabird“, the paper uses an experimental approach to examine the causal links between elevated baseline corticosterone and fattening in captive white-winged scoters. Holly’s results show that elevated baseline corticosterone can have a positive effect on fattening without inhibiting the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Fantastic work Holly!

Christine publishes a “Good News” review in Conservation Physiology!

January 6, 2016

Congratulations to Christine Madliger from our lab in publishing the lead article in the first 2016 issue of Conservation Physiology. Christine’s review summarizes key positive advances within the field of Conservation Physiology and is based upon the roundtable discussion she organized last January at her Conservation Physiology symposium held at the 2015 SICB conference. This particular review is important and a big step forward for the field as the paper emphasizes a shift from what Conservation Physiology can do in theory, to detailing key advances and using those to determine where the field should concentrate efforts next. All in all a very important paper. Well done Christine!

Rolanda and Holly win at the ArcticNet 2015 conference in Vancouver!

December 11, 2015

A big congratulations to Rolanda Steenweg and Holly Hennin for winning 1st and 2nd place, respectively, for their posters at the recent 2015 ArcticNet Conference held in Vancouver, BC. Holly and Rolanda joined Love lab graduate student Graham Sorenson and collaborators Dr. Grant Gilchrist, Nik Clyde and Jenn Provencher at this important Arctic-based meeting. Well done Rolanda and Holly.

Christine publishes a new review in Conservation Physiology!

November 9, 2015

Congratulations to Christine Madliger for bringing together a group of experts in Conservation Physiology to produce “Success stories and emerging themes in conservation physiology” to be published as the lead article in the first 2016 volume of Conservation Physiology. This paper, highlighting key successes in this rapidly evolving field, was the result of a symposium and roundtable discussion which Christine organized at the 2015 SICB conference. Way to go Christine!

Holly wins at the 2nd World Seabird Conference in Cape Town!

November 2, 2015

Congratulations to Holly Hennin who won 2nd place at the 2nd World Seabird Conference for her poster entitled “Proximate mechanisms driving life history decisions in a mixed-strategy breeder” and got an honourable mention for her talk entitled “Reproductive investment at a cost: higher physiological fattening rates lead to increased risk of mortality to a novel disease“. Holly, Graham Sorenson and Dr. Love travelled to Cape Town to join colleagues Jenn Provencher, Christine Anderson and Drs. Grant Gilchrist, Sebastien Descamps and Mark Mallory for this important meeting.

Christine publishes in Biological Conservation!

November 1, 2015

A big congratulations to Christine Madliger who recently published her paper entitled “Assessing baseline stress physiology as an integrator of environmental quality in a wild avian population: implications for use as a conservation biomarker” in Biological Conservation with co-authors Dr. Christina Semeniuk and Chris Harris. The paper outlines the complexities of using baseline glucocorticoids as a practical biomarker of large-scale environmental variation using tree swallows as a model. Well done Christine!

The Love Lab welcomes Dr. Natalie Sopinka to the lab!

September 24, 2015

The Love Lab is very happy to welcome Natalie as an Industrial MITACS PDF partnering with Yellow Island Aquaculture Ltd (YIAL) and Drs. Christina Semeniuk and Daniel Heath of GLIER to study the impacts of the pre- and post-natal environment on optimal production in Chinook salmon. Natalie recently completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia on the impact of maternal stress on salmonid phenotypic variation and fitness. She is also leading a number of research projects in our lab in collaboration with MSc student Pauline Capelle examining the interactive impacts of the maternal and rearing environments on performance and fitness in Chinook salmon. Welcome to the lab Natalie!

The Love Lab Welcomes Sean Power!

May 27, 2015

The Love Lab is very happy to welcome Sean Power to the lab as an upcoming MSc student beginning in the Fall of 2015. Sean completed his BSc at the University of Windsor with his honours project focusing on linking the cortisol stress response and colour changes in Atlantic salmon in collaboration with Dr. Christina Semeniuk‘s Lab at GLIER. For his MSc, Sean will be examining the costs and benefits of elevated baseline corticosterone in Snow buntings using a captive population at the University of Québec à Rimouski with collaborator Dr. François Vézina. Welcome to the lab Sean!

Rolanda’s and Holly’s paper is accepted to GCE!

April 20, 2015

Love lab PhD students Rollanda Steenweg (based at Dalhousie University with Dr. Glenn Crossin) and Holly Hennin had their paper entitled “Sources of diel variation in energetic physiology in an Arctic-breeding, diving seaduck” accepted today in General and Comparative Endocrinology. The paper examines diurnal- and tide-related variation in baseline Corticosterone and plasma Trigylcerides using 10 years of data in common eiders from East bay island. Great job guys!

Chris Harris successfully defends his MSc Thesis!!

April 9, 2015

A big congratulations goes out to our Lab Manager Chris Harris for successfully defending his MSc thesis today entitled “Corticosterone in Feathers as a Biomarker: Biological Relevance, Considerations and Cautions“. Chris passed with no revisions on his thesis, which is a rare accomplishment. Well done Chris.

Congratulations to Sean Power for his win at OBD 2015!

April 6, 2015

A huge congratulations goes out to co-supervised honours student Sean Power from Christina Semeniuk’s lab for winning the top award in the Animal Physiology section at the 2015 Ontario Biology Day (OBD) conference recently held at Carleton University in Ottawa. The University of Windsor took home a whopping 5 awards based on only 15 presentations. Fantastic work everyone!

Congratulations to Holly and Pauline for their OGS awards!

A big congratulation goes out to Holly Hennin and Pauline Capelle for landing Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) awards for 2015-2016 to support their PhD and MSc projects, respectively. With graduate funding opportunities in Canada becoming more and more competitive, these awards are very well deserved. Great job guys!

Christine’s new paper is accepted in ICB!

February 19, 2015

Congratulations to Christine for having her review paper entitled “The power of physiology in changing landscapes: considerations for the continued integration of conservation and physiology” accepted for publication in Integrative and Comparative Biology. The paper is is an overview of her Conservation Physiology Symposium presentation at the recent 2015 SICB meeting. Well done Christine!

Holly wins the Riddiford Poster Award at SICB 2015!

February 7, 2015

Congratulations to Holly Hennin who was just awarded the Division of Comparative Endocrinology (DCE) Riddiford Best Student Poster Presentation Award at the 2015 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meeting. Holly’s poster was entitled “Preparatory energetic management in a pre-breeding seaduck“. Fantastic work Holly!

The Love Lab attends SICB 2015 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

January 9, 2015

The Love Lab just got back from a great conference at the annual meeting for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) in West Palm Beach, Florida. Christine and Holly both presented their work as oral talks, and Pauline, Holly, Graham, Audrey and Chris all presented posters. The lab also enjoyed great field-trips out to the Grassy Waters Preserve and of course the beach. Highlights included red-shouldered hawks, lizards, snakes and a blue-spotted cornetfish. The trip was a nice combination of science and a much deserved break for everyone before the start of the winter semester.

Christine leads a great Conservation Physiology symposium at SICB!

January 8, 2015

Christine Madliger led a highly-successful symposium entitled “Physiology in changing landscapes: an integrative perspective for conservation biology” at the 2015 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. Christine brought together a multitude of speakers covering a diverse set of taxa and issues in Conservation Physiology which will be summarized in a review to be published this coming year in Integrative and Comparative Biology. Christine also organized and led a round-table discussion with the symposium speakers which will culminate in a paper to be published in 2015 in Conservation Physiology. Fantastic work Christine!

Pauline and Natalie complete their YIAL field season!

November 13, 2014

Pauline and upcoming PDF Natalie Sopinka travelled to YIAL in late October and successfully completed a number of maternal stress experiments in their Chinook salmon. Pauline will be examining offspring-environment phenotype matching and Natalie will be examining the Quantitative Genetics of variation in maternally-derived egg Cortisol with collaborator Dr. Daniel Heath.

Holly’s new paper accepted in Oecologia

November 1, 2014

Congratulations to Holly on having her paper entitled “Pre-breeding energetic management in a mixed-strategy breeder” accepted in Oecologia. The paper uses physiological data spanning 2003 to 2013 to examine whether baseline corticosterone and energetic metabolites are related to investment in reproduction in East bay eiders. Well done Holly!

Christine prepares a symposium for the 2015 SICB conference

October 15, 2014

Christine Madliger is the lead organizer along with Dr. Glenn Crossin of a symposium entitled “Physiology in changing landscapes: an integrative perspective for conservation biology” at the upcoming Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. Way to go Christine.

Congratulations to Holly on her presentation awards!

September 11, 2014

Holly and Oliver recently attended the 5th International Seaduck Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. Holly won best student poster and was second for best student paper (oral presentation). She also gave the very first talk of the conference. Congratulations Holly!

Congratulations to Pauline on her NSERC awards!

April 25, 2014

Pauline was recently awarded both a summer NSERC USRA and a Graduate NSERC CGS-M award for her upcoming integrative studies looking at the maternal stress-mediated matching of offspring to their future environments in Chinook salmon.

Congratulations to Rachel and Kenneth!

April 24, 2014

Rachel and Kenneth recently attended Ontario Biology Days (OBD) at the University of Toronto to present their honours theses. Both of them gave great talks and Rachel won the best presentation in the Ecology category. Rachel’s thesis topic and experience working with Graduate students Christine Madliger and Chris Harris was recently profiled in the Windsor Daily News.

Cover of Journal of Evolutionary Biology

January 20, 2014

We are proud to have made the cover of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology for our publication on “The oxidative costs of territory quality and offspring provisioning” (Guindre-Parker, S., Baldo, S., Gilchrist, H.G., Macdonald, C.A., Harris, C. & Love, O.P.)

To see more information and read the full publication, check out the “Publications” section.