Dr. Melissa McKinney
Associate Professor Canada Research Chair II in Ecological Change and Environmental Stressors Our group focuses on how anthropogenic environmental stressors, particularly bioaccumulative contaminants and climate change, interact to affect the health of aquatic species and ecosystems. We use used lab-based, and sometimes field-based, approaches to identify climate-linked ecological changes, and their ecotoxicological consequences with respect to chemical contaminant (e.g., persistent organic pollutants, mercury) exposures and effects in wildlife and their food webs. I am currently an assistant professor at McGill University in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences. I was previously an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, before that a Banting postdoctoral fellow at the University of Windsor and, earlier, a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University. I received my PhD from Carleton University at the National Wildlife Research Center, my MSc from the University of Windsor at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, and my BSc from the University of British Columbia. I collaborate with researchers in Canada as well as in Denmark/Greenland, Norway, and the US, mainly on Arctic research projects, with support from NSERC, CRC, CFI, and the US Geological Survey, among others. |
CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
Kailee Hopkins
PhD student I graduated from Nipissing University with a BSc in Environmental Biology, and an Environmental Technician diploma from Canadore College. One of my undergraduate research projects focused on the effects of herbicides on developing Japanese quail embryos. I also completed a review on the effects of pollution on the behavior and physiology of freshwater vertebrates. My research interests include ecotoxicology, anthropogenic stressors, and contaminant analysis. My Master's project examines the distribution of a class of widely used chemicals, perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), among various tissues in tree swallows, and the analysis of fatty acids as tracers of diet in tree swallow livers. I am co-supervised by Dr. Kim Fernie, Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health, Environment and Climate Change Canada. Haley Land-Miller
Master's student I graduated from Pomona College in California in 2018, with a degree in biology and a minor in mathematics. I’m interested in trophic ecology and the effects of climate change on food webs, particularly those affecting marine predators. For my research at McGill, I’ll be using molecular markers to look at the trophic dynamics of native arctic and range-shifting sub-arctic marine mammals around Greenland. I’m interested in understanding how changing movement patterns prompted by warming oceans have affected species interactions and the health of native marine mammals. |
Adam Petersen
PhD Candidate I graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan with a B.S in Environmental Science and a minor in Geology in 2019. My past research experience has been quite diverse but has been centered around ecotoxicology and, more specifically, analyzing the impact of plastic contamination on both human and organismal health. My research at McGill will take a similar ecotox approach, investigating differences in contaminant burdens between top arctic predators such as the polar bear and killer whale. I’m very interested in exploring climate-linked drivers of ecological changes, and how they alter top predator exposure to a wide variety of contaminants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the rapidly changing arctic environment. |
Anaïs Remili
PhD Candidate I am interested in killer whale ecology and toxicology from the North-Eastern Atlantic Ocean. Using high resolution chemical markers, I developed an approach to reconstruct the diet of wild killer whales using the lipids in their blubber. I am currently working on the fourth manuscript of my thesis, and aiming to submit my whole thesis in the Summer 2023. I am also a passionate science communicator and I love to share what I know about marine mammals with the public. If you want to know more about me and contact me, you can come visit my personal website here. |
Ambar Maldonado Rodriguez
Honour's Student I am pursuing a BS in Environmental Biology with a specialization in Applied Ecology at McGill University. I am very interested in studying the link between trophic dynamics and contaminant exposure in aquatic mammals, mainly to evaluate the effect of anthropogenic stressors on the environment. As such, I began my studies on food web ecology and ecotoxicology under the supervision of Dr. Melissa McKinney. During my undergraduate research, I will be analyzing fatty acid carbon isotopes to study the relationship between trophic ecology and contaminant exposure in ringed seal populations from the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Paule Mathieu
Honour's Student I am an Environmental Biology student specializing in Wildlife biology at McGill University. My research project aims to understand short-time variability in recent feeding patterns of East Greenland polar bears using fatty acid signature analysis, so that we may compare these patterns to previous ones in order to uncover trends. As an avid ocean lover, I aspire to pursue a career in marine science. Hence, my main interests are the effect of mass bleaching on trophic relations in coral reef ecosystems and North Atlantic right whale conservation. Jenny Stern Visiting PhD student: University of Washington I am interested in food web dynamics in Arctic ecosystems. My research will focus on polar bear diet, using fat and hair samples from populations in Northwest Greenland, at at the University of Washington, advised by Dr. Kristin Laidre. I attended the University of Kansas and received my BS in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. My undergraduate research projects focused on the effects of climate change on tree phenology, changing honeybee population dynamics, and the evolution of venomous dorsal spines in sharks and cartilaginous fishes. |
FORMER LAB MEMBERS
|
Jean-Pierre Desforges
Post-Doctoral Fellow (2020-2021) JP's research focused on the impacts of stress in wildlife populations, primarily looking at marine mammals and environmental pollutants, but also exploring the implications of multiple natural stressors on other Arctic marine and terrestrial mammals. He used a broad array of approaches that intersect ecology, molecular biology, toxicology and ecological modeling. He was previously a Post-Doctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark, where he completed his PhD in the Department of Biosciences. He received his MSc from the University of Victoria, and his BSc from Ottawa University. Sophie Watson
Working in collaboration with McGill University and the USGS, my PhD research focused on the three-way interaction between the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota, parasite diversity and load, and contaminant accumulation in polar bears. Jaimie Simmons
BS student (2017-2019) Jaimie was a Natural Resources major concentrating in Wildlife Conservation. She focused on the dynamic relationships between industrialization and ecosystem health and studied the distribution and levels of ecotoxicants in common snapping turtles in the watersheds of Connecticut as well as bobcat occupancy and diet composition in respect to urbanization throughout Connecticut. Conor Boba
BS student (2015-2016) Conor was a fourth-year Chemistry major at UConn. His undergraduate research focused on persistent organic pollutant burdens in the blubber of Arctic killer whales. He is now planning to do a graduate degree in International Relations. Sara Pedro
PhD student (2015-2019) Sara's PhD research involved understanding how climate-related ecological changes affect contaminant and nutrient dynamics in Arctic prey and predator species. Previously, she earned her BS in Biology from the University of Aveiro, Portugal with an internship in human impact on Guiana dolphins’ behavior in Brazil. Her MS research was conducted in the University of Coimbra, Portugal, with focus on mercury contamination in Gentoo penguins from the Antarctic region. Sara is now in a postdoctoral position at Université Laval with Mélanie Lemire. Jessica August
BS student (2015-2016) Jessica was a fourth year Natural Resources undergraduate student at UConn with a focus on Climate and Water Resources. She was interested in learning how climate change affects the Arctic. Her project involved researching diets of Arctic-invading killer whales using fatty acids analysis. |
If you are interested in opportunities in this lab, please click here for more details.
Last updated: December 2022
All content © M. McKinney unless otherwise indicated - All header photos: © Anaïs Remili
All content © M. McKinney unless otherwise indicated - All header photos: © Anaïs Remili