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Dr. Melissa McKinney Assistant 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
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Anaïs Remili
PhD student I am interested in killer whale ecology and toxicology from the North-Eastern Atlantic Ocean. Using high resolution chemical markers, I am trying to establish different ecotypes among those populations of killer whales and try to understand who pollution affects them. I have earned a BS in Biology of the organisms and populations at the University of Lyon 1 Claude Bernard. I have then earned a MSc in Marine Environment and Resources from the Erasmus Mundus MER consortium (University of Bordeaux, University of the Basque country, University of Southampton and University of Liège). My master thesis focused on the persistent organic pollutant exposures and trophic ecology in Humpback whales from the Southern Hemisphere. I performed it in University of Liège under the supervision of Dr. Krishna Das and in the University of Antwerp under the supervision of Dr. Adrian Covaci and Dr. Govindan Malarvannan. |
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Nasrin Gozadeh
PhD student I am interested in studying how contaminants (mostly driven from oil industry) impact traditional foods of communities located close to the oil development activities. My PhD research is focusing on measuring levels of contaminants and some nutrients in traditional foods of a Cree community in Edmonton, Alberta. I have earned my B.S. degree in “Industrial Chemistry”, a sub-branch of chemical engineering, and M.B.A. and worked in oil industry for 6 years in Iran. I have got my M.S. degree in “Environmental Sciences” from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQÀM). My recent internship was with the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Sustainable Development Institute (FNQLSDI) which I delivered a report on potential spill-related effects on aquatic ecosystems and human health and performed a presentation during a workshop organized by the FNQLSDI for First Nations Chiefs and experts. |
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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. |
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Sophie Watson
Visiting PhD student: Cardiff University, UK After graduating with a BSc Hons in Zoology from Cardiff University, I spent three years working on black bear and brown bear research projects in America and Canada, including the 'USGS Northern Continental Divide Grizzly Bear Research Project’ in Montana and various projects throughout Alaska. During my time on these projects, I became interested in the parasite community of bear populations. This interest led to a Masters of Research (MRes) project producing a host-parasite sharing network for the Arctic, quantifying parasite spillover to polar bears, which I carried out at Cardiff University and the Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy. Working in collaboration with McGill University and the USGS, my PhD research focuses on the three-way interaction between the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota, parasite diversity and load, and contaminant accumulation in polar bears. My research is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and is supervised by Dr. Sarah Perkins and Dr. Frank Hailer at Cardiff University. Contact: watsons2@cardiff.ac.uk |
FORMER LAB MEMBERS
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Jennifer Bourque
MS student Jen was interested in how ecosystems interact and are impacted by climate change, development, and other anthropogenic forces. Her MS research focuses on how habitat and feeding habit changes in southern Beaufort Sea polar bears impact their exposures to persistent contaminants and immune system function. She received my BS in Environmental Science from the University of Connecticut with minors in Wildlife Conservation & Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Her undergraduate research was also completed with Dr. Melissa McKinney focusing on sub-Arctic invading killer whale fatty acid profiles to assess diet. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Kaliana Tom
BS student (2016-2018) Kaliana was an Animal Science major at UConn with a focus on pre-veterinary medicine minoring in Wildlife Conservation. She worked on a number of projects in the lab, including fatty acid profiles in Greenland killer whale and their fish prey species. Kaliana was recently accepted to Veterinary school! |
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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. |
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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: June 2019
All content © M. McKinney unless otherwise indicated
All content © M. McKinney unless otherwise indicated
