People

PI: Shannon McCauley

As a community ecologist I work in freshwater systems examining how processes at local and regional scale affect the structure of the communities in these systems.

PhD University of Michigan, M.S. University of Florida,  B.A. Bowdoin College

 

 

 

 

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Zira MacFarlane 

Zira started their PhD at the McCauley lab in September 2022. Their research falls broadly under the umbrella of disturbance ecology. They are currently exploring the role of urban and stormwater management ponds as habitat for amphibians in developed landscapes, alongside how increased salinity and other freshwater pollutant levels from stormwater run-off can influence anuran survival, reproductive success, and community composition at multiple geog scales. Previous projects have centered around human-wildlife interactions, ranging from urban animal road mortality to the ecological effects of war. 

 BA in Biological Sciences, University of Oxford (2014) 

M.Sc. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto (2019)
Further interests: Conservation, Urban Ecology, Animal Behavior, Bioacoustics, eDNA 

 

 

Kelly Murray-Stoker

Kelly is a doctoral student who started in Summer 2019. She is interested in ecology, taxonomy, and systematics of caddisflies (Trichoptera), especially the microcaddisflies (Hydroptilidae). She is also interested in how studying the evolutionary history of communities can influence our understanding of the impacts of urbanization and other anthropogenic effects on river systems.
M.S. (Entomology), University of Georgia 2018, “Assessing long-term ecological change in the Ogeechee River using aquatic invertebrates.”
B.S. (Ecology) & B.S.E.S. (Entomology), University of Georgia 2014, “Biotic interactions alter top-down pressure on a leaf-shredding caddisfly, Phylloicus hansoni (Trichoptera: Calamoceratidae), in Trinidadian streams.”
Research interests: Freshwater ecology, insect systematics, insect taxonomy, phylogenetics, Trichoptera, community ecology, functional traits

 

Rosemary Martin

Rosemary started her M.Sc. in thRosiee McCauley lab in September 2015 and entered the doctoral program in 2016.

She is interested in how winter conditions shape freshwater communities and how the effects of climate change on the duration of ice cover in north temperate ponds may reshape these communities.  She has also done research on how winter conditions affect egg survival and hatching phenology in dragonflies that overwinter in the egg stage.

B.Sc. (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), University of Toronto 2013

Research interests: Freshwater ecology, dispersal, range expansion, winter diapause, Odonates (Leucorrhinia intacta, Sympetrum spp., Lestes congener).

 

Ilia Maria Ferzocoilia_at_happy_valley

Ilia started the PhD program in fall 2019 after completing her MSc in summer 2019. Ilia studies the ecology of pond insect communities. In her MSc, she examined coexistence in backswimmers via the competition-colonization trade-off. In her PhD, she investigates the processes structuring the biodiversity and functional traits of urban stormwater pond insect communities, using surveys in the GTA, experimental mesocosms, and lab experiments. Her PhD work explores whether stormwater ponds are refuges for biodiversity or ecological traps, by investigating environmental stressors in these ponds (e.g. road salt) and their impacts on water bug egg hatching, juvenile development, survival, and dispersal behaviour in backswimmers and water boatmen. In her work, Ilia is very interested in applying ecological theory to urban freshwater conservation and management.
Research interests: freshwater ecology, community assembly, biodiversity conservation, urban ecology, behavioural ecology, dispersal, species interactions, metacommunities

LAB ALUMNI

Rosalind Murray – now faculty in the Department of Biology at UTM and graduate faculty in EEB

Ros completed her PhD at the University of Sterling in Luc Bussiere’s lab.  She is currently working on life-history evolution and immunity.  She works with both Locke Rowe and myself as part of her PDF.   To see more about her research check out her website or her Google Scholar profile.

Celina Baines – Now faculty in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at U of T

Celina was a doctoral student in EEB who started in Fall 2014 and successfully defended her PhD in June 2019.  She worked with notonectids and developed this system as an ideal one to understand the evolutionary ecology of dispersal. She completed a postdoctoral position at McGill University in the lab of Andy Gonzalez and joined the EEB faculty at St. George in January 2023.

PhD (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), University of Toronto, The interactive effects of phenotype and environment on dispersal

MSc. (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), University of Toronto, The effects of food availability oCelina-fieldn body condition and dispersal in the backswimmer, Notonecta undulata (with Locke Rowe)

Research interests: freshwater ecology, the causes and consequences of dispersal, community ecology, the physiological and behavioural mechanisms of flight/dispersa

 

 

Dachin Frances

Dachin started as a doctoral student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at U of T in Fall 2013 and defended her Ph.D. in July 2018.  She started a postdoctoral position at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in September 2018 in the lab of Dr. Caroline Tucker.

Ph.D. (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), University of Toronto. The effects of warming on aquatic insects – individual to community responses

B.Sc. (Conservation Ecology and Biology) New Mexico State University

Dachin’s research interests include freshwater ecology with particular emphasis on the effects of climate change on aquatic communities and species interactions.

To see more about Dachin’s research visit her website: https://dachin-frances.squarespace.com/

 Sarah French

Sarah started as a doctoral student through Ecology & Evolutionary Biology in Fall 2013 and defended her PhD in June 2018.

Ph.D.  (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), University of Toronto. Mechanisms structuring larval dragonfly communities across canopy and forest cover gradients.

M.Sc. (Aquatic Ecology), University of Guelph. Habitat selection of juvenile unionids in response to hydrodynamics.

Research interests: freshwater ecology, habitat selection and dispersal, invertebrate life history, physical ecology, unionid mussel and aquatic insect behaviour

To see more on Sarah’s research and teaching: http://individual.utoronto.ca/skfrench/

 

 

 

 

Chris Searcy 

Postdoctoral Fellow – now Associate Professor at the University of Miami, more on Chris’ research can be found here: http://casearcy.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

Former and current undergraduate researchers – BIO 399 is a 1 term Research Opportunity course, BIO 481 is a full year 4th year research project

Silas Peters, CGCS Research Fellow (2023)

Aisha Kyryk, BIO399, work-study (2023)

Joanna Xu, BIO399, work-study (2022-2023)

Hugo Li, BIO399, work-study (2022-2023)

Maya Buttigieg, research assistant, work-study (2022-2023)

Krista Kueviakoe, BIO481, NSERC USRA, work-study student (2022-2023)

Katie Massue-Monat, KSR-USRA (co-supervised with Rosalind Murray) (2022)

Fatima Saleem, BIO399, work-study student (2022)

Rupinder Singh, work-study student (2020-2021)

Celma Javier, work-study student (2020-2021)

Vatsaa Modi, work-study student (2020-2021)

Lina Hasan, work-study student (2020-2021)

Grace Tjan, BIO 481, work-study student (2020-2021)

Olivia Toth, BIO399, BIO 481, work-student student (2019-2020)

Lauren DiNola, BIO 399, work-study student (2019)

Muhamad Roslihuddin, BIO 399, work-study student (2019)

Kathy Wang, BIO 399, work-study student (2019)

Julienne Bonoan, BIO 399, BIO 481 work-study student (2017 – 2018)

Racquelle Manhangas, BIO 399, BIO 481 work-study student (2017 – 2018)

Samantha Hasbum, BIO299, work-study student (2017)

Zara Ahmed, BIO481, work-study student, Dean’s Award Research Fund (2016-2017)

Sunanda Tah, BIO481 (2016-2017)

Jennifer Bello Levieva, BIO 399 (2016-2017)

Bansari Patel, work-study student (2016-2017)

David Soliman, BIO399, work-study student (2016-2018)

Raajia Abdur Rehman, work-study student (2016-2017)

Rosalyn Mitchell, BIO 399, work-study student (2016)

Emile Sabeti-Mehr, BIO 399, work-study student (2016)

Quan Le, BIO 399, work-study student (2016)

Ilia Ferzoco, BIO 399, BIO481, work-study student (2015-2016)

Tharusha Wijewardena, BIO 399, BIO481, work-study student (2014-2016)

Jiten Amin, work-study student (2015-2016)

Hoa Nguyen, BIO 399, work-study student (2015-2016)

Jyyang Moon, BIO 399, work-study student (2015)

Ayat Hassan, work-study student (2015)

Cherry Salib, work-study student (2015)

Shantel Catania, BIO481, work-study & research assistant (2012-2015)

David Prezlicki, work-study student (2014-2015)

Laís Mascarenhas Sacchetto N Leite, summer research project, Science without Borders Student (2014)

Binita Adhikari, BIO 399, work-study student (2014)

Alexus Magalang, Biology, work-study (2013-2014)

Tammy Duong, Biology, BIO481 (2013-2014)