Volume 2 | Issue 3
Fall 2020
Student Research
Spotlight
The Redpath Museum’s website is proud to present the
Spotlight on graduate student research each month. Starting
in June 2020, once a month, a student will be featured on the
website’s
Research
tab under
Student Research at the
Museum
.
Sept-Oct 2020
Jessica Ford
Ph.D. candidate
Green Lab
Jessica Ford is seen here holding her study organism in Long Point, Ontario, the Fowler's toad
Hi! I’m Jess. I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Redpath Museum at McGill University. I study toad tadpoles, and what happens when we lose them from the
environment.
I spent my childhood flipping over rocks and playing in the mud, fascinated with whatever creatures I could find. Many of those creatures were frogs, turtles, and snakes, and I became passionate about learning more about these animals. In my quest to learn more facts to share with my disgruntled but patient friends and family, I learned about the peril that reptiles and amphibians faced and became determined to protect them.
I’ve been mocked for my passion and my love of playing in the mud, but now I do that as part of my research! I study toad tadpoles, and how the environment reacts when they disappear. I also raise endangered toad tadpoles for release. During my undergrad at McGill, I analyzed data on how temperature and pollutants affected turtle development and adult size, and held an internship working with amphibians and reptiles in captivity at the Ecomuseum Zoo. I am hopeful that my research will help further conservation efforts in herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians).
In addition to being passionate about herpetology and conservation, I am passionate about making these fields, and science as a whole, more inclusive and diverse. I wrote, illustrated, and developed a colouring and activity book for kids, featuring a "draw yourself as a scientist" activity and exercises based on the research of famous women and underrepresented groups in STEMM. I also sit on several equity, diversity, and inclusion committees, and make inclusion a central part of my outreach. I hope to show that anyone who is curious, can do science, despite the challenges they may have to overcome.
My research now focuses on what happens when we lose American toad or Fowler’s toad tadpoles from ponds in Long Point, Ontario. I do this using cattle tanks, some of which have tadpoles and some of which do not. I study how these tanks with tadpoles and those without are different. I look for changes in two kinds of algae: phytoplankton and periphyton, as well as changes in nutrient levels, zooplankton community composition, and factors like oxygen and pH.
Jessica Ford is standing in front of her experimental research tanks in Long Point, Ontario
I’ve found that toad tadpoles are very important to their environment! When tadpoles are present, they eat a lot of the algae that grows in the tanks, reducing it around 50%! This keeps the water clear; without tadpoles the water turns green from the algae. Tadpole presence also increased the amount of different kinds of zooplankton present, and regulated phosphorous levels. That’s a lot to do for some little tadpoles!
For toads in Long Point,
Ontario, an invasive reed
called Phragmites
australis, which grow
much closer together
than native reeds do, fills
in shallow ponds and
blocks toads from using
We are losing tadpoles from their environment because we are losing adult toads. When toads are sick, or can’t access breeding areas, then they do not lay eggs that can hatch into tadpoles. Toads and frogs act like little sponges, with the ability to breathe and absorb water through their skin, so they can get sick from pollutants or diseases present in their environment. Toads and frogs can lose access to breeding areas due to habitat loss from human development or invasive species. For toads in Long Point, Ontario, an invasive reed called
Phragmitesaustralis, which grow much closer together than native reeds do, fills in shallow ponds and blocks toads from using them to breed.
Since the toads are in trouble, I do my best to help them out. For my study, I raise toads from eggs into tiny toadlets, and then all of the toadlets go free! Using methods I developed, up to 90% of tadpoles can survive to be little toadlets, which is a much better survival rate than in the wild. Fowler’s toads are endangered in Canada, so these little toadlets I release help boost the local population. The lab I work in, the Green lab, has been studying this population of toads for over 30 years, and can identify individual toads, so we will hopefully find these toadlets again as they grow up!
Jessica Ford is seen here holding five toadlets ready for release
I’m a strong proponent of science outreach, and would be happy to talk about my research and inclusion work! Linked below are ways to find out more about me, links to videos such as Backyard Biology where I show some animals you could find in your own neighborhood to appreciate, and ways to request a talk.
More from Jess:
Contact me: [email protected]
Personal website: https://jessicafordscience.wixsite.com/research
Request a colouring book:
https://www.mcgill.ca/science/stemm-diversitymcgill-colouring-book-0
Backyard Biology Videos:
Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Interviews: LeBeagle Jacques Summers
STEMM Diversity at McGill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IiI8GMXWC8&list=PL2IeSDTmvKWGAXn4Y-7HALKn-XCy_tORg
Request a talk:
Hot Science Cool Talks Skype a Scientist
Volume 2 | Issue 3
Fall 2020
Oct-Nov 2020
Nathalie Jreidini
Ph.D. student
Green Lab
Photo par Eftyhios Kirbizakis
My name is Nathalie Jreidini, I moved to Montreal at 17 to pursue a career in wildlife ecology! Ecology, or even any field in Biology apart from Medicine, was not considered an “acceptable” career path where I grew up. I used to receive comments such as “How will you ever make money with that?”, “What a shame, you had so much potential”, “You could have become a doctor…” Well, jokes on you, ghosts from my past, I am going to become a Dr.! A PhD, that is. Luckily, I have loving parents who always encouraged me to make a career out of my obsession with wildlife and nature – even though my mom doesn’t particularly love seeing pictures of me holding snakes. Anyway, although careers in natural science fields are generally less accepted among certain crowds, you can definitely have a legit career in any of those fields. We actually need more ecologists working on countless projects related to biodiversity, conservation, evolution etc. To find out more on how regional ecological research could even impact global biodiversity initiatives, you can read my short opinion article
here!
The project I chose to tackle for my PhD thesis pertains to animal movement patterns, specifically dispersive patterns – when an animal leaves its home range, risking the dangers of the unknown. The following infographic is a summary of animal movement types, examples of its drivers and impacts, as well as two data collection methods.
In order to test theories on animal dispersal, its causes, consequences and how it has evolved, I am using two decades of data amassed on a population of toads - Fowler’s toads in Long Point, Ontario. These adorable creatures are amazingly simple to collect large amounts of data on and are interesting enough to give you a reason to do so. That, along with the nature of our study site, makes this population of toads a perfect study system to tackle ecological enigmas from movement ecology to physiology.
Photo by Jessica Ford
Find here is a talk I presented at the Canadian Entomology Ecology and Evolution virtual seminar series (CEEEViSS) a few months ago.
High school and CEGEP teachers can also request a talk by finding me on the McGill Faculty of Science Hot Science Cool Talks page!
You can also find me on Twitter @natgoeswild.
In order to test theories
on animal dispersal, its
causes, consequences and
how it has evolved, I am
using two decades of data
amassed on a population
of toads - Fowler’s toads
Volume 2 | Issue 3
Fall 2020
Nov.Dec 2020
José Jonathas P R de Lira
Ph.D. candidate
Hendry Lab
I am a latino biologist from Brazil. I obtained my undergraduate and Master's degree in Brazil, before coming to Montréal to do my PhD at the Redpath Museum.
I have a broad interest in the interplay between ecology, evolution, and behavior, and how environmental factors can shape such interactions. Specifically, I aim to understand how species vary according to the habitat they live in, both in terms of how they choose mating partners and their morphology.
I also study to what extent such variation leads to reproductive isolation among individuals from different populations.
