Assistant Professor

Carling is a theoretical ecologist who studies the links between global change and food web structure and functioning. She uses general theory to develop a fundamental understanding of food web dynamics and use empirical examples from various ecosystem types to link this theory to critical problems in today’s changing world. Her work integrates field and fisheries data regularly and looks at the impacts of global change on the sustainability of ecosystems.

Visit Dr. Bieg’s website

Communications & Operations Coordinator

Helen has a background in biology (BSc., University of Guelph) and Publicity and Public Relations (University of Toronto) which she combines with her love for all things wildlife and sustainability-related to support the core team at the Centre for Ecosystem Management. She oversees all operational activities, including the CEM’s website and social media accounts.

Strategic Advisor

Leon has spent his career specializing in research focused on the Great Lakes basin, which has placed him at organizations like the United States Geological Survey (Great Lakes Science Center), the MNR, and the IJC. After a primary research career that concentrated on fish community structure, he subsequently spent 20 years developing strong science programs to address the needs of managers and society at large. His interest now lies in the interface between science and management as well as developing systems to facilitate science production to answer societal issues at the appropriate scale.

Postdoctoral Fellow (McCann Lab)

Kayla is a theoretical ecologist that studies the structure and dynamics of complex networks of species interactions. Her research focuses on how different types of interactions – with consumers, resources, and mutualists – interface to affect ecological systems across scales, from organisms’ behaviour to emergent ecosystem services like agricultural yield.

Visit Dr. Hale’s website

Postdoctoral Fellow (Bernhardt Lab)

Amanda is an integrative ecologist focused on understanding how organisms respond to environmental change. She uses thermal physiological, genomic, and computational approaches in her investigations of species vulnerability to gradual and rapid environmental changes. Amanda is focused on answering how local spatial temperature variation can mediate – or exacerbate – organismal vulnerability to warming temperatures in the Great Lakes.

Visit Dr. Cicchino’s website

Postdoctoral Fellow (Bernhardt Lab)

Jason is an evolutionary ecologist whose research explores the consequences of mutualistic interactions among species. He uses experimental and genomic approaches to study the effects of microbiomes on the fitness, phenotypes, and stress tolerance of their hosts. Jason has a PhD from the University of Toronto and an MSc. from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Visit Dr. Laurich’s website

Postdoctoral Fellow (Bernhardt Lab)

Kaleigh is an ecologist interested in understanding broad patterns in how biological systems respond to warming. Her primary focus is on the interaction between climate warming and resource availability, and how this affects species interactions and ecosystem functioning. Through her work, Kaleigh aims to integrate basic and applied ecology in order to address urgent, local problems associated with anthropogenic change.

Postdoctoral Fellow (McCann Lab)

Chris is an ecologist who studies species interaction networks, exploring what shapes their structure—whether it’s the biology of the system or environmental influences. He uses network theory to better understand how species interact and communities function, with a focus on identifying and addressing biases to make these network models more reliable and useful.

Visit Dr. Brimacombe’s website

Dr. Timothy Fernandes

Postdoctoral Fellow (McCann Lab)

Tim’s research has broadly focused on understanding the seasonal biology of aquatic organisms to identify if and how seasonal ecological and physiological processes shape organismal- and population-level vulnerability to global change. Currently he’s working on identifying the impacts of seasonal disturbances (e.g., sound) on predator-prey interactions and fish behaviour and physiology to directly inform federal policy.

Postdoctoral Fellow (McCann Lab)

Mike is a mathematician whose specialty is in dynamical systems modelling and analysis, applied to identifying features of fragility and resilience within ecological, economic, and financial systems. His interest in human activity overlaps with ecology in topics including resource governance, institutional evolution, cooperation-competition trade-offs and risk-taking, all within changing ecological and economic environments.