Understanding aquatic ecosystems

Faculty of Arts and Science researcher Shelley Arnott has earned the Frank H. Rigler Award from the Society of Canadian Aquatic Sciences. Frank Harold Rigler was an accomplished aquatic biologist who helped shape the field of limnology in Canada.

The award was first presented in 1984 to recognize and honor major achievements in the field of limnology by Canadians or those working in Canada.

“I’m honoured to be included in the list of awardees whose research has contributed to our understanding of aquatic ecosystems, as well as played important roles in the protection of Canada’s vast but precious aquatic resources,” says Dr. Arnott. “Research is a team effort and I’ve been so lucky to work with amazing people, including over 60 graduate students and 150 undergraduate researchers, who are highly motivated to conduct research that addresses current environmental challenges, while also making it fun. This award is really a recognition of their combined efforts.”

Dr. Arnott (Department of Biology) is an aquatic ecologist whose research spans fundamental to applied outcomes. She uses field and laboratory experiments, in combination with synoptic lake surveys and analyzes of long-term data to understand the impacts of environmental change on lake communities.

“Human activities are changing aquatic ecosystems by burning fossil fuels, putting pollutants into the environment, and moving species into new regions,” she explains. “My research investigates how aquatic communities – primarily zooplankton – respond to the resulting environmental changes, including climate change, salinization of freshwater, and the spread of invasive species. These changes often occur together, making it more difficult to predict how aquatic communities will respond. My research team uses lab experiments on individual organisms, field experiments on complex foodwebs, lake surveys, and the analysis of historic data to understand how freshwater communities are changing in response to individual and combined changes to the lake environment.”

Dr. Arnott adds that recently she has led several international, collaborative projects to find out if and how responses vary across regions. For example, freshwater lakes and streams are becoming saltier because we apply de-icing salts to roads and other paved surfaces in winter and the salt eventually dissolves in water and travels to waterbodies through storm sewers, soil, and groundwater.

“Our studies have revealed that organisms in many lakes are more sensitive than we thought, and that their vulnerability depends on the local geology, the other organisms that live there, and their evolutionary history.”

As for future research projects, Dr. Arnott says she is investigating how multiple environmental stressors are impacting aquatic ecosystems.

“I have an exciting international collaboration with colleagues from Iowa State University and University of Oxford that will explore how community traits and local environment influence how both terrestrial and aquatic communities respond to salt, pesticides, and heatwaves when they co-occur,” she says. “I’m also working with colleagues in Ontario and Quebec to build a network of outdoor platforms and mesocosms (a controlled outdoor environment that simulates a natural ecosystem) that can be suspended in lakes and configured in various experimental designs to investigate the impact of multiple stressors across lakes. And, for the past two decades, my research team has been studying an incredible environmental success - the recovery of Killarney Park lakes from regional acidification.”

Learn more about the award on the website.