Environment and Conservation
June 21, 2011
Scientific Research Conducted Throughout Provincial Parks and Reserves
A total of 46 scientific research studies are happening in Newfoundland and Labrador’s parks and reserves, the highest number of scientific research projects in the protected areas to date. This season, 31 permits were issued for projects in wilderness and ecological reserves and provincial parks with research continuing on 15 long-term projects initiated.
“The continuation and growth of scientific research in our parks and natural areas is essential for the successful management and preservation of our province’s natural heritage,” said the Honorable Ross Wiseman, Minister of Environment and Conservation. “Our protected areas provide important natural venues for scientists to obtain information on plant and animal populations, effects of climate change on ecosystems, and even how early life on earth evolved.”
A number of projects are being conducted by scientists from universities across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. New research projects include a study of the breeding activity of North America’s only population of Manx Shearwaters at Lawn Islands Archipelago Provisional Ecological Reserve, an assessment of the effects of climate change on water resources in the Humber River Basin, and building computer models of the fossils at Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve to help understand how early life on earth evolved.
Research permits were also renewed for ongoing research on fossils, lichens, mushrooms, brook trout, songbirds, seabirds and woodland caribou.
Permits to conduct scientific research and monitoring in provincial parks and wilderness and ecological reserves are mandatory and can be obtained free of charge by contacting the Parks and Natural Areas at 709-635-4631, or by visiting www.gov.nl.ca/parks.
The Department of Environment and Conservation is responsible for two wilderness reserves, 18 ecological reserves, one public reserve, 32 provincial parks, and two Canadian heritage rivers in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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Media contact: Melony O’Neill Director of Communications Department of Environment and Conservation 709-729-2575 moneill@gov.nl.ca |
BACKGROUNDER
2010 Scientific Research in Provincial Parks and Reserves
Researcher |
Reserve/Park |
Project Title |
Andrus Voitk |
Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve, Pistolet Bay Provincial Park |
Mushroom Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador |
Dr. Anne Storey and Dr.
Carolyn Walsh |
Witless Bay Ecological Reserve |
Reproductive and Behavioural Ecology of Murres and Puffins |
Barry Wicks |
J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park |
Marine Water Quality Sampling, Canadian Shellfish Sanitation Program |
Bill Clarke Department of Natural Resources |
Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve |
Lichen Survey |
Dr. Bill Montevecchi Memorial University |
Baccalieu Island, Cape St. Mary’s, Funk Island, and Witless Bay Ecological Reserves |
Foraging, Feeding, and Migratory Ecology of Newfoundland Seabirds |
Brian Nakashima Fisheries and Oceans Canada |
Bellevue Beach Provincial Park Reserve |
Spawning, Egg Deposition, and Recruitment of Capelin |
Bruce Rodrigues Department of Environment and Conservation |
Barachois Pond Provincial Park |
Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) Songbird Banding Station |
Bruce Rodrigues Department of Environment and Conservation |
J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park |
Songbird Mistnetting for National Tick Study |
Dr. Carolyn Walsh Memorial University |
Witless Bay Ecological Reserve |
Sexual Dimorphism of Atlantic Puffin Bills |
Casidhe Dyke Department of Environment and Conservation |
Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve |
Population Census of Woodland Caribou |
Claudia Hanel Department of Environment and Conservation |
Barachois Pond Provincial Park |
Rare Plant Survey |
Dr. David Langor |
Burnt Cape and Watts Point Ecological Reserves, and Pistolet Bay, Codroy Valley, Grand Codroy, and J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Parks |
Inventory of Arthropods in Provincial Protected Areas |
Dr. Dylan Fraser Concordia University |
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve |
Genetic Diversity, Population Size, and Adaptations of Brook Trout |
Edmund Pilgrim Ducks Unlimited |
Hare Bay Islands Ecological Reserve |
Deployment of Common Eider Nest Shelters |
Dr. Emily Herdman Department of Environment and Conservation |
Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve |
Population Monitoring and Identification of Important Short-eared Owl Habitat |
Emily Mitchell University of Cambridge |
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve |
Bayesian Interference Networks of Ediacaran Ecosystems Found in Mistaken Point |
Dr. Greg Dunning Memorial University |
Windmill Bight Provincial Park Reserve |
A Detailed Petrographic, Geochronological Study of the Hare Bay Gneiss in the Northeast Gander Zone, Newfoundland |
Dr. Greg Robertson Environment Canada |
Witless Bay Ecological Reserve |
Census of Seabirds at Gull and Great Islands |
Dr. Greg Robertson Environment Canada |
Gannet Islands and Witless Bay Ecological Reserves |
At Sea Behaviour and Assessing the Risk of Oiling to Murres in the Northwest Atlantic |
Dr. Greg Robertson Environment Canada |
Funk Island, Gannet Islands, and Witless Bay Ecological Reserves |
Population Monitoring of Black-Legged Kittiwakes and Common Murres |
Dr. Greg Robertson Environment Canada |
Cape St. Mary's and Witless Bay Ecological Reserves |
Assessing Previous Avian Influenza Infection Rates of Gulls and Alcids |
Dr. Guy Narbonne Queen’s University |
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve |
Study of Ediacaran Fossil Assemblages at Mistaken Point |
James Evans Department of Natural Resources |
Many provincial parks and ecological reserves |
Survey of Forest Insect Defoliators |
Dr. James Wheeley University of Birmingham |
Table Point Ecological Reserve |
Conodonts from Table Head Formation, Table Point, Western Newfoundland |
John Reynolds Department Environment and Conservation |
Butter Pot Provincial Park |
Population Monitoring of Snowshoe Hare and Eastern Chipmunk |
Leah Soper Department of Natural Resources |
Grand Codroy J.T. Cheeseman, and Sandbanks Provincial Parks |
Piping Plover Recovery and Monitoring Program |
Neil Burgess |
Witless Bay Ecological Reserve |
Assessment of Contaminants in Atlantic Puffin and Herring Gull Eggs |
Dr. Norm Catto |
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve |
Effects of Climate Change on Coastal Erosion at Mistaken Point |
Dr. Philip Wilby |
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve |
Palaeoenvironment versus Palaeogeography: What Drove Endemism in the Avalon Assemblage |
Primrose Boynton Harvard University |
La Manche Provincial Park |
Barriers to Dispersal for Pitcher Plant-Inhabitating Yeasts as a Model of Microbial Biogeography |
Richard LeBlond North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources |
J. T. Cheeseman and Sandbanks Provincial Parks |
Inventory of Isolated Freshwater Wetlands in Sandy Substrates in Southwestern Newfoundland |
Dr. Sabina Wilhelm Environment Canada |
Witless Bay Ecological Reserve |
A Comparison of Census Techniques for Leach’s Storm-Petrel |
Sabine Dietz University of New Brunswick and Mount Allison University |
Burnt Cape, Sandy Cove, and Watt's Point Ecological Reserves |
Arctic-alpine Marginal Plant Populations, Genetic Viability and Reproductive Fitness |
Shane Mahoney Department of Environment and Conservation |
Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve |
Five-year Caribou Strategy Study |
Sheena Roul |
Lawn Islands Archipelago Provisional Ecological Reserve |
Assessment of Manx Shearwater Population at Lawn Islands Provisional Ecological Reserve |
Shelley Pardy Department of Environment and Conservation |
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve |
Collection and Identification of Arthropods from Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve |
Dr. Susan Ziegler Memorial University |
Sir Richard Squires Provincial Park |
Assessing Human and Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources in the Humber River Basin |
Dr. Theresa Burg University of Lethbridge |
Barachois Pond, Pinware River, and Sir Richard Squires Memorial Provincial Parks |
Evolution of High Latitude Resident Birds in North America |
Dr. Yolanda Wiersma Memorial University |
Avalon Wilderness Reserve |
ATV Trail Impacts on Vegetation and Habitat Fragmentation |
2011 06 21 9:55 a.m.