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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
Humber Natural History Society

Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve, Pistolet Bay Provincial Park

Mushroom Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador

Dr. Anne Storey and Dr. Carolyn Walsh
Memorial University

Witless Bay Ecological Reserve

Reproductive and Behavioural Ecology of Murres and Puffins

Barry Wicks
Stantec Inc.

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
Natural Resources Canada

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
Environment Canada

Witless Bay Ecological Reserve

Assessment of Contaminants in Atlantic Puffin and Herring Gull Eggs

Dr. Norm Catto
Memorial University

Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve

Effects of Climate Change on Coastal Erosion at Mistaken Point

Dr. Philip Wilby
British Geological Survey

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
Contract Biologist

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.
 
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