Alex is a PhD student with interests in aquatic and ecosystem ecology, and fisheries. After completing his MSc at Queen’s University studying the legacy effects of acid rain on zooplankton communities with Dr. Shelley Arnott, he worked at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies for four years investigating ecosystem consequences of lake browning, drivers of life history traits in Bluegill sunfish, and social-ecological dynamics of recreational fisheries.

At Lakehead, Alex plans to investigate how food web complexity influences energetic pathways and behaviour of top-predators within freshwater lakes. As food webs are modified in response to environmental change, understanding how changes in predator and prey communities cascade through ecosystems will be important for the management of fisheries, which have high intrinsic and economic value. This work will largely be conducted at IISD Experimental Lakes Area (IISD ELA), where he will use a combination of whole-lake manipulations, high-resolution hydroacoustics and telemetry, and synthetic modeling.