Research Areas

• Aquatic ecology

• Lipid biochemistry (aquatic food webs)

• Ecotoxicology (inorganic and organic contaminants)

• Terrestrial and aquatic biomarkers (stable isotopes, fatty acids)

My research combines ecotoxicology with dietary nutrient processes within the aquatic food web of freshwater ecosystems.

I am intrigued by the fact that some contaminants, for example the powerful neurotoxin methyl mercury (CH3Hg+; MeHg), bioaccumulate in aquatic consumers, whereas the retention of dietary nutrients, such as physiologically required fatty acids, is often species dependent. To better understand how contaminants and dietary nutrients are taken up, modified, and/or retained, I examine their pathways in organisms of the aquatic food web, conducting field and laboratory experiments. I am also attempting to combine elements of the aquatic with human food web, in particular, to identify those ecosystem parameters that may decrease bioaccumulation of contaminants and enhance retention of essential nutrients in fish and eventually in their consumers (contaminant-nutrient interaction).

Education

MSc (1995) University of Vienna; Landscape Ecology

PhD (2001) Universiät du Québec à Montréal, Canada; Environmental Sciences

Prior Positions

2006: Researcher at the National Water Research Institute, Burlington, ON, Canada

2001 to 2005: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, University of Victoria, BC, Canada