Drivers of algal composition and cyanotoxins in rivers and lakes

河流和湖泊是重要的资源，了解这些生态系统的生态对加拿大的经济和社会都很重要。我的长期目标是确定河流和湖泊中藻类生物量和组成的驱动因素，以便开发模型来解释它们在空间和时间上的变化以及它们对人类影响的反应。由于藻类沿着水生维管植物是水生食物网的基础，控制其生物量和组成的因素对较高的营养水平和水质具有直接和间接的影响。藻类也便于测试和发展生态学理论：由于它们相对较小的尺寸和随之而来的短世代时间，它们可以在实验室和野外进行操作。

Rivers and lakes are critical resources and an understanding of the ecology of these ecosystems is important to the Canadian economy and society at large. My long term goal is to determine the drivers of algal biomass and composition in rivers and lakes in order to develop models that explain their variability through space and time and their response to human impacts. Since algae along with aquatic vascular plants are the base of aquatic food webs, what controls their biomass and composition has both direct and indirect consequences for higher trophic levels and water quality. Algae are also convenient for testing and developing ecological theory: because of their relatively small size and concomitant short generation times they can be manipulated both in the laboratory and in the field.