Department of GeographyTrent University
1600 West Bank Drive
Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8
Canada
Phone: 1- (705) 748-1011 ext. 7153
Email:
My research examines indicators and impacts of climate change in the cryosphere (the portion of the Earth influenced
by ice and snow) as well as impacts of a warming climate on ice-dependent ecosystems. My current interests include
remote sensing and change detection of sea and lake ice, and the response of northern hemisphere ice shelves to
climate change. My research also focuses on the interaction between physical and biotic aspects of ecosystems.
My experience in remote sensing, glaciology, microclimatology, limnology and ecology inform and broaden my research
approach to include both physical and biological aspects of the environment.
I began my career in polar research during my undergraduate studies at Trent University where I conducted mass balance and differential GPS measurements on the White Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut. I continued my glacier research in Antarctica and returned to the White Glacier for my M.Sc. research on cryoconite holes (small melt holes on the glacier surface) supervised by at McGill University. My Ph.D., supervised by , examined physical and biological aspects of cold-tolerant ecosystems associated with the ice shelves of Ellesmere Island. In 2002, I discovered that the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island had split into two halves and that a massive freshwater lake that was retained behind the shelf had drained into the Arctic Ocean. I became interested in how climate is impacting ice shelves and completed two years of postdoctoral work at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (supervised by ). I used synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and other remote sensing techniques to document the calving of the Ayles Ice Shelf in 2005 and other recent ice break-up events. Currently, I am the Roberta Bondar Fellow in Northern and Polar Studies at Trent University, where I continue to use SAR to examine how climate change is impacting the cryosphere. My work on Arctic ice shelves is ongoing and I am currently co-editing a book on the subject with . In April 2008, I completed a with the Canadian Rangers where we discovered further evidence of the disintegration of the Ellesmere ice shelves.
