The first pan-Canadian connectivity map, now published!

Pither, R., P. O’Brien, A. Brennan, K. Hirsh-Pearson, and J. Bowman. 2023. Predicting areas important for ecological connectivity throughout Canada. PLoS One 18:e0281980. [Open Access].

New research integrating connectivity and carbon stocks!

O’Brien, P.P.,  J.S. Gunn, A. Clark, J. Gleeson, R. Pither, and J. Bowman. 2023. Integrating carbon stocks and landscape connectivity for nature-based climate solutions. Ecology and Evolution 13(1): e9725. [Open Access].

One Health, Wildlife Surveillance, and SARS-CoV-2

Here’s a ‘Behind the paper‘ post describing our discovery of B.1.641, a divergent lineage of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer.

Divergent SARS-CoV-2 emerges in white-tailed deer

Our research about a divergent SARS-CoV-2 lineage in white-tailed deer has now been published in its peer-reviewed form in Nature Microbiology. The paper, entitled “Divergent SARS-CoV-2 variant emerges in white-tailed deer with deer-to-human transmission” is freely available here.

Our team covered in JAMA article on animal reservoirs

A recent article from the Journal of the American Medical Association discussed our collaborative SARS-CoV-2 wildlife surveillance program and results https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2795140?resultClick=1

Congratulations!

Congratulations to recent batty students Laura Scott and Ryan Holt on defending their M.Sc. theses at Trent!

Recruiting a PhD student for connectivity studies

If you are interested in undertaking a PhD on connectivity research, please get in touch. We have opportunities to study connectivity in a variety of contexts, including assessing disease spread and cross-border conservation.

New pre-prints describing SARS-CoV-2 wildlife surveillance

Highly divergent white-tailed deer SARS-CoV-2 with potential deer-to-human transmission

First detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Canadian wildlife identified in free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from southern Québec, Canada

SARS-CoV-2 wildlife surveillance in Ontario and Québec, Canada

Pan-Canadian Connectivity Map!

We have produced the first pan-Canadian multi-species connectivity map. See the preprint here.

(We also just published the first flying squirrel reference genome, available here.)

Welcome!

We are happy to welcome new researchers to our group this autumn! Dr. Simon Tapper is a new postdoctoral researcher with the group. Meghan Ward, Laurelie Menelon, and Bryan Hughes are new M.Sc. students, and Rosemary Minns and Jason Smyrlis are new undergraduate researchers. A warm welcome to all!