Dr. Dennis Murray, a Biology professor at Trent University, has been named a senior Canada research chair (CRC) in integrative wildlife conservation in an official announcement made Friday, March 28, 2014 by the Honourable Ed Holder, federal minister of state (Science and Technology). Dr. Murray will receive a total of $1.4 million to support innovative research to help ensure long-term sustainability of animal populations and their ecosystems, with additional funding provided by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.
“Our government is committed to supporting top researchers across all disciplines through programs such as the Canada Research Chairs Program,” Minister Holder said at the national announcement in Edmonton on Friday. “More than 1,700 chairholders are pushing the frontiers of knowledge in universities and colleges throughout Canada, driving jobs, growth and economic prosperity for Canadians.”
Professor Murray’s Tier I appointment as Canada research chair will provide seven-year funding to study the current status of some of the world’s most imperiled or at-risk animal species, to understand their population trends and factors causing their numerical decline. Prof. Murray and his team aim to unravel exactly why such changes are happening and what can be done to better predict and perhaps mitigate these trends
“Trent University is proud to share this announcement of a tier I Canada research chair in conservation biology, in recognition of the world-class research being undertaken by Trent faculty and their collaborators,” said Dr. Neil Emery, vice-president research and international at Trent. “With a large concentration of ecologists and conservation biologists on campus, including scientists from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Trent researchers are distinctly qualified to work on real-world conservation and natural resource management problems and their applications.”
Prof. Murray was first appointed in 2002 as a tier II CRC in terrestrial ecology at Trent University, a position he held for ten years. He was elated to receive the new tier I appointment and acknowledges that this and other outstanding opportunities he and his team have received at Trent reflect the University’s strong commitment and recognition in the areas of environmental research and graduate student training.
“Trent is clearly punching above its weight in the area of conservation biology and wildlife ecology,” Prof. Murray said. “I have been fortunate to work closely with a number of top-notch Trent researchers, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources scientists, and international collaborators, which has led to the ground-breaking research that made this appointment possible. Thus, the CRC really is a testament to Trent’s leading role in environmental research on the national and international stage, and I have no doubt that the best is yet to come.”
Using a variety of techniques ranging from genetic analysis to monitoring animal movements through radio-telemetry, Prof. Murray will study the role of factors like climate change, contaminants, industrial development, and invasive pathogens and predators, on wildlife populations in Canada and abroad. His research will focus on the interaction between various stressors and the mechanisms by which they act on animals. Using mathematical models, Prof. Murray and his team will forecast the future status and trends of populations, and attempt to understand how humans may mitigate negative impacts on species and ecosystems.
“At this critical juncture in human history, we are experiencing rapid and intense environmental change that will profoundly influence the natural world for generations to come,” he said. “It is our responsibility to understand and properly anticipate these forthcoming changes and our research program will provide robust analysis of how and why populations are changing in numbers, distribution, and structure, what we can expect in terms of future population decline and ecosystem breakdown, and how humans may be able to adjust their behaviour and activities to help ensure long-term persistence.”
Prof. Murray opines that current approaches to wildlife conservation are not adequately integrative to truly understand why populations are changing and how to mitigate such change.
“Given the large and complex environmental problems our society is faced with today, we must adopt new and innovative ways of dissecting these questions, which should better enable us to enact practical and effective solutions. These objectives can only be reached through an integrative approach – one involving current and state-of-the-art technologies and collaborations with a broad array of experts,” he said. “Our team can be at the cutting edge of this important societal need.”
The Canada Research Chairs Program invests approximately $300 million per year toward research across science and the humanities to attract and retain some of the world’s most accomplished and promising minds. The CRC program has positioned Canada as an international leader and destination of choice in research and development.
Posted on Friday, March 28, 2014.