Conservation Physiology for the Anthropocene - A Systems Approach

Dr. Steven Cooke is a Professor of Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology in the Department of Biology at Carleton University. He is also the Director of the Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Science. He completed his undergrad and MSc at the University of Waterloo and his PhD at the University of Illinois before holding an NSERC and Killam Post Doctoral Fellowship at UBC. His research interests are diverse but tend to focus on the behaviour and physiology of wild fish in both freshwater and marine systems. His work spans the entirety of the fundamental-applied continuum and involves work in the lab and the field. He is particularly well known for his work on fish migration, recreational fisheries science, fish-hydropower interactions, and the ecology of stress. He is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and has over 800 peer reviewed publications. Cooke is also the founding Director of the Canadian Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation where he leads a team conductive evidence syntheses. He is founding editor of the Oxford University Press journal “Conservation Physiology”. From 2009 to 2019 Cooke held a Tier II Canada Research Chair and in 2015 he was selected as an NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Fellow. Cooke holds a number of leadership positions including Chair of the Sea Lamprey Research Board of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and Secretary of the College of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Nann Fangue is a Professor of Physiological Ecology and Conservation and Department Chair in the Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at the University of California Davis. She completed a BSc in Marine Biology (1999) and MSc in Biology (2002) at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. She went on for a PhD in Zoology (2007) at the University of British Columbia and held a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at UC Santa Barbara before moving to her current faculty position at UC Davis in 2009. Studies in the Fangue lab are largely focused on determining the ecological significance of physiological variation in aquatic species that inhabit nature and anthropogenically-challenging environments. A key goal of her research is to provide strategies designed to minimize environmental impacts, rebuild wildlife populations, restore ecosystems, inform conservation policy, generate decision-support tools and manage natural aquatic resources. The Fangue lab is composed of a large research team of postdoctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and technical staff, and we are committed to a safe, inclusive, diverse, optimistic and equitable research environment. Dr. Fangue has received numerous advising awards including the faculty excellence award from NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising in 2017. Dr. Fangue serves on the editorial board of the journal “Conservation Physiology” and is a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow. Dr. Tony Farrell is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Zoology & Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His research had provided an understanding of fish cardiorespiratory systems and has applied this knowledge to salmon migratory passage, fish stress handling and their recovery, sustainable aquaculture and aquatic toxicology. He has over 490 research publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and an h-factor of 92. He has co-edited of 30 volumes of the Fish Physiology series, as well as an award-winning Encyclopedia of Fish Physiology. As part of his application of physiology to aquaculture, he has studied the sub-lethal impacts of sea lice and piscine orthoreovirus on the physiology of juvenile salmon. Dr. Farrell has received multiple awards, including the Fry Medal, which is the highest honour to a scientist from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, the Beverton Medal, which is the highest honour to a scientist from the Fisheries Society of the British Isles, the Award of Excellence, which is the highest honour of the American Fisheries Society and the Murray A. Newman Awards both for Research and for Conservation from the Vancouver Marine Sciences Centre. He is a former President of the Society of Experimental Biologists and a former Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Fish Biology. He served as a member of the Minister’s Aquaculture Advisory Committee on Finfish Aquaculture for British Columbia and was a member of the Federal Independent Expert Panel on Aquaculture Science. Dr. Colin Brauner was educated in Canada at the University of British Columbia (Ph D), followed by a Post-doctoral fellowship at Aarhus University and the University of Southern Denmark, and was a Research Associate at McMaster University. He is a Professor of Zoology, UBC and Director of the UBC Aquatics Facility. He has been a Co-Editor of the Fish Physiology series since 2006. His research investigates environmental adaptations (both mechanistic and evolutionary) in relation to gas-exchange, acid-base balance and ion regulation in fish, integrating responses from the molecular, cellular and organismal level. The ultimate goal is to understand how evolutionary pressures have shaped physiological systems among vertebrates and to determine the degree to which physiological systems can adapt/acclimate to natural and anthropogenic environmental changes. This information is crucial for basic biology and understanding the diversity of biological systems, but much of his research conducted to date can also be applied to issues of aquaculture, toxicology and water quality criteria development, as well as fisheries management. His achievements have been recognized by the Society for Experimental Biology, UK (President’s medal) and the Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research (J.C. Stevenson Memorial Lecturer) and the Vancouver Marine Sciences Centre (Murray A. Newman Award for Aquatic Research). He is a former President of the Canadian Society of Zoologists. Dr. Erika Eliason is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her BSc from Simon Fraser University, MSc and PhD from the University of British Columbia, and held an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Sydney and Carleton University. As an ecological physiologist, Dr. Eliason uses a combination of field and lab-based studies to investigate how fish cope with anthropogenic stressors (e.g. temperature, fisheries interactions). Much of her research focuses on how climate change affects physiological performance across populations, age, body size, and sex in marine and freshwater fishes. Tackling both basic and applied questions, Dr. Eliason’s research is informing conservation policy and enhancing the management of natural resources. Dr. Eliason has served on the editorial board for ICES Journal of Marine Science, Journal of Fish Biology and Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Dr. Eliason has been a Co-Editor of the Fish Physiology series since 2020. She was awarded the Cameron Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Zoology in Canada from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, the Boutilier New Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, President’s Medal from the Society for Experimental Biology, and was a Hellman Fellow at UC Santa Barbara.

Steven Cooke
Andrij Z. Horodysky
Nicholas J. Bernier
Erika J. Eliason
Chris M. Wood
Jacob W. Brownscombe
Ted Castro-Santos
Ken M. Jeffries
Timothy M. Healy