{"id":51107,"date":"2018-05-22T16:22:38","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T20:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=51107"},"modified":"2018-05-22T16:22:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T20:22:38","slug":"brock-student-makes-top-20-in-national-science-research-photography-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/05\/brock-student-makes-top-20-in-national-science-research-photography-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock student makes Top 20 in national science research photography contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Master of Sustainability Science student Dana Harris is wrapping up her degree program with a bang \u2014 or rather, a snap.<\/span><\/p>\n

She and 19 other researchers from across Canada are vying for the 2018 People\u2019s Choice Award in a national research photography contest offered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).<\/span><\/p>\n

NSERC\u2019s<\/span> Science Exposed<\/span><\/a> showcases images taken during scientific research being conducted in all fields by faculty and student researchers in post-secondary institutions and researchers in public and private research centres. Public voting to help determine the contest’s winners is now open on the<\/span>\u00a0Science Exposed website<\/a>\u00a0and continues throughout the summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Harris\u2019 photo, titled \u201cExploring the Jack Pine Tight Knit Family Tree,\u201d shows phases of developing xylem cells, stained in different colours, that are found in a wood sample cored from the outermost part of a jack pine tree in the Northwest Territories, where she is from.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dana

Dana Harris’ submission to the NSERC Science Exposed competition features cells of the jack pine tree.<\/p><\/div>\n

She says she uses the photo and others like it as a conversation starter to explain her research, which examines the impacts of climate change on sub-arctic ecosystems.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I would show my friends and family pictures of what my jack pine cells look like, they would say, \u2018oh, I thought that was a scarf or knitting or netting,’\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s where I got the title of my photo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The image, shot from a microscope, shows the jack pine tree\u2019s phloem, cambial and xylem cells (blue dye) and mature xylem cells (red dye) in a thin slice of the wood.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is one of a series of images taken weekly over the past year to track the growth of the jack pine tree\u2019s various cells.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding these growth dynamics will help better estimate the impacts of climate on cell development and jack pine tree ring formation,\u201d says Harris. \u201cThis type of information is useful for researchers who create climate reconstructions using tree rings as a source of historical climate data.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s far north is widely considered to be the \u2018canary in the coalmine\u2019 of climate change, as melting permafrost, changes in vegetation cover and shrinking ice caps are among highly-visible changes to the environment. <\/span><\/p>\n

Harris is presenting her research findings at the<\/span> \u201cWood formation and tree adaptation to climate\u201d conference<\/span><\/a> in Orleans, France from May 23 to 25.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBrock is very proud of our student researchers, who channel their knowledge, energy and curiosity into investigations that address key challenges in society,\u201d says Brock\u2019s Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that our student\u2019s photograph is among the stunning images of scientific research is testament to her skill and the training and research mentorship she received from Brock University faculty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Making it to the Top 20 for the People\u2019s Choice Award is a particularly sweet victory for Harris.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was also a competitor in NSERC\u2019s Science, Action! research video contest, <\/span>making\u00a0the first cut<\/span><\/a> of the three-round competition. Altogether, seven videos from Brock University were in the contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harris\u2019 video,<\/span> \u201cJack Pine Growth, NT,\u201d<\/span><\/a> has garnered more than 1,400 views.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following her conference presentation in France, Harris will head back to her hometown of Yellowknife to “continue developing the overall understanding of the ecological and environmental impacts of climate change on sub-arctic ecosystems,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Master of Sustainability Science student Dana Harris is wrapping up her degree program with a bang \u2014 or rather, a snap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":51109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,41,1,4,5],"tags":[6654,794,6649,6653,296,522,6652,6651,2195,1440,1099,6650],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51111,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51107\/revisions\/51111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}