Articles by author: Amanda Smits

  • Brock University commemorates Earth Hour through words and action

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on March 17 2016

    From The Brock News

    In the lead-up to this weekend’s Earth Hour, Brock University is actively promoting the concept of environmental conservation to our youth – by word and example.

    Biology professor and UNESCO Chair on Community Sustainability Liette Vasseur is fresh off the heels of a live stream session that she delivered to high school students across Canada. Her lesson explored the inter-relationship between climate change and agriculture sustainability.

    Vasseur also supervises graduate students’ research on teaching environmental concepts to children in homeschools and elementary and secondary schools.

    “High schools need to have a course – or at least a half-course – on protecting the environment and sustainability,” says Vasseur, adding that this basic education can lead to more awareness and action down the road.

    At the university level, Brock has increased its “diversion rate” to 68.5 per cent in 2015.

    “That means that 68.5 per cent of materials we generated ended up not going to the landfill because of our Blue Bin recycling and organic waste collections,” says Domenic Maniccia, director of Custodial and Grounds Services.

    “It’s a collective effort between staff, faculty, students, food services, residence; everybody has a stake in it,” he says, adding that Brock University is among the Top Five environmentally sustainable universities in Ontario with respect to waste diversion.

    In addition, Brock University will be taking a number of measures to commemorate Earth Hour, which this year will take place from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. March 19. These include:

    • Parking Lots T, U, V in Zone 2: lights out (Zone 2 permit holders will be able to park in Zone 1 from 4 p.m. on March 19 as a result of lights out in Zone 2)
    • …. click here to continue reading this story.

  • USC revels in sustainable partnership with Canadian uni

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on March 14 2016

    From the Sunshine Coast Daily
    March 14, 2016

    THEY have only been together for three years, but the University of the Sunshine Coast and Brock University knew their relationship was meant to be.

    USC Professor Tim Smith and Brock Professor Gary Pickering signed a memoriam of understanding to build on existing collaborations between the Sustainability Research Centre at USC and the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock.

    Prof Smith said the university’s respective sustainability centres had already joined a consortium of 10 partners from seven countries to participate in the Climate Adaptation and Water Governance project.

    CADWAGO has received more than one million Euros in funding from three European philanthropic organisations; Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Volkswagen Foundation, Compagnia di San Paolo and has seen key researchers advise European governments about best practice for dealing with flooding events based on researching events from around the world.

    A 14 minute joint video developed by the two universities was showcased at the world’s oldest academy, the Royal Society in London.

    The MoU also signals the introduction of a new PhD scholarship being offered by USC, which people can apply for until April 29.

    It is anticipated the agreement will foster closer collaboration between USC and Brock to maximise research opportunities and provide richer student experiences in the global and regional sustainability domains…

    Click here to continue reading.

  • The University of the Sunshine Coast and Brock University commit to sustainability research

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on March 11 2016

    Media Release
    11 March 2016

    The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) and Brock University (Canada) signed an agreement today committing to collaborative sustainability research. The agreement builds on existing collaborations between the Sustainability Research Centre (SRC) at USC and the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) at Brock.

    It is anticipated that the agreement will foster closer collaboration between USC and Brock to maximise research opportunities and provide richer student experiences in the global and regional sustainability domains.

    Associate Professor Dana Thomsen who led the sustainability programs at USC for 8 years says “the agreement builds on current research between USC and Brock such as the Climate Adaptation and Water Governance project, which includes a consortium of 10 partners and attracted over 1 million Euro in external funding”.

    A joint video production between USC and Brock on flooding was recently showcased at the world’s oldest academy, the Royal Society, in London.

    USC has also offered a PhD scholarship to further these collaborations.

    For more information contact:
    Media Relations, University of the Sunshine Coast
    Ph: Terry Walsh 5430 1160, Email: terry.walsh@usc.edu.au

  • WEPGN post-doc starts new year as economist with the US EPA

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on February 11 2016

    We would like to congratulate Dr. James Price on his new position with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Last month James moved to Cincinnati and began working as an Economist with the EPA.

    During his time at Brock, James was a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Economics and worked with Diane Dupont and Steven Renzetti on several WEPGN-supported projects. He received his PhD from the University of New Mexico with concentrations in environmental and natural resource economics, development economics, and econometrics. His research focused on nonmarket valuation, water resource modeling, and interaction between the environment and health outcomes.

    Best wishes on your new career!

  • New Sustainability PhD program information session being held

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on January 21 2016

    From the Brock News

    An information session about a new PhD program in Sustainability, and its partnership with a university in Australia, is being held Tuesday, Jan. 26.

    The program will offer students the opportunity to study in Canada and Australia thanks to a partnership between Brock University and the University of the Sunshine Coast.

    The drop-in session runs from noon to 1 p.m. in the Scotia Bank Atrium in the Cairns building.

  • SSAS grad student earns international internship

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on January 04 2016

    From the Brock News, January 4, 2016

    Brock graduate student Christine Janzen went around the world to find an internship opportunity with the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization.

    Janzen, a master’s student in Brock’s Sustainability Science and Society program, will be working alongside counterparts in New York and Switzerland until May as part of an internship program for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

    The opportunity for the internship came up while Janzen was in China at the first-ever World Forum on Ecosystem Governance held in Beijing, China, Oct. 24 to 28.

    Janzen was one of 20 student delegates from around the world to take part in the forum’s Future Leaders Academy. The IUCN was one of several organizations that partnered to hold the Beijing conference.

    We’ll be gathering case studies as examples of successful and unsuccessful nature-based solutions applied in the effort to tackle global challenges such as climate change, poverty and food security.

    “I found out about the internship while at the conference,” she says. “I connected with IUCN representatives in between sessions and was offered the opportunity.”

    The internship focuses on nature-based solutions — one of IUCN’s key priorities in finding pragmatic solutions to the most pressing environmental, climatic and development challenges. IUCN supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world, and brings governments, NGOs, the United Nations and companies together to develop policies, laws, guidelines and best practices.

    “We’ll be gathering case studies as examples of successful and unsuccessful nature-based solutions applied in the effort to tackle global challenges such as climate change, poverty and food security,” Janzen explains.

    Heading home from China with the internship was the ultimate conference souvenir for Janzen — an experience in which she contributed to discussions, involving 150 leading experts from around the world, about ways to respond to ecosystem threats.

    “Being at the conference was phenomenal. It was inspiring to meet so many people of like-mind and who are working toward a common goal,” Janzen says. “It makes what you do individually very tangible. It was interesting to hear what people, from around the world, are doing within their communities. It was very multi-disciplinary in scope.

    “The key thing that was stressed over and over again was the importance of collaboration across disciplines, social sectors and governmental levels.”

    Janzen’s supervisor, Brock University biologist Liette Vasseur, was one of the program leaders of the forum and led the theme on implementing the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Vasseur, who holds a UNESCO Chair in Sustainability, was one of seven experts from around the globe who co-wrote the Beijing Declaration on Governing Ecosystems for Human Wellbeing based on the discussions from the forum. The declaration was presented at the recent United Nations Conference on Climate Change, or “COP 21,” in Paris, France.

    One of the key points made in the Beijing Declaration, and included in the Paris Agreement, is the need for quality education on environmental climate change and ecosystem governance issues from kindergarten to the post-secondary level.

    Janzen’s master’s research paper is focused on sustainability education in Ontario high schools. The context for her paper is the Ministry of Education’s 2009 decision, to introduce additional environmental sustainability curriculum as part of high school courses. Janzen is focusing on geography and science subject areas and has interviewed high school teachers about their perspectives on the current curriculum.

    “For the most part, the teachers with whom I’ve spoken are all passionate about environmental issues,” Janzen says. “They view the new curriculum as engaging and relevant and try to connect the curriculum to local community issues.”

    •••

    Related stories: https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2015/10/brock-researchers-involved-in-w…

    https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2015/11/brock-biologist-co-writes-beiji…

    Story republished from the Brock News.

  • Brock biologist co-writes Beijing Declaration on ecosystem governance

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on December 01 2015

    From The Brock News, November 24, 2015

    Imagine drafting a set of guidelines that would advise all governments and private sectors in the world on how to govern ecosystems. Picture doing this in a small group of people speaking various languages under a tight deadline with a huge goal at stake: to reduce, and prevent, the increasingly negative impacts of climate change.

    This is what Brock University biologist and Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) member Liette Vasseur recently experienced. She was one of seven experts from around the globe who co-wrote the Beijing Declaration on Governing Ecosystems for Human Wellbeing.

    She and her colleagues based the declaration on material coming from discussions among 150 experts who met in Beijing, China last month at the first-ever World Forum on Ecosystem Governance.

    The Beijing Declaration will be presented at the upcoming United Nations Conference on Climate Change, or “COP 21,” scheduled to be held in Paris, France Nov. 30 – Dec. 11.

    “Climate change is a global problem,” says Vasseur, who also holds a UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability. “It has to be treated seriously. We cannot go on and put our head in the sand like we have been doing until now.”

    The Beijing Declaration’s essential premise is that natural ecosystems play a “crucial role” in meeting basic human needs and wellbeing.

    But environmental mismanagement has led to a situation where 60 per cent of the world’s ecosystem services are degraded or being used wastefully. “Ecosystem services” are the benefits – clean water, food, recreation, energy, medicines, etc. – that people get from the environment.

    Vasseur focused on how good ecosystem governance supports the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which cover everything from eradicating poverty to increasing access to health care, food, education, employment, energy and many other basics across the globe by 2030.

    “Without a healthy ecosystem, we’ll never achieve the SDGs and we’ll never achieve climate change adaptation and mitigation,” says Vasseur.

    “We have to understand and acknowledge that there are connections between humans and the ecosystem. We have to protect the ecosystem and look at nature-based solutions instead of only looking at economic development and technology.”

    Some of these “nature-based solutions” include restoration, replanting trees, protecting wetlands and prohibiting construction in ecologically sensitive areas.

    Another key point made in the Beijing Declaration is that “we need quality education on environmental climate change and ecosystem governance issues from kindergarten to the post-secondary level,” says Vasseur.

    And, community involvement is key to successful environmental management, says Vaseur. “We may have all the best national policies in the world, but by the end, who will be really doing actions? It’s the local population.”

    The Beijing Declaration on Governing Ecosystems for Human Wellbeing outlines principals, goals and recommended actions on managing the environment, achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and addressing climate change impacts.

    Some of these include:

    • integrate reforestation, protection of wetlands, green-belt zoning and other “nature-based solutions” into national economic development plans
    • include sustainability and environmental lessons in school curricula with the aim of influencing behaviour change
    • delegate environmental management and accountability to local people
    • increase investment in “green” activities
    • promote innovative, nature-based sector funds

    The World Forum on Ecosystem Governance and its resulting Beijing Declaration on Governing Ecosystems for Human Wellbeing is a partnership of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM), the Chinese State Forestry Administration (SFA) and the Beijing Municipal Government.

    Regarding climate change, 97 per cent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities, according to the U.S. National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA).

    Its “Global Climate Change” website lists a wide range of climate change facts and other information, including:

    • Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers of ice between 2002 and 2005
    • since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 per cent. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about 2 billion tons per year
    • the 10 warmest years in the 134-year record (1880-2014) have all occurred since 2000, with the exception of 1998. The year 2014 ranks as the warmest on record

  • Brock names new Associate Vice-President, Research

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on November 18 2015

    From The Brock News, November 18, 2015

    One of Canada’s leading researchers on fresh water resources and conservation is about to become Brock University’s new Associate Vice-President, Research for Humanities and Social Sciences. Economist Steven Renzetti has in recent years become a national reference for government agencies as well as news media, on topics ranging from the sale of public water as a commercial commodity, to using residential water meters to reduce consumption.

    On Jan. 1, 2016 Renzetti begins a three-year term as one of the University’s senior proponents of Brock’s growing culture of research leadership.

    “Professor Renzetti is an accomplished researcher who has created and led large national research team initiatives and has been a pioneer in developing community links,” says Brock’s Vice-President Research, Gary Libben.

    The Associate Vice-President, Research “plays a broad leadership role in advancing and supporting the culture of research leadership at Brock University,” explains Libben, with Renzetti focusing on the areas of Humanities and Social Sciences.

    “I’m very excited to accept this position. I look forward to supporting the research efforts of Brock faculty, professional librarians, and students,” Renzetti says.

    Renzetti, who joined Brock in 1988 as a lecturer in the Department of Economics, specializes in environmental economics, which seeks to understand the two-way relationship between the economy and the natural environment. His primary area of research is the economics of water resources, which he has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals.

    Key among Renzetti’s accomplishments include securing a $2.3 million SSHRC Partnership research grant to set up the Water Economics, Policy and Governance Network (WEPGN), a Canada-wide group of researchers, managers, policy makers and community groups coming together to help solve our pressing water issues.

    Renzetti, who is WEPGN’S Program Director, also serves on a number of editorial boards, government commissions and panels, including most recently the Science Advisory Committee to the International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Board.

    At Brock University, Renzetti recently participated in the creation of the new Sustainability Science and Society graduate program associated with one of Brock’s transdisciplinary hubs, the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre.

    “Professor Renzetti’s combination of research skills, administrative experience, leadership skills, and history of community involvement make him an excellent choice for the position,” says Libben.

    Renzetti’s new duties include:

    • integrating research, teaching, and mentoring
    • enhancing participation in funding competitions
    • opening new opportunities for research support
    • developing and enhancing research policies and procedures
    • creating new partnerships locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally

    “Brock University has a great deal of research talent and capacity. My priorities are to work to enhance that capacity, help researchers find new opportunities and partnerships, and to achieve the objectives in Vision 2020, Brock’s research plan,” Renzetti says.

    Article from The Brock News: https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2015/11/brock-names-new-associate-vice-president-research/

  • Brock researcher on team that studies how fish keeps cool

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on November 18 2015

    From The Brock News, November 16, 2015

    If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the … water?

    This is what one particular fish does when its home in tropical mangroves get “too hot for comfort,” a recent research team that included Brock biologist and ESRC member, Glenn Tattersall, has shown.

    Tiny, silver amphibious fish called the mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus), which look a bit like miniature sardines, were long known to jump out of the waters where they live, located in swamps from the southern United States to Brazil.

    Tattersall and the research team, led by biologist Patricia Wright at Guelph University, reared the mangrove rivulus fish for one year in water that was either at 25 or 30°C.

    Then, a webcam recorded the fish’s behaviour and body temperature as the researchers slowly raised the water temperature. The scientists were testing for two things: the temperature at which the fish would jump out of the water to avoid the heat; and whether or not being raised in different water temperatures would affect how much heat the fish could stand.

    The researchers found the fish jumped out of the water at around 35°C regardless of the water temperature at which they were raised.

    The team also wanted to know how quickly the fish’s body temperature cooled under various environmental conditions once the fish was out of the water.

    To do this, researchers had the fish jump onto filter papers that had varying degrees of humidity. The bodies of all fish started cooling in as little as 30 seconds and were cooler than the filter paper within one minute. The less humid the filter paper, the cooler were the fish, regardless of air temperature.

    “These results provide evidence of behavioural avoidance of high temperatures and the first quantification of evaporative cooling in an amphibious fish,” concludes the paper, a “flexibility that may be important for tropical amphibious fishes under increasing pressures from climatic change.”

    Tattersall said for the study, the fish were returned to the water so they didn’t die.

    “That’s the whole point of the study. If the water is too hot, they know to jump out and then they cool off since evaporation on land occurs. But they go back and forth between aquatic and terrestrial environments,” he said.

    He noted that Wright has studied the fish after they jump out of the water in her lab and found they can survive for 20 days out of water.

    The team’s research, titled “Out of the frying pan into the air—emersion behaviour and evaporative heat loss in an amphibious mangrove fish (Kryptolebias marmoratus),” was published in late October in the journalBiology Letters.

    Fish that can take advantage of evaporative cooling may have an evolutionary advantage over fully aquatic fish in coming years as coastal waters warm because of climate change, the researchers suggest.

    Article from The Brock News: https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2015/11/brock-researcher-on-team-that-studies-how-fish-keeps-cool/

  • Master of Sustainability student amongst Brock graduate students to receive SSHRC awards

    Sunday, February 26, 2017 | By

    Published on June 29 2016

    From The Brock News, November 5, 2015

    Programs to help those living with autism or Asperger’s often end in late childhood, leaving teens and young adults to struggle with these conditions on their own. But Master’s student Jeffrey Esteves is aiming to change that.

    With his Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Applied Disabilities Studies student is analyzing the issue through his thesis titled My Life as an Epic Win: Providing transitional support to adolescents and young adults with a high function Autism Spectrum Disorder.

    Created four years ago by Rebecca Ward, assistant professor in the Centre for Applied Disability Studies, My Life as an Epic Win works with 16 to 25-year-olds to develop goals and a wide array of skills in four areas of their lives: career/work; education; independence; and relationships.

    “They do have the skills and tools necessary to be successful in life, however, they’re not really coached through and they’re not provided with that support,” says Esteves. “Autism support really drops off after childhood. We’re trying to fill that gap right now.”

    Esteves’ research involves forming two groups of youth living with autism and Asperger’s. One group will take the My Life as an Epic Win course while the second group is put on a wait list for the program.

    Participants in both groups will undergo tests – given before and after the course period – that measure levels of self-esteem, self-determination, life skills, and anxiety, among others. Esteves will compare test results to assess how the course has made a difference in the young peoples’ lives.

    Esteves is one of more than two dozen graduate students receiving SSHRC awards in 2015-2016 for a wide range of research programs. The funding totaled $730,000: $345,000 for Doctoral and $385,000 for Master’s awards.

    “We have remarkable graduate students at Brock,” says Dean of Graduate Studies Michael Plyley, “Our students demonstrate the high calibre of research that funding agencies, such as SSHRC, recognize as having great importance to addressing the challenges being faced by Canadians and to citizens around the world.

    “Our list of SSHRC winners spans more than 12 graduate programs and five academic faculties. Brock University is committed to being a leader in transdisciplinary research and our graduate students are securing their place in contributing to that purpose.”

    Award recipients of 2015’s SSHRC Scholarships are:

    Katrina Krievins, Sustainability Science & Society: “Pushing the Boundaries of Freshwater Ecosystem Restoration: Evaluating a conservation initiative in terms of social-ecological resilience” (Master’s)

    Candace Couse, Interdisciplinary Humanities: “The effects of art making and body trauma on identity” (Doctoral)

    Aly Bailey, Applied Health Sciences: “Understanding and improving positive body image experiences in people with spinal cord injury” (Doctoral)

    Terrance McDonald, Interdisciplinary Humanities: “Mediated Masculinities: The expression and alteration of masculinity in Hollywood cinema 1995-2005” (Doctoral)

    Julia Polyck-O’Neill, Interdisciplinary Humanities: “Rematerializing the Immaterial: An interdisciplinary and comparative study of Vancouver’s conceptualist movements in visual arts and literature 1984-2014” (Doctoral)

    Thalia Semplonius, Psychology: “A longitudinal study of emotion regulation and positive adjustment among young adults and older adults” (Doctoral)

    Daniella Bendo, Child & Youth Studies: “The social construction of child advocacy in Canada” (Master’s)

    Brianna Bosgraaf, History: “Nordic settlement in the Atlantic and interactions with Canada’s First Nations People” (Master’s)

    Deseree Cipollone, English: “Milton’s reader and the political and critical interrogation of authority in Paradise Lost” (Master’s)

    Meghan Crouch, Applied Health Sciences: “Formative research of anticipatory messages to assist parents in recognizing developmental milestones” (Master’s)

    Erica Dugas, Applied Health Sciences: “Assessing Physical Literacy: Levelling the playing field for children and youth with physical disabilities” (Master’s)

    Megan Earle, Psychology: “Intergroup attitudes and growing diversity in Canada” (Master’s)

    Katrien Ecclestone, Child & Youth Studies: “Advocating for Recess: A proposal to analyze the impact of recess programs on the well-being of children” (Master’s)

    Jeffrey Esteves, Applied Disability Studies: “My Life as an Epic Win: Providing transitional support to adolescents and young adults with a high function Autism Spectrum Disorder” (Master’s)

    Melanie Grice, Child & Youth Studies: “Supporting vulnerable readers across the summer months” (Master’s)

    Taylor Heffer, Psychology: “Examining age differences between young adults and older adults in risk taking perceptions and behaviours” (Master’s)

    Thomas Irvine, Classics: “The crucial role of Numidian Cavalry during the Second Punic War” (Master’s)

    Tessa Mazachowsky, Psychology: “Social anxiety in children and engagement in an educational context” (Master’s)

    James McBride, Social Justice and Equity Studies: “Wild Life: An autoethnographic inquiry” (Master’s)

    Edward Middleton, Classics: “Archaeological study of ethnic identity in cases of Archaic Greek colonization” (Master’s)

    Mohammad Zahidur Rahman, Management: “Explaining Employee Creativity: The roles of task conflict, learning orientation and goal congruence” (Master’s)

    Nicole Redmond, Education: “What is Perceived as Valued in Assessment? – An exploration of teacher intentions and student perceptions” (Master’s)

    Scott Robertson, Applied Health Sciences: “The effects of teaching games for understanding on student enjoyment in secondary school health and physical education” (Master’s)

    Aidan Smyth, Applied Health Sciences: “Exercise as a moderator of body shame and cortisol responses to acute social-evaluative body image threats” (Master’s)

    Rochelle Tkach, Education: “Teaching with Tablets: Fostering 21st century skills within science and literacy” (Master’s)

    Zoe Walters, Critical Sociology: “The regulation of female sexuality” (Master’s)

    Hamza Warraich, Management: “An analysis of individuals’ tax compliance behaviour” (Master’s)

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