Let’s celebrate women in science today and everyday!
Julia Adelsheim
Julia Adelsheim (she/her) is a master’s student in the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the IOF. She is constructing a new bioenergetic model to investigate how changes in prey characteristics interact with each other and ultimately affect the energy balance of individual sea otters, while accounting for sex, age, and reproductive status. This will help understand sea otter population dynamics, range expansion, and conservation.
Selected publications:
Adelsheim was featured on the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s podcast Marine Mammal Science in the episode called “Sea Otters! Sea Otters! Sea Otters!”.
Verónica Relaño Écija
Verónica Relaño Écija is a marine scientist and conservationist in the Sea Around Us unit at the IOF. Écija passionate about improving marine life and society as a whole. She is interested in enhancing marine biodiversity, development economics, and understanding causal relationships, and focuses on (marine) protected areas, ecological connectivity, fishery economics and people.
Selected publications:
Verónica Relaño Écija directed the documentary “El Pueblo es El Mar,” which tells the stories of different coastal communities and stakeholders in the Argentinian province of Río Negro along the Atlantic coast of northern Patagonia. The documentary explores the communities’ perspectives, and raises awareness about the ecological, social, and economic value of the San Antonio Bay Marine Protected Area.
Sarah Harper
Sarah Harper (she/her) is a postdoctoral fellow with Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Victoria. Harper’s doctoral research has highlighted contributions by women in fisheries economies globally, and she has many publications on topics related to gender, fisheries, and economics. Harper investigated fisheries subsidies and equity under the supervision of Dr. U. Rashid Sumaila, and contributed to the debate on fisheries policies and subsidy reform.
Selected publications:
An initiative of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Society (GAFS) to help elevate the women who fish all around the world, bringing attention to their importance in the fisheries sector and beyond. Harper contributed to this project along with Ayodele Oloko, and the video includes pictures taken by Andrew Trites.
Harper and Colette Wabnitz wrote a chapter about the Blue Economy in the book The Ocean and Us. The recently released book was written entirely by women who are deeply invested in the health of the ocean and all those it supports.
Karly McMullen
Karly McMullen is a master’s student in the Ocean Pollution Research Unit at the IOF. McMullen’s research aim is to advance the understanding of marine microplastic pollution and their implications. McMullen took part in an oceanographic research expedition throughout Ecuador’s continental coast and the waters of the Galápagos Islands to assess microplastic distribution and availability, and to infer the bioaccumulation of microplastics in the Galápagos penguin and the potential risks to the species.
Selected publications:
McMullen was an author on the paper “Multiple anthropogenic stressors in the Galápagos Islands’ complex social–ecological system: Interactions of marine pollution, fishing pressure, and climate change with management recommendations.” The paper discussed the impact of anthropogenic pollutants and their associated ecotoxicological implications for Galápagos species in the face of climate change stressors.
Ayodele Oloko
Ayodele Oloko is a social scientist with great interest in women’s empowerment, climate change, and fisheries. Oloko is interested in exploring the role of social norms in mediating human interactions with fisheries resources, and their potential to improve contributions to food and livelihood security. Oloko wants to enlighten the world about the vulnerabilities and resilience of women fisher folk in developing countries to poverty, with an interest in these topics stemming from decades of research on Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Gender, and Fisheries.
Selected publications:
Oloko was the lead author of “The Challenges and Prospects of Women Fisherfolk in Makoko, Lagos State, Nigeria” which described how women with different sized businesses conducted their fish trade along with their reproductive roles. The paper investigated the coping strategies of women fisherfolk use to tackle the cultural and institutional factors that threaten their pursuit of a sustainable livelihood.
An initiative of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Society (GAFS) to help elevate the women who fish all around the world, bringing attention to their importance in the fisheries sector and beyond. Oloko contributed to this project along with Sarah Harper, and the video includes pictures taken by Andrew Trites.
Shabnam Shadloo
Shadbnam Shadloo (she/her) is a PhD student in the Statistical Ecology Research unit at the IOF. She is going to work on the “foraging ecology of the glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens) and its health as an indicator of the ecosystem” around the Salish Sea. She will develop a method to identify glaucous-winged gulls’ foraging behaviour using movement data. Shadloo will also assess the sources of some zoonotic diseases, such as Toxoplasmosis and avian influenza, and the association of human settlements with the occurrence of these diseases.
Selected publications:
Shadloo was the lead author in the paper “Prediction of habitat suitability for the desert monitor (Varanus griseus caspius) under the influence of future climate change.” The study of the suitable habitats of the desert monitor were evaluated in Iran, and 10 environmental factors for three time periods were considered.
Shadloo was the lead author in the paper “Prediction of habitat suitability for Wild Goat, Capra aegagrus (Erxleben, 1777) in Kavir National Park, Semnan Province, Iran.” The paper studies the desirable habitats of Kavir National Park for Wild goat in two distinguished warm and cold seasons.
Kristen Sora
Kristen Sora (she/her) is a PhD student in the Changing Ocean Research unit at the IOF. She is studying the multi-stressor impacts on the Canadian Beaufort Sea marine ecosystem at various biological scales. Sora will develop and apply food web models and associated indices using the platform Ecopath with Ecosim to understand system dynamics. The food web models will investigate possible changes in the Beaufort Sea ecosystem structure and function under changing environmental and human drivers and the implications for the TN MPA and its management.
Selected publications:
Sora was the lead author of the paper “Evaluation of the Beaufort Sea shelf structure and function in support of the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area.” The paper describes the ecological dynamics of the Canadian Beaufort Sea Shelf ecosystem and the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area under changes in sea surface temperature and sea ice extent.
Sora will be presenting at the “ ECCWO5 symposium” in Bergen, Norway. The symposium will have experts to help better understand climate impacts on ocean ecosystems, the ecosystem services they provide, and the people, businesses and communities that depend on them.
Sora has an upcoming paper called “Influence of historical climate drivers on the Beaufort Sea Shelf marine food web.”
Rhea Storlund
Rhea Storlund is a PhD student in the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the IOF. Storlund’s research is “Circulation during diving: aortic bulb comparisons among marine mammals and cardiovascular responses in Steller sea lions.” Storlund’s objective is to examine how the structure and function of the aortic bulb and cardiac electrical activity of marine mammals are related to their dive behaviour and health. This has implications for understanding marine mammal foraging ecology and the ability of marine mammals to respond to disturbances when diving.
Selected publications:
Storlund was featured on the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s podcast Marine Mammal Science in the episode called “Pinniped cardiovascular physiology”.
Colette Wabnitz
Colette Wabnitz is a marine scientist, and research associate at the Changing Ocean Research Unit at the IOF and a part of the NF-UBC Nereus Program. She is interested in understanding the functioning of ecosystems, how these may respond to human pressures and natural forcing, and the design, together with government, industry, NGOs and local communities, of appropriate measures for the sustainable use of their resources, and the long term conservation of their services. She has worked with fisheries in a variety of settings and engaging stakeholders from a wide diversity of backgrounds in Canada, the Caribbean, Middle East, South Pacific and West Africa.
Selected publications:
Wabnitz and Sarah Harper are working on the gender report for the ORRAA. These include country fact sheets that provide an overview of the role of seafood production in a given set of countries, with a focus on gender dimensions, highlighting opportunities to strengthen gender equity and women’s empowerment in the sector and beyond. The products that are up and coming will be released later this spring.
Harper and Colette Wabnitz wrote a chapter about the Blue Economy in the book The Ocean and Us. The recently released book was written entirely by women who are deeply invested in the health of the ocean and all those it supports.
Melanie Warren
Melanie Warren (she/her) is a master’s student in the Sea Around Us unit at the IOF. Before UBC, Warren was an aquarist taking care of seadragons, cuttlefish, and turtles. She also worked in coral rescue and sea turtle rehabilitation. Her master’s research will investigate the gill-oxygen limitation theory and its application to sharks, rays and chimaeras.
Selected publications:
Warren was one of the authors of the paper “Length–Weight Relationships and Growth Parameters of Common and Leafy Seadragons (Syngnathidae) from a Public Aquarium.” The paper collected data of the common seadragon and the leafy seadragon based on specimens raised in the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, La Jolla, California.
Zeinab Zoveidadianpour
Dr. Zeinab Zoveidadianpour is a postdoctoral research fellow at Simon Fraser University and an international researcher working under the supervision of Dr. Juan Jose Alava at the IOF. She specializes in marine ecotoxicology and risk assessment, with over a decade of experience in studying various contaminants in seawater, sediments, and biota. Zoveidadianpour’s aims to engage local people, citizens, businesses, and policymakers to take action through knowledge exchange and co-creation of solutions to chemical pollution.
Selected publications:
Zoveidadianpour was the lead author of an investigation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Iran. It is a comprehensive investigation of PAHs’ occurrence and distribution in the water, sediment, and fish samples of Musa estuary was conducted.