Presenting HHL’s Undergrad Thesis Students
Take a look at HHL’s 2023/2024 Undergraduate Thesis Student Projects! Our students have been working hard and are now entering the final stretch!
Giulia Vilardi
Meeting people where they are at: Mobilizing science through in-person and online outreach
Giulia is an undergraduate student in the Behaviour, Cognition, and Neuroscience Program. She has worked with the Healthy Headwaters Lab as Assistant Communications Director since 2021 and is now completing an Undergraduate Thesis Project.
Her project examines the lab’s social media interactions over time, focusing on content relating to our local partners and FERN (Farm & Freshwater Ecology Research Network) and recent launch of their FERN newsletter. Using trend analysis and social network analysis, Giulia seeks to characterize social ecological network interactions related to place-based conservation and restoration efforts. This work is rooted in many restoration syntheses that show that individual actions are essential to overcoming barriers and failures. Through her analysis, growth in HHL’s communications has already been observed, reaching throughout Canada, the USA, and worldwide, supporting the hypothesis that social networks and partnerships can be effective enablers of actions in support of ecosystem restoration.
Eric Li
Carbon characterization as a tool for detecting human impacts on wetlands and streams across the land-water interface
Eric is an undergraduate student in the Biological Sciences program. He joined HHL as a thesis student in September of 2023. Eric is investigating the impact of human activity on freshwater ecosystems in the Great Lakes Basin. These ecosystems are important for carbon storage and transformation; this study will extend baseline research in order to inform restoration efforts.
Building upon many previous and ongoing field studies in the region, Eric will be measuring dissolved organic matter (DOM), which is essentially carbon in soil, sediment and water, agricultural and urban landscapes, as well as other ecosystem indicators like nitrogen and phosphorus to characterize human impacts on freshwater ecosystems. He will analyze this data using fluorescence spectroscopy - a way of quantitatively identifying samples from each ecosystem – and multivariate analyses.
Sarika Sharma
Exploring spatial-based methods for assessing land-based stewardship
Sarika is an undergraduate student in the Environmental Science program. Starting off her journey with HHL as a volunteer on the Ecosystem Approach project in 2022, followed by joining the team as a NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant in 2023, Sarika has been getting to know the Sydenham Watershed and is now in the middle of her own research project!
Jointly supervised by Alice Grgicak-Mannion in the School of the Environment, Sarika is exploring the use of spatial techniques in vegetation classification and their applicability to environmental management frameworks. Her project uses remote sensing and drone imagery, discovering potential use from the perspective of environmental management. Through image analysis, she is assessing vegetation characteristics at both a local and watershed scale. She is hoping this research can be used to provide a non-invasive, yet accurate, method for the long-term monitoring of ecosystem restoration and stewardship initiatives.
