Mark Poesch

Is this year’s recipient of the J.C. Stevenson Award sponsored by Canadian Science Publishing. Mark is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of Renewable Resources. He sits on both the federal and provincial listing bodies for species at risk in Canada, and numerous other inter-governmental committees and non-governmental groups, including as the outgoing president of the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of the American Fisheries Society, the largest professional group focusing on fishes in Canada. Mark has been worked extensively on issues related to the decline in freshwater biodiversity, including on effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, metal contamination and invasive species.

He will present the J.C. Stevenson Memorial Award Lecture:

Assessing Habitat Connectivity for Freshwater Fishes: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract: Habitat connectivity is a vital for the conservation of biodiversity. In the past decade, there has been a large increase in publications related to habitat connectivity throughout the ecological literature. During the same time, publications related to habitat connectivity in freshwaters have not increased. This talk will highlight some of the unique challenges in adopting concepts of habitat connectivity into freshwaters, including: 1) the immensity of measuring habitat connectivity, 2) how to incorporate life history and other metrics into measures of habitat connectivity, 3) how to incorporate dynamic features of rivers, and 4) how to measure habitat connectivity into the future. Despite these challenges, in the past decade there have been several advancements that provide opportunities to address these challenges in freshwaters. Advancements in biotelemetry coupled with new modelling approaches have greatly aided in delineating species-habitat relationships as well as connectivity of those habitats. This talk will highlight both the challenges and opportunities in measuring habitat connectivity in freshwaters with an emphasis on enhancing management of declining freshwater fishes.