Saint Mary’s research in psychology, management, and history receives federal funding

Saint Mary’s University researchers have received federal funding for projects totaling $300,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Insight Grants competition.

“Research in the social sciences and humanities is a fundamental element of how society understands and interprets itself, providing the insight needed to critically explore the true impact of our established institutions, both positive and negative,” says Dr. Adam Sarty, dean of Graduate Studies and associate vice-president of Research at Saint Mary’s University. “These grant recipients are all challenging key aspects within our culture – from the criminal justice system, to sexual abuse cover-up within the Catholic Church, to workplace incivility, to examinations of medical malpractice. I am very proud of our recipients for their willingness to challenge conventions and engage in this research that enriches both our local and global communities.”

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The following is a list of Saint Mary’s Insight Grant recipients:

Recipient: Dr. Meg Ternes (Psychology)
Title: Lie Detection in the Criminal Justice System: Exploring Deception Cues in Field and Laboratory Studies

Dr. Meg Ternes

Description: Most of us are not good lie detectors; lie detection accuracy is usually at chance level. Yet, lies accompanied by powerful emotions and false emotional displays can have major consequences, especially in the criminal justice system where the perceived credibility of an alleged victim’s distress or an offender’s remorse can inform decisions concerning verdicts, sentencing, or parole. For this project, Dr. Ternes and her team will examine the efficacy of nonverbal, verbal, and facial cues to deception (together and separately) using laboratory and field research approaches. The laboratory study will consider emotionally-laden lies and truths told by undergraduate students under controlled conditions, while the field study will consider lies and truths told by criminal suspects in police interviews. The results of these studies will improve our understanding of which combinations of cues contribute the most to deception detection. These results will be shared with professionals in the criminal justice system who have to make these important credibility judgements on a regular basis.

Dr. Cathy Driscoll

Recipient: Dr. Cathy Driscoll (Management)
Title: Exploring Collective Moral Disengagement in Cover-up of Sexual Abuse in the Roman Catholic Church

Description: The broad aim of my research project is to better understand, and effect change in, organizations that are engaged in potentially contradictory practices to their principles, mission, and values. Specifically, this project will focus on institutional and leader moral disengagement in the context of the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse (CSA) of minors in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Using content and discourse analysis, I will study current and historic RCC leader discourse from 1990 to 2020 across four countries. Better understanding insights into the organizational dynamics and discourse strategies in this context can provide valuable applications to the RCC with an estimated 1 billion members, as well as to other organizations’ crises, control dynamics, corruption, and misconduct issues (e.g., banks and public sector).

Recipient: Dr. Camilla M. Holmvall (Psychology and Management)
Title: Examining how workplace incivility impacts leader well-being: The moderating role of leader gender

Description: Workplace incivility has been highlighted as highly prevalent in organizations and also highly damaging to employee attitudes, behaviours, and well-being. Research has focused predominantly on mistreatment directed from supervisors toward subordinates, and between coworkers. However, supervisors, managers, and leaders can also be targets of disrespect. Understanding how, and when, leaders’ well-being is impacted by workplace incivility has significant implications, in part due to leaders’ influence on the achievement of the objectives of the organization as well as on their followers’ performance and well-being.  In this 5-year mixed-methods grant, we draw on relevant theory (e.g., selective incivility, stereotype activation and threat) to examine the possible different experiences of male and female leaders in terms of both their likelihood of experiencing incivility as well as on its impacts on their well-being. 

Recipient: Dr. Blake Brown (History)
Title: A History of Canadian Medical Malpractice Law, 1935-1980

Description: This research will break new and exciting ground in historical research in Canada. It will produce the first history of medical malpractice law in English Canada from 1935 to 1980. One of the most contentious areas of law in the mid twentieth century, malpractice law developed in significantly different ways in Canada than in the United States. The project will explain key changes and trends, and also consider the impacts of technology and the roles of gender, ethnicity and race in shaping the results of malpractice lawsuits. The study ends in 1980, by which time Medicare and the emergence of professional self-regulation complaint systems altered how governments, the medical profession, and individuals approached negligence issues. Focusing primarily on actions against physicians and surgeons, the research will also explore how hospitals and other medical professionals became entangled with litigation. This research will interest historians and also legal scholars, medical professionals, lawyers, policy makers and the general public, since medical malpractice is an important and pressing policy issue.

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The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Insight Grants support research excellence in the social sciences and humanities. Funding is available to both emerging and established scholars for research initiatives of two to five years. Stable support for long-term research initiatives is central to advancing knowledge. It enables scholars to address complex issues about individuals and societies, and to further our collective understanding.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) is the federal research funding agency that promotes and supports postsecondary-based research and research training in the humanities and social sciences. By focusing on developing talent, generating insights and forging connections across campuses and communities, SSHRC strategically supports world-leading initiatives that reflect a commitment to ensuring a better future for Canada and the world.

The work SSHRC supports encourages the deepest levels of inquiry. It spurs innovative researchers to learn from one another’s disciplines, delve into multiparty collaborations and achieve common goals for the betterment of Canadian society. Research outcomes are shared with communities, businesses and governments, who use this new knowledge to innovate and improve people’s lives.

Saint Mary’s researcher to study the effect of COVID-19 on dating, romance and sex

Dating can be difficult at the best of times, and social distancing requirements, face masks, and limited access to restaurants and bars during a global pandemic make finding new romantic partners even more difficult.

This issue has inspired a new survey that looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic has potentially changed how we feel about ourselves in terms of dating and romantic relationships. Respondents will be asked to complete a series of surveys examining their attitudes about sexuality, how many sexual partners they have had or wish to have, how they feel about themselves, and how much money they have recently spent on items related to appearance.

"This is a fascinating time to conduct research because people are having to adjust, to be creative in the way they date," said Dr. Maryanne Fisher, the Saint Mary's University researcher conducting the study. "Online dating websites are reporting a surge of membership enrollments and messages between users, which indicates people are trying to make connections, and potentially different types of connections, than ever before. I'm really intrigued by how we view ourselves as mates has changed due to the pandemic."

Dr. Maryanne Fisher, a researcher and professor of Psychology at Saint Mary's, has been studying these issues since 2017 and is tracking changes over time. She is an expert on the evolutionary foundations of human interpersonal relationships. Her primary research areas include the evolutionary foundations of human interpersonal relationships and women's mating strategies and indicators of female physical attractiveness.

This survey on the effects of COVID-19 on dating and romantic relationships, as well as perceptions of self-worth and attractiveness, will require about 20 minutes to complete. We have removed the collection of IP addresses in an effort to anonymize the responses, and you will not be asked your name or other identifying information. We are seeking volunteers 18+ to complete the confidential now.

Click here to take the survey.

Exploring ways to help Nova Scotian pulp mills produce medical-grade pulp for N95 respirator production

Dr. Christa Brosseau (left)

A Saint Mary’s University researcher is leading a project to help address a key support needed for the COVID-19 pandemic: personal protective equipment and their components.

“As a result of COVID-19, there is a massively increased global demand for N95 respirators,” says Dr. Christa Brosseau. “New technologies are urgently needed to help manage impending shortages, ideally with ’home-grown’ solutions.”

Dr. Christa Brosseau is a professor in Saint Mary’s University’s Faculty of Science and Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Chemistry & Materials. Her project will explore innovative chemical strategies to help determine if Nova Scotian pulp mills can produce medical-grade pulp for N95 respirator production. A recent grant from Research Nova Scotia will help propel this work forward.

N95 masks are typically composed primarily of synthetic polymer materials (polypropylene, polyester) with cellulose sometimes incorporated into one of the many layers that make up the respirator. At present, a single mill in Canada is producing medical grade pulp and they are struggling to keep up with the increased demand.

“Over the years, there has been an increased interest in making N95 respirators using only wood pulp”, says Dr. Brosseau. “However, wood pulp typically lacks certain properties that translate into effective respirator material.”

Dr. Brosseau’s team, in collaboration with the pulp and paper industry in Nova Scotia, will develop and test chemical additives that can address key challenges in the production of medical-grade pulp from thermomechanical pulp. Using combined expertise in the areas of chemical synthesis, materials characterization and process development, they will work towards an innovative “made-in-Nova Scotia” approach for creation of a product similar to the Western red cedar formulation currently produced in British Columbia.

If successful, this project could help meet the needs of frontline healthcare workers by supplying adequate PPE protection from COVID-19 while also supporting the Nova Scotian pulp and paper industry. The research team will work collaboratively with Port Hawkesbury Paper Mill who will provide thermomechanical pulp for experimentation.

“Although this research project was identified through our COVID research response initiative, it could also have a positive impact on the Nova Scotia forestry sector”, says Stefan Leslie, CEO of Research Nova Scotia. “As we pursue both a sustainable forestry industry and a response to the COVID pandemic, the research community is demonstrating its creativity and initiative.”

Note: This story originally appeared on the Research Nova Scotia website.

New international research study asks: Is COVID-19 changing the way we cook and eat?

It might sound familiar: flour, pasta and yeast are more difficult to find than in the past, and you cannot ignore the photos of homemade bread or desserts circulating on social media. It seems for many that the approach when it comes to meals is completely different than before the emergence of the coronavirus. This has not escaped the notice of several researchers, either.

This change in cooking habits has led to a partnership between Saint Mary's University and the Food, Media & Society (FOOMS) at the University of Antwerp in Belgium to launch a research study into the matter. The Corona Cooking Survey is a large-scale international survey study into the impact of COVID-19 on how people deal with food and food-related media. This study allows the shifts brought on by the coronavirus in terms of buying, cooking and eating habits, to be identified. More than 30 countries have already confirmed that they will participate in the research project. 

Dr. Maryanne Fisher

"This is a really exciting project to be involved with for many reasons. Academics around the world have very quickly come together to explore one of the most basic parts of our daily life: eating," says Dr. Maryanne Fisher, a professor of Psychology at Saint Mary's and part of the study's project team. "The number of people who have turned to baking bread - one of the most basic skills that has endured for centuries - is simply amazing. But how did they learn how to make that bread, and what prompted them to do so?"

In Belgium, the survey has received more than 6,000 respondents in less than two weeks.

"We know from previous research that family and friends play an important role in people's relationship with food. Just think of the typical "family classics" or all the tips that friends and colleagues share about food," says Dr. Charlotte De Backer, an Associate Professor at the University of Antwerp and the study's project leader. "Other sources, such as influencers on social media, celebrities on television or recipes in magazines also have an impact on our food choices. That's why we want to use this study to investigate whether our habits have changed since the preventative measures were taken, and what role various media and people play in these changes."

Interested in participating in the survey? Click here.

Preventing burnout among front-line care workers during COVID-19 focus of new Saint Mary's research project

Dr. Debra Gilin

Dr. Debra Gilin, a professor in Saint Mary’s University’s Faculty of Psychology, is leading a study that will rapidly develop tailored screening and intervention tools to support mental health and prevent elevated job burnout or safety risks in COVID-19-responding health care staff in Nova Scotia.

“For Nova Scotia to successfully fight COVID-19, front-line health care workers must be physically and mentally well, and feel safe at work over the long haul,” says Dr. Gilin.

Dr. Gilin’s research team is comprised of leading Canadian experts in occupational health psychology, patient and occupational safety, and job burnout (Dr. Lori Francis, Dr. Mark Fleming, and Dr. Dayna Lee-Baggley). A recent grant from the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition will now help propel their work forward.

The team is poised to rapidly deliver research that will screen and intervene for job burnout among front-line health care workers and deliver a “COVID Pulse” staff screening tool to identify those at high risk of burnout. Currently, the team is actively collecting job burnout data from health care and trauma exposed front-line workers during the peak of the COVID-19 escalation in Canada and the US. From there, they will mine the data, finding the most diagnostic factors of workload, stress, personality, and life demands that predict elevated burnout. Partner groups can use “COVID Pulse” to triage the most at-risk employees for earlier and greater support and mitigation. The hope is that this tool will be available by summer.

“We know that the protection of our health care workers’ emotional well-being and safety is a critical priority to succeed in the fight against COVID-19 long-term,” says Dr. Gilin. “By leveraging in-progress research resources, we will deliver these important outcomes with minimal research burden on the front-line workers who are already shouldering a heavy toll for the good of all Nova Scotians.”

Dr. Gilin’s study will use physically-distant, confidential interview and survey methods to listen to emerging sources of stress, trauma, safety risks, and needs among key staff groups on the front lines. The team will then tailor a set of resources, supports, and direct brief interventions, to leaders and their staff.

“The healthcare system response to COVID-19 in Nova Scotia will be a marathon, rather than a sprint,” she says, “And our front-line health care workers’ physical and mental well-being is perhaps the most critical resource we must preserve to be successful in the fight.”

This research project was funded by the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition. Partners include the Nova Scotia Health Authority, Dalhousie University, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, IWK Health Centre, IWK Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Foundation, Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation, and Research Nova Scotia. The Coalition is dedicated to leading and fostering a research environment that engages our academic partnerships and responds to the current needs of Nova Scotians and our health care system, in addition to maintaining the expertise in innovative research, discovery science, population/social sciences, and health system improvement. This funding partnership provides the opportunity to catalyze COVID-19 related research initiatives and achieve collective social impact.

Take the survey now

Researchers at Saint Mary’s are conducting this survey on empathy, burnout, and trauma among front-line workers during the COVID-19 response now, and they welcome your voice! Please consider responding, or sharing: https://traumaworksurvey.wordpress.com

For more information visit https://researchns.ca/covid19-health-research-coalition/

Note: This story originally appeared in the May Edition of the Research Nova Scotia Newsletter and has been republished with their permission.

Saint Mary’s researchers receive funding as part of Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition

In this unprecedented time of local and global uncertainty, there has never been a greater need to conduct medical and health-related research to collect real-time evidence to inform practice, policy and decision making. The Nova Scotia research community has come together to respond to the COVID-19 global pandemic with a collective investment of just over $1.5 million in COVID-19 focused research. 

Today, the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition announced the lead researchers who are receiving funding. Among the recipients are two Saint Mary’s University researchers: Dr. Yigit Aydede, and Dr. Debra Gilin.

“The researchers receiving funding as part of this announcement are tackling the impacts and spread of the COVID-19 virus, turning their expertise to this global problem,” says Dr. Adam Sarty, Associate Vice-President Research and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. “Our researchers are tackling this problem with the tools of machine learning and data analytics to track the virus spread in one case, and the expertise of workplace training and interventions to prevent front-line burnout in the other case.  These projects provide a window into the breadth of the research we do at Saint Mary’s. We work collaboratively and engage in research that matters to our communities.”

This funding supports COVID-19 research that will inform health system decisions, facilitate vaccine development, identify novel treatments, develop devices, and influence social response to the pandemic. Funding will also leverage existing research capabilities to help rapidly respond to the urgent need to support further COVID-19 focused research right here in Nova Scotia.

The COVID-19 Health Research Coalition is dedicated to fostering a research environment that engages our academic partnerships and responds to the current needs of Nova Scotians and our health system, in addition to maintaining the expertise in innovative research, discovery science, population/social sciences, and health system improvement.

Dr. Yigit Aydede

Funding recipient: Dr. Yigit Aydede

Project: The Role of Environmental Determinants and Social Mobility in Viral Infection Transmission in Halifax

Description: This study will analyze the relationships between COVID-19 transmission rates, meteorological and air quality, and the fluctuations in social mobility in Nova Scotia to allow for better calibration of spatial spread in simulation models that are used to inform policy making.

Funding amount: $36,900

Dr. Debra Gilin

Funding recipient: Dr. Debra Gilin

Project: Preventing Burnout Among Front-Line Care Workers to Fight Covid-19: Screen and Intervene

Description: This study will rapidly develop tailored screening and intervention tools to support mental health and prevent elevated job burnout or safety risks in COVID-19-responding health care staff in Nova Scotia.

Funding amount: $47,640

Additional information:

• The full list of Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition funding recipients.  

Psychology researcher recruiting volunteers for online study on responses to the coronavirus pandemic

Survey: Canadian Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic

A study designed by Dr. Jim Cameron, Department of Psychology professor and researcher at Saint Mary's University, will increase understanding of Canadians’ perceptions of the coronavirus pandemic and their actions in response to it.

Nations and communities are using social and physical distancing to slow the spread of the virus so that healthcare systems aren’t overwhelmed. The success of the physical distancing approach largely rests on individuals’ voluntary compliance with public health recommendations and legal regulations.

As the situation evolves in Canada, there have been concerns that physical distancing recommendations have been disregarded or not taken seriously enough by some individuals. National and provincial leaders have using various techniques to encourage public support for these initiatives.

“We hope that the study will contribute to social psychological science, and inform practices related to public health messaging,” said Dr. Cameron.

Canadian adults (18 years or over) are invited to participate in the survey, which takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. Click here to start the survey: 

https://smuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dhGoFhUpLBUtCS1

(SMU REB file #20-095)

Dr. Maryanne Fisher named guest editor of prestigious Psychology journal

Dr. Maryanne Fisher

Congratulations to Dr. Maryanne Fisher, who was chosen to be the guest editor of the January edition of the American Psychological Association’s journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, a special edition which addresses women’s representation in evolutionary-based research and theory.

Dr. Fisher, a professor of Psychology at Saint Mary’s and an affiliate faculty member at the Kinsey Institute, is an evolutionary psychologist whose work explores human relationships through an evolutionary lens.

A well-known expert in her field, her primary research topic is the evolutionary foundations of human interpersonal relationships, female intrasexual competition, and women’s mating strategies. She is also interested in the intersection between feminist studies and evolutionary psychology.  

She was thrilled to take on the task of editing the special edition of the journal, a task she has some experience with; she was also the guest editor of the Oxford Handbook of Women and Competition in 2017 and Evolution’s Empress: Darwinian Perspectives on the Nature of Women in 2013.

When speaking about the selection process, Dr. Fisher said it was extremely difficult to narrow down the entries, even removing her own work from the contention.

“We had so many excellent papers submitted, we could have filled two journals,” said Dr. Fisher. “They were very good, very high quality.”

This special issue examines how women have been studied from an evolutionary perspective, and how the discipline both questions assumptions about women and has limited explorations of women and.

“Evolutionary perspectives have often been openly criticized in fields such as women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, to the point of being dismissed outright in favor of sociocultural explanations for behavior, motivation, emotions, and cognitions,” said Dr. Fisher.

“Collectively the articles show that women are not simply passive entities, but instead play significant and active parts in human evolution and theories about evolutionary bases of behavior.”

Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences publishes manuscripts that advance the study of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective, with an emphasis on work that integrates evolutionary theory with other approaches and perspectives from across the behavioral sciences, including the range of subdisciplines within psychology as well as the social sciences (e.g., sociology, political science, criminology) and humanities (e.g., history, literature studies).

SMU faculty support front line health workers

During the global pandemic of COVID-19, supporting each other and our community is more important than ever. At Saint Mary’s University, while administration prepared for the move to virtual operations, an enterprising group of researchers and faculty members saw an opportunity to help those at the front lines of the epidemic.

A portion of @SMUScience lab supplies going to health care workers today. Thank you @EPICLundholmLab for coordinating today with Megan Vincent. Hoping to coordinate more PPE and lab supplies to go to health care workers from @SMUScience over the next few days. #COVIDkindness pic.twitter.com/2s0wx66v5s

— Dr. Linda Campbell (@LM_Campbell) March 23, 2020

“As the university prepares to transition away from in-person classes and labs, we quickly realized that we had lab supplies that could be useful to medical professionals,” says Dr. Linda Campbell, Director of the School of Environment at Saint Mary’s. “It’s important that people support the nurses, doctors, and medical staff at the front lines.”

Dr. Linda Campbell and Dr. Jeremy Lundholm coordinated the efforts. Dr. Lundholm was joined by chemistry professors Dr. Christa Brosseau and Dr. Jason Masuda and Faculty of Science staff to gather lab coats, safety glasses, gloves and masks, and prepare the supplies for transport to local hospitals.

“We saw an opportunity to show support on behalf of the SMU community, and we seized the opportunity to get these supplies in the hands of the people who need them most right now,” adds Dr. Campbell.

The Saint Mary’s University Community sends thanks to them, and the Faculty of Science, for their donations of much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE).

Dr. Sam Veres wins prestigious award in spinal research

Dr. Sam Veres, Associate Dean of Science at Saint Mary’s University

Dr. Sam Veres, a biomedical engineer and Associate Dean of Science at Saint Mary’s University, has won the prestigious ISSLS Prize in Basic Science for 2020 from the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine.

The winning paper, co-written with student Tyler Herod (MASc in Biomedical Engineering at Dalhousie), is titled “Beyond microstructure: Circumferential specialization within the lumbar intervertebral disc annulus extends to collagen nanostructure, with counterintuitive relationships to macroscale material properties.”

The work focuses on intervertebral discs, which are a component of the skeletal system that is not yet fully understood, despite being critically important to everyday living. These thin soft tissue discs interposed between adjacent vertebrae are what provide the spine with flexibility, allowing us to bend and twist.

Intervertebral discs support mechanical load in a similar way to an exercise ball or car tire, explained Dr. Veres. “When compressed, the pressure generated within the centre of an intervertebral disc resists the compressive load, while the periphery or annulus of the disc is stretched in tension, restraining the pressurized interior from escaping.”

A herniation, or slipped disc, occurs when the stretched disc ruptures, allowing the pressurized centre of the disc to escape—with painful, debilitating consequences for the patient. Disc herniations often occur posteriorly, and their proximity to the spinal cord makes this especially problematic. Herniated nuclear material from within a disc can cause pain by mechanically compressing or chemically irritating the spinal cord or its enveloping membrane, the dura.

“What struck us as odd about the posterior annulus is not that failure often occurs here, but that the rates of microdamage accumulation in this area—the small tears, clefts, and fissures that start to develop within the first few decades of life—are not remarkably higher compared to other less loaded regions of the annulus,” said Dr. Veres. “We suspected that the posterior annulus may possess structural differences to other regions on a smaller structural scale.”

To test their theory, Dr. Veres and Tyler tested the lumbar spines of sheep to study the structural organization of collagen molecules using a thermo-mechanical technique known as hydrothermal isometric tension analysis.

“In general, our results showed that the collagen fibres of the intervertebral disc annulus are much stronger than previously thought—more than double the strengths previously reported,” said Dr. Veres.

“Interestingly, despite being composed of fibres with greater intermolecular connectivity, the posterior annulus was significantly weaker than the anterior annulus,” he said. “These results show that a previously unknown regional variation exists in the fundamental load-bearing structural makeup of the intervertebral disc annulus.”

Currently the standard treatment for herniated discs is to remove the discs and fuse the two adjacent vertebrae to become a single column of bone; successful, well-established techniques for repairing discs don’t yet exist.

“Our work is just one piece in a much larger attempt by the spinal research community to understand normal function and failure within intervertebral discs, in order to inform how to better care for and perhaps one day repair or replace these critical elements of our skeletal system,” said Dr. Veres.

Dr. Sam Veres’s Research

Biomedical engineer Dr. Veres uses a multidisciplinary approach, using knowledge and techniques from engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine to improve understanding of tissue development, normal function, aging, injury, and repair. His work has provided fundamental insights into the structural changes that occur in mechanically overloaded soft tissues, and work continues on the development of new therapies for treatment of tendons, ligaments, and the intervertebral discs of the lower back.

The award-winning work was funded by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The Veres Group is part of a tissue development, damage and repair research collaborative located at Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University.

The Group specializes in investigating interactions between structure and function in the load-bearing tissues of the human body, and how these relationships change in health and disease.

The ISSLS Prize for Lumbar Spine Research

The ISSLS Prize program is sponsored by the European Spine Journal. Three prizes of $20,000 each are awarded annually based on scientific merit in the areas of basic science, bioengineering, and clinical science. Papers submitted for the competition must be original, full article manuscripts, not previously published or submitted for publication. The prize also comes with an invitation to present the winning paper in Australia in 2020.

SMU researcher’s groundbreaking earthworm study on recent cover of Science Magazine

Dr. Erin Cameron, a researcher in the department of Environmental Science, has published a paper in the prestigious Science Magazine on her work studying the global diversity and biogeography of earthworms.

The study had two main findings: that local species richness (the number of earthworm species at a site) was higher in temperate regions of the world compared to tropical areas, and that climate is the strongest driver of earthworm diversity. This suggests that future climate change could significantly alter earthworm communities worldwide, threatening the many functions they provide.

“Having her research recognized by such a prestigious scientific publication is a testament to Dr. Cameron’s innovative work in the field of environmental science,” said Dr. Lori Francis, acting Dean of Science at Saint Mary’s University. “The huge scope of her collaboration with such a large international group of scientists is impressive, and this work will allow further collaborations with other leaders in this field and answer important questions about effects of global climate change on earthworm communities.”

“Having her research recognized by such a prestigious scientific publication is a testament to Dr. Cameron’s innovative work in the field of environmental science.”

— Dr. Lori Francis, acting Dean of Science at Saint Mary’s University

Dr. Cameron and her German collaborator Prof. Nico Eisenhauer were the senior authors on the paper, with their postdoc Dr. Helen Phillips as the lead author. The research, based at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Leipzig University in Germany, used research compiled from 140 researchers from across the globe to create the largest earthworm dataset worldwide, encompassing 6928 sites in 57 countries.

First conceived in 2014 at a global earthworm conference after a workshop discussing questions concerning diversity patterns of earthworms, this report has been years in the making. The researchers looked at questions about what factors drive global patterns of earthworm diversity: soil properties such as pH and the organic carbon content of soil, or habitat cover, or climate: i.e. temperature and precipitation. Dr. Cameron had previously looked at earthworm distributions in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, and was intrigued by earthworms found further north than expected.

Earthworms substantially shape the way ecosystems function: their burrowing creates holes, mixes soil components and they eat organic debris. By doing so, they drive a wide range of ecosystem services, including nutrient provision, water infiltration and run-off, carbon storage, climate mitigation and seed dispersal.

“Earthworms are ecosystem engineers; they are species with a large impact on the structure of ecosystems,” said Dr. Cameron. “While the impact of earthworms on their local ecosystems is fairly well known, until now there has been no research or data on the distribution of earthworms at a global scale.”

“A surprising result of this study was that the biodiversity patterns in above-ground organisms do not match those of soil organisms, with a greater local diversity found in more temperate climates compared with tropical locations,” Dr. Cameron explained. “As typically the highest number of species in a local area is found in the tropics, this result was not expected, however we suspect that the total number of earthworms across the tropics is still higher than other regions due to dissimilarity among sites.”

“This is a seminal accomplishment in climate change research which Dr. Cameron has achieved so early in her professional career, with this being the first time Saint Mary’s research has been featured on the cover of Science Magazine,” said Dr. Adam Sarty, Saint Mary’s University’s Associate Vice-President Research.  “Her ability to lead this large international collaborative project, and provide a truly global perspective, makes us excited to see where her next projects will lead as she joins the growing team of Saint Mary’s University researchers focusing attention on the impacts of, and responses to, the effects of climate change.”

The research also found that the biggest driver of diversity in earthworm communities was climate, namely precipitation and temperature. “These organisms are an important part of our ecosystem, and below-ground biodiversity must be considered when considering the effects of climate change on our ecosystems,” said Dr. Cameron.

The study and its resulting comprehensive global map used as much data on earthworm diversity, abundance and biomass as possible. Future stages of this work will project earthworm diversity levels in the future.

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Dr. Erin Cameron is an assistant professor in the Environmental Science department at Saint Mary’s University. Her research examines effects of global change on species distributions, community composition, and ecosystem functioning. She uses a combination of field observations, experiments, citizen science, molecular approaches, data synthesis, and modelling to assess global change impacts across spatial and temporal scales. Dr. Cameron was recently awarded an NSERC Discovery Grant with a Northern Research Supplement.

Saint Mary’s researcher contributes to UN fishery and climate meetings

Dr. Tony Charles (2nd from left) participates in a panel at the UN’s International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability in Rome.

The work of a Saint Mary’s professor is reaching the global stage via two international United Nations symposiums.

Dr. Tony Charles, who teaches in both the School of the Environment and the Sobey School of Business, was recently invited to speak on the future of global and regional fisheries at the International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability. The event was held in Rome at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The conference examined how decisions are made around all aspects of the fishery, with the aim to develop high-level policy on the role, value and sustainability of fisheries in the 21st century.

“My focus is on how fishing communities can do better in the future, how they can have healthier, better lives through conserving their local resources and environment,” says Dr. Charles.

“That’s been my interest for all my career here at Saint Mary’s, is how to make natural resources sustainable while providing livelihoods for people,” said Charles.

The topic is a timely one. Fisheries are linked with many of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals not just the health of the ocean, but ending poverty, food security, gender equality, climate change.

“There’s been a philosophy that government has to control fishing people or they will go crazy and catch too much fish. But what I and many others have been documenting over the years is that if you let the fishers operate as local communities, all around the world, what you see is that they actually conserve the fish.”

‘It turns out if you just let local communities take action themselves, and give them support for doing that, it’s very impressive what they can accomplish.”

Another project led by Charles is also being taken to the international stage. His publication Addressing the Climate Change and Poverty Nexus looks at the links between poverty reduction efforts and climate change action and will be presented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization at COP 25 this week in Madrid. “It’s kind of a tool kit to the countries of the world on how to make poverty reduction come together with climate action, and vice versa,” says Charles.

Learn more:

International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability

Community Conservation Research Network