Shortlisted for the Georgina Mace Prize 2024
Sarah Kingsbury shares insights into her team’s study investigating a new integrated management approach to better assess the effects and risks of aquatic invasive species on Atlantic salmon.
About the Research
Overview
Our idea was to develop an integrated management plan to inform aquatic invasive species and Atlantic salmon management in Nova Scotia, Canada. Atlantic salmon is an iconic fish in Atlantic Canada. This fish is a staple food for Indigenous Peoples, it’s an important recreational fish, and it plays an important role of bring ocean nutrients up into rivers and lakes during its annual migration. Historically, all river systems in Nova Scotia are ‘suitable’ for Atlantic salmon, but the salmon have slowly disappeared from certain areas of Nova Scotia. Why? There are many potential reasons and many pressures. Prioritizing pressures to address and strategically allocating resources to areas where Atlantic salmon needs them most is difficult to do if we look at each pressure individually or if we try to conduct prioritization exercises over a landscape where pressure magnitude changes or when we have multiple aquatic invasive species that affect Atlantic salmon in different ways.
Next steps and broader implications
We found that Atlantic salmon was most impacted by pressures, including aquatic invasive species, that altered the physical habitat quality. In terms of aquatic invasive species, this means that preventing aquatic invasive species introductions to high-value Atlantic salmon habitat should be prioritized for species that will alter the habitat structure and quality (that is, ecosystem engineers).
Controlling the vectors associated with introducing ecosystem engineers should be prioritized, especially in Eastern and Northern Nova Scotia where the habitat quality was better than Southern and Western Nova Scotia. Notably, all aquatic invasive species affect all invaded environments in one way or another, but the ecosystem engineers seemed to have a direct risk to Atlantic salmon populations. In terms of conservation, there is always the argument of do we deploy resources to the fish populations most at need (that is, the most deplete and threatened) or to the healthiest populations that might be more likely to survive? What is presented in this study is a “where is the biggest bang for your buck” approach. Certainly more research is needed specific to each watershed, but this project provides some direction on where that research could start.
About the Author
Getting involved in ecology
My path to invasion ecology was not planned or direct by any means. Before I started my journey into the world of invasive species, I was a Naval Warfare Officer in the Royal Canadian Navy with a background in chemistry and only a minor in environmental science from the Royal Military College of Canada.
Despite not having a clear path into invasion ecology, my family has been dairy farmers in Southern Ontario for eight generations (I am seventh generation but my children and my siblings children are the eighth). I have always been curious about the interdependencies of ecosystems. Due to my background in agriculture, I have a deep respect for and interest in human interactions with (and incorporated within) the environment. I knew I wanted to work in environmental science since I was a child, but due to my position with the military I wasn’t able to pursue it further.
However, when I found myself pregnant with my first child, I knew it was my chance to finally pursue my academic dreams. I applied for a Masters in Science (MSc) at Saint Mary’s University (SMU). I started my MSc project researching historically contaminated gold mine sites in Nova Scotia under the direction of Dr. Linda Campbell at SMU. For my research, I used the Chinese mystery snail (Cipangopaludina chinensis), as my reference organism because it was readily available in lakes near our research lab and was a relatively large benthic organism that could be exposed to mine tailings dermally and through ingestion (it’s a grazing and filtering feeding benthic species). We later discovered that the snail was a non-indigenous and potentially invasive species. Due to the timing of my research, the nature of the reference organism, and the newly established Fisheries and Oceans Canada Aquatic Invasive Species National Core Program (which is the program I now work for), we were encouraged to further study the snail. When I became pregnant with my second child, switching MSc projects to focus on invasive species seemed like a natural choice. The research project on the snail brought me all over Atlantic Canada to talk to the public, Indigenous communities, museums, naturalist groups, etc. about the risks of aquatic invasive species in Atlantic Canada. It is with the support of my amazing MSc supervisor, the supervisory committee, the numerous academic and professional mentors, and my family’s supportiveness, especially my husband Alex, that I was able to successfully complete my degree, find work within my field, and progress to a senior biologist role. I hope to continue to explore the complexities of aquatic invasive species in Atlantic Canada; and I hope to continue contributing to the field through my research, mentoring students, and transparently communicating risks of aquatic invasive species to Canadians.
Current position
I am the Senior Aquatic Invasive Species Biologist working for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Maritimes Region in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Current research focus
After completing this work I realized that a similar process to identify species that are not yet in Nova Scotia would be aid in preventing aquatic invasive species (AIS) introductions and, thus, would more effectively protect all Nova Scotian freshwater species. Therefore, I have continued to research the integration of AIS invasion risk with pathways and sites (site can be prioritized either for early AIS detection or for conservation depending on the management goals).
A few of my more recent research projects include developing species distribution models for high-risk invaders such as zebra mussels (Kingsbury et al. in-prep), development of AIS watchlists (Kingsbury et al. accepted; Pratt et al. accepted), and exploration of AIS pathways such as the prevalence of aquarium product contamination via hitchhiking AIS. Also, through numerous partnerships, I have an opportunities to contribute to new species detections (Pratt et al. 2024) and raise public awareness about ecosystem engineers such as invasive crayfish species in Nova Scotia. The serve anticipated negative ecosystem impacts from exotic ecosystem engineers was a key finding in our Atlantic salmon project where AIS altering ecosystem structure and function were more likely to negatively impact Atlantic salmon. In terms of conservation specific outcomes, this study has helped support conservation management decisions for project funding prioritization and Atlantic salmon restoration for on-the-ground projects occurring in Nova Scotia. Moreover, the project helped my team, the Aquatic Invasive Species National Core Program, decide where we should focus AIS surveillance fieldwork. For example, in 2024, we survey 10 lakes in the St. Mary’s River watershed (Canada’s first Ecological Significant Area candidate) for invasive chain pickerel, smallmouth bass, zebra mussel, and quagga mussel via environmental DNA surveys. Luckily, no AIS were found in St. Mary’s River. Also, upon request, the R scripts and management concepts from this work were shared with the Province of Nova Scotia to aid with their biodiversity management target setting. Overall, my hope is to continue to provide environment managers with transparent, reproducible, and evidence-based advice to incorporate AIS considerations into their day to day operations.
Advice for fellow ecologists
Be observant, be curious, be different.
Be observant: I am still in the early stages of my career but I have found such depth to my field of research. Frequently I have sat listening to my mentors and read as widely as I can. I often find the answers to a question lie in the combination and modification of frameworks, tools, or concepts that have already been started by someone else. Maybe one day I will figure out how to reinvent the wheel, but at this stage in life, I am standing on the shoulders of all the scientists that came before me.
Be curious: Everyone has ideas and when they share these ideas with you, it is because they want your curiosity. I am fortunate to have access to a large network of experts from various disciplines and I use my network of mentors and colleagues to ask open-ended questions. I am always surprised at how many out-of-the-box answers I get and these are typically the most exciting ideas to research. I try to bring curiosity to each given suggestion and read about it further before deciding if it is the right for me.
Be different: I once went to a post session where a presenter, Dr. Rob Thacker from Saint Mary’s University’s Astronomy and Physic department, started their speech with “you are all STARS.” Of course Dr. Thacker was referring to the percentage of ‘space dust’ that exists in all of us, but I took it to mean that we were all unique and worthy in our own way. We each have our own path in life to follow. Embracing my unique life history has afforded me many opportunities in science. For example, my military years of service, although unconventional for a Canadian scientist, taught me to be comfortable with discomfort and so, I do not shy away from big research project due to perceived difficulty level. We all have that special spark, whatever it is for you, find it and latch on to it. Know that your life path with look different from other individuals and that is fine, you are where you need to be.
Get more details on Sarah Kingsbury’s study in a previous blogpost!
Read the full article ‘A new tool for setting biodiversity management priorities adapted from aquatic invasive species management: A pilot using Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in NS, Canada’ in Ecological Solutions and Evidence.
Find the other early career researchers and their articles that have been shortlisted for the Georgina Mace Prize 2024 here!
