Liv Monck-Whipp is a Masters student supervised by Lenore Fahrig. In her own words:
Liv Monck-Whipp with a bat detector
I am a Master’s student working with Dr. Lenore Fahrig on the Farmland Biodiversity Project. My research is around the relevance of landscape heterogeneity to bat diversity and abundance in agricultural Eastern Ontario.
As agriculture represents a significant percentage of human land use, even a small change it’s ability to support biodiversity could have large conservation repercussions. By investigating a variety of taxa the Farmland Biodiversity Project will hopefully develop broad guidelines for farmers wishing to support biodiversity on their lands.
My research specifically investigates the effects of crop diversity and average field size on bat diversity and abundance in Eastern Ontario farmland. I conducted acoustic sampling of bat echolocation calls in agricultural landscapes surrounding rural Ottawa, and identified the activity levels of different species at each site. I am seeking to understand which characteristics of an agricultural landscape are beneficial to bat communities.
When not detecting bats and conducting other important research, Liv produces a web-based comic about field work called Tails From the Field.
Tails from the Field by Liv Monck-Whipp
Tails from the Field by Liv Monck-Whipp