The North Atlantic region of Newfoundland and Labrador attracts the curiosity of camera and field book-wielding nature enthusiasts worldwide. It also attracts the curiosity of researchers who explore the region in their own way. For people like Dr. Ian Jones of the biology department and his team of graduate students, the remarkable size and diversity of seabird colonies in the North Atlantic provides ideal research opportunities in various aspects of avian ecology, particularly with respect to conservation and management issues. I am also interested in how organisms respond to changes in the environment, particularly in changes humans have made, like hunting, pollution, and changes in habitats. For instance, the status of capelin is a controversial issue.
Some commentators claim that the species is now scarce and declining relative to recent history.
Others assert that no overall population change is detectable. Seabirds represent a possible solution to solving this debate. The occurrence of capelin in seabird diets tells us a lot about changes in their abundance and distribution. Dr. Jones currently supervises six graduate students who are also specializing in seabird ecology. Doctoral candidate Francis Wiese's current work involves quantifying and modelling the impact of chronic oil spills on seabirds in the North Atlantic, an issue which has recently raised the eyebrows of environmentalists.