NEWS FROM THE LAB

January 2024

Recruitment of new trainees.

o   Recruitment continues for our upcoming salmon team. This work is in collaboration with Prof. Shawn Leroux, and a not-for-profit salmon focused group called ERMA.

o   Craig is recruiting a new student to work on brown trout charisma and how it relates to movement and spawning. See this link http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~cfpurchase/MScPosition-trout-CraigPurchase.pdf

o   It looks like Craig will be recruiting a new student to work on a special population of Acadian redfish. Stay tuned for more information.

December 2023

Craig, and Prof. Shawn Leroux have received some large grants that will enable several years of Atlantic salmon field work in the coming years. We have started recruiting a variety of trainees to take part in this work.

Three current and former MSc students have teamed up with Craig and have submitted a manuscript on the potential for brown trout hybridization.

November 2023

We had an intense month tagging spawning brown trout and conducting sperm competition experiments between brown trout and Atlantic salmon for Connor’s thesis.

September 2023

We are gearing up for salmonid spawning season. MSc student Connor Hanley is leading research on hybridization between native Atlantic salmon and invasive brown trout.

Welcome

o   to Katlyn Rowsell, who joins the lab as an undergraduate MUCEP student.

o   back to Nick Murphy, who has worked with us for the past two summers, and now joins us as an undergraduate research assistant.

Craig was recently in Sweden and Norway where he

o   attended the Biology of Spermatozoa conference

o   presented seminars

§  Evolutionary ecology of salmonid gametes: the potential influence of die ton hybridization, Sept 11 at the Institute of Freshwater Research of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, in Stockholm Sweden.

§  Sperm biology & post-ejaculatory female mate choice in salmonid fishes, Sept 15 at University of Agder, in Kristiansand Norway.

o   sampled invasive brook trout and native brown trout with researchers from the University of Gothenburg.

o   met with researchers at the Kristineberg and Tjärnä field stations.

 January 2023

Manuscript by former PhD student Marco Graziano was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

o   He was also featured in the early career spotlight

§  https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245427

o   Graziano, M., S. Palit, A. Yethiraj, S. Immler, M.J.G. Gage, & C.F. Purchase*. Frequency-dependent viscosity of salmon ovarian fluid has biophysical implications for sperm-egg interactions. Journal of Experimental Biology. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.244712

December 2022

Craig applied for three new grants from the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation, and another from Fisheries & Oceans Canada, for future trainee opportunities.

Manuscript by former PhD student Heather Penney was accepted for publication in Ecology & Evolution.

o   Penney, H.D., D. Keefe, R. Perry, & C.F. Purchase*. Evidence of hatch time-based growth compensation in the early life history of two salmonid fishes. Accepted Ecology & Evolution. Pre-print DOI https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.06.495032

October 2022

Craig presented some our work on hybridization at the Wild Trout Symposium

o   Purchase, C.F. 2022. The undiscovered contraception: does post-ejaculatory cryptic female choice reduce hybridization in salmonids? Wild Trout Symposium XIII. West Yellowstone, Montana, USA.

We began tagging brown trout in a nearby lake for future work on their life histories and reproduction.

May 2022

We have an opening for a new MSc or PhD student to work on sperm competition. Interested students should email Craig a CV, unofficial copy of transcripts, and a cover letter. Part of this cover letter should include elaboration on any previous work with behavioural ecology, sexual selection, sperm biology, fish biology, or genetics. See links under Opportunities for more details.

The summer 2022 capelin research team is in place. Welcome to Johanna Bosch, Maliya Cassels, Tatiana Hyde, Gage Moffatt, and Nick Murphy.

Kelly’s first paper has been submitted for peer-review and is available as a preprint. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1514165/v1

January 2022

Paper based on work done at the Experimental Lakes Area has been published “Purchase, C.F., A.C. Rooke, M.J. Gaudry, J.R. Treberg, E.A. Mittell, M.B. Morrissey & M.D. Rennie. A synthesis of senescence predictions for indeterminate growth, and support from multiple tests in wild lake trout. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 289.

o   https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2146

Congratulations to Kelly MacDonald for the successful completion of her MSc thesis “Movers and shakers: exploring the complex dynamics of aquatic biological invasions”

December 2021

Tyler’s first paper has been submitted for peer-review and is available as a preprint “Lantiegne, T.H., & C.F. Purchase. Can cryptic female choice prevent invasive hybridization in external fertilizing fish?”

o   Preprint DOI https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.17.473195

November 2021

Congratulations to Tyler whose MSc thesis has passed through examiners with flying colours. “Cryptic female choice and gamete-mediated paternal effects in the context of interspecific hybridization”

We are moved into the new science building, and are slowly becoming operational.

August 2021

We are ready to move into new $325 million science building, and are scheduled to begin August 16!

A long distance welcome to Ranjan Wagle, who is coming from Nepal to start a MSc with us in January 2022.

April 2021

Welcome to Jayme Bonnell, who is joining the team under a Science Undergraduate Research Award (SURA) for the summer.

September 2020

We are getting use to the pandemic, and the lab is emerging from the blue

Kelly has been in the field since July, electrofishing for juvenile salmonids

Paper on how temperature affects catch and release mortality in salmonid has been published in CJFAS, with Craig as co-author

January 2020

Paper by Craig and Anna on freezing ovarian fluid for cryptic female choice experiments was accepted by the Journal of Fish Biology.

December 2019

Paper by Orbach, Rooke, Evans, Pitcher and Purchase on “mate choice in capelin” was accepted for publication by the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

November 2019

Paper lead by Dara on “capelin sexual dimorphism” was published in the Journal of Fish Biology.

Craig gave two research talks at the University of Western Australia

October 2019

Paper led by Heather on “reproductive constraints in killifish” was published

Kelly and Madison presented their research at the annual Salmonid Council of Newfoundland & Labrador meeting

Craig arrived in Perth Australia where he is spending part of his sabbatical at UWA

September 2019

Craig has been elected as the Vice-President (2020-2021) and President (2022-2023) of the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section, of the American Fisheries Society

August 2019

Congrats to Steven Poulos for having his MSc thesis pass examination

Craig presented the lake trout senescence project at the Biology of Sperm meeting in Sweden

April 2019

2nd paper from our oil spill research has been published by the journal Marine Environmental Research. Titled “Impact of crude oil and dispersant on capelin embryo development” it stems from research funded by the National Contaminants Advisory Group of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141113618307050

o   The 1st paper from this project was published in the fall in the journal Environmental Pollution, and is titled “Chemically-dispersed crude oil and dispersant affects sperm fertilizing ability, but not sperm swimming behaviour in capelin”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749118301714

Paper titled “The impact of a changing winter climate on the hatch phenology of one of North America’s largest Atlantic salmon populations” has been accepted for publication by Conservation Physiology.

Paper titled “Fish sperm competition in hatcheries and between wild and hatchery origin fish in nature” has been accepted for publication in  Theriogenology.

March 2019

Craig was an invited expert on 3 DFO meetings this month: Regional Science Advisory Processes for Atlantic salmon and capelin, and Recovery Action Plan for lumpfish.

Craig gave an invited talk at an upcoming WWF Salmon Habitat Restoration Workshop on March 28, called “Global synthesis of the effectiveness of various salmonid spawning habitat enhancements and key recommendations for Newfoundland salmon”

February 2019

Congratulations to Heather Penney, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on Feb 1.

January 2019

Craig and Anna, along with Mike Rennie (Lakehead U) and Jay Treberg (U Manitoba) presented work on lake trout reproduction at the Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research in London Ontario.  “Old funks don’t always have junk spunk: a clear lack of reproductive senescence in  sperm quality within the long-lived indeterminate growing lake trout”

October 2018

We had a team of 6 at the ERMA facilities on the Grandfalls fishway, where we sampled 70 salmon for Madison’s project on among-individual variation in sperm quality.

We were thrilled to be hosting Geoff Parker (retired University of Liverpool) who received an Honorary Doctor of Science from MUN on October 18.

Craig was interviewed October 10 about “Cressie” for an upcoming episode of the TV show “Rare Earth Uncovered” on APTN.

Welcome to Taylor Hughes and Coady Fitzpatrick who join the lab as MUCEP students, and Terry Sullivan who is back with us for the 3rd fall of salmon spawning.

August 2018

Craig spent 7 days in a remote site of Prince William Sound Alaska, working with Peter Westley (UAF) on pink salmon reproduction