A flash of yellow flutters bright against the tangle mass of winter bare vines and branches that mark the border between the Pearce Park path and the clay cliffs overlooking Erie’s vast grey expanse. Across the path, to the left, another banner beckons. A few short steps into the underbrush finds a third strip of yellow anchoring a plastic bag to an overhanging branch.
The small Ziploc bag contains a note with contact information and a small device that is designed to measure and record temperature variations. It isn’t the only bag of its kind located in the area. Another small bag can be found further in the park. In fact, several more of these bags have been placed at intervals along the Lake Erie shoreline. Through the cold months of our traditional Canadian winter, the devices in these bags will duly log the rise and fall of the mercury.
The bags are part of a study being conducted by University of Western Ontario graduate student Caroline Williams. Caroline is no stranger to the world of academia. She completed her Masters in New Zealand. Caroline met Dr. Brent Sinclair who currently runs the research lab at UWO during her undergrad studies in New Zealand. It was actually Dr. Sinclair who encouraged her to do a Masters. The year she began that Masters, he moved to South Africa to do a post-doc, but he continued to supervise her studies long distance. After acquiring her degree, Caroline spent over 3 years traveling and teaching English in Japan and Malaysia. It was her acquaintance with Dr. Sinclair though, that led to her current position as a graduate student at the UWO Sinclair Lab.
The Sinclair Lab is concerned with the study of insect low temperature biology. A part of those studies deal with the cold tolerance of insects in South Western Ontario. Here in West Elgin, our proximity to the Great Lakes has created an environment that is comparatively warm and (as anyone who lives here knows) subject to unpredictable climatic variations. The research done at the lab will foreseeably have an impact in our own community. Information on the effect of climate change upon the life cycles, migratory habits and reproductive behaviour of both beneficial insects and pest species will help us to better manage our agricultural, forestry and conservation interests.
That is why, even though you aren’t thinking about butterflies in January, Caroline Margaret Williams is. Caroline plans to spend the next 4 years at the University of Western Ontario writing her PhD thesis. In compiling data for a portion of her thesis, she will be exploring how fluctuations in cold temperatures affect the way butterflies utilize stored energy. When the Tyrconnell Heritage Society contacted Caroline, she was happy to discuss her research and kindly sent us an email summarizing her research as it relates to the area along the northern shore of Lake Erie.
Butterflies survive the winter in a cocoon ( chrysalis) waiting out the cold weather until the longer days of spring tell them it is time to emerge. With a lowered metabolism, slipping into a state that is very similar to hibernation, butterflies are able to endure the winter cold and lack of food. The warmer temperatures and sometimes rapid changes in our warm lakeshore region can alter the winter cycle. In some cases, the warmer weather will cause increased metabolic rates, using up energy that would have been used to evolve from pupa to butterfly or to reproduce. Tracking these variations will help to indicate what kind of developmental differences we might expect to experience in insect species as the climate continues to change in the coming years.
Looking for patterns she can use to correlate general weather information, Caroline hopes to build a model that will estimate energy consumption in butterflies that over winter along the Lake Erie shoreline. Caroline has chosen to concentrate on both swallowtail and duskywing butterflies as they exist in the northern range of their environment along the shore of Lake Erie. She will be correlating her in-lab studies of gene flow adaptation in fruit flies to information gleaned along the range boundary.
Caroline will be dropping by John E. Pearce Park regularly to check on her data. She did enjoy her visit to the park and although Caroline is concentrating on the swallowtail and duskywing butterfly species for her thesis, she is looking forward to witnessing the migration of the monarchs in the fall of this year.
The research that Caroline and the members of the Sinclair Lab at UWO are involved in will have a long term effect on our economy, lifestyle and environment. By studying the effects of our unusually warm and occasionally unpredictable climate, it is hoped that we can better anticipate the adaptations that our changing environment will bring to the world we live in.
If you would like to learn more about the Sinclair Lab at UWO just click the lab name to link to their site.
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