OTN Canada Students: David Yurkowski

Dave is an MSc candidate in Environmental Science at the University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario. His research focuses on determining diet and habitat use of ringed seals (Phoca hispida) in Cumberland Sound, Nunavut using satellite telemetry and microchemistry analysis (stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios) of liver and muscle. Liver and muscle samples have been collected by Inuit hunters as part of their subsistence harvest over the past 20 years and these tissue samples will be used to assess temporal changes in diet and habitat use with sea ice conditions. Ringed seals are a keystone species and have a circumpolar distribution within the Arctic, although knowledge of their diet, habitat use, and movements is limited, so this research hopes to advance our understanding of responses of ice-adapted marine mammals to changes in Arctic ecosystem structure.

Dave earned his BSc (Hons.) in Biological Sciences at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Affiliations: Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor

Areas of Expertise: Microchemistry analysis, ringed seal ecology, satellite telemetry