Murray Humphries

Degrees

NSERC PDF (University of Aberdeen & University of Alberta)
PhD (McGill University & Sherbrooke University)
MSc (University of Alberta)
BSc (hons.) (University of Manitoba)

Awards and Recognitions

2011. Nominee, finalist, and runner-up for President’s Medal, Society for Experimental Biology, London, UK.
2007. McGill nominee for a NSERC Steacie Fellowship, awarded to enhance the career development of outstanding and highly promising university faculty who are earning a strong international reputation for original research.
2006. Macdonald Campus Award for Teaching Excellence.
2004-2006. Three time co-nominee (2004-06) for the NSERC Brockhouse Prize for excellence in interdisciplinary research, nominated by Prof. David W. Schindler, winner of NSERC’s Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering

Active Affiliations

Comité d'implantation de l'Institut Nordique du Québec

Research Interests

We believe that understanding the ecological implications of processes by which animals acquire and assimilate energy from the environment, and allocate assimilated energy between maintenance, growth, and reproduction, ultimately requires field studies that integrate measures of energy supply and expenditure, under known environmental conditions, and in situations where behaviour, reproduction, and survival can be documented.

We try better understanding, predicting and monitoring environmental change impacts on northern wildlife and traditional food security in Canada by working with many northern partners, including federal and provincial governments, private corporations, and indigenous organizations, to design and implement locally relevant research at the interface of scientific and traditional ecological knowledge.

Current Research

1) Wildlife Biologging Across Space and Time
We aim to capitalize on recent advances in biologging tools to advance knowledge regarding the role of physiology and behaviour in shaping the abundance, distribution and coexistence of wildlife populations across environmental gradients. We use different biologging techniques, including external tags, trail cameras, tissue analysis, acoustics, etc., to monitor movement, activity, and energetic of various wildlife species across different landscapes, from the boreal forest of southwestern Yukon to the coastal waters of Baffin Island.
2) Environmental Change, Wildlife & Traditional Food Security
In collaboration with northern partners and indigenous communities, we are interested in understanding, predicting and monitoring impacts of environmental change on traditionally harvested wildlife species. Our approach combines community-based participatory research with studies of climatic and environmental determinants of the distribution and abundance of traditional food and furbearing species.

Publications

View a list of current publications