My research is on the influence of Agricultural Landscape Structure on Aquatic Biodiversity and Water Quality in Farmland. 

Agricultural intensification is a primary driver of biodiversity declines across taxa, and land use change for agriculture has been identified as the major threat to fresh water systems and aquatic biodiversity.

Aquatic environments in farmland are important for supporting local biodiversity, and performing important functions such as nutrient retention, flood control, and mitigation of chemical contamination. Data is currently lacking on how management of the terrestrial environment influences these valuable systems.

The purpose of my research is to identify agricultural landscape patterns and local management practices that support biodiversity and mitigate agrichemical contamination in farmland aquatic habitats in eastern Ontario.

It is currently unknown how biodiversity in general can be enhanced by altering landscape pattern within farming systems, and studies addressing such questions have been suggested to be high priority in conservation biology. The results of my research will identify agricultural regimes and landscape patterns that support aquatic communities on farms. Recommendations on how best to manage these systems will be derived from results.

Liv Monck-Whipp with a bat detector

I am a Master’s student working with Dr. Lenore Fahrig on the . My research is around the relevance of landscape heterogeneity to bat diversity and abundance in agricultural Eastern Ontario.

As agriculture represents a significant percentage of human land use, even a small change it’s ability to support biodiversity could have large conservation repercussions. By investigating a variety of taxa the Farmland Biodiversity Project will hopefully develop broad guidelines for farmers wishing to support biodiversity on their lands.

My research specifically investigates the effects of crop diversity and average field size on bat diversity and abundance in Eastern Ontario farmland. I conducted acoustic sampling of bat echolocation calls in agricultural landscapes surrounding rural Ottawa, and identified the activity levels of different species at each site. I am seeking to understand which characteristics of an agricultural landscape are beneficial to bat communities.

When not detecting bats and conducting other important research, Liv produces a web-based comic about field work called .