ɬÀï·¬

Jonathan Sangiovanni | Bergin Island 3

Herring gulls (Larus smithsonianus) nest in early spring on arid Bergin Island in South Stormont, Ontario. Perched in the trees among the swarm of gulls, double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum) are competitive bedfellows on this island in search of space to lay their eggs. We’ve come here to dive into their broods. Birds are important sentinels of environmental health. Their interactions with the aquatic and terrestrial environments can help us glean information about a habitat and the state of community members. We collect unincubated eggs from these wild bird species to monitor the chemical load present in these natural microcosms. We also carry out further analyses to explore the responses of their genetic landscape following the introduction of environmentally relevant contaminants. This information helps us to predict the effects of pollutants on wildlife.

Alana Krug-MacLeod | Researcher or Researched? Digge-ing in and Seeking Clarity about Arctic Foraging Dynamics

An inquisitive thick-billed murre regards my co-researcher, who is perched beside me on a ledge partway down the 200 metre rock cliffs of East Digges Island, Nunavut (located in northern Hudson Bay). This island, known for its dense mists, is home to a well-established breeding colony of 100,000 thick-billed murres (which appear as small white-and-black flying and floating specks in the grey-blue sky and water on the right side of this image). The murre in the foreground is oblivious to the black-handled noose pole my colleague holds. This device enables us to gently recapture colony-mates to remove GPS accelerometers (biologgers) we had previously attached to their backs. The biologgers record where individuals forage and their acceleration, which we will use to calculate the change in each individual’s weight and to estimate prey loads and capture success. In the Arctic Ocean below the cliffs, an autonomous sailing vessel mounted with an echosounder is collecting acoustic data on prey density and prey species’ vertical positions. I will match up this data with murre’s foraging behaviour to understand how factors such as changes in light during the polar day and colony size affect prey and predator availability and movement behaviour. My work is part of a decades-long study that monitors a species which is culturally important to local Inuit, tracks changes in the ecosystem, and offers insight into food web dynamics among predators and prey in the Arctic.Ìý

Onur Kocer | Field Day on the Water

Understanding how ecosystems exchange green house gases like carbon dioxide (COâ‚‚) with the atmosphere is critical to addressing climate change. Eddy covariance flux towers are tall structures equipped with instruments that continuously measure these gas exchanges, as well as other environmental variables like air temperature and humidity which gives researchers a detailed picture of how an ecosystem "breathes." This tower sits in the middle of a restored marsh near Lac-Saint-Pierre, Québec, and is part of CARBONIQUE (a research network studying the role of wetlands as nature-based climate solutions). Wetlands are among the most powerful natural carbon sinks on Earth, and restored wetlands may play a key role in helping mitigate climate change. Understanding exactly how much carbon they absorb (and under what conditions) is what this project aims to answer. Because the tower is located in open water, it can only be reached by boat. On this day, our team joined the site's technician for a field visit to install new instruments and maintain the equipment. I feel days like this bring me closer to the ecosystems I study from my screen, making the work feel tangible and alive.Ìý

Muhammad Arslan Hanif | Nawaza Faqir: A Keeper Of Oral Traditions

This photo is of Nawaz Mir Alam (an individual who preserves indigenous, local, regional, and community history in the form of text, poetry, musical peformance and storytelling), colloquially known as Nawaza in the community of Mir Alam in a small locality of Sawan Da Kho in the Sargodha region of Pakistan, South Asia. It was taken during a field visit for an oral traditions project to explore local and indigenous ways of learning, transmitting knowledge from generation to generation, and how it was preserved in poetic form, along with text aides. In this picture, Mir Alam is reading and showing his handwritten notes, which are a form of personal archives gathered through at least six decades of work in the field of genealogy, storytelling, and performance. The Mir Alam community, which is often considered illiterate in text-based epistemologies, often defies the presumption that oral traditions are only oral. transferred and are kept by people who cannot read or write text. He challenges the notion that the local people did not have a writing system; they are not rational and logical. He uses both text and oral stories to entertain his audience. Though he believes that oral traditions are more authentic than written knowledge, the use of text shows his way of remembering the past, regional history, and community histories. In the absence of locally written histories of the local community, Mir Alam preserves history in the form of poetry and musical performance. They act as an alternate archive to construct the past from local knowledge rather than colonial, polluted, and biased records.

People's Choice Winner

Shamnaz Arifin Mim | Walking Between Worlds: Bangladeshi Woman Science Teacher's Journey

On a quiet street in Dhaka, a woman science teacher walks ahead of me holding an umbrella against the sun. I captured this photo with her permission as I followed her to her home for an interview. From behind, she may appear like any other teacher returning home after school. Yet this moment reflects a much deeper journey, one that many women science teachers in Bangladesh navigate every day. She teaches science to secondary school students and is also a mother of two daughters. Like many women in my study, she balances professional responsibilities with extensive care work at home. Her days involve lesson preparation, teaching, mentoring students, and supporting her family. At the same time, she works within an education system increasingly shaped by neoliberal pressures, where measurable performance, efficiency, and private tuition are often prioritized, while the relational and emotional dimensions of teaching remain undervalued. My research explores how women science teachers construct their professional identities within these complex conditions. Using a decolonial lens, the study centers teachers’ lived experiences and understands how cultural expectations, gender norms, and historical influences shape the worlds of science teaching and learning. This photograph represents more than a walk home. It captures the movement between multiple worlds, teacher, caregiver, or role model. My research seeks to make these everyday journeys visible and to amplify the voices of women science teachers who hope that more girls in Bangladesh will see science not as a distant field, but as a place where they belong.