The OIPC Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be hosted online on Tuesday, November 23rd 2021 at 2:30 p.m. This MEMBER ONLY event is FREE to attend and will be hosted online on Remo, our industry leading virtual outreach and networking software.

AGENDA: November 23rd, 2021.
2:30pm – Welcome, John Urquhart OIPC President & Belinda Junkin OIPC Executive Director.
2:45pm – Keynote Speaker, Dr. Joanna Freeland Professor in the Biology Department at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. (see details below)
3:15pm – Annual General Meeting
4:00pm to 5:00pm – Online Social. Join us after the AGM for discussion and networking.
Registration is required to confirm your attendance. All members have been sent an email with the link to register. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER – Dr. Joanna Freeland

We are please to announce that Dr. Joanna Freeland Professor in the Biology Department at Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario) will be speaking about eDNA as a tool for early detection of invasive aquatic plants.

Plant surveys based on assays of environmental DNA (eDNA) from water samples have been greatly underutilized compared to those conducted on many aquatic animal taxa, but they have great promise for the early detection of invasive plants. Overall, there are two main approaches for eDNA surveys: 1) infer the presence or absence of individual, target species depending on whether their eDNA is present, or 2) describe entire plant communities by simultaneously identifying multiple species (which can include invasive taxa). In this talk she will discuss some of the recent advances – plus some of the ongoing challenges – of plant eDNA surveys. She will explain how eDNA detection can be overall effective for detecting invasive aquatic plants, with the caveat that practitioners should factor the seasonal ecology of species and the sensitivity of different eDNA methods into their experimental designs.

Dr. Joanna Freeland is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Trent University (Peterborough, ON). She has been a researcher in the field of molecular ecology for 30 years. Her current research projects include investigations into the evolutionary ecology of aquatic plants, particularly cattails (Typha spp.) and common reed (Phragmites australis), with particular emphasis on invasive interspecific hybrids. She is also researching the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) as a tool for the early detection of invasive aquatic plants. Prior to joining Trent University, Dr. Freeland completed her MSc and Ph.D at Queen’s University, after which time she took a postdoctoral research position at the University of Reading (UK), followed by a faculty position at The Open University (UK) . She is also the author of “Molecular ecology”, now in its 3rd edition, which provides an updated guide to the use of molecular genetic data as a tool in ecological studies: https://www.wiley.com/en-ca/Molecular+Ecology%2C+3rd+Edition-p-9781119426172