| People |
| Siena Margorian, MSc. Student BScH (2023); BEd (2024) Queen's University, Canada. Email: siena.margorian@mail.mcgill.ca
Interests: Transboundary Natural Resource Management, Social-ecological systems, Resilience, Environmental Management and Conservation Policies.
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Research Summary:
Assessing the social-ecological fit of American eel conservation and governance in Canada.
Social-ecological systems describe the interdependent and reciprocal relationships between social factors and ecosystems. Social-ecological fit is the alignment between the social dimensions and the ecological needs of a particular ecosystem or phenomenon.
The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is a uniquely transboundary species due to its geographically expansive range that extends from northern South America to Greenland and Iceland. The American eel is also a transboundary challenge within Canada, as its range includes all accessible freshwater, estuaries, and coastal marine waters connected to the Atlantic Ocean, spanning six provinces. The Canadian portion of the American eel range is especially important for conservation, as the eels in the Upper St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario are mostly large females who are the most fecund in the species’ range and contribute substantially to species-level fecundity. Not only is the eel ecologically important to many freshwater ecosystems across North America, but it is also traditionally and culturally significant to many First Nations across its range. Moreover, the decline of European and Japanese eel species and the use of eel in Asian culinary markets have driven demand for American elvers (young eels) to be grown in aquaculture, creating a contentious and lucrative elver fishery in Maritime Canada. However, American eel populations in Canada have significantly decreased since the 1980s. One of the greatest threats to the eel is the high mortality rates caused by hydropower turbines.
In my master’s research, I will conduct a policy analysis to determine the social-ecological fit of American eel conservation and management policy in Canada across five dimensions (social fit, ecological fit, scale fit, vertical fit, and horizontal fit). Moreover, I will speak with professionals involved in American eel conservation and management in Canada to build a picture of the most effective and feasible mitigation measures to reduce turbine-related mortality, and the types of communication among actors in the management network.
I am also a part of the research project NSERC ResNet: A network for monitoring, modeling, and managing Canadian ecosystem services for sustainability and resilience .
Awards and Scholarships:
McCall-MacBain Scholarship (2024-2026)
Graduate Excellence Award (2024-2026)
ResNet Mobility Award, 2024.
Publications:
Still to come.
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