By Petra Dreiser

Four members of EEB’s Graduate Department—Micah Freedman, Kara Layton, Rosalind Murray, and Tianna Peller—have received 2025-2026 Connaught New Researcher Awards.

The annual awards support early-stage researchers in the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, and other fields—and aim to enhance their competitiveness for external awards. They are part of the Connaught Fund, Canada’s largest internal university research funding program.

“It is a tremendous source of pride to see four of our outstanding early-career researchers—Kara Layton, Micah Freedman, Rosalind Murray, and Tianna Peller—recognized with New Researcher Connaught Awards,” says EEB chair Joel Levine. “Their success reflects both the exceptional talent of our faculty and the exciting future of EEB.” 

We asked each of the four scientists to tell us briefly about their projects.

Micah Freedman, “The Extended Museum Specimen: Developing and Applying Chemical Fingerprinting Techniques to Understand Monarch Butterfly Declines”

Please describe your Connaught research project

The project involves ongoing research in the lab that seeks to understand reasons for the decline of monarch butterfly populations at their overwintering sites in the past 30 years. Specifically, the Connaught Award will aid in developing a method called “cardenolide fingerprinting” that allows us to identify the milkweed host plants used by monarchs throughout their migratory cycle. Importantly, we are also extending this research to include monarch butterflies in natural history collections, which provides the opportunity to infer how factors like habitat loss and changing agricultural practices might be implicated in the monarch’s decline. 

What is the significance of being awarded a Connaught?

Being awarded the Connaught Award is hugely important for this research, because it will allow us to greatly expand the scope of sampling that is possible. In our case, “sampling” refers to both the collection of live butterflies in the field and chemical extractions from pinned butterflies in museum collections. With the Connaught Fellowship, a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher in my group will now be able to conduct more ambitious fieldwork and visit many of the pre-eminent natural history collections in Canada and the United States.

What originally brought you to this work?

I was brought to this work based on some preliminary findings during my dissertation research, which clued me in to the idea that profiles of chemicals in adult monarch butterflies could be used to pinpoint the identity of the host plants they fed on as caterpillars. The idea itself is not new—a famous biologist named Lincoln Brower pioneered the idea in the 1980s—but I am excited to expand on the promise of this method using modern instrumentation and technology.

Anything else?

The work is still quite new, so I don’t have any publications to share yet. But I have presented some preliminary findings at conferences and meetings in the past year. I’m very excited to see the results of this research. One of my favourite aspects of the Connaught-funded project is that it emphasizes the immense value of specimens in natural history collections for understanding global change biology.

Kara Layton, “Investigating Local Adaptation and Climate Change Response in a Critically Imperiled Species”

Please describe your Connaught research project

The Connaught funding will support a project integrating population genomics and ecological modelling to forecast how an endangered freshwater mussel species will respond to future environmental change. This project will generate the first genome-wide data for this species, ultimately producing resources that will contribute to the ongoing management of this species in North America. The focal species, the snuffbox (Epioblasma triquetra), has only few remaining populations in Ontario, which represents the northern range limit for the species, so this work will be critical in characterizing both contemporary and future adaptive capacity. 

What is the significance of being awarded a Connaught?

The Connaught funding is incredibly significant since it will act as a springboard to launch freshwater mussel research in my group. One of my main motivations for returning to Ontario was to conduct research in local systems and continue our work in the conservation space, and this funding will support these initiatives.

What originally brought you to this work?

I started working in conservation genomics as a postdoc with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and continued this work in my first faculty position in Scotland, where we employed this integrative approach to forecast climate change response in the endangered freshwater pearl mussel. This sort of applied research is extremely rewarding given that the findings translate into action. 

Anything else?

Another applied project in my lab employs invasion genomics to trace pathways, identify provenance, and understand the ecological implications of a novel marine invader. However, most projects in my lab focus more on fundamental science where we’re using various genomic tools along with morphological data to resolve phylogeny, discover and describe new species, and understand the function and mechanistic drivers of colour patterns in both shelled and shell-less mollusks.

Rosalind Murray, “Integrating Sex Differences Theory to Predict Species Resilience in a Changing World”

Please describe your Connaught research project

My Connaught-funded research asks how differences between males and females affect how species respond to environmental change. I’m investigating whether males and females use degraded habitats differently, and whether sex-specific differences that emerge during development affect their ability to cope with stresses such as road salt. By bringing sex differences into ecological and conservation research, the project aims to improve how we understand and predict species’ resilience to environmental change.

What is the significance of being awarded a Connaught?

The Connaught gives me the opportunity to bring together two parts of my research program—my work on sex differences and my interest in applied conservation. It also provides an important opportunity to establish a new research direction in my lab and generate the data needed to pursue larger-scale research on how sex differences can shape biodiversity and inform conservation.

What originally brought you to this work?

I’ve been interested in the fact that males and females of the same species can be remarkably different, yet ecological research often treats them as essentially interchangeable. My earlier work on sexual selection and female ornaments led me to ask a broader question: if males and females differ in their biology and behaviour, could those differences also affect how they respond to environmental change?

Anything else?

I’m particularly excited that this research is rooted in both fundamental biology and real-world conservation. 

Tianna Peller, “Linking Plant Nutrient Decline to Ecosystem Resilience in a Changing CO₂ World”

Please describe your Connaught research project

Rising atmospheric CO₂ is driving fundamental changes in plants globally, including a widespread decline in their nutrient concentrations. Because plants form the base of many food-webs, these changes have the potential to ripple through entire ecosystems, affecting herbivores, predators, and decomposers alike. Yet the overall consequences of declining plant nutrient concentrations for the diversity, resilience, and functioning of entire ecosystems and landscapes remain poorly understood. My Connaught project will address this critical gap. 

What is the significance of being awarded a Connaught?

I’m super grateful to the Connaught Fund for this funding. The Connaught Award provides critical early support for launching this project. It will allow me to support students, develop the first models, and develop the ideas and evidence needed to expand the project and secure future external funding.

What originally brought you to this work?

My fascination by ecological stoichiometry—the study of how the balance of elements within organisms shapes ecological processes—and growing evidence that global change is altering this elemental balance.

Anything else?

Everything for this project is in progress, but I also have a few other exciting things I am working on:

• I’m about to deploy a multi-season decomposition assay to study organic matter decomposition in urban aquatic ecosystems
• Ecosystem dynamics of lakemount ecosystems (I was just on a research cruise in Lake Superior studying this!)
• Developing theoretical models to study organism movement as a cause and consequences of ecosystem dynamics