Alexa C. Alexander-Trusiak
Current research and/or projects
Contributing to Environment and Climate Change Canada's mandate to conserve and protect aquatic ecosystems:
- Risks of multiple stressors and cumulative effects to freshwater health due to land use change, agriculture or industrial development in streams, rivers and lakes.
- Roles of physical, chemical and biological factors in the control of biomass and species composition of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in lakes and rivers.
- Developing novel approaches for evaluating water quality status of streams and rivers.
Professional activities / interests
Lead of multiple files for Canada Water Agency Lines of Inquiry including Indigenous codevelopment, Multiple Stressors and Cumulative Effects. Provided analysis and recommendations for the CCME of guidelines for neonicotinoid insecticides.
ECCC Lead of Living Labs Atlantic (AAFC). The goal of this initiative is to codevelop environmental standards with agricultural producers and other stakeholders to protect and conserve surface water quality in agricultural landscapes.
Member of the Interdepartmental Indigenous STEM Cluster, part of the Indigenous Support and Awareness Office (ISAO, AAFC). This interdepartmental team includes members from AAFC, ECCC, DFO, and NRCan. The I-STEM Cluster works to inform and enhance policies to advance Indigenous aspirations and innovation in agriculture and natural resource stewardship.
Treasurer of a Canadian Registered Charity - International Permanent Committee on Ephemeroptera Scholarship Fund, Guest Review Editor - Frontiers, Editorial Board Member - Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Thesis Supervisor for PhD and MSc students, as well as post-doctoral fellows, via Visiting Research Professorship with the Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick.
Education and awards
NSERC Discovery and new Discovery Launch for early career researchers.
Ph.D., University of New Brunswick, Fredericton
Key publications
- 2020 Alexander AC, B Levenstein, LA Sanderson, EA Blukacz-Richards and PA Chambers. Under internal review. How does climate variability affect water quality dynamics in Canada’s oil sands region? Science of the Total Environment 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139062
- 2019 Howland JR, AC Alexander, D Milani, K Peru, and JM Culp. Effects of oil sands process water mixtures on the mayfly Hexagenia and field-collected aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. Ecotoxicology 28(6):658-668. doi: 10.1007/s10646-019-02061-x
- 2019 Howland JR, AC Alexander, D Milani, K Peru, and JM Culp. Risks of mixtures of oil sands contaminants to a sensitive mayfly sentinel, Hexagenia. Diversity (Open Access Special Issue) 11(8):118- doi: 10.3390/d11080118 [0] [JIF=2.047] [EC Science Alert] [[lead, conceptualized novel work and supervised Howland MSc student]
- 2019 Wasiuta V, J Kirk, P Chambers, AC Alexander, F Wyatt, R Rooney, and C Cooke. Accumulating mercury and methylmercury burdens in watersheds impacted by oil sands pollution. Environmental Science & Technology doi: 10.1021/acs.est.9b02373
- 2018 Culp JM, IG Droppo, PD di Cenzo, A Alexander-Trusiak, DJ Baird, G Bickerton, S Beltaos, B Bonsal, RB Brua, PA Chambers, Y Dibike, NE Glozier, J Kirk, L Levesque, M McMaster, D Muir, J Parrott, DL Peters, K Pippy, and JW Roy. Synthesis Report for the Water Component, Canada-Alberta Joint Oil Sands Monitoring: Key Findings and Recommendations. Oil Sands Monitoring Program Technical Report Series No. 1.1, 46 p.
- 2018 Chambers PA, A Alexander-Trusiak, J Kirk, C Mazano, D Muir, C Cooke, and R Hazewinkel. Surface Water Quality of Lower Athabasca River Tributaries. Oil Sands Monitoring Program Technical Report Series No. 1.3. 34 p.
- 2018 Connor SJ, AC Alexander, and DJ Baird. Vulnerability of diatom communities in the Peace-Athabasca Delta to environmental change. PeerJ (Open Access journal) 6:e5447 doi: 10.7717/peerj.5447
- 2018 Droppo IG, PD di Cenzo, J Power, C Jaskot, PA Chambers, AC Alexander, J Kirk, and D Muir. Temporal and spatial trends in riverine suspended sediment and associated polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC) within the Athabasca oil sands region. Science of the Total Environment 626:1382-1393 doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.105
- 2017 Alexander AC, PA Chambers, and D Jeffries. Episodic acidification of 5 rivers in Canada’s oil sands during snowmelt: a 25-year record. Science of the Total Environment 599-600:739-749. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.207
- 2016 Alexander AC, and PA Chambers. Assessment of 7 Canadian Rivers in relation to stages in oil sands industrial development, 1972 to 2010. Environmental Reviews (Open Access) 24:484-494. doi: 10.1139/er-2016-0033
- 2016 Alexander AC, JM Culp, DJ Baird, and A Cessna. Nutrient-contaminant interactions decouple density-dependent responses in aquatic and emergent insects. Freshwater Biology (Open Access Special Issue) 61: 2090-2101. doi: 10.1111/fwb.12711
- 2016 Alexander AC, M Finley, E Luiker, and JM Culp. 2016. Chapter 6 – Mesocosms in the marine context. In Chapman P, Blasco J, Campana O (editors) Marine Ecotoxicology, Elsevier Pubs. pp. 239-256. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-803371-5.00008-4