The minimum requirement for admission to a master's program is normally the successful completion of an undergraduate or baccalaureate degree in an honours program or the equivalent from a recognized university. Inuk student Bryan Vandenbrink is an exception to these expectations. Here, in a loosely autobiographical format, Bryan tells his education story from early high school in Iqaluktuuttiaq through to completing an MSc at the University of Guelph. Co-authors Thomas McIlwraith and Shoshanah Jacobs add short reflections on the journey and identify barriers to post-secondary education for Indigenous students and how those barriers can be reduced.

Leaf litter ecosystems and their fauna are largely understudied, despite their critical ecological roles. Here, we investigate challenges associated with estimating biodiversity in terrestrial leaf litter. Current methodologies for biodiversity assessment are fraught with limitations; amongst the most significant is a decline in taxonomic expertise, complicating the process of species identification and the significant costs associated with species-level morphological identifications. DNA barcoding employs molecular markers to identify animal species, and the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) is the agreed upon standard for animals. DNA metabarcoding facilitates the identification of multiple species without necessitating taxonomic expertise. Recent studies indicate that environmental DNA (eDNA) may exhibit greater sensitivity compared to taxonomic identifications completed on animals collected using traditional methods (e.g., pitfall traps, pan traps). To test whether eDNA methodology works in a real-world scenario, we sampled leaf litter across a temperate forest/field ecotone. Leaf litter was dried, ground and processed to extract environmental DNA. We evaluated multiple DNA extraction protocols to test their relative efficacy. We found that the Qiagen Blood and Tissue Kit was the most effective at recovering invertebrate diversity and found that there were notable differences in the biodiversity recovered between forest and field habitats. Temperature emerged as a significant factor influencing the composition of the communities observed. Our methodology is applicable across various environments for efficient biodiversity assessment and would be particularly beneficial for monitoring pests and invasive species. Our approach offers a cost-effective and timely alternative to conventional biodiversity assessment methods and underscores the significance of accurate assessment methodologies for leaf litter communities.

Given the rapidly changing job market in Canada and globally, there have been increasing calls to address the transferable skills gap between higher education graduates and the skills needed for the many new and changing jobs across the labour market. To investigate which fields of study in higher education in Canada produce graduates who go on to use more transferable skills on the job, we created an index of transferable skills use at work from several background questionnaire variables available in the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in Canada survey. A series of four least squares linear regression models were used to examine the impacts of variables such as field of study and occupation type on this transferable skills index. Teacher training and education programs were found to have the highest scores on the transferable skills index, suggesting that these programs (and other professional programs) should be considered as a source of inspiration for how all programs can promote transferable skill development in their students. We also found a connection between transferable skill use and management roles within the workplace, suggesting that transferable skills are important factors in promotion to management roles.

Ecosystem services are crucial for animals, plants, the planet, and human well-being. Decreasing biodiversity and environmental destruction of ecosystems will have severe consequences. Designing technologies that could support, enhance, or even replace ecosystem services is a complex task that the Manufactured Ecosystems Project team considers to be only achievable with transdisciplinarity, as it unlocks new directions for designing research and development systems. One of these directions in the project is bio-inspiration, learning from natural systems as the foundation for manufacturing ecosystem services. Using soil formation as a case study, text-mining of existing scientific literature reveals a critical gap: fewer than 1% of studies in biomimetics address soil formation technological replacement, despite the rapid global decline in natural soil formation processes. The team sketches scenarios of ecosystem collapse, identifying how bio-inspired solutions for equitable and sustainable innovation can contribute to climate adaptation. The short communication opens the discussion for collaboration and aims to initiate future research.

Arctic seabirds are key bio-indicators of marine plastic pollution due to their transient movement and large populations. Although many studies have quantified the ingestion of microplastic particles (<5 mm in size) through necropsy or regurgitation sampling methods, little is known about post-digestive particle excretion. Due to the logistical challenges of non-lethally sampling feces from Arctic seabirds, this pathway remains largely understudied. We non-lethally collected 110 fecal samples from little auks ( Alle alle) during the 2014 breeding season in Ukaleqarteq, Tunu (Kap Höegh, East Greenland). We identified 25 potential microplastic particles (>100 µm in size), 19 of which were analyzed for material composition using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Raman micro-spectroscopy. Of these, 13 particles were successfully matched to materials, with five as plastic. This produced an average concentration of 0.08 ± 0.28 microplastic particles per fecal sample, with no difference of occurrence between chicks and adults. Particle lengths ranged from 113 to 751 µm. The presence of microplastics larger than our lower limit of detectability of 100 µm suggests a need for analysis of smaller particles and microfibers in this species. We contribute to understanding how microplastics pass through little auks and characterize how this species interacts with the plastic pathways.

Transferable skills are essential for student success beyond graduation, yet they are not often explicitly taught or assessed in postsecondary education. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a 50-minute workshop designed to explicitly teach scientific inquiry as a transferable skill to first-year undergraduate students in a biodiversity course. The workshop, delivered in either a biology-specific or general context, emphasized active, experiential learning.A mixed-methods post-workshop survey assessed student perceptions through Likert-scale items, open-ended responses, and knowledge-based questions. Students in both contexts reported high satisfaction, perceived the workshop as beneficial for their skill development, and recognized the relevance of scientific inquiry beyond the course. Students in the general-context workshop outperformed those in the biology-context on knowledge-based questions, suggesting general contexts may better support initial understanding through relatable examples. However, more biology-context students agreed that the skill learned is applicable beyond formal education. Students identified peer collaboration as a strength but noted challenges with the virtual format—particularly Zoom breakout rooms—highlighting the importance of thoughtful online learning design. This research contributes to ongoing discussions about how best to teach transferable skills in higher education. We recommend introducing these skills early in general contexts, then reinforcing them across disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses, with explicit integration into learning outcomes and assessments. These findings offer practical guidance for designing inclusive and intentional skill development in undergraduate education. The research presented here explores the topic at a single point in time – an undergraduate student’s first year of higher education. Further research is needed to examine how students’ perceptions of skill development in different instructional contexts evolve across stages of their academic careers. Transferable skills are essential for student success beyond graduation, yet they are not often explicitly taught or assessed in postsecondary education. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a 50-minute workshop designed to explicitly teach scientific inquiry as a transferable skill to first-year undergraduate students in a biodiversity course[MOU1] . The workshop, delivered in either a biology-specific or general context, emphasized active, experiential learning.A mixed-methods post-workshop survey assessed student perceptions through Likert-scale items, open-ended responses, and knowledge-based questions. Students in both contexts reported high satisfaction, perceived the workshop as beneficial for their skill development, and recognized the relevance of scientific inquiry beyond the course. Students in the general-context workshop outperformed those in the biology-context on knowledge-based questions, suggesting general contexts may better support initial understanding through relatable examples. However, more biology-context students agreed that the skill learned is applicable beyond formal education. Students identified peer collaboration as a strength but noted challenges with the virtual format—particularly Zoom breakout rooms—highlighting the importance of thoughtful online learning design. This research contributes to ongoing discussions about how best to teach transferable skills in higher education[MOU2] [SJ3] . We recommend introducing these skills early in general contexts, then reinforcing them across disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses, with explicit integration into learning outcomes and assessments. These findings offer practical guidance for designing inclusive and intentional skill development in undergraduate education. The research presented here explores the topic at a single point in time – an undergraduate student’s first year of higher education. Further research is needed to examine how students’ perceptions of skill development in different instructional contexts evolve across stages of their academic careers[MOU4] [SJ5] . [MOU1]In the theoretical study, it is best to write down the reasons that are the object of the training which lasts 50 minutes. [MOU2]How this stage is carried out [SJ3]Using a mixed-methods survey as described above and in the methods [MOU4]Add research results according to the problem [SJ5]Done, thank you

As ecological collapse accelerates under the pressures of anthropogenic climate change, adaptation strategies increasingly include technological proxies for nature’s functions. But can ecosystem services (ES) be meaningfully replaced by technology? Revisiting this urgent question first posed by Fitter (2013), we assess the extent to which bio-inspired design—particularly biomimetics—has advanced the capacity to support, enhance, or replace natural ES. We convened an interdisciplinary team to synthesize and refine a comprehensive list of 22 ecosystem services, integrating often-overlooked cultural and relational dimensions. Using this framework, we conducted a large-scale analysis of over 68,000 peer-reviewed publications from the biomimetics and bio-inspired design literature between 2004 and 2025, applying AI-assisted classification to evaluate whether, and how, these technologies map onto specific ES functions and benefits. Our findings reveal both promise and profound limitations. Bio-inspired research engages with 20 of the 22 ES, but over 78% of this work concentrates on five technologically tractable functions—biochemicals, disease regulation, waste treatment, fibre/hide/wood, and fuel. Foundational supporting and regulating services such as pollination, soil formation, and nutrient cycling are almost entirely absent. Moreover, only 3% of technologies described in the academic literature aim to support existing systems; the overwhelming emphasis on enhancement (39%) and replacement (58%) suggests a design paradigm skewed toward substitution rather than coexistence. Intangible, co-produced services—particularly those related to culture, identity, and meaning—remain outside the current reach of biomimetic design. This skew reveals a dangerous imbalance: while certain ES can be technologically approximated, the relational, emergent, and systemic qualities of ecosystems elude replication. Technological replacement must not become a substitute for preservation. Instead, bio-inspired design should be mobilized as a tool for adaptation that amplifies and protects the living systems on which human and more-than-human futures depend.

The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) is an endangered species of shorebird endemic to North America. This species has been the centre of many modelling studies in the last decade. One model type that has been underused in Piping Plover studies is agent-based modelling, which can be used as an accurate risk assessment tool in simulating effects of anthropogenic activities on a given animal species. Recent innovations in ecological modelling have given rise to the environmental agent-based model (enviro-ABM), which efficiently stores information about spatially indexed environmental cells and treat those as agents. This restricts computation to only focus on environmental cells containing the species we are studying, allowing for a more efficient simulation. Using Python, a high-level programming language popular in scientific computing, we develop an enviro-ABM to provide simulations of Piping Plover hatchling growth during a given breeding season. We experiment with increasing levels of human presence and human exclosure size and observe their effects on the growth rate of the simulated Piping Plover hatchlings. Our simulations showed a clear decrease in Piping Plover growth rate as anthropogenic presence increased in the simulated environment. However, when we added a 100 m human exclosure around the nest, the effects of the anthropogenic presence were mitigated at each level. We conclude that an enviro-ABM can be used to assist with conservation and management decisions, with the caveat that the model be constantly updated and informed with results of field studies, especially those pertaining to foraging and energetics of Piping Plovers. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

The sustainability transitions literature acknowledges the importance of place for building a more sustainable world. Although some researchers have studied place analytically and made contributions toward developing sustainable communities across the globe, and others have directly discussed the structural aspects of places, the sustainable transitions literature has not fully reconciled place specifics with their implications for sustainability. This research explores how members from the small community of Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada, link their sense of place to their understanding of sustainability and considers the implications of this for sustainability transitions. Through an interdisciplinary, mixed methods approach, this work develops three propositions regarding sustainability as it relates to sense(s) of place. First, we found that within the Campobello community, sustainability was linked directly to individuals’ senses of place, place identities, and place attachments. Second, we found that there were slight variations in islanders’ concepts of sustainability related to these place-related constructs. Third, we found that although this community’s sustainability conversations were dominated by place-specific rather than global sustainability discourse, this was not always the case. As a result, the importance of more deeply exploring the normative nature of sustainability transitions is intensified. Understanding how place specifics connect with views of sustainability in a small island community allows us to deeply explore the role of place in sustainability transitions.

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) are a ubiquitous tool in higher education. Though they are not effective means of evaluating teaching ability, they are useful in formative teaching development of a teaching career. We characterise the current formative use of and attitudes towards SETs by instructors across all disciplines (STEM and non-STEM). We found that tenured instructors used SETs for formative development more than untenured, and that non-STEM instructors had more negative associations with SETs than STEM instructors. Based upon these data, we make recommendations to redesign the SET instrument and change the way in which the data are used to support formative teaching development.

Biomimetics holds the promise to contribute to sustainability in several ways. However, it remains unclear how the two broad concepts and research fields are connected. This article presents a literature overview on biomimetic sustainable developments and research. It is shown that there is an increasing trend in publications dealing with various topics and that the research takes place worldwide. The biological models studied in biomimetic sustainable developments are mostly sub-elements of biological systems on a molecular level and lead to eco-friendly, resource and energy-efficient applications. This article indicates that biomimetics is further integrating sustainability to contribute to real problems in this context.

We use principles of participatory action research (PAR) to investigate differences in learning by business students resulting from an experiential course in their curriculum. Our research is framed by Fink's (2013) learning framework classifying student learning into cognitive and behavioural dimensions. As part of PAR, the students participated in this type of action learning through engaging with a community, reflecting on their experiences and participating in the research process. Through a content analysis that explores student learning reflections through the lens of Fink's taxonomy, we explore learning that is linked to the development of humanistic management. We compare how course delivery methods impact the learning of the students and how this difference is manifested along the human dimension. We find that a field-based experiential learning course provides a different learning experience, richer in the humanistic perspective than a traditional on-campus lecture. As part of the PAR, students reflected on their significant learning experiences a year after their initial experiences and demonstrated learning along the human dimension that had lasted and influenced their career decisions. We contribute to the literature on experiential learning in the context of a business curriculum by expanding the importance of place-based learning as a way of learning humanistic principles. We find that over time, students reflect more on behavioural rather than cognitive experiences.

The objective of this review is to describe the current available literature on rehabilitated eastern cottontails (Sylvilagus floridanus) in Canada and the United States to determine gaps in our knowledge, how the state of available literature compares to other wildlife species, and what aspects of rehabilitative care are covered. To meet the objectives, eligible sources must have included eastern cottontails that have entered rehabilitation. Thirty-six articles from 31 different authors were within the inclusion and outside the exclusion criteria for analysis. Results show a lack of information related to eastern cottontails in 80% (4/5) of categories and significant variation in protocols, with most being related to feeding. The lack of published scientific literature and protocol variation could be contributing to knowledge gaps within the field of rehabilitation.

The relationship between human health and nature is increasingly recognized in diverse health science and environmental disciplines, demonstrating the fundamental interdisciplinary connection between humans and the natural environments we live in. Human-nature connectedness and a positive human-nature relationship have positive effects on mental health and well-being, and environmental benefits in the form of proenvironmental attitudes and behaviours, including environmental stewardship. However, nature deterioration associated with the climate crisis can directly and indirectly negatively impact human health, including mental health. The complex interconnections between mental health and nature in the context of the climate crisis, require a broad interdisciplinary perspective to understand the diverse elements contributing to and stemming from the global climate crisis. Yet, it is unrealistic for an individual person or even a community to address the entirety of the problem. Instead, individuals and communities should focus on implementing meaningful changes on a smaller local scale, which can be adapted and expanded for systemic implementation. One potential strategy is through education. There is strong evidence to support the mental health and environmental benefits of outdoor education, nature-based learning, and nature-based experiences, but these models focus on restricted age groups and may have considerable barriers to access. In this paper, we offer suggestions to empower individuals to make meaningful positive changes in their local environments for their own mental health, with the hope it will act as a path towards systemic change through embedding a model of curricular nature-based learning into education systems, including higher education.

Since the start of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19) pandemic in December 2019, there have been global surges of single-use plastic use. Due to the importance of personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitation items in protecting against virus transmission and from testing, facemasks, respirators, disposable gloves and disposable wet wipes have become global staples in households and institutions. Widespread use and insufficient infrastructure, combined with improper waste management have resulted in an emerging category of litter. With widespread presence in the environment, such items pose a direct threat to wildlife as animals can interact with them in a series of ways. We examined the scope of COVID-19 pandemic-related debris, including PPE and sanitation items, on wildlife from April 2020 to December 2021. We document the geographic occurrence of incidents, debris types, and consequences of incidents that were obtained from social media searches, unpublished reports from colleagues, and reports available from the citizen science database "Birds and Debris". There were 114 unique sightings of wildlife interactions with pandemic-related debris (38 from 2020 and 76 from 2021). Within the context of this dataset, most incidents involved birds (83.3 %), while fewer affected mammals (10.5 %), invertebrates (3.5 %), fish (1.8 %), and sea turtles (0.9 %). Sightings originated in 23 countries, and consisted mostly of entanglements (42.1 %) and nest incorporations (40.4 %). We verified sightings by contacting the original observers and were able to identify replicated sightings and increase the resolution of the data collected compared with previously published results. Due to the complexities associated with global use and accessibility of digital platforms, we likely underestimate the number of animals harmed by debris. Overall, the global scope of this study demonstrates that online and social media platforms are a valuable way to collect biologically relevant citizen science data and track rapidly emerging environmental challenges.

Breeding animals trade off maximizing energy output to increase their number of offspring with conserving energy to ensure their own survival, leading to an energetic ceiling influenced by external, environmental factors or by internal, physiological factors. We examined whether internal or external factors limited energy expenditure by supplementally feeding breeding black-legged kittiwakes varying in individual quality, based on earlier work that defined late breeders as low-quality and early breeders as high-quality individuals. We tested whether energy expenditure increased when food availability decreased in both low- and high-quality birds; we predicted this would only occur in high-quality individuals capable of sustaining high levels of energy expenditure. Here, we find that food-supplemented birds expended less energy than control birds because they spent more time at the colony. However, foraging trips of food-supplemented birds were only slightly shorter than control birds, implying that food-supplemented birds were limited by food availability at sea similarly to control birds. Late breeders expended less energy, suggesting that low-quality individuals may not intake the energy necessary for sustaining high-energy output. Food-supplemented birds had more offspring than control birds, but offspring number did not influence energy expenditure, supporting the idea that the birds reached an energy ceiling. Males and lighter birds expended more energy, possibly compensating for relatively higher energy intake. Chick-rearing birds were working near their maximum, with highest levels of expenditure for early-laying (high-quality) individuals foraging at sea. Due to fluctuating marine environments, kittiwakes may be forced to change their foraging behaviors to maintain the balance between reproduction and survival.