Frances Pick

BSc(Trent), PhD(Tor.)
Professor - Aquatic microbial ecology

Mailing Address: Biology Department, University of Ottawa, 30 Marie Curie, P.O. Box 450, Station A, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 6N5.
Office: Gendron 275, Lab: CAREG 207, 208, 212
Fax: (613) 562-5486
Telephone: (613) 562-5800  Office: ext. 6364, Lab: ext. 6365
e-mail: frpick@uOttawa.ca

Current Research Interests

Microbial food chains of lakes and rivers

Using both empirical and experimental approaches, we examine the factors regulating the abundance and diversity of aquatic microbes in lakes and rivers as well as the trophic relationships between microbes and their role in energy flow. Field sites range from rivers and lakes in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia to the Great Lakes, Ontario and Erie. We are developping eutrophication models for rivers which quantify the relationship between nutrients and the planktonic biomass of algae, zooplankton, protozoa and bacteria. In addition, we study changes in algal composition and diversity both along natural and experimental gradients of nutrient enrichment in lakes and rivers.

Biogeochemistry of trace metals in wetlands

Biogeochemistry of trace metals in wetlands: metal cycling in wetlands to determine to what extent they may be sinks or sources of trace metals. In particular the factors which regulate Cd and Hg bioaccumulation in wetlands either remote from direct anthropogenic sources of pollution (Central Ontario, Algonquin and Temagami) or directly impacted (St. Lawrence River) are being studied. Information derived from natural wetlands will be used to optimize the operation of constructed wetlands (Ph.D. Goulet).

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Research Publications

  1. Hamilton, P.B., Ley, L.M., Dean, S. & F.R. Pick (2004).The occurrence of Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii (Woloszynska) Seenay and Subba Raju, in Constance Lake, a new invasive cyanoprokaryote to Canada. Phycologia in press.
  2. Vidal, M., Hamilton, P. & F.R. Pick (2004). Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) veliger larvae: distribution and relationship to phytoplankton biomass and composition in the Rideau River, Ontario, Canada. Archiv für Hydrobiologie, 161 (1): 113-133.
  3. Tadonléké, R.D., Pinel-Alloul, B. Bourbonnais, N. & F.R. Pick (2004). Factors affecting the bacteria-heterotrophic nanoflagellate relationship in oligo-mesotrophic lakes. J. of Plankton Res. 26: 681-695.
  4. Simonyi-Poirier, M., R. R.Goulet & F.R. Pick (2003). Évaluation de la capacité de retention des métaux dissous d'un marais artificiel en utilisant le périphyton et le gastéropode Helisoma trivolis comme biomoniteurs. Revue des Sciences de l'Eau.16: 237 – 254.
  5. Perin, S., D.R. S. Lean, F.R. Pick & A. Mazumder (2002). Photosynthetic carbon allocation: Effects of planktivorous fish and nutrient enrichment. Aquat. Sci. 64: 1 - 22.
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  6. Alloul, B., Bourbonnais, N. & F.R. Pick (2002). Variations spatiotemporelles des compartiments autotrophes et hétérotrophes de la boucle microbienne dans les lacs du sud du Québec. Revue des Sciences de l'Eau: 3 - 25.
  7. Pick, F.R. (2000). Predicting the abundance and production of photosynthetic picoplankton in temperate lakes. Verhat. Internat. Verein. Limnol. 27: 1884 - 1889.
  8. Chételat, J., F.R. Pick & A. Morin (2000). Patterns of periphyton biomass in three Eastern Ontario rivers ranging in trophic status. Verhat. Verein. Limnologia 27: 3148 - 3153
  9. Lavallée, B. & F.R. Pick. (2002) Picocyanobacteria abundance in relation to growth and loss rates in oligotrophic to mesotrophic lakes. Aquatic Microbial Ecology 27: 37-46.
  10. Goulet, R. & F.R. Pick. (2001) Diel changes in iron concentrations in surface-flow constructed wetlands. Water Science &Technology. 44: 421-426.
  11. Goulet, R.R. & F.R. Pick (2001) The effects of cattails (Typha latifolia L.) on concentrations and partitioning of metals in surficial sediments of surface-flow constructed wetlands. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution. 132: 275-291.
  12. Chételat, J. & F.R. Pick. (2001) Temporal variability of discharge and water chemistry in flowing waters of the northeastern United States: does river size matter? J. North Am. Benthological Society. 20: 331-346.
  13. Goulet, R. R. & F.R. Pick. (2001) Changes in dissolved and total Fe and Mn in a young constructed wetland: implications for retention performance. Ecological Engineering.17: 373-384.
  14. Goulet, R.R., F.R. Pick & R. Droste. (2001) Test of the first-order removal model for metal retention in a young constructed wetland. Ecological Engineering. 17: 357- 371.
  15. Goulet, R. R., Leclair, E. & Pick, F.R. (2001) The evaluation of metal retention by a constructed wetland using the gastropod Helisoma trivolis (Say). Arch. Environ. Contam.Toxicol. 40: 303-310.
  16. Thompson-Roberts, E.S.& F.R. Pick (2000) Total mercury in the water and sediments of St. Lawrence River wetlands compared to inland wetlands of Temagami-North Bay and Muskoka- Haliburton. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 57: 148-154.

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