Adventures in Research: Peter Kotanen

• Main Authors: Kotanen, Peter M., DeMarco, Carla
• Format: Audio
• Language: English
• Published: Office of the Vice Principal, Research, University of Toronto Mississauga 2020
• Subjects: non-native plants; Canadian arctic; Koffler Scientific Reserve; Snow geese; insects; herbivores; invasive species; Churchill; Manitoba; high latitudes; Canadian geese; Polar bears; Arctic; Canada
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/103850

This is an audio recording from the podcast series "View to the U: An eye on UTM research". On this latest episode of VIEW to the U, Professor Peter Kotanen from the Department of Biology at UofT Mississauga discusses his research and current projects, which have “ecological interactions between plants and their natural enemies,” such as herbivores, insects, and pathogens, at their core. But our chat is also infused with a couple of Peter’s tales from the field, in some of the wilderness in the northern parts of Canada, and for the second time on this podcast, we are privy to polar bear sightings in the Arctic. But he also has his own Gilligan’s Island-type story where he was shipwrecked on an island for days, with no movie star or millionaires in the mix, but at least one professor. We also talk about geese – both the Snow Geese that are part of his research, as well as the Canada Geese that are living large at UofT Mississauga. Peter is a Professor in the Department of Biology at UofT Mississauga and in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UofT where he studies the effects of natural enemies on non-native species, and has ventured to northern Ontario, the Arctic and Churchill Manitoba for his work. He joined the faculty at UTM in 1996.