Anas Mohamed, PhD

Anas Mohamed, PhD

A Quantitative Ecologist focused on aquatic systems

Publications

Drivers of native and non-native freshwater fish richness across North America: Disentangling the roles of environmental, historical and anthropogenic factors

Published in Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2021

This paper quantifies the relative importance of environmental, historical and anthropogenic drivers in influencing native and non-native freshwater fish diversity in North America.

Recommended citation: Anas, M.U.M. and N. Mandrak. (2021). "Drivers of native and non-native freshwater fish richness across North America: Disentangling the roles of environmental, historical and anthropogenic factors." Global Ecology and Biogeography . 39:1232-1244. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13298

Patterns and drivers of native, non-native and at-risk freshwater fish richness in watersheds across Canada

Published in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 2021

This paper quantifies the relative importance of environmental, historical and anthropogenic drivers in influencing different facets of freshwater fish diversity in Canada.

Recommended citation: Anas,M.U.M. and N. Mandrak. (2021). "Patterns and drivers of native, non-native and at-risk freshwater fish richness in watersheds across Canada." Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 1. (e-first). https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2020-0396

Water chemistry, landscape and spatial controls of δ13C and δ15N of zooplankton taxa in boreal lakes: One size does not fit all

Published in Frehwater Biology, 2019

Analysis of a unique 233-lake, 9-zooplankton taxa, C+N stable isotope dataset revealed i) a greater influence of lake/catchment-specific factors (water chemistry, hydromorphology and land cover) than regional factors (lithology, atmospheric nitrogen deposition) on C and N fluxes through secondary producers and ii) taxon-specific differences in relative importance of individual lake/catchment-specific predictors, which were based on varying energy and nutrient fluxes through taxa with different dietary niches.

Recommended citation: Anas, M.U.M., K.A. Scott and B. Wissel (2019). "Water chemistry, landscape and spatial controls of δ13C and δ15N of zooplankton taxa in boreal lakes: One size does not fit all." Freshwater Biology 64. 2006-2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13389

Taxon-specific variation in δ13C and δ15N of subfossil invertebrate remains: Insights into historical trophodynamics in lake food webs

Published in Journal 1, 2019

Based on a paleolimnological assessment, we quantitatively demonstrated that C and N stable isotope time series of taxon-specific invertebrate subfossils i) better reflect historical shifts in food-web carbon and nutrient fluxes and trophic dynamics induced by environmental changes compared to those of commonly used bulk sediment in paleolimnological studies, and ii) indicate differences in historical food-web dynamics among lake habitats (pelagic, littoral, benthic).

Recommended citation: Anas, M.U.M., G. Simpson, P. Leavitt, B. Cumming, K. Laird, K.A. Scott, B. Das, A. Walker, B. Meegahage, J. Wolfe, B. Hesjedal, G. Mushet and B. Wissel. (2019). "Taxon-specific variation in δ13C and δ15N of subfossil invertebrate remains: Insights into historical trophodynamics in lake food webs." Ecological Indicators. 102:834-847. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.03.026

Scale-dependent effects of natural environmental gradients, industrial emissions and dispersal processes on zooplankton metacommunity structure: Implications for the bioassessment of boreal lakes

Published in Ecological Indicators, 2017

We evalauted the environmental and spatial drivers of zooplankton communities in boreal lakes acoss northern Alberta - a lanscape vulnerable to acidifying and eutrifying impacts of atmospheric industrial deposition from oil sands operations.

Recommended citation: Anas, M.U.M., B. J. Meegahage, M. S. Evans, D. S. Jeffries and B. Wissel. (2017). "Scale-dependent effects of natural environmental gradients, industrial emissions and dispersal processes on zooplankton metacommunity structure: Implications for the bioassessment of boreal lakes." Ecological Indicators. 82:484-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.07.035

Species-specific mercury bioaccumulation in a diverse fish community

Published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2015

By evalauting Hg concentration and N stable isotope composition of 16 fish species in a large prairie lake, we showed that the quantity of food (and Hg) consumed each year and converted to fish mass, the quantity of Hg bioaccumulated over years and decades, and trophic position were significant determinants of Hg concentration in fish.

Recommended citation: Donald, D.B., B. Wissel and M.U.M. Anas. (2015). "Species-specific mercury bioaccumulation in a diverse fish community." Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. 34:2846-2855. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.3130

Carbon budgets of boreal lakes: Current state of knowledge, challenges and implications

Published in Environmental Reviews, 2015

In this review, we synthesize the current state of research to provide a critical overview of (i) the role of boreal lakes as emitters versus sinks of carbon, (ii) their contribution to the regional carbon balance, (iii) knowledge gaps that may inhibit an accurate evaluation of the role of boreal lakes in a landscape context, and (iv) impacts of environmental perturbations on carbon dynamics in boreal lakes.

Recommended citation: Anas, M.U.M., K.A. Scott and B. Wissel. (2015). "Carbon budgets of boreal lakes: Current state of knowledge, challenges and implications." Environmental Reviews. 23:275-287. https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2014-0074

Environmental filtering of crustacean zooplankton communities in fishless boreal lakes: expectations and exceptions

Published in Journal of Plankton Research, 2014

This study demonstrates that exceptions to the generally expected species composition in fishless lakes can be caused by interactions among abiotic and biotic factors.

Recommended citation: Anas, M.U.M., K.A. Scott and B. Wissel (2015). "Environmental filtering of crustacean zooplankton communities in fishless boreal lakes: expectations and exceptions." Journal of Plankton Research. 37:75-89. https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbu094

Zooplankton communities are good indicators of potential impacts of Athabasca oil sands operations

Published in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 2014

We showed that zooplankton communities are appropriate indicators to track potential influence of acidifying–eutrophying emissions from the Athabasca oil sands region owing to significant correlations with two major environmental gradients susceptible to atmospheric emissions and moderate dispersal across the broad geographic region.

Recommended citation: Anas, M.U.M., K.A. Scott , R.N. Cooper and B. Wissel (2014). "Zooplankton communities are good indicators of potential impacts of Athabasca oil sands operations." Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 71:719-732. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2013-0472

Suitability of presence vs. absence indicator species to characterize stress gradients: Lessons from zooplankton species of boreal lakes

Published in Ecological Indicators, 2013

We characterized lakes across an acid-stress gradient using zooplankton species. Suitability of presence vs. absence of indicator species was tested. Absence indicator species were more suitable to typify highly stressed lakes.

Recommended citation: Anas, M.U.M., K.A. Scott and B. Wissel (2013). "Suitability of presence vs. absence indicator species to characterize stress gradients: Lessons from zooplankton species of boreal lakes." Ecological Indicators. 30:90-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.01.038