Research

I use paleolimnological techniques coupled with Indigenous protocols specific to the communities in which I work to track environmental changes over time. My work in my home region of treaty #9 territory focuses on tracking centennial scale changes in Long Lake in response to mining, logging, settlement, and the Long Lake Diversion of 1939 in ways that are appropriate to Anishinaabe culture. My work with Kionywarihwaen (Crawford Lake) in Treaty #19 (Ajetance Purchase) focuses on millennial scale changes of the region in response to changing climate and settlement activities in ways that are appropriate to Wyandot and Anishinaabe cultures. My research specializes in isotope dating, diatom and chrysophyte identification and interpretation, and geochemical techniques as well as integration of Indigenous cultural practices and protocols around knowledge seeking and sharing.

Teaching

I have extensive teaching experience and well versed in the scholarship of teaching and learning. My teaching philosophy is firmly grounded in equity and bi-directional learning. My teaching experience includes 25 TAships, 13 workshop facilitations, 7 guest lectures, and a mini-web series (https://www.queensu.ca/ctl/resources/decolonizing-and-indigenizing/what-decolonization-what-indigenization) along with countless teaching consultations across the various departments at Queen's University and mentorship roles.

Publications

Rohtehrá, S., Garvie, M.L., Taylor, C., Fisher, M., Cumming, B.F. and Lougheed, S.C., 2025. Extirpation of lake sturgeon in an Ontario lake following dam construction and watershed diversion confirmed by indigenous traditional knowledge and sedimentary eDNA. Ecology and Evolution, 15(8).

McCarthy, F.M., Patterson, R.T., Head, M.J., Riddick, N.L., Cumming, B.F., Hamilton, P.B., Pisaric, M.F., Gushulak, A.C., Leavitt, P.R., Lafond, K.M. and Llew-Williams, B., Marshall, Matthew; Heyde, Autumn; Pilkington, Paul Michael; Moraal, Joshua; Boyce, Joseph; Nasser, Nawaf; Walsh, Carling; Garvie, Monica; Roberts, Sarah; Rose, Neil; Cundy, Andrew; Gaca, Pawel; Milton, J. Andy; Hajdas, Irka; Crann, Carley; Boom, Arnoud; Finkelstein, Sarah; McAndrews, John. 2023. The varved succession of Crawford Lake, Milton, Ontario, Canada as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series. The Anthropocene Review, 10(1), pp.146-176.

Boyd, M., Pennanen, K., Garvie, M., Polcyn, M. and Birch, K., 2022. Lake-level fluctuations and paleovegetation during the Houghton phase of glacial Lake Minong. Journal of Paleolimnology, 67(3), pp.307-326.

Topics

  • Aquatic ecology and limnology
  • Aquatic environment and biodiversity assessment
  • Biogeochemistry
  • Community and ecosystem ecology
  • Community ecology
  • Ecology
  • Ecotoxicology
  • Environmental toxicology
  • Field courses
  • Field ecology and conservation
  • Freshwater ecology
  • Global environmental change
  • Global water issues
  • Limnology
  • Long-term environmental change
  • Science communication
  • Statistics and data analysis
  • Wetland biology