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User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Justina C. Ray

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Justina C. Ray
EducationB.S. Biology
M.S.Stanford University (1987)
PhD Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida (1996)
Alma materStanford University
Known forconservation, biodiversity, caribou, wolverine
Scientific career
InstitutionsWildlife Conservation Society Canada
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
Thesis Resource Use Patterns among Mongooses and other Carnivores in a Central African Rainforest  (1996)
Doctoral advisorMelvin E. Sunquist


Justina C. Ray is a Toronto-Ontario-based expert in wildlife ecology and conservation. She has served as President and Senior scientist at Wildlife Conservation Society Canada WCS Canada since its incorporation in 2004. She served as co-chair of Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada's Terrestrial Mammals Specialist Subcommittee for nine years from 2009 to 2017.[1][2] She served as their point of contact scientist on matters related to caribou and other terrestrial mammals.[3]

Education

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Ray completed her B.S. Biology (with honors) at Stanford University in 1987.[4] She earned her Masters in Science from Stanford Universityin 1987 with Robert M. Sapolsky as supervisor.[4] She completed her PhD in Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, with a Certificate in African Studies from the University of Florida in 1996.[4][1] Her PhD thesis was on carnivores, such as the mongoose, in a Central African rainforest.[5] She became fluent in Sangho, the CAR language.[4]

Career

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From 1998 to 2001, Ray was the co-principal investigator in Central African Republic doing research on the "impacts of interacting disturbances on African forest mammal communities." where she became fluent in Sangho.[4]

In 2008, Ray was an "Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, and a Research Associate at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology at the Royal Ontario Museum."[6] She has also been an Adjunct Professor at Trent University's Environmental & Life Sciences Graduate Program.

Research

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Ray's focus has been on "conservation planning in northern landscapes, with a particular focus on wolverine and caribou." She "worked for years in African and Asian tropical forests." "North America has been her predominant geographic focus over the past decade. The questions that drive her research are rooted in evaluating the role of shifting landscapes in biodiversity decline and/or change in forested ecosystems. These issues include quantifying the impacts of development activities on biodiversity, including effects of forest changes on mammal population and community structure, and monitoring of species at risk."[7]

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada

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Ray has been with the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada as President and senior scientist since it was incorporated in 2004.[1]

COSEWIC

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From 2009 to 2017, Ray was co-chair of COSEWIC's Terrestrial Mammals Specialist Subcommittee from 2009 to 2017.[8] COSEWIC is the "body that undertakes assessments of Canada’s wildlife species under the federal Species at Risk Act." In November 2011, COSEWIC voted to accept the Designatable Unit (DU) structure for caribou in Canada based on the Terrestrial Mammals Specialist Subcommittee's report.[2] In her presentation at the 14th North American Caribou Workshop in November 2012, Justina Ray described her work with COSEWIC in developing the twelve designatable units (DUs) for caribou in Canada.[9] In a 2019 Globe and Mail article, Ray explained that the 11 designatable units are categorized as "distinct because of a combination of their habitat, ecology and genetic differences. Some units contain only one herd; larger units have dozens."[10]

In her October 31, 2018 article in Canadian Geographic, Ray described how their "single most challenging task was systematically evaluating the status of these 11 groups of caribou. The committee did this through the production of six status assessment reports during the period from 2012 to 2017, which involved the collective efforts of hundreds of people. For each report, it took two to three years to assemble the data (including Indigenous knowledge), then compile them into a comprehensive report, subject the report to robust review, before finally delivering the results to the COSEWIC table for a vote on status.[1]

Affiliations

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She is research associate at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology at the Royal Ontario Museum.[11][12]

Publications

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Ray has authored or co-authored "more than 40 book chapter, journal, or popular articles" and three books.[11][4] In 2008 Ray co-authored Caribou and the North: a shared future with Monte Hummel with forwards by Robert Redford and Stephen Kakfwi and illustrations by Robert Bateman.[13] A review in described the book as an "authoritative volume" on caribou, and "its significance to northern ecology, and human impacts and reliance on it." "Hummel and Ray have included an entire chapter that outlines plans, policy suggestions, and responsibilities for various groups and institutions, both public and private, that if implemented would improve the fate of caribou in the north."[14] She was co-editor of Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores in 2008 and Large Carnivores and the Conservation of Biodiversity in 2005.[15][16] In her May 16, 2019 article in The Narwhal, Ray described how the recovery planning for endangered caribou in the southern part of British Columbia which began in 2003, has not made much progress "until very recently".[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Ray, Justina C. (October 31, 2018). "At risk of extinction". Canadian Geographic. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Designatable Units for Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in Canada" (PDF), COSEWIC, Ottawa, Ontario: Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, p. 88, December 23, 2011, archived from the original (PDF) on May 17, 2019, retrieved May 17, 2019 {{citation}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; May 18, 2019 suggested (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ Canada, Environment and Climate Change (2016-12-21). "COSEWIC press release: December 2016" (news releases;assessments). GCNWS (Press release). Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "CV Justina C. Ray" (PDF), Environment Canada, Government of Canada, nd, retrieved May 19, 2019
  5. ^ Ray, J.C. 1996. Resource Use Patterns among Mongooses and other Carnivores in a Central African Rainforest. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Florida, 256 pp.
  6. ^ Reviews
  7. ^ "View Expert Profile". Informed Opinions. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
  8. ^ a b "Profile: Justina Ray", The Narwhal, nd, retrieved May 19, 2019 Cite error: The named reference "TheNarwhal_profile" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ Justina Ray. Caribou designatable units in Canada and implications for assessment and recovery. Event occurs at 1655 seconds. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  10. ^ Semeniuk, Ivan (October 29, 2018). "Across Canada, caribou are on course for extinction, a prominent expert warns. What happens after that?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 19, 2019.updated February 18, 2019
  11. ^ a b "Justina Ray – Muskoka Summit on the Environment". Muskoka Summit on the Environment. Biodiversity Summit. June 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  12. ^ Reviews
  13. ^ Hummel, Monte; Ray, Justina C. (August 1, 2008). Caribou and the North: a shared future. Toronto, Ontario: Dundurn Press. p. 288. ISBN 1-55002-839-1. Forewords by Robert Redford and Stephen Kakfwi. Illustrations by Robert Bateman.
  14. ^ Wolff, C.B. (2009). "Review of Caribou and the North: A Shared Future by Monte Hummel and Justina C. Ray". Northern Review (31). Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  15. ^ Long, R., P. MacKay, W.J. Zielinski, & J.C. Ray, eds. 2008. Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
  16. ^ Ray, J.C., K.H. Redford, R.S. Steneck, & J. Berger, eds. 2005. Large Carnivores and the Conservation of Biodiversity. Island Press, Washington, D.C.