Mentor introduction
Hello Students from Peru!
My name is Kelsey Jones, I am currently a Masters student at the University of Alberta, located in Edmonton, Canada. I moved here recently (originally from Ontario, Canada) to study chemical ecology of the Mountain Pine Beetle. To give you a little insight on my work, the mountain pine beetle is a pest of pine trees out here in Canada. The beetle’s origins are in British Columbia, but with warming climates it has drastically expanded its range and has now entered Alberta. This is devastating as in the past years the beetle has killed 18.1 million hectares of pine forests. Now that the beetle has entered Northern Alberta, there is an impending threat of the beetle killing pine forests across Canada, this will have major ecological and socio-economic (for the lumber industry) implications. So my work will be understanding how the beetle is moving on the leading edge of this expansion.
This is a brief summary of how I am connected to the changing climate. I am excited to be the mentor for Peru and would love to hear about your connections to this project!
I am here to aid your class in finding any climate change resources, or answer any questions you may have. This forum will be our main point of contact, so feel free to post any questions, comments or concerns. I look forward to beginning this project with you.
Kelsey
