Visiting Student: Frank van Herpen

The River Institute attracts students from all over the world. At the moment Frank van Herpen, from Wageningen University in The Netherlands, is wrapping up the work he has done at the River Institute over the summer towards his Master’s degree. Frank is a student in the Environmental Sciences program at Wageningen and he has come to the River Institute to conduct research on the invertebrate communities (which include animals such as snails and aquatic insects) that live on or near the bottom sediments of the St. Lawrence River.

“I put cages containing rocks on the river bottom to create small habitats that will be colonized by the invertebrates. After a time, I simply remove the cages and see what they contain. I compare the invertebrate communities of an area where the sediment is polluted with mercury with a similar reference site that contains lower levels of mercury. The goal is to see whether the higher mercury levels affect the types of invertebrates that colonize the cages”, says Frank. “Research on the effects of mercury contamination is important because mercury can bioaccumulate through the food chain and end up in the fish we like to catch and eat”.

Frank arrived in Cornwall in April and will be in Canada until the end of September.

"So far I really like it in Canada. The Canadians are very friendly and the enormous amount of space in Canada is something I certainly am going to miss when I am back in the Netherlands."

For more information about the project: fvanherpen@riverinstitute.ca