Gretchen Lescord is an assistant professor of applied limnology in the School of Forests, Fisheries, and Geomatic Sciences. She’s also the director of LAKEWATCH, a large volunteer science program that monitors the water quality of lakes, rivers, and estuaries across Florida. In addition to water quality, her research focuses on aquatic ecology and the accumulation of environmental contaminants (e.g., mercury, arsenic) in aquatic food webs and fish. Much of her past work has focused on northern waterbodies across Canada, which are immensely important to many remote Indigenous Communities. She has worked with Community partners throughout her early career to understand the impacts of anthropogenic and naturals stressors (e.g., mining development, non-native species, watershed processes) on water chemistry and the contaminant levels in subsistence fish. She currently has several community-partnered projects with First Nations across Ontario. Dr. Lescord has also studied ethical frameworks for building collaborative relationships with Indigenous partners, particularly in relation to environmental science.
Looking ahead, Dr. Lescord’s lab will work on issues of local concern, with global implications. Her primary goals include: (1) studying issues of both emerging and long-standing concern that impact the health and management of aquatic ecosystems in Florida and beyond, and (2) bolstering the role of community and citizen science in environmental water research and the management of aquatic ecosystems.
More information about Dr. Lescord and the LAKEWATCH program can be found on their website, https://lakewatch.ifas.ufl.edu/. Dr. Lescord can be reached at lescord.g@ufl.edu.