Latest News

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

First Impressions: Is ‘The Lighthouse’ worth the hype?

by Jonathan Giammaria, Katia Innes, Patrick Gilroy, Vanessa Barron on

More in Arts & Entertainment:

On a rainy Sunday evening, The McGill Tribune Arts & Entertainment team convened for one purpose and one purpose only: To watch the much-hyped Robert Eggers film The Lighthouse. Starring ex–Twilight cast member Robert Pattison and ex–Mr Bean’s Holiday villain Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse has captivated audiences since its release. Whether or not the film lives up to the hype, however, is up to the Arts and Entertainment team to decide. 

 

Patrick Gilroy: Unconventional and bold

When it comes to movies, I find that the crazier they are, the better. In this regard, The Lighthouse did not disappoint. 

Eggers does a good job of setting up a somber character study through the first third of the film. But, it isn’t long before he pulls the rug out from under the audience, dialing up the surrealist imagery and forcing the audience to question everything they thought to be true about the characters. The result is a beautiful film that toys with conventional narrative structure and deftly wields its symbolism. It remains a character study through and through, and Pattinson and Defoe nail their roles as the hysterical lighthouse keepers. By the end of the film, I could not tell if the characters were crazy, or if I was—it might have been a bit of both. 

 

Vanessa Barron: Baffling but beautiful

I went into The Lighthouse with high expectations, and it certainly lived up in terms of filmmaking quality, particularly in its surreal sound design. A blaring foghorn becomes a ticking doomsday clock, screams distort into grating static, and a silly line like, ‘Why’d ye spill yer beans?’ echoes throughout the space of the theatre, becoming a memorable, haunting omen of insanity and death. While the film was strikingly and grotesquely beautiful, I couldn’t tell you what this movie is about to be honest. There were clear mythological metaphors and phallic imagery at every corner, but even with that knowledge, I couldn’t tell you what kind of message Eggers was constructing. Perhaps this thematic ambiguity was intentional, and perhaps The Lighthouse deserves a rewatch on my part. Regardless, this film is hypnotically atmospheric, and downright disgusting at times, yet in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible. 

 

Katia Innes: Convoluted hogwash

The Lighthouse is undoubtedly a very scary movie. However, much of the imagery that  makes the movie so terrifying—hysterical mermaids, rotting flesh, and seagulls—ultimately add little to the film. Some symbols, such as the murdered seabird, carry profound meaning until the climax of the film. Others remain entirely unexplained. Perhaps these images were meant to deliberately disorient and confuse; perhaps reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians simply did not prepare me with an adequate knowledge of Greek mythology to understand the film’s frequent allusions to the Promethean fire story. Regardless, Eggers has spun a mythology that The Lighthouse cannot support, and the plot buckles under this weight. 

 

Jonathan Giammaria: A work of cinematographic genius

One could argue that The Lighthouse is nothing but the newest arthouse film of the month. It follows the recent trend of experimental horror in creating a slow-burn plot that withholds much of the gore and jump scares that characterize more mainstream fanfare. What distinguishes Eggers’s newest film, however, are his stylistic choices. Eggers harkens back to the cinematic language of yesteryear—monochrome film cinematography presented in a square aspect ratio—which entices audiences by  mirroring the claustrophobia and volatility that increase over the course of the film’s narrative. Many scenes take place over dimly lit dinners, where the two leads sit in an isolating darkness encroaching on them from the film’s edges. Likewise, some scenes use dark space so heavily that the image only allows for tiny slits of light, just to quickly cut to a scene in broad, stark daylight. In a film whose leads become fixated on light, it’s fitting that Eggers disorients his audience with it.

Commentary, Opinion

Gerts, it hurts: I want you back

by Leina Gabra on

More in Commentary:

With vain hope in their hearts, students received an email from the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) on Oct. 28, hoping to read a promising update on the University Centre’s closure. However, students were disappointed by yet another delay: Gert’s, club spaces, and community spaces are still inaccessible. 

Initially, the McGill administration’s renovations to solve the University Centre’s HVAC, electrical, and asbestos issues were scheduled to be finished by winter 2019, with Gerts reopening by the end of fall 2018; obviously, this was delayed. In June 2019, the Deputy Provost announced that the new reopening date of reopening was slated for December 2019. McGill students are used to construction-related promises being broken, however, the continued closure of the University Centre until April 2020 will have a lasting impact on McGill students.

An entire graduating class of McGill students has never set foot in the University Centre since the university closed the building down for renovations in March 2018. Before its closure, the University Centre housed meeting places for a multitude of clubs, associations, and services. It also provided several large event spaces and housed SSMU’s offices. Now, student-led clubs have been relocated to buildings on and off-campus and have had more trouble than ever finding spaces while planning events. Separating the offices of services such as the McGill Student Emergency Response Team (MSERT), the Sexual Assault Center of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), and the Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LIM)  makes it more difficult for students to access these crucial resources. 

The closure of the University Centre erodes the already weak sense of community at McGill. As a university with an undergraduate population of over 24,000, it can be easy for students to feel like an anonymous face in a sea of thousands. For first-year students, many of whom are living away from their families for the first time, having a centralized location for clubs and services is a valuable and often overlooked way of reducing the anxiety that comes with being newly independent. 

For me, going to the University Centre during my first year feels like a distant memory, but it was definitely a useful resource while it was still around. From grabbing a coffee at La Prep to lounging on the beanbags in the napzone, the University Centre was a one-stop shop that I appreciated as a first-year student who was still trying to find my place in the McGill community. Being able to access club meetings, legal help as an international student, and a beloved student bar all in one building were assets that I took for granted. I believe that my first-year university experience would have been more difficult without the existence of the University Centre, simply due to its convenience. There is a distinct possibility that current first-year students feel the way I would’ve, plagued by the lack of a student center which they’ve never even known. 

Although it is difficult to assign blame to any one party for the continued delays on the University Centre reopening, the McGill administration must be more transparent and realistic about construction on campus. It must also be more mindful of students’ continued frustration and the difficulties that it causes for student-led clubs and new students as event spaces, services, and important resources are expelled to temporary spaces. The re-opening of the University Centre may not be able to single-handedly restore McGill school spirit, but having Gerts back would definitely help.

McGill Men's Rugby
Men's Varsity, Sports

McGill Men’s Rugby advances to RSEQ final

by Adam Bell on

More in Men's Varsity:

The McGill Men’s rugby team (5–1) dismantled the Ottawa Gee-Gees (3–3) in a 37–22 victory on Nov. 2. This victory sends them to the RSEQ championship match against Concordia on Nov. 10. 

The home team was quick off the blocks when first-year fly half and RSEQ rookie of the year Monty Weatherall converted a penalty kick in the first minute, giving McGill a 3–0 lead. A few moments later, third-year inside centre Elliot Esposito went on a blistering run, which set up another penalty conversion from Weatherall, doubling McGill’s lead to 6–0. From there, it was fourth-year Michael Nwabufo’s Show. The 6’4” second row hammered players left and right and seemed to be on every tackle. The RSEQ All-Star was adamant about the win being a team effort. 

“Our coach set it up very well,” Nwabufo said. “We weren’t contesting the ruck, so there were a lot more people involved. We just had to understand where the ball was going to go. It was easy because every time someone gets hit, you can go in and assist. It’s [about] being there for each other.”

The Gee-Gees came back strong, however, applying pressure on the home team’s defence after the 20-minute mark. This led to a penalty conversion that halved the lead, and a yellow card against third-year tight head prop Jeremy OckoMichalak, who would be sidelined for the next 10 minutes. 

With only 14 players on the pitch, it looked like McGill would be on their back foot. However, this turned out not to be the case, as they launched multiple attacks until fourth-year flanker Ryan Robb finally scored the first try of the game. Just before the break, third-year outside centre Maxime Rieuf capped off a dominant first half when he received a handoff that built McGill’s lead to 17 points.

“In the first-half we really wanted it more than them,” Weatherall said. “We beat them earlier this season, so we knew coming out of the changing rooms we needed to [knock] them off balance.”

Coming back from the break, McGill’s dismantling of Ottawa continued when second-year lock Karl Hunger punched in McGill’s third try of the game. Several big runs followed, most notably a mesmerizing scamper through the opposition’s defence by Weatherall that led to another try, this time by second-year 8-man Andreas Dionisopoulos. Weatherall completed his Jonny Wilkinson-esque performance by converting his fifth kick of the match.

The rest of the match was a mere formality: McGill slacked off and became complacent, enabling Ottawa to muster a slight comeback, but it was too little too late.

McGill will head to the provincial finals on Nov. 10 where they will face off against their cross-town rival Concordia (6–0). The McGill men’s rugby team has lost all five of their past matchups against the Stingers, who have not lost an RSEQ game in three years.  

 

Moment of the game

The crowd erupted at the 12-minute mark, when third-year inside centre Elliot Esposito left multiple rivals in the dust on a physical 40 metre run. This would ultimately set up first-year fly half Monty Weatherall for a field goal conversion to put McGill up 6–0 early in the game.

Quotable

“Today we wanted to play at the best of our abilities and send a message to Concordia for the final. Let them know that their three-year unbeaten streak is under threat. We definitely believe we have the capacity to beat them next week.” – First-year fly half Monty Weatherall on next week’s RSEQ final against the Stingers. 

Stat corner

This season, McGill has outscored opponents 170–64 in five home games at Percival Molson Stadium. Prior to the playoffs, they have allowed an average of only 10.5 points against per game. 

McGill, News

McGill alumnus Sally Armstrong returns to McGill for Massey Lecture

by Jackie Lee on

More in McGill:

Content Warning: mentions of sexual assault

 

World-renowned journalist, celebrated author, and human rights activist Sally Armstrong presented  “The Mating Game,” the second installment of her Massey Lecture series, at McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy on Oct. 24. Armstrong was appointed CBC’s Massey Lecturer of 2019, a prestigious role given annually to a scholar who is well-versed in a pertinent current issue. They are then tasked with giving a series of lectures across Canada. As one of the first journalists to report on the lives of Afghan women under Taliban rule, Armstrong has continued to engage in activism for justice for women and girls across the globe. 

Armstrong argued that empowering women is essential for a society to thrive. She also discussed society’s continuous fixation on the Biblical Adam and Eve story, where Eve is portrayed as inferior to Adam, and how this anecdote perpetuates harmful stereotypes.

“Apart from the philosophical and emotional aspects of [women historically] being cast as less valuable, that dismissal builds societal systems and structures that reinforce the power imbalance we are trying to sort out today,”Armstrong said.

Although Armstrong acknowledged that conditions for women have improved in many ways, she emphasized how men continue to be seen as the default in some fields, which can put women in danger. For example, the dimensions of both crash-test dummies and construction equipment are modeled for a man’s proportions—calibrations that may prove fatal to women.

“The simplest truth is the data [that] we use for everything from medical tests to vehicle safety, office temperatures to snow removal, [are] hopelessly biased,” Armstrong said.

Whereas Canada and the US have fallen short in terms of gender equality in some respects, like gender equality in government, Armstrong pointed out that Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Sweden may serve as models for the rest of the world. She feels the success of these countries is due to a culture fundamentally based on equality.

“[Gender equality] is easier to build on rather than trying to play catch-up,” Armstrong said. 

Through her presentation, Armstrong detailed different instances of sexual assault against women as a means of asserting power and control, and highlighted the importance of recognizing and combatting rape culture and gender discrimination.

“The truly incredible part of these reports of rape, [such as] date rape, war-time rape, or genocidal rape […], is [that] the treatment of women is ubiquitous; it cuts across cultures, socio-economic status, age, and geography,” Armstrong said. “These are the issues we’ve known about and buried forever. And now they’re in the spotlight.”

Armstrong expressed hope in the new generation’s fight for equality, and offered some hard-earned advice to the audience.

“The next generation, that’s [young people], is demanding accountability,” Armstrong said. “Your voice is your most effective tool.”  

 Erika Moyer, a student at McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy, explained the importance of the talk.

“By promoting these events, Max Bell provides the public with a better understanding of major public policy issues,” Moyer said. “Facilitating discourse on important issues leads to better public policies, which translates into lasting change.” 

Denbeigh Whitmarsh, U3 Arts, commented on what she learned from the lecture regarding the double standards placed on women.

 “We’re really quick to point fingers to a lot of Middle Eastern cultures [regarding sexism], but we don’t often look back at ourselves and realize that it is the same thing here,” Whitmarsh said. “We turn a blind eye to [the unfair treatment of women], because it’s our own society [….] It’s a lot more difficult to change yourself than it is to change someone else.”

Armstrong finished her lecture with a powerful, poignant Mexican proverb she thinks all women should memorize: 

“They thought they could bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds,” Armstrong said.

Commentary, Opinion

“Made by McGill” disregards students’ ongoing concerns

by Jonah Fried on

More in Commentary:

Two years ago, McGill cut its Eating Disorder Program. Then, this fall, a change in policy left note-takers working for McGill’s Office for Student Disabilities without proper compensation. McGill has excused these cuts, and other functional problems, as tough decisions forced upon the administration by complex financial difficulties stemming from historical events and government decisions. The university has no direct power over how much government funding it receives, but the way that McGill markets and manages itself now is entirely under its control. Last month, McGill announced “Made by McGill,” a $2 billion fundraising campaign designed to improve the university’s global standing as it enters its third century of existence. Considering the university’s funding situation, fundraising is absolutely necessary. However, in light of recent services cuts and other problems, it is worth questioning the university’s priorities governing the distribution of what funding it does receive.

The university’s intentions with Made by McGill must be analyzed in the context of its actual funding problems. Recent cuts in funding from the government of Quebec are only the tip of the iceberg. The university has experienced financial trouble ever since the banks left Montreal for Toronto in the wake of the October Crisis in 1970, leading to decreasing provincial revenue and funding for universities. McGill has a disclaimer on its website where the administration explains that a lack of funding is the root of many problems on campus. 

McGill has few options for funding itself outside of government grants and donor investment, and students should certainly take this into account when complaining about mediocre services. However, in its spending and the way that Made by McGill was pitched, McGill appears to be much more focused on augmenting its image to encourage investment than serving its current student body. The premise for the fundraising campaign is to “propel McGill into its third century” primarily by fortifying financial aid and scholarship resources and reinforcing support for research and innovation. These are all great initiatives, but students who are already here have many gripes that need to be addressed. The university should consider addressing the concerns of the present student population as an equally viable way to improve its international stature as research investment.

Students are not “made by McGill,” and that wording can be characterized as careless. Considering that McGill is dependent on its student body for their tuition dollars, it is probably more accurate to say that McGill is made by its students. When the wording of Made by McGill is examined at face value, it would imply that by paying with our tuition to keep the Roddick Gates open, and by accomplishing things with the knowledge we obtain here by our own volition, we become a product of McGill, rather than its makers. The slogan is also tone-deaf considering all of the obstacles that McGill students have to deal with, in part because of the declining quality of some student services and utilities as a result of chronic underfunding. 

Students don’t make McGill by their tuition alone. Through participating in student-run programs such as SSMU and clubs, as much as by investing in academic pursuits, the student body is what gives McGill its distinctive character more than anything else. McGill isn’t ‘made,’ either; it is an ongoing project that administration and students alike commit themselves toward. Considering the hardships that the current lack of funding for student services and other functions places on students, McGill should be cautious when putting out a message like the one implicit in “Made by McGill.”

 

Features

This ain’t no way to make a living

by Kevin Vogel on

More in Features:

At an academically rigorous institution like McGill, schoolwork is just one of many intersecting obstacles to success, especially for students in financially precarious situations. According to recent National College Health Assessment (NCHA) surveys, 26 per cent* of McGill students reported that their finances had been traumatic or difficult to handle in the past 12 months. For those students, finding a job outside of class time is imperative in assuaging these concerns. Yet, working while studying at university acts as a catch-22 of sorts: In the same NCHA surveys, 13.5 per cent* of McGill students reported that work had negatively impacted their academic performance. Even if having a job is necessary to sustain personal finances, it can come at a significant cost to one’s overall well-being.

Commentary, Opinion

Open letter on Indigenous affairs at SSMU

by Tomas Jirousek, Indigenous Affairs Comissioner on

More in Commentary:

The “Redmen” name was a visible and constant reminder of McGill’s historical discrimination against Indigenous students. It is with great pride that I can say that, after years of Indigenous student activism, we have successfully changed the name. While the #ChangeTheName campaign demonstrated Indigenous resilience and strength, it also rallied a tremendous level of allyship and support from our non-Indigenous peers. Our campaign would have been significantly more difficult without the support of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) team in particular. I reflect on this last statement with both optimism and hesitation.

SSMU is an unreliable institution that fails to provide consistent support and allyship to Indigenous students. It only takes one oversight—like failing to send an email—from a SSMU executive to remind us, as an Indigenous student community, SSMU is still a body that we cannot readily depend on. Some may  argue that this single oversight, that this independent transgression by Vice-President (VP) Internal Sanchi Bhalla, may be insignificant enough that it fails to merit a response. However, regardless of the size or publicity of such an oversight, this lack of action serves to remind Indigenous students of the institutional barriers that force us to rely on non-Indigenous members of the SSMU executive. The failure of a SSMU representative to act in allyship reminds us of our own powerlessness within the institution, and leads us to question whether we can rely on SSMU in future circumstances, or not. While VP Bhalla has explained her lapse as a “technical error” and a simple reality of bureaucracy, what is important are not the causes of her actions but their result. This event, voluntary or not, reaffirms Indigenous students’ lack of trust in the SSMU executive, and accordingly, it must then fall to us as Indigenous students to take control over our own affairs without being forced to rely on student executives who are incapable of providing allyship.

I believe Bhalla when she explained that she was incapable of supporting Indigenous students with regards to our recent protest against the treatment of First Nations children in the child welfare system. I also believe that SSMU as an institution is not structured in a way that easily affords the executive the ability to provide the type of allyship that we require as Indigenous students. While we can understand Bhalla’s failure to provide allyship to Indigenous students as a symptom of a larger institutional issue, that merely explains, and does not excuse, the structural failures of SSMU that prevent it from prioritizing Indigenous student voices. As such, it is time that we reformed SSMU in a way that works to prioritize the needs of Indigenous and marginalized students. Indigenous student activists require a three-step reform to ensure our independence and autonomy in mobilizing to promote Indigenous issues at McGill. 

First, Indigenous student activism requires fiscal autonomy, distinct from discretionary funding provided by the SSMU executive. I began the #ChangeTheName campaign without any funding and consistently relied on discretionary support from SSMU. This structure meant that I, as the head of the campaign, couldn’t plan future action without being forced to ask ‘permission’ of a non-Indigenous student executive. Indigenous students should not have to rely on the charity of SSMU when challenging an institution, especially if that institution happens to be SSMU itself. As such, I am excited to announce our proposed Indigenous Equity Fund, which Indigenous students will campaign for in the upcoming Fall referendum period.

Second, power dynamics within SSMU need to be reformed in a way that makes the Indigenous Affairs Commissioner accountable to Indigenous students, rather than the SSMU executive. The role of the Indigenous Affairs Commissioner should be to respond to concerns of Indigenous students and represent those concerns within SSMU. The Indigenous Affairs Commissioner needs to be able to hold the SSMU executive accountable if Indigenous students become anxious or feel disrespected due to the conduct of the executive. Moreso, the Indigenous Affairs Commissioner needs the flexibility to challenge the institution without feeling pressure from SSMU executive. Subverting this power dynamic means shifting the Indigenous Affairs portfolio out from under a SSMU executive, and providing an independent platform where the Indigenous Affairs Commissioner can act without concern of retaliation from the SSMU executive team.

Finally, Indigenous students require access to resources that enable rapid mobilization on issues affecting our community. By reforming the SSMU Indigenous Solidarity Policy, we can ensure that useful tools such as the SSMU listserv, room booking privileges, and seats on administrative committees are allotted to Indigenous students without having to rely on a SSMU executive. With the understanding that SSMU is simply incapable of providing the allyship that Indigenous students need, it is necessary that we acquire the means we need to help ourselves. 

I firmly believe in the power of solidarity. Solidarity, community, and reciprocity are some of the most powerful methods that we have as students when challenging McGill as an institution and fighting for student rights. At the same time, I recognize that sometimes this solidarity is difficult to achieve. This fact should not bind or limit marginalized voices from acting on our own behalf. There will be those who perceive Indigenous student actions as unnecessarily divisive and overreaching. Those who make these claims simply seek to undermine and belittle the legitimate anxiety that Indigenous students feel on an everyday basis. 

Instead of promoting divisiveness on campus, our plan is to increase solidarity and allyship, to promote Indigenous student autonomy, and to provide increased support for future Indigenous students. We can achieve this by striving for an increase in financial autonomy, a shift in power dynamics, and establishing control over resources that SSMU withholds from Indigenous students.

Commentary, Opinion

How I watched my country’s revolution from McLennan

by Haneen Eldiri on

More in Commentary:

I am human. I am distraught, disorganized, and disillusioned. I can barely attenuate how exhausting and disorienting this week was into coherent words. On Friday, it was my birthday. My friends and I hosted a potluck on Sunday. The long weekend ended with a pleasant dinner at my roommate’s family’s house in west Quebec. Over 100 forest fires took ablaze the following days. 

There is no transition. I am engulfed by a demanding sadness. I close my laptop for an hour. Then there is revolution. Revolution smells like rubbing sunscreen into the rotting stench of trash in the heat. It smells like accumulated sweat because there isn’t enough electricity to turn on the AC. Revolution smells like a burnt valley. It reeks like the McLennan midterm feet-stink that I sit in as I pretend to preoccupy myself with miscellaneous tasks in an attempt to disentangle my thoughts from the knots on social media.

Lebanon began a collective march on Oct. 17. Over one million people are currently protesting the Lebanese government. These chants ring out from a multitude of districts, across religious sectarian divides, and political spheres. They demand those in office to resign. The Lebanese government functions as a confessionalism system; this means that they proportionally represent the religious distribution of the country. The Lebanese people have, for the first time in history, let go of all sectarian and religious divides to fight for a better living standard. The Western media coverage has done this revolution no justice. 

The country is drowning in a debt pool created by stealing and conniving criminals who have spent years pulling at the very last heartstrings of the vulnerable. We do not have clean drinking water. We do not have full-time electricity. We do not have basic public services like adequate firefighting fleets. Many parents find it difficult to fund their children’s education. Admirably, the Lebanese people have yet to stop dancing, singing, and supporting one another throughout the revolt. This revolution is an example of tenacity and luminosity that should be internationally esteemed. 

Sahat El-Nour is found in the centre of Tripoli, where a large amount of the population is unemployed. The city has a reputation for being dangerous and hostile, but I believe the country’s social structure is currently undergoing rapid, drastic change. Last Saturday, the mass crowd with a bad reputation demonstrated this change as they danced in numbers reaching the thousands as DJ Madi Karimeh vamped techno beats. I cannot stress this enough: I would much rather be there.

Last week, I walked home from Montreal’s protest in solidarity with Lebanon by myself. Hope taunts, and sometimes, hope hurts. I wondered what people on the street expected me to be crying about. I want so badly for this to keep going well: I want to go home to Lebanon. I graduate this December and have spent five and a half years separated from my family by country lines. I have missed too many of my younger brother’s birthdays, and now, he is a foot taller than me. I am tired, but, I have never been so hopeful for my country. My mom sent me a video of her at the protest in Tripoli; she is screaming at the top of her lungs to a chant with a crowd of thousands of voices; she stops for a second, turns to the camera and says “Hanouna, you are my heart.”

I am human; I am distraught, disorganized, and disillusioned. I will not regurgitate the history of Lebanon. Here is my dream the revolution has finally given me hope for. As an international student, watching the news is checking up on my family; I have to process, mourn, and resist on a foreign campus, two-plane rides from home.

Last summer, some friends from United World Colleges Dilijan and I gathered for the first time in two years. After high school, each of us had gone to separate corners of the world that promised us opportunity. Sipping coffee on a Beirut balcony, my friend says, “One day, we’ll be grown old, and you’ll be home here in a free Beirut and I’ll be in mine in a free Syria. We’ll visit each other, just a 30-minute drive away.”

Research Briefs, Science & Technology

Testing Darwin’s ecological questions

by Ronny Litvack-Katzman on

More in Research Briefs:

Rarely does the title of a scientific study live up to the aspirations of its authors. The BIG Project, however, is an exception. BIG, which stands for the Biotic Interaction Gradients experiment, is the first endeavour of its kind to explain one of Charles Darwin’s oldest theories: Species interactions play a greater ecological and evolutionary role in regions closer to the equator.

For decades, various research groups have tried to provide definitive, quantitative evidence for heightened inter-species activity in tropical and low-elevation environments. However, they struggled due to the limited geographic scale of their experiments. 

The brainchild of Anna Hargreaves, a professor in the McGill Department of Biology, the BIG project overcame such restrictions by employing a group of over a dozen researchers working from the High Arctic to the equator. Her team set up more than 7,000 seed depots—small caches of a few dozen sunflower seeds—along 18 mountains across the Americas. Researchers then observed how many seeds animals consumed and in what environment. In a paper published in February 2019, Hargreaves and her team provided conclusive evidence that latitude and elevation play an essential role in determining species interactions.

“The purpose of the project was to test this hypothesis directly,” Hargreaves said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “If we did the same experiment everywhere, using the same material and analyzing the same interaction, we could actually see if the interaction was stronger in the tropics.” 

The authors found that seed predation, the metric that they used to test species interaction, was greatest toward the equator. Moving from north to south, seed consumption increased by 2.6 per cent for every 10 degrees of latitude. 

Whereas other meta-analytical studies use a variety of parameters to assess the relationship between biological diversity and latitude, the BIG project employed a much simpler methodology. For Hargreaves, it was important that the experiment was easily replicable so that researchers across the globe could follow a standard protocol. 

Hargreaves’s biggest concern was capturing latitudinal interaction while biological variation and other variables were at play. 

“One way to counter that is to reduce variation experimentally,” Hargreaves said. “If you take out the mammals and birds, you are looking at a smaller, more targeted group of species eating the seeds.” 

To limit the influence of variation, some seed depots were enclosed within cages, restricting the types of animals that could consume seeds. This modification allowed Hargreaves and her team to look at predation data from larger vertebrates and smaller invertebrates individually. 

The results were intriguing to the authors because the expected pattern of species interaction was driven largely by invertebrates. Excluding vertebrate species who fed upon grain reduced seed predation, but it did not change the overall geographic trends in interaction strength.

“It’s a huge, global, biogeographical pattern that is driven by the smallest animals we were looking at,” Hargreaves said. “It was quite unexpected.”

Santiago David, a UBC zoologist who placed seed depots for the project in South America, recounts some of the other challenges in completing an experiment of this scale. 

“We worked in Colombia along two separate transects that aren’t accessible by car at all elevations,” David wrote in an email to the Tribune. “That means we had to hike up trails that were 1,000 metres in elevation, two days in a row, carrying all the equipment and fighting against time to set everything up. It was hard work but also very rewarding.” 

Now, Hargreaves and her team are turning their attention to another Darwinian query that examines whether the strength of interactions lead to stronger competition. 

The BIG experiment represents a model way in which researchers can approach the largest questions of evolutionary ecology. As long as big questions remain about interactions of natural populations, the BIG experiment will be there to provide answers.

Martlets, Men's Varsity, Sports

McGill Swimming takes second at season-opening meet

by Zoe Babad-Palmer on

More in Martlets:

McGill Swimming excelled in their first meet of the season on Oct. 26. The men’s team came first of the six teams competing, while the women took second. McGill finished second overall, only 37 points behind Université de Montréal (UdeM).

The meet is McGill’s only home competition of the season; it was originally scheduled to be the second contest of the year, but the Oct. 11 clash at the University of Ottawa was postponed. The change in schedule did not hurt McGill’s effort though, as the team held an in-house time trial in its place, competing against themselves for extra practice.

“We raced the events that [the team] did today two weeks ago, so then they got a chance to do it again, and I think that probably helped us,” Head Coach Peter Carpenter said.

McGill’s performance is even more impressive considering several swimmers on both the men’s and women’s rosters were unable to participate.

“We had a bit of adversity to overcome,” Women’s Team Captain Isabella Pittinger said. “But, we were still able to finish strong, and not only strong, but we also had a lot of best times on both sides.”

The team stayed focused on their own races and their strategy paid off. The men’s 4x50m freestyle relay came within 0.24 seconds of the RSEQ record, and McGill swimmers qualified for the U Sports National Championships in eight events. Among the qualifying athletes was second-year Clement Secchi, who was also named the Men’s Athlete of the Meet.

McGill’s athletes leveraged their familiarity with the home pool to the fullest.

“We know the walls better than anyone,” Men’s Team Captain Kade Wist said. “So we have that advantage. [With the starting] blocks, [it’s the] same thing.”

Carpenter believes that the home advantage was even greater at this meet than in previous seasons.

“I think it actually helped us a lot more this year than it has in the past,” Carpenter said. “We got new blocks this year, and that [makes a huge difference] for us.”

However, McGill’s swimmers are not content to sit back and coast. This early in the season, they are still looking to iron out technical issues, so that when Nationals arrive in February, they can focus on fine-tuning details.

Both captains are optimistic about their team’s potential going into the rest of the season, hoping to go farther than they have in 15 years.

“As a team overall, […] we’re looking to win the combined [RSEQ] banner,” Pittinger said. “We’re just trying to remember our purpose.”

McGill’s next meet is an invitational at Dalhousie University in Halifax from Nov. 15-17.

 

Moment of the Meet

First-year Daphne Danyluk remained steady throughout her 50-metre backstroke, finally pulling ahead to take first in an extremely close race. Her time of 28.86 seconds qualified her for Nationals. 

Quotable

“We have a really strong team this year [….] To be able to produce the results that we did produce this early in the season at our first meet is really impressive, so I think we’re looking pretty good.” – Third-year Women’s Captain Isabella Pittinger on her team’s performance.

Stat Corner

McGill athletes held the top three spots of men’s multiple-medal athletes and the number two spot in the women’s competition: Secchi won three gold medals and one silver, first-year Tengbo Yu won two golds and one silver, third-year Marius Collin won two golds and one bronze, and Danyluk won three golds and one silver. 

1 … 453 454 455 456 457 … 1,363

Read the latest issue

Read the latest issue