Dr. Hickie teaches in a range of courses including Natural Science Statistics, Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Ecology. His research involves study of fate of contaminants in aquatic ecosystems, their bioaccumulation through food webs and particularly accumulation by wildlife such as marine mammals, mink and river otter. Through this research he has developed expertise in modeling the multi-media fate of organic chemicals using fugacity-based models and their bioaccumulation by individual species and through food webs. Dr. Hickie has developed a number of novel bioaccumulation models for six species marine mammals (including beluga, ringed seals, orcas and bottlenose dolphins), and a mercury accumulation model for mink.
The marine mammal models have been used to examine temporal trends and the risk associated with exposure histories for PCBs and other persistent organic pollutants in marine mammal populations from various locations in Canada, the U.S.A. and Taiwan. In recent years, Dr Hickie’s research has increasingly focused on the fate and bioaccumulation of mercury in aquatic ecosystems through projects supported by the Collaborative Mercury Research Network (COMERN) and the ongoing ArcticNet project "Effects of Climate Change on Carbon and Contaminant Cycling in the Arctic Coastal and Marine Ecosystems”.
