Kayla Buhler

2021 Weston Family Awards in Northern Research recipient

PhD Candidate
University of Saskatchewan

Kayla is a PhD candidate at the University of Saskatchewan studying the distribution and effects of diseases that are transmitted by insects in Arctic wildlife. Her passion for wildlife conservation and health originally sparked her interest in emerging zoonotic diseases (those that can be transmitted between animals and people).

Wildlife has a significant subsistence, cultural and economic importance to Arctic peoples. This, along with the accelerated rate of climate warming, led Kayla to study the disease ecology of viruses, parasites and bacteria carried by insects in the North. Changes in precipitation and temperature will most likely impact the distribution and diversity of insects and the pathogens that they carry. Kayla’s research creates a baseline to monitor the prevalence of these diseases in Arctic wildlife and investigates how these pathogens are maintained and transmitted in Arctic ecosystems.

Learn more about the Weston Family Awards in Northern Research.