Dr. Warren Cardinal-McTeague

Plant Systematics and Indigenous Science

From Tropical Taxonomy to Temperate Agro-biodiversity

About Warren Cardinal-McTeague

tân’si — In July 2022 I will be joining the University of British Columbia in Vancouver as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences. More information will be posted soon.

In November 2020 I started as a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Science and Technology Branch at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre. I joined scientists from across Canada working to sustain the country’s lead in the sector, specifically by adapting technology in genomics and spectroscopy for trait improvement, remote sensing, and ecosystem sustainability. AAFC is a leader in Indigenous STEM initiatives and operates an Indigenous Science Liaison Office and heads the interdepartmental Indigenous-STEM cluster. Its goals are to facilitate relationship building and ethical co-production of research with Indigenous communities.

I am a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta and identify as Métis/Cree from the community of Lac La Biche in northeastern Alberta. I was raised in Fort McMurray, mostly by my single mother and aunties, belonging to the Cardinal families from the railway communities of Imperial Mills/Pitlochrie (Thirty-seven, as we call it), with earlier ancestry from Papaschase Cree Nation in Edmonton (some of whom relocated to Lac La Biche following its unlawful surrender) and the Cree/Dené/Métis McDonald family in Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan. The paternal side of my family (McTeague) immigrated to Canada in the 1970’s from the USA with a blend of Irish and German American settler ancestry. Interestingly, this leaves me without Canadian settler family relations. I studied biology with a specialization in botany at the University of Alberta, Department of Biological Sciences and took up undergraduate research projects in paleobotany, bryology, mycology, and plant systematics. In 2011, I moved to Ottawa for a M.Sc. at the University of Ottawa, Department of Biology and Canadian Museum of Nature, Research and Collections, and ultimately transferred into the Ph.D. program. Working with Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor Dr. Lynn Gillespie I studied tropical plant systematics of Euphorbiaceae tribe Plukenetieae and used DNA sequencing to examine the tribe’s phylogeny, taxonomy, pantropical biogeography, pollen and seed size evolution, and patterns of diversification. During my Ph.D., I conducted fieldwork in Madagascar, Costa Rica, and Brazil, and, in 2015, I spent three months as a Smithsonian Predoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany with Research Botanist and Associate Curator Kenneth Wurdack developing low-copy nuclear markers for Plukenetia and other Euphorbiaceae. In 2018, I was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institut de recherche en biology végétale and Université de Montréal, Département de sciences biologiques located at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, working with Professor Anne Bruneau on the phylogenomics, functional gene evolution, taxonomy, and biome evolution, of Leguminosae subfamilies Cercidoideae, Dialiodeae, and Erythrina.

My research program weaves together three main themes: integrative plant systematics, spectroscopy, and Indigenous science. These themes complement each other to address questions about how plant biodiversity has evolved, and how we might use that information for trait improvement and environmental sustainability. My methods include hybrid-capture sequencing and bioinformatic methods, global occurrence records and species distribution modelling, and leaf reflectance spectroscopy for trait estimation, plant identification, and remote sensing. Underpinning this research is essential understanding and practice of taxonomy, the identification, naming, and classification of biodiversity. My Indigenous science program is slowly and carefully burgeoning, and prioritizes research ethics, decolonize praxis, and developing research where every question, experiment, and outcome is strictly co-constituted in longterm relationships and vision. Current projects include Indigenous plant taxonomies, sovereignty of Indigenous data found in herbaria, and access and benefit sharing of Indigenous scientific knowledge in light of digitization and global sharing. In 2020, I rejoin the Canadian Museum of Nature as a Research Associate to facilitate my ongoing taxonomic revision in Euphorbiaceae subtribe Tragiinae.

I am serving (or served) on several committees regarding EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion), including for the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, Canadian Botanical Association, Comité diversité sciences biologiques, and Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science, primarily offering insight on LGBTQ+ and Indigenous perspectives. I am working to establish scholarships for Indigenous (and possibly broader BIPOC) students at Université de Montréal and the Canadian Botanical Association. In 2020, alongside Professor Colin Hughes I am co-editor of The Bean Bag Newsletter for legume systematists and serve on four subgroups (taxonomy, phylogenomics, traits, occurrences) for the Legume Phylogeny Working Group.