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Research Scientist and Program Lead, Terrestrial Systems Ecology
Ontario Forest Research Institute, Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry Adjunct Professor, University of Toronto Adjunct Professor, Trent University Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Florida Postdoctoral Researcher, Memorial University of Newfoundland (with full time visitation at University of Colorado and National Ecological Observatory Network) Ph.D., University of Alberta M.Sc., Memorial University of Newfoundland H.B.Sc., Trent University |
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The Terrestrial Systems Ecology Research Program investigates the cumulative effects of climate change, associated natural disturbances, and anthropogenic disturbances on forest dynamics and ecological integrity. We integrate approaches from biodiversity science, biogeography, macroecology, conservation biology, community ecology, ecoinformatics, and ecological scaling. We aim broadly to contribute to answering fundamental ecological questions, often with relevant societal applications to issues like land use and forest management planning, conservation, and climate change. As good science begins with good data and methods, we invest in sound database development including refined spatiotemporal disturbance mapping, and methodological developments in model integration.
My collaborators and I currently study:
My Ph.D. focused on broad scale community structure and diversity of boreal vascular plants in response to human land use. Some elements of that research include the diversity-disturbance relationship, scales at which human disturbance impacts species diversity, relative roles of environmental filtering, competition, and dispersal on plant communities in landscapes along a continuum of disturbance, and impacts of disturbance on phylogenetic and phenotypic trait similarity.
I employ field observation, geospatial and temporal analyses, modelling, quantitative analyses, "big data", and controlled experiments, depending on the question. Spatial scaling, and increasingly temporal scaling, features prominently in my work. Despite a quantitative background, I strive for simplicity in approach, analyses and explanations.
My work has occurred in terrestrial systems, and often in the taiga (boreal), but I am interested in a wide variety of systems and enjoy ecological comparisons across disparate ecosystems (e.g. boreal vs. tropical, terrestrial vs. marine, plant vs. animal), believing ecological theory should be broadly applicable, or at least informative when it is not.
I am also an avid paddler, hiker, skier, and mushroom forager!
My collaborators and I currently study:
- Succession, forest dynamics, and community assembly in boreal forests
- Ecological forecasting of vegetation distributions and carbon dynamics with climate change and natural disturbances
- Interactions between fire and eastern spruce budworm
- Interactions between below-ground and above-ground communities throughout disturbance and succession, including mycorrhizal fungi
- Novel approaches to conservation value accounting
- Impacts of climate driven phenological change on migratory birds
My Ph.D. focused on broad scale community structure and diversity of boreal vascular plants in response to human land use. Some elements of that research include the diversity-disturbance relationship, scales at which human disturbance impacts species diversity, relative roles of environmental filtering, competition, and dispersal on plant communities in landscapes along a continuum of disturbance, and impacts of disturbance on phylogenetic and phenotypic trait similarity.
I employ field observation, geospatial and temporal analyses, modelling, quantitative analyses, "big data", and controlled experiments, depending on the question. Spatial scaling, and increasingly temporal scaling, features prominently in my work. Despite a quantitative background, I strive for simplicity in approach, analyses and explanations.
My work has occurred in terrestrial systems, and often in the taiga (boreal), but I am interested in a wide variety of systems and enjoy ecological comparisons across disparate ecosystems (e.g. boreal vs. tropical, terrestrial vs. marine, plant vs. animal), believing ecological theory should be broadly applicable, or at least informative when it is not.
I am also an avid paddler, hiker, skier, and mushroom forager!
