Mark Vellend - Personnel

Christina Rinas (Ph.D. candidate)
christina.rinas@usherbrooke.ca

As a new PhD student I quickly learned that there is much more to a tree trunk than meets the eye. I began my research in the summer of 2017 by making observations of arboreal lichen and moss communities. I observed trees of the same species growing right next to one another that had entirely different arboreal communities. I noticed that on certain trees the arboreal communities were completely different depending on the side of the tree you were looking at. These patterns raise fundamental questions about how these communities change depending on environmental or stochastic factors, and as the forest type changes. What are the biotic and abiotic factors underlying the striking patterns of biodiversity in these communities?

I am interested in researching how epiphytic lichens and bryophyte communities change across vertical, elevational, and ecological gradients in Mont Mégantic National Park, Quebec. My study system provides excellent opportunities for addressing questions about the causes of species distribution limits and how those influence biodiversity in the eastern forests. A tree trunk can represent many gradients (i.e., vertical, circular), easily replicated in a single site. Additionally, the distinctive deciduous – coniferous gradient in the park makes it an ideal place to study how the biodiversity of epiphytic species changes between forest types.

En tant que nouvelle étudiante au doctorat j’ai rapidement appris que les troncs d’arbre en ont bien plus à racontrer que ce que l’on voit au premier coup d’oeil. Durant l’été 2017, j’ai commencé ma recherche en faisant des observations des lichens arboricoles et des mousses arboricoles. J’ai observé que des individus de la même espèce d’arbre poussant à proximité ont différentes communautés arboricoles. J’ai remarqué que les communautés arboricoles changent selon le côtes d’arbres sur lequel elles poussent. À la lumiere de ces observations je me demande si ces changements des communautés sont causés par différents types de forêts et s’ils sont causés par des facteurs environmentaux ou des facteurs stochastiques. Quels sont les facteurs biotiques et les facteurs abiotiques qui sont à la base de ces différences de biodiversité dans les patrons intéressants que l’on observe dans ces communatés.

Je m’intéresse aux changements des communautés arboricoles de lichens et mousses à travers les gradients verticaux, élévationnels, et écologiques au parc national du Mont Mégantic, au Quebec. Mon système d’étude fournit plusieurs opportunités pour mieux comprendre les causes de répartition des espèces et comment elles influencent la biodiversité des forêts de l’est. Un tronc d’arbre peux représenter plusieurs gradients (vertical, circulaire) qui sont facilement reproductibles sur un même site. En outre, le gradient forestier particulier du parc passant de décidue à boréale, est un lieu ideal pour étudier les changements de biodiversité des espèces arboricoles selon les types de forêts.

Ming Ni (Ph.D. student)
ming.ni@usherbrooke.ca

I have a broad interest in community ecology and biogeography – how environmental gradients influence species distributions and performance. For my PhD research, I will mainly focus on soil effects on plant distributions and migration in eastern North America, and the evolutionary history of plant soil niches.

In North America, there is a marked latitudinal gradient of soil properties. In particular, the soil environments in boreal forests may be not suitable for plants from temperate areas, impeding plant migration under climate change. Therefore, detecting soil variation across space and soil effects on plant distributions at a broad scales has important implications for predicting responses to climate change. Meanwhile, species are evolving; if plant soil niches can evolve quickly, our prediction based on species' current distributions may be biased. I will also explore the evolution of plant soil niches - especially in comparison with historical climatic adaptation.

Inês Martins (Postdoc, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, co-supervised with Maria Dornelas & Chris Thomas)
ines.martins@york.ac.uk

I’m a macroecologist particularly interested in understanding how biodiversity is changing across the globe. My work typically uses statistical and computational approaches to analyze large datasets (incl. qualitative data) and often transcends multiple spatial scales or levels of organization. In the Leverhume Center for Anthropocene Biodiversity (LCAB), my focus is on understanding the theoretical and empirical relationships between drivers of environmental change and the diversity and composition of terrestrial assemblages at multiple spatio-temporal scale. In particular, my research will focus on understanding how different levels of biological diversity (e.g., species, ecosystems) diversify in human-altered environments, which vary in the extent of modification and scale of analysis, as well as their potential socio-economic drivers.

Madelaine Anderson (Ph.D. Student)
Madelaine.Anderson@usherbrooke.ca

Broadly, I am interested in how plant communities and landscapes are impacted by global change. Growing up, I spent all my summers in northern Canada, which inspired curiosity about and passion for northern ecosystems. The Arctic tundra biome is changing quickly with major implications on biodiversity, climate, and humans. My doctoral research is situated within the Arctic portion of the Canadian Airborne Biodiversity Observatory (CABO) project. Working with CABO and Team Shrub, led by Isla Myers-Smith and based out of the University of Edinburgh, I will explore biodiversity change in the tundra biome using remote sensing approaches and field-based surveys. I will ask questions about linking tundra plant spectral signatures to tundra plant phenology, plant traits and biodiversity.

Tadhg Carroll (Postdoc, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, co-supervised with Maria Dornelas & Chris Thomas)
tadhg.carroll@york.ac.uk

I am interested in all aspects of Ecology, but my work has focused to date on Community Ecology. My research at the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity focuses primarily on investigating biodiversity change in contemporary ecological assemblages. Biodiversity is complex, and needs to be viewed in many different ways in order to understand how it has changed in the past, or to have any hope of predicting future trajectories. I’m keen to uncover processes underlying biodiversity change, as well as documenting various aspects of empirical trends over time. Current lines of research include attempts to understand adaptive dynamics in ecological communities, and if and how rare species become common and common species become rare. I also have a deep interest, and gradually growing skillset, in Applied Bayesian Statistics and how such techniques can be used to tease knowledge out from nature.

Personnel

Past Graduate Students and Post-docs