Global change effects on species distribution: space matters

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Species at all ecological level of organizations (individual, population, community) are affected by landscape spatial heterogeneity. In turn, such spatial heterogeneity is modified by the synergistic interactions among natural disturbances and global change (climate and landuse change). Examination of species spatial distributions and their dynamics through time can help to better understand the resulting effects of the combined ecological and environmental pressures that they are faced with. To disentangle the relative importance of these multiple pressures at the appropriate spatial and temporal scales, my long-term research objective is to develop spatial and spatio-temporal analytical methods to investigate the synergistic effects of natural disturbances and global change on species spatial distributions and persistence at multiple spatial scales and organizational levels. To this end, over the next five years my research group will investigate how species traits and species-level processes (individual movement, population dispersal, inter-specific interactions, predator-prey dynamics and community shifts) are affected by multiple disturbances. I will be focusing on a series of research projects that can be grouped into the following research objectives: (1) quantify the spatial dynamic of species distributions and assemblages; (2) investigate species spatial responses to landscape spatial heterogeneity as modified by disturbances and global change at the home range and geographical range levels; (3) modify undirected spatial graph algorithms designed for terrestrial landscapes in order to quantify (i) temporal connectivity, (ii) stream network (riverscape) directionally, (iii) predator-prey spatial interactions, and (iv) to compare and test for significant differences among spatial graphs based on landscape and genetic connectivity; and (4) integrate these new spatial and temporal graph algorithms to use them to select reserve networks that can functionally persist through time given forecasted global changes. These research projects will set the foundation of several future research avenues and analytical developments that will determine how space matters to the maintenance of biodiversity as well as species interactions through time.