Bryophyte ecology in northern disturbed ecosystems

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Slowly but steadily the human population of Canada is moving North for natural resource exploration and development. For example, in Québec, peat extraction is moving North as the availability of sites in southern Québec is becoming rare. Research on reliable establishment and colonisation of Sphagnum and the return of C sequestration function to the restored habitat (Rochefort 2001) will help to decrease CO2 emissions and get a green landscape after mining. Equally, understanding the factors controlling the productivity of Sphagnum could help in designing large scale production of Sphagnum biomass and alleviate pressure on the environment. In Ontario and Alberta, huge projects to harvest decomposed sedge peat for fuel production or tar sand for petrol production will necessitate the restoration of large fen areas. Part of this research program will be to understand the regeneration niche of brown mosses to develop an expertise in Canada on the restoration of fens that hopefully will become comparable to the international recognition gained with knowing better the regeneration niche of Sphagnum. With the development of economical activities in the North, a network of communication is often developed for construction (e.g. for building dams) and then reduced or abandoned (e.g. winter road, access road, temporary airstrips, borrow pits for road construction). These structures leave a series of scars in the landscape that take quite a long time to recover. In this program, I will study the factors controlling the dynamics of moss colonization of exposed soil and rock surfaces in harsh environments.