Spatio-Temporal Connectivity of Species, Communities and Ecosystems

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Over the next five years, my research group (undergraduate students, PhDs and Post-docs) will investigate how individual-level processes (organism movement in fragmented landscapes), species-level processes (natal dispersal, meta-population dynamics), community-level processes (inter-specific interactions, predator-prey trophic dynamics and community shifts, meta-community dynamics), and ecosystem-level processes (ecosystem services, interface between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, meta-ecosystems) are affected by direct and indirect global change. A spatial ecology framework will be used to tackle these investigations. Specifically, my research team will focus on ecological networks and will develop spatio-temporal methods that can be regrouped into two overarching research themes: (i) Conceptual and analytical developments [projects 1, 2, 3] and (ii) Application and validation studies in meta-population [project 4], meta-community [project 5] and meta-ecosystem spatial analysis [project 6]. In particular, these research projects aim to: (1) develop a meta-modelling framework to integrate the key processes from one spatial scale to another in spatially-explicit forest response to climate and land use changes in temperate and boreal forests; (2) develop spatio-temporal and directional connectivity measures to model stream network (riverscape) functions on fish movement in light of warmer stream temperatures that will act as barriers to fish movement within streams; (3) develop a significance test to determine thresholds at which topological network structures can mitigate landscape spatial dynamics; (4) test how spatio-temporal connectivity varies in a dynamic and warming environment using a microcosm experiment; (5) quantify range shifts of odonates along a climatic gradient and range of landscape spatial heterogeneity; and (6) combine spatially explicit disturbance models at the landscape level with an individual based model of bird movement to determine the spatio-temporal connectivity thresholds needed to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services. These research projects will set the foundation for several future research avenues and analytical developments. They will help to determine in which ways space matters to maintain species and how to restore ecosystems services in a changing world.