Biodiversity impacts of natural and managed ecosystems in the Anthropocene

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Biodiversity is the foundation of life on Earth. It is crucial for the functioning of ecosystems, which provide us with products, and services without which we couldn't live and sustain our societies. In the contemporary globalized world, invasive alien species (IAS) have attracted much attention because of the undesirable ecological and economic effects that they may impose upon ecosystems in biogeographic regions, which are not part of their native ranges. For the next five years, I plan to evaluate the effects of alien (exotic) plants on soil microbial diversity and plant diversity in non-native landscapes. This research program will provide a better understanding of ecosystem function and environmental sustainability, in the context of manipulating biodiversity in managed landscapes (inter-and intra-specific genetic variation, invasiveness, introgression, reduced fitness and perceived redundancy), using several tropical and boreal plant species and their associated microsymbionts as model organisms. i) to analyse the rhizomicrobiomes of natural and managed ecosystems for improved plant productivity and health; ii) to assess the impact of exotic plants and microsymbionts on soil biodiversity; iii) to examine the role of symbiotic modulation in invasiveness of some exotic species and their adaptation to environmental stresses and ecological amplitude as well as assess the morpho-molecular variation for the identification of traits that confer "invasiveness" upon species; iv) to assess the potential of phytobial remediation in soil-mining and aqua-mining of contaminants; v) to assess the impact of fragmentation on population structure and genetic diversity; and vi) ultimately, to develop spatially explicit individual-based simulation models and statistical ecogenomic methods. Results from these studies will be directed at providing the necessary scientifically sound background information for making informed decisions regarding biodiversity conservation, and ecocertification of managed and unmanaged landscapes. These results will also help understand the functional and evolutionary mechanisms that lead to phenotypic variation and adaptation as well as the phylogenetic limiting similarity hypothesis. In collaboration with the University of Kashmir (India), the University of Antananarivo (Madagascar), and the Federal University of Viçosa (Minas Gerais, Brazil), the project will involve the training of several graduate students at Laval in this rapidly developing research area. Therefore, the project is consistent with the research and training mandates of both NSERC and the University**