An ecological perspective on biogeosciences (V2.0)

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An important challenge facing Canadians is predicting how global environmental changes and/or alternative land use and management practices affect the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and the services that they provide. Focusing on the biotic controls over carbon and nutrient cycling is a promising way to meet this challenge. We can do this by adopting the perspective of several scientific fields, each offering different insights into natural phenomena. My own academic training is rooted in the applied biogeosciences (i.e. BSc in agriculture; PhD in forest sciences; Postdoc in forest soil management). However, over the past 20 years I have joined various research groups that include fundamental ecologists who have infused in me a complementary outlook on ecological theory principles. My students and I thus foster a dual perspective on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems that allows us to address both mechanistic and theoretical questions. As biogeoscientists, we study processes and mechanisms that are the proximate factors driving terrestrial carbon and nutrient cycles. As ecologists, we advance and rely upon theoretical frameworks to understand the evolutionary implications of these same phenomena, as well as to speculate, generalize and make bold predictions. Simply put, as biogeoscientists we are asking "how" do certain phenomena occur; as ecologists, we are asking "why" do they occur? This Discovery Grant proposal is predicated on the belief that substantial knowledge and technologies can be achieved by shedding an ecological perspective on terrestrial biogeosciences. Within this structure, my students and I will explore four research themes: (i) The effects of global changes on boreal forest ecosystem functions, notably biological nitrogen fixation and soil C stability; (ii) A trait-based approach for predicting the rhizosphere priming of soil organic matter decomposition; (iii) Managing the structure and benefits of plant-arbuscular mycorrhizal communities through agricultural practices; (iv) The net greenhouse gas balance and ecological cascades created by non-native earthworms in northern forest ecosystems. This transdisciplinary research program will contribute important and fundamental knowledge on (a) the biogeochemistry of boreal forest ecosystems in a changing world, (b) means by which plants can mine nutrients from native soil organic matter, and (c) broad-scale ecological impacts of invasive earthworms. This new knowledge is likely to guide future policy and land management decisions, as it has in the past.