Micro to mega-landscapes: harnessing a model system to understand landscape-scale ecological processes in the boreal forest

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Landscape ecology, as a discipline, concerns itself with questions about the links between spatial patterns and ecological processes. As a landscape ecologist, I am interested in figuring out why species are where they are, and how they interact with each other and their environment. Most landscape ecology work happens on landscapes that are tens to thousands of kilometres in size. This means that it is difficult for landscape ecologists to conduct experimental manipulations, and even more difficult to have experimental replicates. One solution is to use a model system; much the way biomedical researchers use mice and rats as model systems for human biology, a model system would be similar to a "real-world" landscape, but easier to use in experiments. I have developed a model system for landscape ecology which is made up of patches of lichen-covered tree trunks, growing in the boreal forest of Newfoundland. This allows us to treat trees as "landscapes" and the patches of individual lichens as analogous to the patches of different land cover as we might view them from an airplane window. In this Discovery Grant proposal, I propose to harness this model system to address ecological questions that address my long-term objectives of: 1) untangling the impacts that different anthropogenic changes have on boreal species populations and spatial distribution; 2) developing robust models to explain and predict the distribution of boreal species at multiple spatial scale; and 3) gaining insights into species-habitat dynamics for boreal species, particularly at landscape scales. I will use a suite of replicated transects of lichen-covered trees, found in a gradient from an urban-centre to a near-wilderness region, to address short-term objectives that will 1a) test hypotheses about the effects of fragmentation on landscape pattern and associated fauna; 1b) test how air quality affects lichen diversity; 2) model how species distributions are affected by their environment and interactions with other species across spatial scales; and 3) assess the role that lichens play in carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous cycles. The proposed program will train 9 HQP in field methods and statistical modelling and shed light on important questions in landscape ecology while also yielding insights into the effects of anthropogenic activities (habitat fragmentation, air pollution) on biodiversity. Importantly, these findings will be based on spatially-explicit analyses (the purview of landscape ecology) coupled with the power of replicate experimental units (previously a challenge to this field of research) using the model system. The research will help advance landscape ecology science and contribute to applied conservation problems in the boreal forest.