PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Human activities are increasingly influencing wildlife and natural environments. In this context, defining and describing biological interactions as a central aspect of the study of biodiversity becomes a priority. Within each species, these interactions participate in the social organization of individuals and influence many facets of their life such as their growth, reproduction and survival. They also play a fundamental role in the structure and functioning of communities, whether through predation, competition, parasitism, mutualism or symbiosis. At the center of the processes driving the observed changes in individuals, populations and communities, biological interactions have led to the structure of biodiversity as we know it today. Rapid environmental changes (REC) can disrupt biological interactions at the three levels mentioned above, with serious demographic, ecological and evolutionary consequences (eg extinction, invasion, increase, evolution), in turn affecting the structure of biodiversity. These consequences often result in changes in the mean and in the variation of traits within individuals (plasticity), populations (contemporary evolution) or communities (functional homogenization). These changes affect biological interactions and the structure of biodiversity. However, biodiversity assessments rarely manage to detect reduction in intraspecific variation. It is therefore essential to study intraspecific variation as an essential component of biodiversity; a main issue of axis 2 of QCBS 2.0 and GEOBON.
IN ORDER TO IMPROVE OUR CAPABILITIES TO PREDICT THE CHALLENGES THAT BIODIVERSITY WILL FACE AND TO PRESERVE IT, WE NEED TO DEVELOP STATISTICAL TOOLS THAT ALLOW US TO STUDY THE LINKS BETWEEN RECS, BIOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS AND PROCESSES THAT AFFECT TRAITS. Our center of expertise brings together researchers who are interested in biological interactions at different levels and who have complementary expertise ranging from genomics, community ecology, through quantitative genetics, the study of selection, network analyses, biodemographic models or phylogenetic analyses.
LIST OF COLLABORATORS:
- Rowan Barrett, McGill University
- Patrick Bergeron, Bishop’s University
- Marco Festa-Bianchet, U Sherbrooke
- Dany Garant, U Sherbrooke
- Tanya Handa, UQAM
- Steven Kembel, UQAM
- Clint Kelly, UQAM
- Pierre-Olivier Montiglio, UQAM
- Fanie Pelletier, U Sherbrooke
- Denis Réale, UQAM
- Jesse Shapiro, McGill University
- Mark Vellend, U Sherbrooke