The purpose of this one year project is to improve the understanding of the threats identified in the Recovery Strategy for the Western Chorus Frog especially urban sprawl, agricultural intensification in relation to the need to maintain connectivity between the metapopulations in the Montérégie Region. This understanding is based upon analyzing connectivity within and between metapopulations, identifying areas of importance for maintaining connectivity.

In angiosperms, flowers exhibit an incredible phenotypic diversity. Their form varries tremendously from one species to another and often reflects the diversity of pollinators; plants tend to adapt in order to maximize the transfer of pollen. We studied the tropical genus Erythrina, that belongs to the legume family, as a model to better understand the evolution of floral form in response to the selection pressures of pollinators. This genus contains 131 species pollinated mainly by birds (hummingbirds and passerines) and bees. Pollination by bees and passerines, considered as the ancestral state, is associated with open flowers, while pollination by hummingbirds has likely evolved more recently. In this project, the shape of the flowers was characterized using geomorphometrics of herbarium specimens, and their evolution was inferred with a molecular phylogeny. Our results show that pollination by hummingbirds has emerged independently several times during evolution, and is accompanied by a series of similar adaptations, such as tubular flowers. This suggests that hummingbirds exert a strong selection pressure, and that the phenotype tends to converge towards a very specific floral form.

This web publication aims to describe and reference the published literature on traditional animal foods known and used by Indigenous Peoples of northern North America. It features information on the locations of the cultures whose peoples have used, and often continue to use, these foods. The publication focuses on Canada, Alaska, Greenland and the northern United States of America, but many of the animal species presented here also occur in the northern latitudes of Europe and Asia. In sum, data for 527 species of animals is presented, drawing information from over 490 ethnographic sources, an additional 91 unique sources reporting nutritional information, and 357 sources containing basic biological information. Click here for more info.

Hydrological modifications to lakes and rivers are a pervasive form of environmental change in Quebec and around the world. While there are clear social benefits to regulate aquatic ecosystems (e.g. flood control, hydroelectricity), the ecological impacts are less clear and represent issues that local communities in Quebec are wrestling with. In particular, winter water level drawdowns are a common practice in north temperate reservoirs, but ecological research on this topic is limited. In partnership with QCBS and local community groups, we have conducted a synthesis of the literature as well as a field survey of reservoirs. Our research has shown that many juvenile and adult fish populations show a surge in abundance following reservoir creation but fish communities as a whole appear to be unaffected by the level of water level drawdown. In contrast, high macroinvertebrate abundances tend to only occur in nearshore sites if they are not exposed by drawdown, suggesting that benthic resources for fish could be limiting. We are now evaluating whether fish growth and diets are altered by water level drawdown. Check out the video made by FQRNT and Canal Savoir covering our preliminary findings. See video here. Click here for more info.

LEAP is a state-of-the-art field infrastructure for experiments with aquatic ecosystems. The site includes a laboratory and an array of 96 freshwater pond ecosystems located in the research area of the Gault Nature Reserve (GNR), Mont Saint Hilaire, Qc. Many key features of these pond mesocosms can be manipulated. We will combine methods in experimental community ecology and evolution to probe the response of the evolving freshwater ecosystems, held under controlled conditions, as they respond to multiple environmental stressors. Questions related to the evolutionary resilience of freshwater ecosystems are central to Quebec's environmental concerns because 10% of the surface of Quebec is covered by freshwater (e.g., half-a-million lakes). LEAP will foster Quebec's and Canada's commitments to environmental policy by providing research at the cutting edge of applied ecology and evolution at a time of rapid global change. LEAP is embedded in a national and international network of collaborators. LEAP will engage many students and postdoc and so will be a source of highly qualified professionals at a time of growing need for basic knowledge about the resilience of natural ecosystems to anthropogenic environmental change. Click here for more info.

Global changes (GC) is increasingly threatening the green infrastructures of our cities, especially trees and its associated vegetation. In fact, these are more and more affected by increased environmental stress levels, insects and exotic diseases. These trees provide, directly and indirectly, as a part of an urban terrestrial ecosystem functioning, numerous ecosystem services which are essential to our well-being. These services are in danger of being significantly reduced in response to growing threats caused by GCs. The underlying hypothesis of this project is that the resistance and resilience of urban and suburban ecosystems, and consequently the ecosystem services which are provided, can be strengthened by favoring a greater structural diversity of ecosystems, a greater functional diversity of trees and associated vegetation and a greater connectivity between green spaces in response to the GC and associated predictions for southern Quebec over the next few years. We will work in Montreal, Ottawa/Gatineau and Quebec City in order to plan biodiversity corridors, to measure flows of ecosystem services and to make an economic evaluation.

Large predators are a cause for concern and a source of various conflicts among various stakeholders regarding their conservation. Among the tools that have been developed to reduce the effects of predation on livestock, compensation programs are one means of dissuading stockbreeders from retaliating against predators by eliminating them. Evaluations of compensation programs are often controversial because, among other reasons, they consider ecological benefits or cost-benefit ratios, but rarely do they consider the view point of the stockbreeders. However, the conservation of large predators ultimately requires the cooperation of stockbreeders. We are interested in the perceptions of stockbreeders regarding the effects of predation by large predators on livestock in an area of Mexico that is home to the country’s largest jaguar population. We are investigating the social factors influencing perceptions of a compensation program that has been implemented over the last few years to improve it so that it meets both jaguar conservation needs and reduces the problems of stockbreeders who are facing livestock losses.

Contrary to most animals that inherit mitochondrial DNA maternally, several species of bivalves have a fundamentally different mode of transmission, known as Doubly Uniparental Inheritance (DUI). This unique system is characterized by the presence of two distinct mitochondrial genomes: a genome M transmitted by males and found in sperm cells, and a genome F transmitted by females, present in all tissues in females, and in somatic tissues in males. In freshwater mussels, some closely related gonochoric (separate sexes) species have the DUI system, while others hermaphroditic species have lost the mitochondrial male genome. Our project will aim to determine the relationship between the DUI system and its potential role in sex determination.

Continuing education training on invasive plant species recognized by Laval University (continuing education unit) and targeted to environmental managers and consultants. This training allows participants to recognize invasive species and the most recent technical advances in order to curb an invasion. Click here for more info.