Potential causes of the current native pollinator decline observed around the world include pesticide uses, lost of floral diversity and landscape simplification. In apple production, apple trees blossom soon in spring, too early for many native pollinator species, and orchards often represent undiversified floral landscapes, two characteristics limiting their attractiveness for pollinators. Actually, much of the pollination is done by the use of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). But this work could be done by native pollinators such as bumblebees Bombus spp., more efficient than honey bees, and already working early in spring, but generally rare in orchards because of the reduced floral diversity. This three-year-project, in collaboration with apple producers from Montérégie and Estrie, was settled last spring by Amélie Gervais, a PhD student co-supervised by Valérie Fournier and Marc Bélisle. This study will quantify the impacts of flower planting - such as windbreaks, riparian strips and flowerbeds - on the diversity of native bumblebees and on their winter survival. Ultimately, this project will evaluate the biological and economic impacts of habitat enhancements to support pollinators in apple production.

Soil is a complex system comprised of a large number of belowground interactions between the living and non-living elements. Among these interactions, many plants and fungi have developed a close relationship that can be beneficial to both partners. The aim of this project is therefore to better understand the interactions between plants and their fungal partners in sugar maple ecosystems found in southern Quebec. Subsequently, a field experiment will allow us to highlight the effect of plants-fungi associations on organic matter decomposition. Finally, in the context of climate change, we will attempt to determine the extent to which the expected migration of trees such as maple from temperate to boreal forests will be impacted by microbes in boreal soils. As a whole, this project aims to improve our understanding of the role of underground interactions in the functioning of ecosystems.

Protected areas such as national or provincial parks help to conserve ecosystems and their biodiversity. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of land conservation in the private sector in maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity. In recent years, the Réseau de Milieux Naturels Protégés (www.RMNnat.org) has developed a unique, yet still underexploited database, georeferencing most of the protected areas on private lands in Quebec. For its part, the Canadensys network has a large open database of species occurrence, and the Quebec Natural Heritage Data Center (CDPNQ) can provide data on endangered, vulnerable or potentially designated species. By coupling data on Quebec flora from Canadensys and the CDPNQ to data on protected areas from the RMN, we wish to test the effect of private land conservation on several components of biodiversity (eg, alpha and beta biodiversity) through spatial and statistical analyzes.

Northern communities face many challenges associated with climate change. Animal species, their abundance and timing of emergence/arrival are also changing rapidly. The Northern Biodiversity Project is dedicated to documenting how climate change may impact the animal (and plant) communities of the tundra by inviting Northern citizens to monitor the presence of species they observe on an adapted and flexible online platform resulting from a partnership between the QCBS and the CEN. http://northernbiodiversity.ca Click here for more info.

Located in the middle of Eastern Townships, the eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) study site livens up each spring for more than a decade now: a team is working to collect essential data to better understand the importance of genetic and environmental factors on the maintenance of phenotypic variability. Chipmunks are individually marked with ear tags to follow them across time and to collect repeated morphological, physiological and behavioural measurements. Genetic analysis also allowed the determination of their reproductive success and the establishment of their pedigree, thus adding a genetic component to the observed phenotypic diversity. Finally, as chipmunks are sensible to the fluctuation of resources within their environment, the annual variation in the food availability, influenced by mast trees, is also quantified. This huge sampling effort has been rewarded by the quality of the research that it is producing.

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.

The QCBS in partnership with the World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) was chosen to become the external partner of the CBD Secretariat for the implementation of the Bio-Bridge initiative. This initiative by the Republic of Korea to assist CBD Parties to implement all decisions adopted at COP 12 that together form the Road Map adopted in Pyeongchang for improving the implementation of the plan 2011-2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity as well as the achievement of the Aichi Targets and support the achievement of the Aichi Target 19 on technical and scientific cooperation. Click here for more info.

New initiatives are needed to reverse the observed trends of biodiversity loss, in particular, strategies that will enable this global problem to be taken into account through local and regional actions. One of the preferred approaches recognizes the role played by the business community and more generally the economy in the changes of biodiversity. In Quebec, there is a growing need for dialogue among stakeholders to enable the business community to become involved and to integrate biodiversity issues into corporate and practical corporate strategies. To meet these needs, the Biodiversity Science Center of Quebec and its partners launched a joint initiative: the Projet de Bilan de la biodiversité et des Entreprises du Québec (PBBEQ). Click here for more info.