Ryan Danby

Assistant Professor

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Department & Associations

School of Environmental Studies (with joint appointment to the Department of Geography)

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Supervising 

Current MES Students

Lyn Garrah

*Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in graduate studies, undergraduate projects, or work as a summer field or lab assistant.

Academic Training

PDF, University of Alberta (Biological Sciences)
PhD, University of Alberta (Environmental Biology and Ecology)
MES, Wilfrid Laurier University (Geography and Environmental Studies)
BES, University of Waterloo (Environment and Resource Studies)

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General Academic Interests

• Biogeography
• Landscape ecology
• Conservation biology
• Parks and protected areas
• Circumpolar northern environments
• Ecological scale and hierarchy theory

Current Research

My research currently falls into two broad areas:

• Ecosystem change:
  The study of terrestrial ecosystem change and species distributions at multiple scales, particularly the responses of forest, shrubland and tundra ecosystems (and their ecotones) to past and future climate change.
  Representative publications include:
  Danby & Hik. 2007. Variability, contingency and rapid change in recent subarctic alpine treeline dynamics. Journal of Ecology 95: 352-363. Danby & Hik. 2007. Responses of white spruce (Picea glauca) to experimental warming at a subarctic alpine treeline. Global Change Biology 13: 437-451
• Biodiversity conservation:
  Conservation science, planning and management at multiple spatial scales, particularly as it relates to regional ecosystem-based management of parks and protected areas in Northern Canada and Alaska.
  Representative publications include:
  Danby & Slocombe. 2005. Regional ecology, ecosystem geography and transboundary protected areas in the St. Elias Mountains. Ecological Applications 15: 405-422. Danby et al. 2003. Science and the St. Elias: An evolving framework for sustainability in North America's highest mountains. The Geographical Journal169: 191-204.

I am quite interested in the interface of these two streams of research, especially as it relates to issues such as the combined impacts of climate change and habitat fragmentation on biodiversity, and incorporating concepts of ecological change and ecosystem dynamics into environmental management.

I use a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods and techniques, including dendroecology, gradient analysis, niche modeling, remote sensing & GIS, case study analysis and comparison, repeat photography and environmental cartography.

Current Teachings at Queen's

ENSC 320 - Wildlife Issues in a Changing World (winter term)
A lecture/seminar course focusing on the notion of wildlife; laws governing wildlife protection and use; the effects of overexploitation, habitat destruction, and introduced species, and management plans and strategies.
PREREQUISITE: third-year standing.

GEOG 318 - Biogeography (winter term)
An examination of the distributions of plants and animals on global, regional and local scales, their causes and significance.
PREREQUISITE: 1.0 credit at the 200 level or above in physical geography or biology.

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