People

Professor of Plant and Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology

This is me. I am particularly interested in understanding the inter-relationships between biology and the flows of energy and nutrients in terrestrial habitats. More information on my research interests is available on my Research page, and on a link in the departmental website.  

My goal as a teacher is to facilitate active, engaged, critical thinking that helps undergraduate students in their developmental transition from being dependent to independent learners. Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Indigeneity, and Sustainability:  Black lives matter, treating women with dignity matters, Indigenous peoples' rights matter, a guaranteed basic income for all matters, polar bears matter, maple trees matter.... each and every life matters.  One of my central goals as a professor is to help educate and actively promote for fundamental (i.e. radical, second order) systemic change in how society is structured and functions so as to improve the lives of all minorities and the disadvantaged. Personal Land Acknowledgement.

Dominic joined the lab at the end of summer 2022 and is pursuing an arctic-based M.Sc.  He was awarded a Queen's University McLaughlin Fellowship for 2022-2023.

"I am particularly fascinated by climate warming effects on tundra plant community dynamics. My research is focussed on using the long-term experimental greenhouse and nutrient addition plots at Daring Lake to investigate and differentiate the direct and indirect effects of summer warming on characteristic plants in mesic birch hummock tundra communities."

Kira is joining our lab as an M.Sc. student in June 2023.  

She was our summer work experience program (SWEP) lab and field assistant in 2022, and helped Sarah Gordon with her research, as well as maintaining the Bracken Tract experiment, and assisting Paul out with lots of different tasks.

Molly is an honours thesis undergraduate student from August 2023-April 2024.

“I am interested in exploring how environmental factors influenced by climate change, such as drought-driven declines in soil moisture, can affect below-ground properties of old field meadow grassland ecosystems.”

Chris is doing a research mentorship (BIOL 539) over the Winter of 2023/24.  

"I am interested in ecosystem dynamics, bryophytes, and environmental conservation and restoration"

Faith was one of our summer work experience program (SWEP) lab and field assistants in 2023, and helped Kira Henders with her research, as well as maintaining the Bracken Tract experiment, and assisting Paul with various tasks including forest chronosequence soil sampling. Faith will be volunteering in the lab over the 2023/24 school year. 

Emilie is one of our summer work experience program (SWEP) lab and field assistants in 2023, and will help Dominic Wood with his research in the Daring Lake experiments, and will also be helping everyone else out with various tasks.  Emilie will be volunteering in the lab over the 2023/24 school year.

Julia was an honours thesis undergraduate student from May 2022-April 2023, and continues to be associated with the lab because of her driving interest in the influence of soil water dynamics in this region on local plant growth.

Julia won first prize for Best Poster Award in the Ecology and Evolution category at the 35th Annual Ontario Biology Day Conference that was held at Brock University on March 25th, 2023.

"I am mainly interested in investigating how climate change will disrupt natural ecosystems and the ways that we can counteract the negative effects. My thesis project describes spatiotemporal soil moisture patterns at an old-field meadow in southeastern Ontario and the relationship with ecosystem productivity. I hope that the results will help in predicting how the relationship will change with future climate." 

Thesis title (completed April 2023):  How important is soil moisture for ecosystem productivity? Describing soil moisture spatiotemporal variability within an old-field meadow in a southeastern Ontario grassland