Research Assistant
Environment Canada :: Wildlife and Landscape Science
I am an ecologist, a geographer, and a climatologist, motivated by the potential for science to drive and inform optimal management decisions.
My M.Sc. research was centered around links between ecosystem service provision and landscape ecology, and the use of spatial information to inform management decisions based on the ecosystem service framework. My other research interests extend from urban climatology and its potential to affect how urban planning decisions impact ecological processes and the human experience, to multiscale analysis of the carbon cycle, ranging from global carbon flux models to carbon dioxide exchange from a suburban lawn.
My M.Sc. research was centered around links between ecosystem service provision and landscape ecology, and the use of spatial information to inform management decisions based on the ecosystem service framework. My other research interests extend from urban climatology and its potential to affect how urban planning decisions impact ecological processes and the human experience, to multiscale analysis of the carbon cycle, ranging from global carbon flux models to carbon dioxide exchange from a suburban lawn.
Research Interests
My most recent research focused on the relationship between landscape configuration and ecosystem service provision, as well as on improving the relevance of estimates of ecosystem services. The ecosystem services framework can be a valuable tool for management, but estimates of service provision must reflect the true distribution of ecosystem services on the landscape in order to contribute to improved outcomes for decision-making.
My M.Sc. work involves identifying the role of landscape structure in ecosystem service provision, and assessing how and why current methods of modeling ecosystem services are falling short of their potential. Ecological processes and functions underlying ecosystem services vary based on elements of landscape configuration, such as the shape, arrangement, and connectivity of patches of different landcover types, suggesting that this configuration likely affects ecosystem service provision. Many estimates of ecosystem services, however, are based primarily on the proportion of different landcover types in the area of interest, regardless of their characteristics or spatial distribution. I characterized the relationship between these components of landscape configuration and ecosystem services, and identify what aspects of configuration are most important in the flow and quality of benefits.
My B.Sc. research was centered around the urban carbon cycle and the role of urban vegetation and greenspace in carbon dioxide exchange. In conjunction with reducing urban greenhouse gas emissions, management practices optimizing sequestration by carbon sinks can be important in local mitigation of urban carbon dioxide production. I used a combination of micrometeorological fieldwork in urban neighbourhoods of varying density and modeling to determine the primary environment controls on respiration and photosynthesis from urban lawns and trees, and compare the annual biogenic emissions and sequestration to net ecosystem exchange for the neighbourhoods, measured using the eddy covariance method.