PAST PROJECTS
Targeting Agri-Environmental Practices
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Making Ecosystem Services Count in the
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Agricultural practices in southern Québec have intensified over the past decades impacting biodiversity and water quality. Public programs can encourage the adoption of mitigating agro-environmental practices (AEP). These have met with limited uptake and success. This study used spatial explicit ecosystem service models and optimisation tools to explore impact of targeted implementation of agro-environmetnal practice on the delivery of water quality services in southern Quebec.
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With partners at The Nature Conservancey, Natural Capital Project and Bioversity Internation the "Making Ecosystems Count in the SDGs" NCEAS-SNAP Working Group focused on developing natural resource and ecosystem service-based indicators for monitoring country-scale progress towards Sustainable Development Goals. Based on consultation and feedback with stakeholders in Tanzania, Ghana and Burkina Faso we developed free, open source anduser friendly ecosystem service mapping tool MESH that links changes in land use scenarios, to ecosystem service provision and progress toward the SDGs.
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Landscape-level forest dynamics and
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Alternative Energy Systems and Forest Management
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My PhD research looked at the influence of land management practices on biodiversity and farming outcomes in a slash-and-burn agroforestry system. Agroforestry is increasingly promoted as a win-win strategy for wildlife-friendly and sustainable farming. Yet, recent work in the Amazon has shown that the frequency of cropping cycles may impact how effective forest fallows are in maintaining biodiversity and replenishing soil resources. Our study examined the impact of repeated cultivation cycles of varying length on soil fertility and tree biodiversity at site and landscape levels. We use historic management practices from a village in Amazonian Peru, alongside ecological and GIS data of landholdings, to look at patterns of forest biodiversity and soil degradation in forest fallows across the landscape.
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Tajikistan has lost over 75% of their remaining forest cover since independence in 1991 and has experience increasing energy scarcity, particularly in rural areas. With most communities cut off from the central power grid household energy needs are primarily met through fuel wood and livestock paddy-cakes. This project worked to develop local technologies to assist households to meet their energy needs and reduce their dependence on scarce forest resources. A pilot project was launched to build and test locally constructed solar hot water heaters and various models of solar panels installed into households for reliability, cost and community acceptance.
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Survival and growth of Western toadlets
in silted pond systems
Sediment and nutrient loading in freshwater systems are leading causes of aquatic habitat degradation in North America. The impacts of fine-sediment and nutrient additions on the growth and survival of Bufo boreas tadpoles and emergent toadlets was investigated in mesocosm and exclosure experiments. Tadpoles receiving sediment additions experienced slower growth rates and reduced survival to metamorphosis. Nutrient additions also lowered survival, but had no impact on other measured parameters. Measures from tiles within the exclosures demonstrated that tadpoles were able to reduce the standing stocks of periphyton by 35-80% and to clear virtually 100% of all deposited sediment from grazing surfaces. Under natural conditions, such grazing pressure and sediment removal activities could lead to changes in the algal community and consequent shifts in invertebrate grazers. Together, these results highlight a potential role for Bufo boreas tadpoles as ecosystem engineers in temperate pond habitats.
