November 26th, 9:00 am EST

Three’s a team: Understanding past, present, and future wildlife response to northern landscape change

Dr. Frances Stewart
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biology

Wilfrid Laurier University

The north has gone through many changes. Northern landscape change is undergoing ecozone scale shifts due to increased frequency and severity of drought and wildfires. These changes will alter resources for species and populations at risk, with important distributional and demographic consequences challenging long-term conservation and management planning. Understanding past conditions that wildlife have faced, quantifying current wildlife-landscape relationships, and using this knowledge to forecast anticipated wildlife change are some of the key goals of the WILDlab at Laurier. I will present a few case studies, highlighting skills, species, and concepts important for informing the future management and conservation of wildlife in Canada’s north. These span invasive and non-invasive field methodologies, modelling, and integrative forecasting projects on some of Canada’s charismatic megafauna. Importantly, combining our knowledge of the ecological theatre – from hydrology through to wildfire ecology provides promise to effectively, and adaptively, understand wildlife’s part on Canada’s northern stage..