Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

My research program focuses on how to maintain and enhance biodiversity (taxonomic and functional trait diversity) in urban areas. Extirpation (i.e., the local loss of species) and extinction are typically caused by the loss and fragmentation of habitat due to disturbance. Recently, my collaborators and I used global databases (BIOFRAG) to show that edge sensitive species are more impacted by disturbance (i.e., fires, glaciation, hurricanes, and deforestation): sensitive species are largely absent from areas with high disturbances either because they disappeared from these regions or because they adapted, which is consistent with the extinction filter (EF) hypothesis. Across the world, we found that edge sensitive species are more often associated with stable tropical forests than disturbance prone temperate ones. Yet, we did not explicitly look at urban areas or variation in species tolerances to disturbance and stressors, leaving untested predictions such as: Do tropical cities contain more edge sensitive species than temperate ones? Do species with a history of contaminant exposure have higher tolerances? Additionally, though most cities are located near water, rarely are rivers or lakes of different size related to terrestrial species diversity. My team and I will investigate the novel aquatic system mediation (ASM) hypothesis, which suggests that river-lake systems mediate the extinction filter - especially in fragmented urban systems with stable land-water coupling from upland and adjacent riparian forests. We will test the EF and ASM hypotheses in urban areas with existing global databases, and we will examine fundamental questions about species sensitivities to persistent urban stressors like road salt using coordinated experiments. Using BIOFRAG's location data for 4489 animal species, we will filter for urban samples and augment these data with the PREDICTS database for assessing human impacts on terrestrial biodiversity. Species data will be matched with hydro-environmental data from HYDROSheds to determine if there are more fragmentation sensitive species breeding in tropical urban watersheds, and if there are characteristics of these watersheds that foster the breeding preferences of sensitive species. My lab will test the ASM hypothesis by examining how urban water modulates biodiversity in a subset (n>30 cities) of the world's 100 most populous cities (2018 census) using data extracted by collaborators and I for an evidence synthesis review on urban lakes. We will use eBird data to arrive at consistent species checklists and to identify both birding hotspot locations and skilled volunteers willing to submit checklists in other targeted locations of their cities (i.e., forested patches with and without small urban lakes). With 50% of the world's human population - and over 70% of Canadians - living in cities, this research will address fundamental questions about species persistence in urban areas relative to water.