Mixedwood Forest Ecology Lab

Northern mixedwood forests provide a range of ecosystem services, including timber production, carbon storage, the maintenance of biodiversity and recreational opportunities. The structure and dynamics of these forests are influenced by regional climatic drivers such as temperature and precipitation. In combination with local site conditions, these factors will regulate processes such as tree regeneration, growth and mortality, thereby determining community composition and forest dynamics.  Forests are also impacted by landscape level processes such as fire and insect disturbances, and forest management.  What is currently unknown is how interactions between local and landscape factors influence forest structure and dynamics.  In particular, there is considerable uncertainty concerning how ecological interactions between local and landscape drivers will change in the future under potentially novel climatic and environmental conditions.  The underlying aim of my research is to develop a better understanding of how climate, landscape heterogeneity, landscape disturbances and forest management interact, and to evaluate how these interactions are projected to change under future environmental, economic and social conditions.