Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier. (2017-2018 à 2022-2023)

My research focuses on the study of strong fluctuations and structure in the abundance and assembly of species, emerging from the interactions and limited spatial flows of individuals and matter. These interactions and flows can explain sudden shifts in ecosystem health resulting from the propagation of disturbances. These shifts can emerge because (in)organic matter and individuals are coupled through both uptake/recycling (biogeochemical) and ecosystem engineering/disturbance cycles that often involve nonlinear and positive feedbacks, as well as fast-slow dynamics. Meta-ecosystem theories and ecosystem-based management still have to integrate these cycles to predict observed fluctuations in natural systems.

The goal of my research program will be to develop meta-ecosystems theories predicting (1) the role of individual and environmental stochasticity in the uptake and recycling of matter, for ecosystem stability and functions. I will then (2) integrate ecosystem engineering into a meta-ecosystem theory predicting both physical and biogeochemical contributions of matter to spatial dynamics. I will (3) expand theories of ecological synchrony to multiple forms of phase (a)synchrony and apply them to infer the role of spatial flows of individuals and matter for predicting observed fluctuations in community structure and ecosystem functions and (4) predict their implication for an ecosystem-based approach to marine reserve networks.

Master equations of nutrient-producer-consumer dynamics will be derived at the individual level to construct ecosystem-level models and individual-based simulations. Their analysis will predict how stochastic uptake, recycling and movement of matter and individuals can lead to the emergence of regional variations in nutrient co-limitation and in ecosystem functions. We will then add a direct coupling between matter and individual fitness, thus bringing together ecosystem cycling and ecosystem engineering theories. I predict catastrophic changes in population and ecosystem properties from feedbacks and separation of temporal scales between flows of individuals and (in)organic matter among local habitats. In order to detect meta-ecosystem dynamics from limited ecological data, we will expand theories of ecological synchrony to meta-ecosystems by rewriting models as phase-amplitude equations. We will study phase and amplitude asynchrony as a signature of meta-ecosystem dynamics using existing long-term datasets of marine, lake, and forest ecosystems.

My research will contribute to ecosystem theories that apply to large scale and far-from-equilibrium systems. Research outputs from my research program will directly contribute to the design of marine reserve networks based on the spatial movement of both individuals and matter.