Françoise Cardou

Postdoctoral fellow

University of Toronto Scarborough

Pr. Marc Cadotte

Interests and Expertise

I'm a forest and a community ecologist with a specific interest in functional ecology. Although I started out climbing mountains and hiking remote seashores, my interest is now in understanding how people and nature affect each other in socio-ecological systems, most wonderfully in cities. I pursue questions that can inform how we manage urban forests and promote the dynamic stewardship of nature around us.

Short description of Project

In order to get a glimpse into the urban forests of tomorrow, I am currently investigating the impact of the urban environment on natural tree regeneration in urban woodlots. However, sometimes, when we want to know something about the future, we also need to look into the past. Therefore, as a side project, I am attempting to reconstruct land cover change in the Toronto region over the past several decades.

Short description of internship with partner

I am conducting this research in partnership with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, with whom I just completed a post-doctoral internship. Over the years, the TRCA has assembled extensive and high-quality datasets: with the help of technicians and field biologists, my aim is to leverage these existing resources to develop informative data layers on urban forest regeneration potential that can feedback into TRCA decision-making processes.

Google scholar Research Gate Website

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