Laura J. Raymond-Léonard

PhD student

Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Tanya Handa (UQAM)

ljrleonard@gmail.com mail_outline

Interests and Expertise

Short description of Project

My project aims to better understand urban soil biodiversity: How green space management is driving it and how it is influencing ecosystem multifunctionality? More particularly, I am interested in (1) determining the effects of lawn mowing frequency on the soil biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship and (2) better understanding the mechanisms by which tree litter alteration (removal, shredding) is influencing soil biodiversity in urban environments (Montreal, Qc).  Moreover, I am going to (3) determine if eDNA metabarcoding of bulk soil samples mirrors the taxonomic diversity living in it and hence could be used as a tool to describe urban soil biodiversity or whether further efforts are needed to achieve such methodology. Ultimately, the goal is to generate empirical data to help urban managers to better integrate belowground ecosystem compartments in their decisions.