Alain Paquette
Professor UQAM
CEF, 2RLQ, Chaire de recherche sur la forêt urbaine
Website
https://paqlab.uqam.ca/Interests and Expertise
Urban ecology and tree biodiversity
Biography
- Postdoctorats zonage fonctionnel (TRIADE)et biodiversité, 2007-(UQAM et UQO)
- Ph.D. en sciences biologiques, 2007 (Université de Montréal)
- M.Sc. en sciences biologiques, 1999 (UQAM)
I am interested in the effects of biodiversity on the forest environment, and the place of trees in urban and peri-urban areas.
My work focuses on the relationship between biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. This young science (BEF) is rooted in concerns for biodiversity loss linked to global changes, with the accumulation of evidence of a generally negative impact on ecosystem functions. However, certain aspects are still poorly understood or explored, including: • How does biodiversity affect the resilience of ecosystems in the face of stress? • what are the mechanisms explaining the effects of biodiversity, at what trophic levels? • how these changes affect ecosystem services that affect people; and how does urban green infrastructure and its diversity affect our health and the services we depend on?
My model is typically the forest and tree systems because of their importance on the earth (climate, biodiversity) and for humans (subsistence, services), and because they are still poorly documented, particularly because of their size and longevity. I use forests in observational studies using inventories (GFBi), as well as controlled experiments (IDENT, TreeDivNet). I study tree systems wherever they are, but given my interest in ecosystem services and the lack of literature on the effect of diversity in and around cities (where the majority of humans now live), I increasingly integrates urban and peri-urban environments and issues into my work.
The Urban Forest Research Chair, of which I am the holder, aims to study urban forests in order to adapt to climate change and ensure their resilience. The objective of the Chair is to make the population aware of the importance of the urban forest and to make them aware of the functioning of trees in an urban environment.
Current Urban-Forest Projects and Initiatives
- Urban pollen: sampling, identification, and forecasting
- Resilience of urban forests to drought across Canada
- Establishment of a permanent urban forestry research plot
- Using fake caterpillars to test predation rates in urban forests & as a citizen science tool
- Reducing heat island effects in Laval through highway greening experiments
- Effects of urban filters in functional community assembly in tropical and temperate cities
- Thermal tolereance plasticity as a response to urban heat islands in temperate and tropical tree species
- Development of allometric equations for urban tree biomass and leaf area for Canada
- Effect of a diversified and resistant renaturalization of schoolyards and highway systems as part of an action plan to reduce heat islands in Laval
- Assessing ecological processes driving plant functional assemblages in a broad elevation gradient in Andean forest
- Influence of tree diversity and urbanisation on insect herbivory and predation in urban forests.