Andrew MacDougall, PhD
(Associate Professor)

Department of Integrative Biology
University of Guelph, Canada

Email: amacdo02@uoguelph.ca

Twitter: @AMacD_UGuelph

Research Summary

Our lab focuses on how the processes that determine the structure and function of ecological communities are altered by multiple and co-occurring forms of human-based environmental change. At the simplest level, all communities are regulated by the pool sizes and flows rates of limiting resources. Humans affect diversity and function by dramatically altering these pools and flows, but do so in complicated ways because factors such as climate change, nutrient pollution (eutrophication), species introductions, habitat loss, and trophic collapse often occur simultaneously. Our lab uses empirical and statistical approaches, at scales from local to global, to investigate these issues, targeting both fundamental theory and its application to management.

Current Projects

Featured

Plant responses to 100 years of climate change in the Swedish Arctic

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Fingerprints of change: Abisko plants and phenology

Our citizen science project focuses on the much-beloved signs of seasonal change – the emergence of leaves in the spring, the start of flowering, when berries are ripe for picking, and autumn leaf colours. Our project is inspired by the works of a few key botanists who helped put Abisko on the map 100 years ago, who established a transect from the summit of Mt Nuolja, which we use today.