People
Current Members of the Lab
Jean-Philippe Lessard
Associate Professor(2019-present) – Concordia University
Assistant Professor (2014-2019) – Concordia University
Concordia University Research Chair (2017-2022)
Concordia University Research Fellow (2016-2017)
Associate Editor: Journal of Animal Ecology
Tonia De Bellis
(Visiting Researcher)
Professor (2005 – present) – Dawson College
PhD (2002 – 2007) – Concordia University
Tonia is working on a project exploring mutualistic interactions between plants and mycorrhizal fungi in the context of biological invasions
Shaun Turney
(FRQNT Postdoc Fellow)
PhD (2014-2018) – McGill University
MSc (2012-2014) – McGill University
BSc Honours (2008-2012) – Carleton University
Shaun is a postdoc and is exploring the determinants of community structure in ant communities. He is using existing data on the composition of ant communities in multiple regions of the world, combined with morphological data, to ask questions about the processes governing community assembly
(NSERC CREATE Scholarship; co-supervised by Tanya Handa)
PhD (2016-present) – Concordia University
MSc (2014-2016) – Universidade Estadual de Campinas
BSc Honours(2007-2012) – Universidad de El Salvador
Javier is interested in how the functional structure of ant communities varies across environmental gradients and how ant functional diversity can structure arthropod communities and influence ecosystem processes
PhD (2018-present) – Concordia University
MSc (2015-2017) – Universiteit van Amsterdam
BSc (2008-2013) – Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Gabriel is interested in the processes underlying the assembly of interaction networks and how their structure varies geographically
Isaac Eckert
(co-supervised by Martin Nuñez)
MSc (2018-present) – Concordia University
BSc (2013-2017) – McGill University
Isaac’s project aims to understand the effects of the Lodgepole pine invasion on microbial communities of alpine ecosystems in Patagonia, Argentina
Victor Renaud
(FRQNT Scholarship, co-supervised by Anouk Simard)
MSc (2018-present) – Concordia University
BSc (2015-2018) – Université Laval
Victor’s project aims to use large spatial scale data on the community composition of insects to develop indicators of climate change. This project is part of a collaboration with the Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs, Québec
Serena Sinno
MSc (2019-present) – Concordia University
BSc Honours (2018-2019) – Concordia University
Serena is working in the lab of Carly Ziter and in collaboration with our lab on a project related to plant-pollinator interaction in urban ecosystems.
Tania Groleau
BSc Honours (2019-present) – Concordia University
Tania studies how functional traits of damselflies and dragonflies varies across their geographical ranges
Maggie Blondeau
BSc Honours (2019-present) – Concordia University
Maggie studies the relationship between odonate immune response and rates of parasitism, as well as how those dynamics play out along broad-scale environmental gradients
Holly Thaler-Soppit
BSc Honours (2019-present) – Concordia University
Holly studies the broad-scale latitudinal variation of functional traits between ant castes across the Americas
Lab Alumni
Kelly MacDonald (CUSR Award)
BSc Honours (2018-2019) – Kelly studied the effects of fish predation on the community structure and size distribution of dragonfly larvae. She is now an MSc student with Shawn Leroux at Memorial University
Frédérique La Richelière (co-supervised by Ehab Abouheif)
MSc (2016-2018) – Frédérique investigated the evolutionary and ecological trends that lead to caste development in ant species on a global scale
François Brassard
MSc (2016-2018) – François worked on caste-specific determinants of morphological variation along abiotic gradients in North American ants
Sarah Ouimette (NSERC PGS M, co-supervised by Piero Calosi)
Msc (2016-2018) – Sarah worked on life-stage related differences in thermal tolerance of odonates and how they relate to their geographic distributions
Sergio Vega (MITACS Scholarship)
MSc (2016-2018) – Sergio’s research aimed to determine how land use affects native bee communities in Quebec blueberry fields
Katherine Hébert (NSERC PGS M, co-supervised by Virginie Millien)
MSc (2015 – 2017); BSc Honours (2012 – 2015) – Katherine investigated the mechanisms underlying the assembly of insular mammal communities across the globe. She is now doing a PhD with Dominique Gravel at University of Sherbrooke.
Daniella LoScerbo (NSERC USRA)
BSc Honours (2016-2017) – Daniella studied the effects of mite parasitism on odonate community structure
Julie Arrowsmith
MSc (2014 – 2016) – Julie worked on the maintenance of regional diversity in Odonates. Specifically, she is interested in how habitat associations might mediate the relative importance of stochastic and deterministic processes in driving among-community variation in species composition.
Sean-Anthony Di Paolo
BSc (2012 – 2016) – Sean asked whether spatial variation in the community structure of odonate adults can be predicted by that of larvae
Victoria Pompa
BSc Honours (2012 – 2016) – Victoria was interested in comparing the functional diversity of endomycorrhizal fungi on native and invasive Maple trees.