Welcome to the Global Ecological Change and Sustainability Lab, run by Dr. Madhur Anand.
The rapid pace and far-reaching potential of ecological change in the face of globalization and climate change is creating stress within ecosystems all over the world. There is an ever-increasing threat of extinctions of species, communities, and ecosystems along with the biodiversity services and functions that they support. Understanding the complex effects of ecological change at many scales (local to global, recent to historical) on biodiversity is thus of critical importance for predicting human-mediated changes to the environment, conserving biodiversity heritage and sustaining global economies.
Dr. Anand researches ecological change and sustainability science, with focus on coupled human-environment systems and forest-grassland mosaic ecosystems, and especially how sources of stress and disturbance, such as agriculture and climate change, impact these ecosystems across different spatial scales and time scales. She uses simulation modelling, statistical tools, dendrochronology, and other observational methods.
The research in Dr. Anand’s lab ranges from local to global scales and from decades to millennia. Our own datasets primarily represent forest ecosystems from temperate to taiga in Ontario, Canada and sub-tropical and tropical forests in Brazil; however, we collaborate with scientists in many other parts of Canada and the world including Brazil, China, India, USA, Argentina, and France. Empirical work examines the effects of stress (e.g., pollution or climate change) and disturbance (e.g. windthrow, grazing, logging, or fire), and their interactions on ecosystems.
Our work has been funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs program, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Premier’s Research Excellence Award, the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, the University of Guelph, Laurentian University, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the forestry industry and the James S. McDonnell Foundation. We invite you to browse these pages and contact us with any questions or if you are interested in collaborating.
Learn more about the details of Dr. Anand’s research and network:
