Andrew Gonzalez

Professor | Liber Ero Chair in Conservation Biology | Killam Fellow
Founding director of the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science

Andy obtained his PhD (1998) at Silwood Park (Imperial College) where he worked with John Lawton on the causes and consequences of extinction. He then did a brief postdoc with Michel Loreau and then spent four years as an assistant professor at the University of Paris VI, before moving to McGill University as an Associate Professor in 2003. Major research interests include: 1) biodiversity loss as a form of global change, 2) rapid evolution and ecosystem recovery, and 3) links between biodiversity change, sustainability and human wellbeing. He recently spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos on the sixth mass extinction and resilient ecosystems for urban sustainability.

​Post Doctoral Researchers

Vincent Fugère is interested in applied eco-evolutionary dynamics in freshwater ecosystems. He completed his PhD under the supervision of Lauren Chapman (McGill U), studying impacts of land use on East African streams. Vincent ran the 2016 and 2017 experiments using the Large Experimental Array of Ponds (LEAP) at Gault Nature Reserve, testing evolutionary/community rescue in metacommunities exposed to multiple stressors associated with agricultural intensification.

Jorge Negrin Dastis is interested in applying a metacommuntiy approach to understanding the eco-evolutionary dynamics of freshwater ecosystems, in particular  the importance of evolutionary history, connectivity and their interaction, as key ingredients conferring resistance to a whole metacommunity. Jorge completed his PhD under the supervision of Alison Derry (UQAM), studying the impacts of acidification on local adaptation of zooplankton. Jorge will run the 2018 experiment at LEAP testing evolutionary rescue in metacommunities exposed to multiple stressors.

Sofia van Moorsel's  research lies at the intersection between community ecology and evolutionary ecology. She completed a PhD in 2017 with Prof. Bernhard Schmid at the University of Zurich. Sofia received her BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Zurich in 2012 and 2013, respectively. During her MSc thesis she investigated whether incompatibilities between metabolic pathways in E. coli cells would, over time, promote diversification and hence biodiversity.  Her doctoral research investigated evolutionary mechanisms driving the positive biodiversity–productivity relationship in grasslands. During her postdoctoral research Sofia will continue investigating feedbacks between ecology and evolution in LEAP. She wants to find out how rapid evolution modifies community stability and how stability and evolutionary rescue are linked.

---

Current Graduate Students

Alessandra Loria (PhD, cosupervised with Melania Cristescu) The ecological and evolutionary interplay between pollution and biodiversity

Chloe Debyser (M.Sc) Impacts of tropical forest fragmentation on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Katie Millette (PhD, cosupervised with Melania Cristescu): Evolution in contaminated environments: selection, gene flow, and the maintenance of Daphnia populations exposed to multiple stressors.

Charles Bazerghi (MSc) is working on evolutionary rescue and restoration at LEAP. He is assessing whether evolved ponds can assist the recovery of acid-disturbed communities that did not adapt. 

Kristina Krebs (PhD, co-supervised with Graham Bell) studies the impacts of land use change on freshwater community diversity and composition, and the degree to which communities can adapt to multi-stressor environments.

Maxime Rivest (PhD) will be working on habitat network modularity in the context of metacommunities. He will test the hypothesis that the modularity of a network of habitat patches buffers perturbation impacts.

---

Research Assistants

Helen Elina: Lab manager

Lab Alumni

Post doctoral researchers

Zoë Lindo (now Assistant Professor at Uni. Western Ontario).

Bronwyn Rayfield (post doc at Uni. of Quebec at Outaouais and environmental consultant)

Cecile Albert (now CNRS researcher, Aix en Provence)

Jerome Dupras (now professor at Uni. of Quebec at Outaouais)

PhD
​
Catalina Gomez (PhD, 2017)

Sarah Leo (PhD, 2016)

Michael Pedruski (PhD, 2015)

Patrick Thompson (PhD, 2015): now Killam Post doc at UBC

Edward Wong (PhD, 2015): now post doc at Princeton U.

Matthew Mitchell (PhD; now post doc UBC)

Jonathan Whiteley (PhD, now Wildlife biologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa)

Pradeep Pillai (PhD; now post doc at NorthEastern Uni.)

Georgina (Xoxo) O'Farrill (PhD; now at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Montreal).

Tariq Gardezi (PhD)

Nirmala Massin (PhD, Chargée de mission, UPMC, Paris)

Blandine Descamps-Julien (PhD, Chef de projet - Recherche et Développement, Université d'Aix-Marseille)

MSc

Shaun Turney (MSc, now PhD McGill University)

Carly Ziter (MSc, now PhD Wisconsin)

Robby Marotte (MSc, now PhD Trent University)

Kyle Martins (MSc, research assistant, McGill University)

Tim Holland (MSc, now PhD at McGill University)

Colin Fontaine (DEA, now CNRS, Mueseum, National D'Histoire Naturelle, Paris)

Delphine Saudo (DEA)