A flourishing life on land is the foundation for our life on this planet.
SDG 15 promotes the conservation and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems. This requires collaborative efforts to reduce deforestation, to promote biodiversity, and to prevent land and freshwater degradation. EUC researchers use interdisciplinary approaches to ensure diverse forms of life can flourish on land for generations to come.
Native Pollinator Conservation
Pollinators are integral to life on Earth, unfortunately they are at risk from habitat loss and the introduction of invasive species. Sheila R. Colla and the Native Pollinator Research Lab are educating the world on the importance and struggles of our native pollinators, such as bees and butterflies. Colla, in collaboration with Rachel Nalepa, has drafted Canada’s very first national pollinator strategy to create a healthier and more biodiverse ecosystem for all!
Las Nubes contributes to biodiversity and advocates for endangered species
Research at York’s Las Nubes EcoCampus, directed by Felipe Montoya-Greenheck, has made significant achievements in research and conservation programs in biodiversity protection and sustainable land management practices. The work at Las Nubes monitors mammal, bird and amphibian populations to promote biodiversity and advocate for endangered animals.
Pattern Analytics Through Technology for Environmental Research – Network (PATTERN)
Sustainable forest management is critical to the wellbeing of woodland ecosystems. Tarmo Remmel and his research team provide solutions for mapping dynamic and complex entities, specifically boreal wildfire disturbances and their associated residual vegetation patches. The work scrutinizes the spatial patterns of unburned residual vegetation patches within burned boreal wildfire footprints with the goal of modelling at multiple spatial resolutions why these areas did not burn.
Exploring the rights of animals
Alice Hovorka and her team of graduate students in The Lives of Animals Research Group untangle the larger social and environmental consequences of animal-human relationships. Their work is interdisciplinary and action-oriented, investigates both domestic and wild-animal conflicts and cohesions, and intends on improving animal outcomes globally. They advocate for more sustainable and just interspecies relationships to promote better life on land for all animals – humans included!
Ecosystem productivity responses in the Bruce Peninsula over the past 20 years
The Bruce Peninsula, renowned for its expansive forest and UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve designation, faced a significant setback with a major wildfire in 1908. Since then, vegetation regrowth has produced trees of up to 114 years old. Concerns about the Peninsula’s ability to sequester CO2 amid climate change highlight the need for ecosystem productivity estimates. In this project, Lord- Emmanuel Achidago and Richard Bello evaluated gross primary productivity (GPP) models for each season over the past two decades, comparing growth among coniferous forests, croplands, and deciduous forests, representing 55%, 16%, and 14% of the total land area, respectively.
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