MARTIN J. LECHOWICZ
Professor of Biology and
Director, Gault Nature Reserve
Opportunities for Graduate Studies- Evolutionary Ecology of Forest Plants

My research interests: My research falls in two broad areas tied together by an interest in the functional basis for variation in plant performance across a range of environments, especially in forests of temperate and boreal regions in the northern hemisphere. One area concerns the comparative ecology of trees, especially how phenological, physiological and architectural traits interact to determine tree establishment, growth and susceptibility to herbivores. Some of this work is strictly ecological, but some also considers the ways that contemporary differences among species have evolved. The second area concerns the evolutionary and ecological responses of herbaceous plants to environmental heterogeneity, with a focus especially on sedges and ferns. This involves studies characterizing heterogeneity at scales from cm to thousands of km, quantifying the interacting contributions of traits to fitness, investigating the role of plasticity in stabilizing fitness across environments, and defining tradeoffs among life history components. My work on adaptation to particular environments bears on questions of niche differentiation among species within functional groups of plants and its relevance to the assembly of plant communities.  Finally, I am also involved in developing conservation strategies in the region around the Gault Nature Reserve. 

Much of my research takes place on the settled landscapes and protected areas in southern Quebec or on the more remote and wild landscapes of subarctic Quebec.  However, I presently also have research collaborations in France, China and Japan and do field work on sedges in Australia and New Zealand.  I also do a good deal of controlled environment research in the McGill University Phytotron. The strength and relevance of my research program has recently been recognized by award of the Prix Michel-Jurdant that is given annually by the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS) to someone in Québec whose scientific work has made special contributions to protection of the environment: http://www.acfas.ca/prix/laureats2006/Prix_Michel_Jurdant.pdf.

Graduate Studies: I am always open to inquiries about graduate studies.  It helps if you send me a brief sketch of your experience and research interests.  If you hold, or can compete for, scholarship support that opens the possibility for a more ambitious thesis project.  I provide an annual living stipend and pay tuition and fees for all my graduate students as well as pay for their research expenses (materials and supplies, analysis of samples, hiring research assistants, travel costs etc). If you can contribute to your own living expenses through a scholarship, then more grant monies become available to support your thesis research.

Possible graduate thesis topics: Right now I am especially interested in finding new graduate students to work on projects related to testing the Shipley-Vile-Garnier model for trait-based predictions of the assembly of plant communities along environmental gradients (cf. 2006 Science 314(5800): 812-814). There is a good Ph.D. project on the assembly of tree seedling communities in forest understory, which would include a mix of evolutionary and ecological themes. There is a related project on predicting the potential invasibility of the forest understory by seedlings of exotic tree species, both horticultural species and species advancing northward under climate change. I have an MSc student working on the assembly of fern communities, but remain open to additional research on the ecology of fern species and fern communities.  Finally, I am always willing to consider students who want to work on pretty much any aspect of the evolutionary ecology of sedges in the genus Carex.  Download the file "Carex_research" (below) to review the context of possible sedge projects, and contact me directly if you are interested. There is also a related project emphasizing phylogenetic aspects of our work on sedges; contact Professor Marcia Waterway (Marcia.waterway@mcgill.ca), if you want details about that opportunity.  

<---- Download the File "Carex_Research"