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Laura J. Pollock

Associate Academic Member
Assistant Professor, McGill University, Department of Biology
Research Topics
Computational Biology
Probabilistic Models

Biography

I am an assistant professor of conservation, ecology, evolution and behaviour in the Biology Department at McGill University.

As a quantitative ecologist, I am interested in large-scale patterns of biodiversity at regional, continental or global scales. My research focuses on the effects of climate change on biodiversity, which combines many biodiversity data inputs with predictive models. The second part of my research is focused on optimizations for identifying key biodiversity areas and efficient conservation solutions.

Publications

The Untapped Potential of Food Webs in Systematic Conservation Planning
Louise M. J. O'Connor
Wilfried Thuiller
Ulrich Brose
Éléonore Chenevois
Carla Freund
Benoit Gauzens
Pierre Gaüzere
Catherine Graham
Michael Harfoot
Myriam R. Hirt
Sébastien Lavergne
Luigi Maiorano
Atte Moilanen
Peter H. Verburg
Piero Visconti
Laura J. Pollock
International conservation policy includes the dual aims of protecting biodiversity and nature's contributions to people (NCP). Achieving th… (see more)ese goals requires protecting not only species and habitats but also the networks of biotic interactions that sustain them. Food webs, which represent predator‐prey interactions between species, are increasingly recognised as a link between ecosystem structure, function, and resilience, which are concepts that are frequently cited in conservation policy. Yet, conservation planning and policy typically focus on individual species and habitats and overlook the interactions that support their persistence. We review the literature at the intersection of food web ecology and conservation, and highlight how food webs can inform three conservation goals: preventing species extinctions, maintaining ecosystem functions and NCP, and fostering ecosystem resilience. Food web data and metrics, such as interaction diversity, trophic diversity, connectance, or modularity, can be used to prioritize species that are key to ecosystem structure and functioning, and to guide spatial prioritization to protect functionally diverse and resilient communities. Given the growing availability of food web data, incorporating food webs in conservation planning can lead to more effective and resilient conservation outcomes that sustain biodiversity and ecosystem functions in the long term.
2026-02-09
Conservation Letters (published)
doi.org
Species Loss Scenarios Identify Canada's Northern Ecosystems as Disproportionately Vulnerable
Isaac Eckert
Dominique Caron
Laura J. Pollock
2025-12-31
Journal of Biogeography (published)
doi.org
Trophic Interactions Are Key to Understanding the Effects of Global Change on the Distribution and Functional Role of the Brown Bear
Pablo M. Lucas
Wilfried Thuiller
Lauren Talluto
Ester Polaina
Jörg Albrecht
Nuria Selva
Marta De Barba
Vincenzo Penteriani
Maya Guéguen
Niko Balkenhol
Trishna Dutta
Ancuta Fedorca
Shane C. Frank
Andreas Zedrosser
Ivan Afonso‐Jordana
Hüseyin Ambarlı
Fernando Ballesteros
Andriy‐Taras Bashta
Cemal Can Bilgin
Neda Bogdanović … (see 67 more)
Edgars Bojārs
Katarzyna Bojarska
Natalia Bragalanti
Henrik Brøseth
Mark W. Chynoweth
Duško Ćirović
Paolo Ciucci
Andrea Corradini
Daniele De Angelis
Miguel de Gabriel Hernando
Csaba Domokos
Aleksander Dutsov
Alper Ertürk
Stefano Filacorda
Lorenzo Frangini
Claudio Groff
Samuli Heikkinen
Bledi Hoxha
Djuro Huber
Otso Huitu
Georgeta Ionescu
Ovidiu Ionescu
Klemen Jerina
Ramon Jurj
Alexandros A. Karamanlidis
Jonas Kindberg
Ilpo Kojola
José Vicente López‐Bao
Peep Männil
Dime Melovski
Yorgos Mertzanis
Paolo Molinari
Anja Molinari‐Jobin
Andrea Mustoni
Javier Naves
Sergey Ogurtsov
Deniz Özüt
Santiago Palazón
Luca Pedrotti
Aleksandar Perović
Vladimir N. Piminov
Ioan‐Mihai Pop
Marius Popa
Maria Psaralexi
Pierre‐Yves Quenette
Georg Rauer
Slaven Reljic
Eloy Revilla
Urmas Saarma
Alexander P. Saveljev
Ali Onur Sayar
Çagan H. Şekercioğlu
Agnieszka Sergiel
George Sîrbu
Tomaž Skrbinšek
Michaela Skuban
Anil Soyumert
Aleksandar Stojanov
Egle Tammeleht
Konstantin Tirronen
Aleksandër Trajçe
Igor Trbojević
Tijana Trbojević
Filip Zięba
Diana Zlatanova
Tomasz Zwijacz‐Kozica
Laura J. Pollock
ABSTRACT Biotic interactions are expected to influence species' responses to global changes, but they are rarely considered across broad spa… (see more)tial extents. Abiotic factors are thought to operate at larger spatial scales, while biotic factors, such as species interactions, are considered more important at local scales within communities, in part because of the knowledge gap on species interactions at large spatial scales (i.e., the Eltonian shortfall). We assessed, at a continental scale, (i) the importance of biotic interactions, through food webs, on species distributions, and (ii) how biotic interactions under scenarios of climate and land‐use change may affect the distribution of the brown bear ( Ursus arctos ). We built a highly detailed, spatially dynamic, and empirically sampled food web based on the energy contribution of 276 brown bear food species from different taxa (plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates) and their ensemble habitat models at high resolution across Europe. Then, combining energy contribution and predicted habitat of food species, we modelled energy contribution across space and included these layers within Bayesian‐based models of the brown bear distribution in Europe. The inclusion of biotic interactions considerably improved our understanding of brown bear distribution at large (continental) scales compared with Bayesian models including only abiotic factors (climate and land use). Predicted future range shifts, which included changes in the distribution of food species, varied greatly when considering various scenarios of change in biotic factors, providing a warning that future indirect climate and land‐use change are likely to have strong but highly uncertain impacts on species biogeography. Our study confirmed that advancing our understanding of ecological networks of species interactions will improve future projections of biodiversity change, especially for modelling species distributions and their functional role under climate and land‐use change scenarios, which is key for effective conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
2025-06-04
Global Change Biology (published)
doi.org
Bridging biodiversity and ecosystem services through useful plant species
Nina Obiar
Isaac Eckert
Janelle Baker
Daniel Moerman
Laura J. Pollock
2025-03-28
PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET (published)
doi.org
Harnessing artificial intelligence to fill global shortfalls in biodiversity knowledge
Laura J. Pollock
Justin Kitzes
Sara Beery
Kaitlyn M. Gaynor
Marta A. Jarzyna
Oisin Mac Aodha
Bernd Meyer
David Rolnick
Graham W. Taylor
Devis Tuia
Tanya Berger-Wolf
2025-02-20
Nature Reviews Biodiversity (published)
doi.org
Integrating food webs in species distribution models can improve ecological niche estimation and predictions
Giovanni Poggiato
Jérémy Andréoletti
Laura J. Pollock
Wilfried Thuiller
2025-01-14
Ecography (published)
doi.org
Integrating food webs in species distribution models can improve ecological niche estimation and predictions
Giovanni Poggiato
Jérémy Andréoletti
Laura J. Pollock
Wilfried Thuiller
Biotic interactions play a fundamental role in shaping multitrophic species communities, yet incorporating these interactions into species d… (see more)istribution models (SDMs) remains challenging. With the growing availability of species interaction networks, it is now feasible to integrate these interactions into SDMs for more comprehensive predictions. Here, we propose a novel framework that combines trophic interaction networks with Bayesian structural equation models, enabling each species to be modeled based on its interactions with predators or prey alongside environmental factors. This framework addresses issues of multicollinearity and error propagation, making it possible to predict species distributions in unobserved locations or under future environmental conditions, even when prey or predator distributions are unknown. We tested and validated our framework on realistic simulated communities spanning different theoretical models and ecological setups. scenarios. Our approach significantly improved the estimation of both potential and realized niches compared to single SDMs, with mean performance gains of 8% and 6%, respectively. These improvements were especially notable for species strongly regulated by biotic factors, thereby enhancing model predictive accuracy. Our framework supports integration with various SDM extensions, such as occupancy and integrated models, offering flexibility and adaptability for future developments. While not a universal solution that consistently outperforms single SDMs, our approach provides a valuable new tool for modeling multitrophic community distributions when biotic interactions are known or assumed.
2025-01-14
Ecography (published)
doi.org
Advancing EDGE Zones to identify spatial conservation priorities of tetrapod evolutionary history
Sebastian Pipins
Jonathan E. M. Baillie
Alex Bowmer
Laura J. Pollock
Nisha Owen
Rikki Gumbs
2024-09-03
Nature Communications (published)
doi.org
Advancing EDGE Zones to identify spatial conservation priorities of tetrapod evolutionary history
Sebastian Pipins
Jonathan E. M. Baillie
Alex Bowmer
Laura J. Pollock
Nisha Owen
Rikki Gumbs
2024-09-03
Nature Communications (published)
doi.org
Herbarium collections remain essential in the age of community science
Isaac Eckert
Anne Bruneau
D. Metsger
Simon Joly
T. Dickinson
Laura J. Pollock
2024-08-31
Nature Communications (published)
doi.org
Herbarium collections remain essential in the age of community science
Isaac Eckert
Anne Bruneau
D. Metsger
Simon Joly
T. Dickinson
Laura J. Pollock
2024-08-31
Nature Communications (published)
doi.org
Vulnerability of terrestrial vertebrate food webs to anthropogenic threats in Europe
Louise M. J. O'Connor
Francesca Cosentino
Michael B. J. Harfoot
Luigi Maiorano
Chiara Mancino
Laura J. Pollock
Wilfried Thuiller
2024-03-22
Global Change Biology (published)
doi.org