Laura J. Pollock

Membre académique associé

Professeure adjointe, McGill University, Département de biologie

Sujets de recherche

Biologie computationnelle

Modèles probabilistes

Biographie

J’occupe le poste de professeure adjointe en conservation, écologie, évolution et comportement au Département de biologie de l'Université McGill. Je suis une écologiste quantitative intéressée par les modèles à grande échelle de la biodiversité aux niveaux régional, continental et mondial. Mes recherches portent sur les effets du changement climatique sur la biodiversité, combinant de nombreuses données sur la biodiversité avec des modèles prédictifs. Mes travaux se concentrent également sur l'optimisation dans le but de cibler les zones clés de biodiversité et de proposer des solutions de conservation efficaces.

Publications

A call to integrate animal movement into biodiversity indicators

Ruth Y. Oliver

Katherine Hébert

Lacey F. Hughey

Luca Börger

Francesca Cagnacci

Nathan W. Cooper

Sarah C. Davidson

Andrew Gonzalez

Autumn‐Lynn Harrison

Jessica M. Kendall-Bar

Katie L. Millette

Joanna Mills Flemming

Thomas Mueller

Will Rogers

Talia Speaker

Jared A. Stabach

Marlee A. Tucker

Wenjing Xu

Scott W. Yanco

Briana Abrahms … (voir 35 de plus)

Sara Beery

Roxanne S. Beltran

Lily K. Bentley

Larissa T. Beumer

Mary E. Bowers

Steven W. J. Canty

Ying‐Chi Chan

Juliet Cohen

Grant M. Connette

Eduardo Cuevas

Tammy E. Davies

Daniel C. Dunn

Diego Ellis‐Soto

Antonio Ferraz

John Fieberg

Kimberly R. Hall

Neil Hammerschlag

Anne G. Hertel

Dongmin Kim

Samara Manzin

Clive R. McMahon

Robin Naidoo

Aidin Niamir

A. Justin Nowakowski

Matthew B. Ogburn

Jonathan Pye

José Manuel Reyes‐González

Nicholas J. Russo

Christian Rutz

Amy L. Scarpignato

Stella F. Uiterwaal

Raqib Valli

Alessandra Vidal Meza

George Wittemyer

Laura J. Pollock

2026-06-16

Nature Reviews Biodiversity (publié)

doi.org

The utility of herbarium collections for genetic monitoring

Isaac Eckert

Lucas Eckert

Olivia Rahn

Cameron So

Simon Joly

Laura J. Pollock

Abstract Despite growing evidence of widespread genetic responses to anthropogenic activity, data shortfalls constrain genetic monitoring ef… (voir plus)forts and preclude the widespread use of genetic data to inform conservation. For flora, one option is to leverage the wealth of genetic material preserved in Earth’s vast herbarium collections, but the extent to which herbarium specimens can supply the population-level data required to monitor genetic change remains unclear. Using the Essential Biodiversity Variable (EBV) framework developed to monitor population-level genetic change, we show that digitized herbarium specimens could be used to quantify ∼162 K measures of genetic EBVs representing over 41 K species, 86% of regions on Earth, and spanning the past 250 years of global change. As such, we find that herbarium collections offer an invaluable source of historical genetic data, the mobilization of which could transform global efforts to monitor and conserve plant diversity.

2026-05-05

BioScience (publié)

doi.org

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… (voir plus)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 (publié)

doi.org

BON in a Box: An Open and Collaborative Platform for Biodiversity Monitoring, Indicator Calculation, and Reporting

Jory Griffith

Jean-Michel Lord

Michael Catchen

María Isabel Arce-Plata

F Guillaume Blanchet

Mathusan Chandramohan

M Camila Diaz-Corzo

Gravel Dominique

César Gutiérrez

Isabelle S. Helfenstein

Sean Hoban

Jamie M. Kass

Linda Laikre

Guillaume Larocque

Deborah M. Leigh

Brian Leung

Alicia Mastretta‐Yanes

Katie L. Millette

Maria Alejandra Molina Berbeo

Dat Nguyen … (voir 27 de plus)

Kari Norman

María Helena Olaya-Rodríguez

Simon Pahls

Kaitlyn M. Pereira

Pedro R. Peres‐Neto

Timothée Poisot

Laura J. Pollock

Juan Carlos Rey-Velasco

Víctor J. Rincón-Parra

Claudia Roeoesli

François Rousseu

Lina María Sánchez-Clavijo

Meredith C. Schuman

Oliver Selmoni

Jessica M. da Silva

Erika Suárez-Valencia

Thilina D. Surasinghe

Eren Turak

Luis Urbina

Sarah Valentin

Noah Wightman

Juan Zuloaga

Maria Cecilia Londoño

Andrew Gonzalez

Manuel Galvez Bohorquez

Luis Felipe Verdeja González

Diego Moreno

Abstract The Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals to protect a… (voir plus)nd restore biodiversity. It includes a monitoring framework that mandates countries to track progress toward these goals using indicators that summarize biodiversity trends. Calculating indicators is challenging for countries because of fragmented biodiversity monitoring efforts, technical barriers, a lack of available data and tools, and capacity bottlenecks. The BON in a Box platform for biodiversity monitoring and indicator calculation, developed by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network, was created to address these challenges by providing open, transparent, and reproducible analysis pipelines that convert data into essential biodiversity variables and indicators. These pipelines are built by experts and contributed by the community, follow FAIR principles, and help scientists apply their research to coordinate biodiversity monitoring efforts, build capacity to track progress toward the GBF, and affect policy change.

2026-01-12

BioScience (publié)

doi.org

Species Loss Scenarios Identify Canada's Northern Ecosystems as Disproportionately Vulnerable

Isaac Eckert

Dominique Caron

Laura J. Pollock

2026-01-11

Journal of Biogeography (publié)

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 … (voir 67 de plus)

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… (voir plus)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.

2025-06-03

Global Change Biology (publié)

doi.org

Bridging biodiversity and ecosystem services through useful plant species

Nina Obiar

Isaac Eckert

Janelle Baker

Daniel Moerman

Laura J. Pollock

2025-03-27

Plants, People, Planet (publié)

doi.org