THE MISSION
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As climate change accelerates, we must support biodiversity and ecosystem adaptive capacity to the rapidly changing environmental conditions. To do so, it is essential to understand how biodiversity is created and maintained in fragmented landscapes.
Islands have long inspired scientific theories to explain how biodiversity emerges. We follow in the footsteps of early island explorers to gain new insights into the fundamental processes that support biodiversity. |
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What we do |
Our focal research streams include:
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Ecology and evolutionThe emergence and maintenance of biodiversity in fragmented landscapes
Understanding the present-day distribution of biodiversity is not sufficient to support the preservation of biodiverse ecosystems into the future. For protected area networks and restoration projects to succeed in the long term, we must better understand the fundamental processes and landscape structures that create and maintain biodiversity. By studying island soil microbiomes, we examine how ecological and evolutionary processes shape the distribution of biodiversity across a fragmented landscape. |
Climate change mitigationThe role of soil microbiomes in carbon cycling
Soil microbiomes form the foundation of life on Earth, playing a critical role in soil formation and interacting with plant root systems. We currently have a poor understanding of how soil microbiomes contribute to the capacity of soil to store carbon. We also do not know how the structure and function of soil microbial communities are impacted by habitat fragmentation. We study how soil microbiomes contribute to carbon cycling in a fragmented landscape. Our results will inform soil restoration and climate mitigation efforts. |
COMPLEX SYSTEMS SCIENCEDiversity and adaptive capacity in networks
Using network modelling, we can formally examine the relationship between whole-system (network-wide) and local (within-cluster or within-node) diversity. In our modelling approach, whole-system diversity is understood as an emergent property of the complex system composed of dynamically changing, interconnected nodes. We contribute to multidisciplinary research on the interdependencies between diversity, connectivity, and adaptive capacity in complex ecological, social, and economic systems. |
Our Philosophy: A trans-disciplinary approach
The Island Microbiome Research Collective conducts research on island soil microbiomes as a study system to better understand the fundamental principles underlying Earth’s biodiversity. Alongside rigorous knowledge-creation, we also explore new ways of combining scientific and artistic research, aiming to foster open science practices and participatory decision-making as a research group.
The motivation for our research and research collective lies in two core objectives:
1) Understand the roles of isolation and contact in creating diversity in ecosystems
2) Explore our narratives on how diversity of life is best protected – through connectedness between systems or isolation of systems from one another.
The former goal is purely scientific, exploring scientific research methods (field data collection, metagenomic sequencing, mathematical modeling). The latter goal is more subjective, exploring with methods of artistic research (embodied data collection, explorative photography, prose).
We believe that conducting scientific and artistic research in an equal and dialogic manner can lead to a greater understanding of complex phenomena, such as diversity. We use the methods of equal art-science collaboration, whereby scientific and artistic researchers work in parallel and in dialogue to study the same external phenomenon. Our scientific insights into the nature of our study objects can enrich the perspective of artistic research, while artistic research on the meaning of our study objects can inspire influence the questions, hypotheses, and interpretations of scientific research.
The motivation for our research and research collective lies in two core objectives:
1) Understand the roles of isolation and contact in creating diversity in ecosystems
2) Explore our narratives on how diversity of life is best protected – through connectedness between systems or isolation of systems from one another.
The former goal is purely scientific, exploring scientific research methods (field data collection, metagenomic sequencing, mathematical modeling). The latter goal is more subjective, exploring with methods of artistic research (embodied data collection, explorative photography, prose).
We believe that conducting scientific and artistic research in an equal and dialogic manner can lead to a greater understanding of complex phenomena, such as diversity. We use the methods of equal art-science collaboration, whereby scientific and artistic researchers work in parallel and in dialogue to study the same external phenomenon. Our scientific insights into the nature of our study objects can enrich the perspective of artistic research, while artistic research on the meaning of our study objects can inspire influence the questions, hypotheses, and interpretations of scientific research.
