Analysis and modeling of the dynamics of bryophyte and tracheophyte communities in peatlands of northwestern Quebec

PhD Project of Marc-Fréderic Indorf

Directors: Nicole Fenton (UQAT-FIR) and Yves Bergeron (UQAT-FIR)
Collaborators: Éric Rosa (UQAT-RIME) and Stéphanie Pellerin (Institut de recherche en biologie végétale)

Marc-Frédéric Indorf's project focuses on interactions between peatland plant communities (bryophytes and vascular plants) and the ecological functioning of their environment in a context of global changes within the James Bay territory. His research focuses are:

• The study of floristic composition along a latitudinal in Eeyou-Itschee James Bay;
• The analysis of environmental factors that can influence the floristic composition (hydrology, physicochemical composition of water, physiography...);
• The modeling of possible functional changes with the potential responses of plant communities.

Preliminary results suggest that the different types of peatlands identified across the region can generally be established by their plant communities, yet there is a great amount of variability which makes it difficult to easily caracterise these communities. Driving factors for determining these communities have been identified and valided at different spatial scales (physical-geographical factors, environmental factors, biotic interactions, and niche differentiation). The next step will be to better understand the roles of environmental factors for all the peatland types and also to further analyse the biotic interactions and niche differentiation processes for bryophytes.

These results were recently presented virtually at the annual conference of the Canadian Botanical Association and the Conference Botany 2020 jointly organised by several organisations in the United States.

This research will enable the acquisition of scientific, environmental, and botanical data in a region rich in peatlands where a lot of knowledge is still to be acquired.

This work is part of an even larger project to create an ecological classification of the wetlands of James Bay. The work of Marc-Frédéric Indorf will cover the flora component of the information needed for this project. This classification may be used as a decision support tool for industry, wetland regulations, and law implementation.