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Dr. Eric Pedersen, PhD

Assistant Professor, Biology


Dr. Eric Pedersen, PhD
David Ward
Office: L-SP 401.05  
Richard J. Renaud Science Complex,
7141 Sherbrooke W.
Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 8531
Email: eric.pedersen@concordia.ca
Website(s): The Pedersen Quantitative Fisheries Ecology Lab

Teaching activities

Courses

BIOL 226 Biodiversity and Ecology
BIOL 322 Biostatistics


Research interests

Marine and freshwater communities can change rapidly,  with previously dominant species suddenly collapsing, and previously rare or absent species exploding in numbers. I'm fascinated by what drives these rapid changes, how to detect and measure them as they occur, and what roles human activity, environmental variability, and variability in how different species use space play in causing or resisting change. 

Our team uses long-term ecological data and statistical, computational, and theoretical tools to understand what causes ecological change in fished communities. We also develop new statistical approaches and adapt and refine existing methods to improve how we monitor and detect long-term ecological change across scales, from small lakes to whole oceans. 


Selected Publications

Pedersen, E. J., Miller, D. L., Simpson, G. L., and Ross, N. 2019. Hierarchical generalized additive models: an introduction with mgcv. PeerJ, 7: e6876.

Ziter, C. D., Pedersen, E. J., Kucharik, C. J., and Turner, M. G. 2019. Scale-dependent interactions between tree canopy cover and impervious surfaces reduce daytime urban heat during summer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116: 7575–7580.

Walsh, J. R., Pedersen, E. J., and Vander Zanden, M. J. 2018. Detecting species at low densities: a new theoretical framework and an empirical test on an invasive zooplankton. Ecosphere, 9: e02475.

Pedersen, E. J., Goto, D., Gaeta, J. W., Hansen, G. J., Sass, G. G., Vander Zanden, M. J., Cichosz, T. A., et al. 2018. Long-term growth trends in northern Wisconsin walleye populations under changing biotic and abiotic conditions. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 75: 733–745.

Pedersen, E. J., Thompson, P. L., Ball, R. A., Fortin, M.-J., Gouhier, T. C., Link, H., Moritz, C., et al. 2017. Signatures of the collapse and incipient recovery of an overexploited marine ecosystem. Royal Society Open Science, 4. 

Carpenter, S. R., Brock, W. A., Hansen, G. J. A., Hansen, J. F., Hennessy, J. M., Isermann, D. A., Pedersen, E. J.et al. 2017. Defining a Safe Operating Space for inland recreational fisheries. Fish and Fisheries, 18: 1150–1160.

Pedersen, E. J., and Guichard, F. 2016. At what scales does aggregated dispersal lead to coexistence? Oikos, 125: 1677–1687.

Pedersen, E. J., Marleau, J. N., Granados, M., Moeller, H. V., and Guichard, F. 2016. Nonhierarchical dispersal promotes stability and resilience in a tritrophic metacommunity. The American Naturalist, 187: E116–E128.

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