Associate Professor, Biology

Editor-in-Chief, Ecological Monographs

Biography    Teaching activities    Selected publications (*indicates students from the lab)   

Education

PhD (University of Tennessee)
Postdoctoral Fellow (U. Copenhagen - Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate)
Postdoctoral Fellow (McGill University - Quebec Center for Biodiversity Sciences)

Research interests

Our lab works toward elucidating the ecological and evolutionary drivers of biological diversity on Earth. We borrow concepts and tools from community ecology and biogeography to try and gain a mechanistic understanding of the emergence, distribution and maintenance of diversity. To accomplish this, we conduct observational and experimental field studies and compile comprehensive databases on the distributions, ecological characteristics and evolutionary history of species.

Courses

BIOL 353  Communities and Ecosystems
BIOL 451  Field Ecology

Marjakangas EL, Muñoz G*, Turney S*, Albrecht J, Neuschulz EL, Schleuning M, Lessard JP (2022). Trait-based inference of ecological network assembly: a conceptual framework and methodological toolbox. Ecological Monographs.

La Richelière F*, Muñoz G*, Guénard B, Dunn RR, Economo E, Powell S, Sanders NJ, Weiser MD, Abouheif E, Lessard JP (2022). Warm regions of the world are hotspots of superorganism complexity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289: 20211899. 

Hebert K*, Millien V, Lessard JP. (2021) Source pool diversity and proximity shape the compositional uniqueness of insular mammal assemblages worldwide. Journal of Biogeography 48: 2337-2349.

Ibarra-Isassi J*, Handa IT, Arenas-Clavijo A, Escobar-Ramirez S, Armbrecht I, Lessard JP. (2021) Shade-growing practices lessen the impact of coffee plantations on multiple dimensions of ant diversity. Journal of Applied Ecology 58: 919– 930. 

Balzani P, Vizzini S, Frizzi F, Masoni A, Lessard JP, Bernasconi C,  Francoeur A, Ibarra-Isassi J*, Brassard F*, Cherix D, Santini G. (2021) Plasticity in the trophic niche of an invasive ant may explain establishment success and long-term coexistence. Oikos 130: 691-696.

LoScerbo D*, Farrell MJ, Arrowsmith J, Mlynarek J, Lessard JP. (2020) Phylogenetically conserved host traits and local abiotic conditions jointly drive the geography of parasite intensity. Functional Ecology 34:2477–2487.  

Brassard F*, Francoeur A, Lessard JP. (2020) Temperature drives caste-specific morphological clines in ants. Journal of Animal Ecology 89: 2517– 2530.

Lessard JP. (2019) Ant community response to disturbance: a global synthesis. Journal of Animal Ecology 88:346-349 

Beaudrot L., Acevedo M., Lessard J.P., Zvoleff A., Jansen P.A., Fletcher C., Larney E., O’Brien T., Rovero F., Sheil D., Andelman S. and J. Ahumada. (2019) ​Local temperature and ecological similarity drive distributional dynamics of tropical mammals worldwide. Global Ecology and Biogeography

Lessard JP, Weinstein B, Borregaard MK, Marske KA, Rojas, D, McGuire JA, Parra JL, Rahbek C, Graham CH. (2016) Process-based species pools reveal the hidden signature of biotic interactions amid the influence of temperature filtering. The American Naturalist 187: 75-88