Jean-Philippe Lessard

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

Chaikin S, Riva F, Marshall K, Lessard JP, Belmaker, J (2024) Marine fishes experiencing high-velocity range shifts may not be climate change ‘winners’. Nature Ecology & Evolution 8: 936-946.

Savary P*, Lessard JP, Peres-Neto PR (2024) Heterogeneous dispersal networks to improve biodiversity science. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 39: 229-238.

Eckert I*, De Bellis T, Muñoz G*, Kembel SW, Lessard JP, Nuñez MA (2024) A single range-expanding species reshapes alpine ecosystems and their belowground diversity. Oikos e10114.

Usui T, Lerner D, Eckert I*, Angert AL, Garroway CJ, Hargreaves A, Lancaster LT, Lessard JP, Riva F, Schmidt C, van der Burg K, Marshall K (2023) The evolution of plasticity at geographic range edges. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 38: 831-842.

Ibarra-Isassi J*, Handa IT, Lessard JP (2023) Community-wide trait adaptation, but not plasticity, explain ant community structure in extreme environments. Functional Ecology 37: 139–149.

Gibb H, Bishop TR, Leahy L, Parr CL, Lessard JP, Sanders NJ, Shik JZ, Ibarra-Isassi J*, Narendra A, Dunn RR, Wright IJ (2023) Ecological strategies of pl(ant)s: toward a world-wide worker economic spectrum for ants. Functional Ecology 37: 13–25.

Schmidt C, Muñoz G*, Lancaster LT, Lessard JP, Marske KA, Marshall KE, Garroway CJ. (2022) Population demography maintains biogeographic boundaries. Ecology Letters 25: 1905–1913.

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 92(2): e1502.

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. 

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.  

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 Ahumada J (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.