Research Interests
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I'm an Assistant Professor and Chair of caribou population biology in the Faculty of Natural Resources Management at Lakehead University. My work is focussed on elucidating caribou responses to anthropogenic disturbance within the context of climate change and shifting fire regimes to guide habitat planning and management of caribou in Ontario and across Canada.
My research focuses on large mammal ecology, with a focus on movement and habitat selection of ungulates. I am broadly interested in questions related to how animals deal with change in their environment at multiple temporal scales, either seasonal changes within a year or changes in conditions across years. How animals acclimate their behaviour allows us as ecologists to better predict how individuals and populations will fare as climate changes and in response to anthropogenic disturbance. I aim to tackle these questions using an individual approach, incorporating individual differences in behaviour among individuals to elucidate the variation in behavioural movement phenotypes within populations. By providing a baseline for heritability, variation in phenotypes provides a vital first step in quantifying how individuals may be able adapt to changing environmental conditions. |
Academic Background |
July 2024-Present: Assistant Professor and Chair of caribou populations, Lakehead University.
September 2023-June 2024: Ecophysiology post-doctoral researcher, Colorado State University - George Wittemyer and Mark Ditmer Incorporating movement ecology and remotely-sensed ecophysiology in free-ranging mule deer. October 2021–September 2023: NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Merkle Research Group, University of Wyoming - Jerod Merkle Fine-scale drivers of migration and movement in ungulates. Forage selection across spatiotemporal scales, mapping of global ungulate migrations. January 2016–October 2021: PhD candidate, Wildlife Evolutionary Ecology Lab, Memorial University - Eric Vander Wal Fitness consequences and individual-level quantification of caribou behavioural reaction norms to changing resource phenology. Thesis successfully defended October 2021. September 2019-March 2020: Visiting Fulbright Student, Merkle Research Group, University of Wyoming (shortened due to Covid-19) - Jerod Merkle Plasticity in migration timing and repeatability of green wave surfing behaviour of North American ungulates. May 2014–December 2015: Research assistant, University of Saskatchewan - Ryan K. Brook Resource selection and climate-driven range expansion of moose in agro-ecosystems. Phenology of polar bear visitation to field camps in Western Hudson Bay. January 2012–October 2014: MSc, University of Saskatchewan, Animal Population Ecology Lab - Philip McLoughlin Scale and grain size in white-tailed deer habitat selection and functional response. September 2005–April 2010: Honours BSc, University of Saskatchewan Thesis: Dyadic interaction rate as a function of home-range overlap in elk (Cervus canadensis) |
Contact:
Michel Laforge
Faculty of Natural Resources Management
Lakehead University
Braun Building 1003E
955 Oliver Road
Thunder Bay, ON
P7B 5E1
E: [email protected]
Michel Laforge
Faculty of Natural Resources Management
Lakehead University
Braun Building 1003E
955 Oliver Road
Thunder Bay, ON
P7B 5E1
E: [email protected]
