From left to right: Marta, Dennis, JC, Laura, Adriel, Benjamin, Rafael. Philip was in Kuujjuarapik during the week.

Our lab is continuing research in the Parc National des Grands Jardins to unravel the genomic diversity of reindeer lichens (especially Cladonia stellaris), their microbiome and the complex interactions between soil chemistry and microbial diversity.  This week, Benjamin Villeneuve, Rafael Forteza and Jérémi Larue-Grondin were collecting C. stellaris and soil as part of the project. Following the work spearheaded by our former post-doctoral researcher, Marta Alonso García (now working as CEF...

In English and French More info on the lab:  https://villarreal-lab.ibis.ulaval.ca/join-the-lab/

As part of our SENACYT funded grant, Claudio Monteza and Lilisbeth Rodríguez-Castro have led a project to uncover the seed dispersers of the only known epiphytic gymnosperm, the Panamanian cycad Zamia pseudoparasitica. They set  arboreal camera trapping between October 2019 and March 2020 in three sites in Central Panama, yielding an accumulated survey effort of 271 camera days. They tracked a few focal ovulate ("female") plants of the species to find out who's visiting the open cones - full...