H漫画

Teaching & Research

y research focuses upon the application of complexity theory to marine food webs using a qualitative network technique, loop analysis.聽 Current ecological and evolutionary research questions are:

(1)聽聽 Do marine food webs exhibit anticipation, emergence, and self-organization?
(2)聽聽 What are the characteristics of biologically-reasonable food webs and ecological skeletons?
(3) 聽How do trophic escalades work, and why are they more prevalent than trophic cascades?
(4) How do recent developments in in population-level (niche construction) and ecosystem-level 聽聽聽聽ecology (food web functional dynamics and ecosystem chimeras) and the Biocomplexity Revolution challenge standard evolutionary theory?

I presently teach three undergraduate classes.聽 They are taught from a systems perspective emphasizing inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary thinking and analysis.聽I also periodically teach a graduate module on ecological complexity.

I hold cross-appointments in the Departments of International Development Studies and Programs in Environmental Science and Marine Affairs.聽 I have been an EIA practitioner in Canada and abroad on dozens of environmental impact assessments and helped harmonize EIA requirements in Bangladesh, Nicaragua, and elsewhere and in assessing oil developments, electrical-generation facilities, mining operations, transportation projects, national park developments, military activities, industrial facilities, and sewage facilities.

In 2012, I began coordinating the Environmental Impact Assessment Certificate that is available for undergraduates majoring in Biology, Marine Biology, Earth Sciences, Geography, and Oceanography in the Faculty of Science as well as in International Development Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and sustainability students in the College of Sustainability.

Honours and Graduate Students

• Leah McConney.聽 Masters of Marine Management.聽 Monitoring and Valuation of Canada鈥檚 Oceans Act Marine Protected Areas: Recommendations for Governance, Socio-Cultural and Socio-Economic Indicators.
• Samantha Halloran, Honours Env. Science Program, Opportunities/Challenges of EA under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act聽聽
• Marie-Michelle Simard.聽 Honours Marine Biology. Fish Assemblages of Natural, Artificial, and Dynamite-Fished Reefs of Pulau Pom Pom, Borneo, Malaysia.
• David Foster, Honours Biology/Sustainability, Strategic Environmental Assessment of Changes in Bill C-45 to the Navigable Waters Protection Act and Potential Effects on Environmental Protection in Canada, 2014聽
• Alicia Dixon, Honours Biology, Northwest Atlantic Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus): What is Their Future?
• Nathan Grant.聽 Honours Marine Biology.聽 An Ecological Risk Analysis of Oil Impacting Atlantic Canada Sea Scallops (Placopecten magellanicus).
• Emma Wolfe-Parthun. Honours Biology/History.聽聽 Examining Duration of Impacts to Tundra Vegetation in the Mackenzie Gas Project: A Case Study on the Role of Science in the EIA Process.

• Environmental Manager for the Regional Municipality of Halifax
• Senior Scientist for the Experimental Lakes, Internat. Instit. of Sustainable Develop.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
• Manager of a Biotechnology Innovation Program for the Province of Nova Scotia
• Program Manager for the International Institute of Sustainable Development
• Environmental Consultants and Managers in private and public sectors

Lane, P. A. (2016). A Cautionary Tale: The Goldilocks鈥� Effect in Measuring Ecological Complication in Food Webs.聽Food Webs 8:1-11.

Lane, P. A. (2017). A Review of the Trophic Cascade Concept Using the Lens of Loop Analysis: 鈥淭he Truth is the Whole鈥�.聽聽Food Webs, 13, 1-11.

Lane, P. A. (2017). Assumptions about Trophic Cascades: The Inevitable Collision Between Reductionist Simplicity and Ecological Complexity.聽Food Webs 13:12-26.

Lane P. A. (2018). The Road Before Us: Have We Come to a 鈥淔ork In The Road鈥� in Defining Complexity?聽Ecological Complexity. (In Press).

Lane, P. A. (2018). The Road Ahead for Rosennean Complexity.聽聽Ecological Complexity. (In Press).

Lane, P. A. (2018). Ecosystems as Chimeras: A Thought Experiment in Rosennean Complexity.聽Ecological Complexity. (In Press).

Lane, P. A. (2018). Ecological Skeletons:聽 Excavating the Bare Bones of Community Structure Using Loop Analysis.聽 Proceedings of a Festscrift to Honour Professor Richard Levins. at Harvard University:聽 The Truth is the Whole. 聽Pumping Station Press. (In Press).

Lane, P.A. (2018) Special Issue on Rosennean Complexity.聽 Invited Guest Editor. Ecological Complexity (journal)