Research summary
More than 82 per cent of Canadians live in cities. As Canada Research Chair in Urban Environmental Science, Dr. Marc Johnson’s goal is to understand how cities influence environmental, ecological and evolutionary change, and how these changes, in turn, shape ecosystem processes and patterns.
To achieve this goal, he and his research team are identifying the ways in which global urban environmental change affects evolutionary change, including both adaptive evolution (due to natural selection) and non-adaptive evolution (such as mutation, gene flow and genetic drift). They will also determine whether adaptation in response to urbanization feeds back to affect communities and ecosystem processes. Ultimately, Johnson’s research will help us to better understand our impact on the natural world and support the design of more liveable cities that balance the built and natural worlds.