I use ecological theory, data, and programming to (try to!) improve our measurements of biodiversity change.
I'm a Postdoctoral fellow in the Quantitative Biodiversity Lab at McGill University. I'm also happy to be a BIOS2 fellow, and to be part of the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science.
My research interests include biodiversity change, biodiversity indicators, community stability, population dynamics, and island biogeography.
Blitz the Gap (blitzthegap.org) is a Canada-wide bioblitz event to help us fill gaps in our knowledge of biodiversity in Canada. Canada is a large country and hosts tons of amazing biodiversity - which makes it a challenging place to survey. Though we’ve made progress thanks to community science platforms like iNaturalist, we are still lacking data for a whole host of ecological and conservation applications.
In the summer of 2025, we designed "challenges" to ask iNaturalist users to help us fill these gaps - and they delivered! Check out the challenges, code tutorials, and more information on pollocklab.github.io/blitz-the-gap. Stay tuned for some cool analyses coming up this fall as the final observations roll in!
Biodiversity indicators may not sound flashy, but they are essential: they tell us whether our conservation and management strategies are working and where we need to adjust course. This paper is a window into the first year of my postdoc, which involved sorting through >100 biodiversity indicators in 6 months with over 70 collaborators! We show how (and why) we brought together scientists, government representatives, and practitioners in a collaborative process to recommend 15 indicators to track progress towards Québec’s 2030 Nature Plan 🌱, in alignment with the Global Biodiversity Framework 🌎.
With 2030 fast approaching, we need timely, actionable indicators to guide conservation. From our GEOBON 2023 workshop, we highlight a major gap in biodiversity indicators — the tools used to track species, ecosystems, and conservation progress. While global indicators like the Red List Index and Living Planet Index are useful, they aren't designed to detect the local, short-term changes that are crucial for meeting GBF 2030 targets. We share five recommendations to fill this gap!
This is the first chapter of my Ph.D., in which we track how uncertainties in population abundance data can impact our ability to capture biodiversity change with the Living Planet Index (LPI), which is a crucial tool to track global biodiversity change. Like most indicators, the LPI sacrifices information to summarize thousands of population trends into a single communicable index - but these sacrifices can distort the ecological reality we are trying to track. We use math and simulations to develop a correction for the LPI, which is especially important to apply when populations are small (and most vulnerable), and when many populations covary with each other.
I have loved GitHub ever since I figured out how to use it (and that took... a while). I love sharing code, working collaboratively, and reading and using code other people share. I had the very cool experience of co-writing a paper entirely on GitHub (!) with many brilliant people about how GitHub can accelerate research in ecology and evolution.
How does regional pool diversity shape unique mammal communities on islands globally? Find out in this Journal of Biogeography blog post I wrote about my very first first-author article!
These are workshops and tutorials I have developed with friends to share what we have learned about programming and statistics.
This is an example workflow to identify gaps in a biodiversity database (like GBIF or iNaturalist), and to generate raster maps where each cell is assigned a priority level for sampling in a bioblitz event. Each map will cross biodiversity priorities with accessibility to identify the cells that are easiest to sample while helping to fill a biodiversity data gap.
Learn moreA demonstration of GitHub Actions, which can automate workflows to build, test, and publish content in your repositories, including some tips about how to implement and troubleshoot actions that perform R code testing, Rmarkdown document rendering, and website publishing.
Learn moreThis practical training covers the basics of Shiny app development. You’ll learn the principles of reactive programming, how to create interactive options and displays for your users, and how to layout and style your Shiny app.
Learn moreGeneral principles of visualization and graphic design, and techniques of tailored visualization.
Learn moreAn overview of basic concepts of effective science communication and how social media can boost your research and extend your network.
Learn moreA quick dive into the various approaches used in community phylogenetics to detect evolutionary patterns in the assembly of ecological communities.
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