ECOLOGICAL THEORY FOR A CHANGING WORLD
I am a theoretical ecologist who studies the links between global change and ecological structure and functioning. I use general theory to develop a fundamental understanding of global change ecology across scales of space, time and the ecological hierarchy, and use empirical examples from various ecosystem types to link this theory to critical problems in today’s changing world. I am particularly interested in the feedbacks between ecological dynamics and various axes of global change, such as the the interactions between multiple anthropogenic stressors, environmental variation, and their combined effects on population or food web dynamics and food security. My research ranges from socio-economic harvesting dynamics to addressing fundamental questions in ecology in the context of a changing world.
Global change across scales: from individuals to ecosystems
Various axes of global change have differential impacts across the ecological hierarchy, while altering the spatio-temporal processes that regulate ecosystem functioning. I aim to unify these impacts by integrating the effects of global change across scales - e.g., from individual physiological or behavioural responses to population and community dynamics in the face of changing environmental conditions and multiple stressors. By bridging the gap between lower-level responses to global change and higher-order ecosystem functioning, we can move towards a more mechanistic understanding of ecological processes while retaining generality.
Featured research:
Featured research:
- See Bieg & Vasseur (2024) Ecology Letters, where we integrated subcellular physiological responses of phytoplankton to different (& changing) temperature and nutrient regimes, and explored the resulting implications for population biomass and dynamics.
- Coming soon: My third thesis chapter integrates biotic responses to changing environmental conditions in the context of seasonally-variable competitive performance, and investigates the potential for counterintuitive coexistence outcomes in fluctuating environments (also see related: McMeans et al. 2020 and Alexa Scott et al.'s preprint on the role of fluctuating environments in regulating species coexistence).
Ecological dynamics in variable environments
Global change is altering temporal abiotic and biotic patterns, yet much theoretical research is largely deterministic (i.e., without noise). A large focus of my research aims to use insight from the deterministic skeleton of various ecological structures to understand the nature of these systems in variable environments - and thus, how alterations in these patterns may alter the structure and functioning of ecosystems with changing conditions (i.e., changes to environmental variability). This focus links closely with recent research on transient dynamics, with the goal of developing a more mechanistic understanding of how ecosystems function under non-equilibrium conditions.
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Socio-economic harvesting behaviour & fisheries dynamics
The global demand for food production - including fisheries resources - is growing exponentially along with the growing human population. Yet, harvesting strategies vary greatly across ecosystem types and with socio-economic conditions (related: see Bieg et al. 2018). Understanding the deep nuances of social, economic and ecological systems is no easy feat, so there remains considerable room to better unify these often disparate fields of research. Specifically, uniting behavioural harvesting strategies - and the social and economic drivers behind variability in these behaviours - with fundamental understanding of complex ecological systems, may help us move towards more resilient and secure food systems.
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Publications
For the most up to date list of publications, please see my Google Scholar.
PDFs of most publications are available on ResearchGate, but don't hesitate to contact me if you require access to any of these!
PDFs of most publications are available on ResearchGate, but don't hesitate to contact me if you require access to any of these!
Published Articles
Preprints
- Bieg C and Vasseur DA. 2024. Interactions between temperature and nutrients determine the population dynamics of primary producers. Ecology Letters. DOI: 10.1111/ele.14363
- Bieg C, Vallès H, Tewfik A, Lapointe BE and McCann KS. 2024. Towards a multi-stressor theory for coral reefs in a changing world. Ecosystems DOI: 10.1007/s10021-023-00892-8
- Bieg C, Gellner G and McCann KS. 2023. Food web stability in periodic environments. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 290(2007): 20231636
- Bieg C*, Bartley TJ*, McCann KS, and Hanner R. 2022. Replicating natures fabric: High information markets and the sustainability of global seafood. Food Webs 32: e00239 *co-first authors
- Gutgesell M, Gellner G, McCann KS, Cazelles K, Warne C, Guzzo MM, Bieg C, Greyson-Gaito CJ, Graham B, Ward C, O’Connor R, Champagne EJ and McMeans BC. 2022. On the dynamic nature of omnivory in a changing world. BioScience 75(5): 416-430
- McCann KS, Cazelles K, MacDugall AS, Fussmann GF, Bieg C, Cristescu M, Fryxell JM, Gellner G, Lapointe B, and Gonzalez A. 2021. Landscape modification and nutrient-driven instability at a distance. Ecology Letters 24(3): 398-414
- Benton TG, Bieg C, Harwatt H, Pudasaini R and Wellesley L. 2021. Food system impacts on biodiversity loss. Three levers for food system transformation in support of nature. Chatham House, London. Available online. *Externally (anonymously) peer-reviewed Chatham House Report
- Bieg C and McCann KS. 2020. Fisheries restoration potential: optimizing fisheries profits while maintaining food web structure. Food Webs 25: e00168
- McMeans BC, McCann KS, Guzzo MM, Bartley TJ, Bieg C, Blanchfield PJ, Fernandes T, Giacomini HC, Middel T, Rennie MD, and Ridgeway MS. 2020. Winter in water: Differential responses and the maintenance of biodiversity. Ecology Letters 23(6): 922-938
- Bartley T, McCann KS, Granado M, Guzzo MM, Tunney TD, Bieg C, Cazelles K and McMeans BC. 2019. Food web rewiring in a changing world. Nature Ecology and Evolution 3(3): 345-354
- Bieg C, McCann KS, McMeans BC, Rooney N, Holtgrieve GH, Lek S, Ngor PB, KC K and Fraser E. 2018. Linking humans to food webs: A framework for the classification of global fisheries. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 16(7): 1-9
- Fryxell JM, Hilborn R, Bieg C, Turgeon K, Caskenette A and McCann KS. 2017. Supply and demand drive a critical transition to dysfunctional fisheries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114(46): 12333-12337
- KC K, Bond N, Fraser E, Elliot V, Farrell T, McCann KS, Rooney N and Bieg C. 2017. Exploring tropical fisheries through fishers’ perceptions: Fishing down the food web in the Tonle Sap, Cambodia. Fisheries Management and Ecology 24(6): 452-459
- Bieg C, McCann KS and Fryxell JM. 2017. The dynamical implications of human behaviour in a social-ecological harvesting model. Theoretical Ecology 10(3): 341-354
Preprints
- Scott A*, Bieg C, McMeans BC, McCann KS. Coexistence in periodic environments. In review (*MSc student mentee) Preprint available at bioRxiv: DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.24.529749
- Bieg C, Scott A, McCann KS. Transients and counterintuitive competitive performance in periodic environments. Available in PhD thesis (chapter 3 here)