Louis Imbeau

Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue · Forest Research Institute (IRF)

Long-term exploitation of boreal ecosystems often results in a reduced range of ecological conditions that threatens several species. In most boreal jurisdictions, the northern extent of commercial forestry corresponds to economical rather than ecological considerations. Our general objective is to offer guidance for sustainable boreal forest manag...

Tree cavities are used as shelter and breeding nests by numerous avian and mammalian species. In cold environments, tree cavities are often proposed as the best winter nest choice because of the superior protection they offer from precipitation, wind, cold temperatures, and predators. As such, they represent a critical resource, which has the poten...

Logging is considered the most important threat to species in boreal forests. In contrast to eastern Canada, where most boreal forests remain largely untouched, in Fennoscandia it is possible to assess the cumulative, long-term effects of intensive forestry on wildlife. But harvesting of stands is rapidly changing Canadian boreal forests, which rep...

Wetlands are a critical habitat for boreal mammals and birds that rely on them for breeding, foraging, and resting. However, wetlands in boreal regions are under increasing natural and human pressure, leading to a reduction in habitat availability for these species. To inform management and conservation of wildlife, camera traps can help investigat...

Eskers are complex geological formations shaped with a linear accumulation of sand and gravel under the glaciers during the last ice age and that provide crucial resources such as drinking water, sand/gravel, outdoor recreational sites, and productive forests. Surrounding sand and gravel and connection with the groundwater influences the physicoche...

As resource extraction moves north across the globe, wetland ecosystems in Canada are increasingly degraded because of disturbances associated with anthropic activities, including timber harvesting, hydroelectric development, and mining. These activities may particularly affect amphibian species that depend on certain wetland types for breeding, su...

Interspecific interactions can mediate site occupancy of sympatric species and can be a key factor in habitat use patterns. American martens (Martes americana) and Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are two sympatric mesocarnivores in eastern North American forests. Due to their larger size, fishers have a competitive advantage over martens. We investigate...

Wetlands and predation in boreal ecosystems play essential roles throughout the breeding season for bird assemblages. We found a positive association of beaver activity and a negative influence of American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) on bird assemblages. We used a multispecies hierarchical model to investigate whether bird communities d...

Structural complexity generated by forest development processes and tree species compositional changes provide key habitat features for vertebrate communities that rely upon tree size and decay processes for foraging, denning or nesting. Complexity of forest structure in old stands could not only be key for harboring increased taxonomic species div...

Dataset contains information for multispecies occupancy analysis of Red squirrel and birds species and factors associated.

Eskers are complex geological formation that provide crucial resources in northern countries such as drinking water, sand/gravel, outdoor recreational sites, and productive forests. However, there is a huge knowledge gap about the biodiversity and functioning of eskers. Esker lakes are different from other boreal lakes as they are mainly fed by gro...

Eskers are complex geological formations formed by glaciers during the last ice age. Now, Eskers provide crucial resources in northern countries such as drinking water, sand/gravel, outdoor recreational sites, and productive forests. However, there is a huge knowledge gap about the biodiversity and functioning of eskers. Esker lakes are different f...

Published in the "Le Mésangeai". https://www.sloat.org/messangeai

Published in the "Couvert Boréal". https://couvertboreal.com/publications/printemps-2022/

Eskers are complex geological formation that provide crucial resources in northern countries such as drinking water, sand/gravel, outdoor recreational sites, and productive forests. However, there is a huge knowledge gap about the biodiversity and functioning of eskers. Esker lakes are different from other boreal lakes as they are mainly fed by gro...

Eskers are complex geological formation formed by glaciers during the last ice age. Eskers provide now crucial resources in all northern countries such as drinking water, sand/gravel, outdoor recreational sites and productive forests. However, there is a huge knowledge gap about the biodiversity and functioning of eskers, and baseline ecological in...

Wetlands are essential for many animal and plant species. However, many of these ecosystems are being degraded. Wetland degradation affects the habitat of certain groups of species such as waterfowl, which use these environments at different stages of their life cycle. In this study, we assessed the quality of man-made wetlands, i.e., mine tailing...

Les vieilles forêts et les structures clés qu'elles contiennent, les arbres de grande taille sénescents et morts sont une source étonnante de vie et de biodiversité. Durant les 12 dernières années, j'ai eu la chance d'étudier l'utilisation des arbres par la faune cavicole. Ces travaux, principalement en forêt boréale, m'on amené à explorer la sélec...

Eskers are complex geological formation formed by glaciers during the last ice age. Eskers provide now crucial resources in all northern countries and are considered as an important formation providing drinking water, sand/gravel, outdoor recreational sites and productive Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) forests. However, there is a huge knowledge gap a...

Citizen science (CS) currently refers to the participation of non-scientist volunteers in any discipline of conventional scientific research. Over the last two decades, nature-based CS has flourished due to innovative technology, novel devices, and widespread digital platforms used to collect and classify species occurrence data. For scientists, CS...

Ecosystem-based management aims to preserve old-growth forest attributes using techniques mimicking natural disturbances. One such technique is irregular shelterwood logging, but its impacts on forest floor organisms are poorly known. Our objective was to quantify the effects of three different treatments of irregular shelterwood on population stru...

Eskers are one of the most singular ecosystems in the World with important implications at the ecological and economical level providing crucial natural resources for Quebec. However, those ecosystems are vulnerable to human pressure such as mining and logging being thus a priority to conserve and manage this important ecosystem. This is a big chal...

Eskers are complex geological formation formed by glaciers during the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. Eskers provide now important resources in all northern countries and are considered one of the most important ecosystems economically and ecologically. This is particularly true in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region where eskers provide drinking...

Citizen science (CS) currently refers to some level of volunteer participation in any discipline of scientific research. Over the last two decades, nature-based CS has flourished due to innovative technology, novel devices, and widespread digital platforms used to collect and classify species occurrence data. For scientists, CS offers a low-cost ap...

Poster virtually presented

Since the mid‐twentieth century, fisher populations (Pekania pennanti) increased in several eastern jurisdictions of North America, particularly in the northern part of the species’ range. Changes in fisher distribution have led to increased overlap with the southern portion of the range of American marten (Martes americana), whose populations may...

Sudden changes in habitat quality during the breeding season may mislead individuals when selecting their nesting site and result in population declines. In such cases, even semi-natural and extensive agricultural lands may become ecological traps. We examined how the availability of six open habitat types (i.e. agricultural lands, open forests, al...

Habitat loss and degradation are among the major threats to biodiversity. Using bird atlas data, we predicted the response of 128 bird species to land-use changes in southern Québec between "1984-89" and "2010-2014." Declining species were mostly short-distance migrants, associated with open habitats and aerial insectivorous or granivorous diets, w...

Habitat loss and degradation induced by human development are among the major threats to biodiversity worldwide. In this study, we tested our ability to predict the response of bird communities (128 species) to land‐use changes in southern Québec (c. 483,100 km2) over the last 30 years (between ‘1984‐89’ and ‘2010‐2014’) by using species distributi...

Selection cutting is used in northern temperate forests where regeneration dynamics are driven by gap formation. By creating openings in the canopy, selection cutting modifies shrub cover, an important criterion in winter habitat selection by snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus Erxleben, 1777), a key species in North American forests. The objective of...

The North American beaver is considered a keystone species because its behaviour leads to profound changes in the wetland systems within forested landscapes. Such changes influence species composition and their interactions. However, in some cases, beavers are considered as an important source of disturbance and conflict with anthropogenic activiti...

The use of forest roads as foundations for dam construction by beavers is a recurrent problem in the management of forest road networks. In order to limit the damage to forest roads, our goal was to calculate the probability of beaver dam installation on culverts, according to surrounding habitat parameters, which could allow for improvement in the...

Background: Monitoring of fur-bearing species populations is relatively rare due to their low densities. In addition to catch data, trappers’ experience provides information on the ecology and status of the harvested species. Fisher (Pekania pennanti) and American marten (Martes americana) are mustelids that are sensitive to forest management and t...

Beavers are ecosystem engineers that contribute to landscape heterogeneity in North American boreal forests. Despite the importance of beavers on landscapes, beaver distribution is still poorly understood, particularly at large spatial scales and in different ecoregions. The goal of our study was to determine the main environmental features affecti...

Conserving species-at-risk requires quantifiable knowledge of the key drivers of population change. Non-linear demographic responses to habitat loss have been documented for many species and may serve to establish quantitative habitat thresholds for management purposes. In Canada, boreal populations of woodland caribou are considered threatened; En...

Measuring changes in species distribution and understanding factors influencing site occupancy are recurring goals in wildlife studies. Imperfect detection of species hinders such studies, resulting in the underestimation of the number of sites occupied by the species of interest. American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) are sampled traditi...

Bryophytes and pteridophytes are important contributors to ecosystem services in boreal regions. Abiotic agents are considered their main dispersers, but recent studies suggest that biotic agents including invertebrates, birds and large mammals might also be efficient dispersal agents. Dispersal of cryptogams by ground-dwelling small mammals is oft...

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) garners increasing attention in science-based wildlife management. We used the TEK of 16 First Nation hunters from the Eagle Village Algonquin community (Quebec, Canada) to evaluate moose (Alces americanus) habitat suitability in temperate deciduous forests, compared with a habitat suitability index (HSI) mode...

Natural forests likely will be unable to fulfill society’s needs sustainably for wood fiber in the near future. In an attempt to meet increasing demands while protecting intact forests, producers have increasingly considered alternative sources of timber, such as intensively managed plantations. In regions that are economically dépendent on forest...

In Fennoscandia, red-backed vole populations (Myodes spp.) often show regular fluctuations of abundance of 3- to 5-year periods. In contrast, only a few populations show evidence of cyclic fluctuations in North America. From 2001 to 2009, we livetrapped southern red-backed voles (Myodes gapperi) in 3 mature jack pine and 3 mature black spruce fores...

The main environmental factors that drive lichen communities are still poorly known in northern boreal ecosystems. This study compares the effects of forest stand characteristics (height, canopy cover, and age) on fruticose epiphytic and terricolous lichen communities across a large region located at the interface between closed-crown boreal forest...

The boreal forest ecosystem is one of the largest frontier forests of the world, providing many ecological services to society. Boreal forests are also economically important, but forest harvesting and management become increasingly difficult when one moves from south to north in boreal environments. An approach was thus developed to assess the sui...

The province of Québec has considerable potential for the continued expansion of its wind power industry. Wind farms may be a cause of mortality for birds of prey and could have a particularly negative affect on certain vulnerable species, such as the peregrine falcon. To help determine the types of sites to favour for the establishment of new wind...

1. Dynamic N-mixture models have been recently developed to estimate demographic parameters of unmarked individuals while accounting for imperfect detection. 2. We propose an application of the Dail and Madsen (2011: Biometrics, 67, 577-587) dynamic N-mixture model in a manipulative experiment using a before-after control-impact design (BACI). Spe...

Skulls are often used to identify small mammals but they are seldom found intact in predator pellets or nests. Bones are often scattered and mixed between several individuals, making counting impossible without the use of a specific cranial part. Mandibles readily resist degradation by gastric acids in both avian and mammalian predators and are oft...

Boreal wetlands are recognized as important wildlife habitats, especially as breeding and staging grounds for a large number of waterfowl. The main objectives of this study were to quantify the distribution of wetland and aquatic wildlife-habitat landscape types within boreal Quebec and to determine how such recognizable wildlife habitats vary amon...

Multi-cohort management that creates or maintains an uneven structure within forest stands has been widely advocated as a means to attenuate the impact of forest harvesting. An experimental network was put in place in black spruce forests of northwestern Québec to test this assertion. Here we synthesize the biodiversity results in two main lessons:...

Effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on the behavior of individual organisms may have direct consequences on population viability in altered forest ecosystems. The American marten (Martes americana) is a forest specialist considered as one of the most sensitive species to human-induced disturbances. As some studies have shown that martens cann...

Dwindling stocks of decaying coarse woody debris (CWD), as a result of forest management and growing interest for biofuels, may jeopardize the persistence of a broad spectrum of organisms such as small mammals. In this study, we quantified the effects of CWD in late-decay stages on the occupancy dynamics of small mammals in managed and unmanaged bo...

Intensive agriculture, as is typical of corn and soybean production, may be responsible for declines in the abundance and diversity of farmland birds. In Quebec, the transition to intensive crops is evidenced by marked increases of corn and soybean fields. From 2008 to 2010, we used satellite telemetry to study use of corn (Zea mays) and soybean (G...

The effects on timber supply incurred by implementing an ecosystem-based management strategy were evaluated in an eastern Canadian boreal forest management unit. Standard linear programming was used to test the effects of four key policy issues: (1) aim for a targeted forest age structure inspired by natural fire regime and forest dynamics (multi-c...

The northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) is of particular interest in North American forest management because it is considered as an ecological indicator of mature coniferous forests. Part of this association may be linked by its use of tree cavities as den or nest sites, often found on large-diameter decaying trees. We conducted an experi...

In the boreal forest, where tree cavities are mainly excavated by woodpeckers, many holes are incomplete excavations that are not suitable cavities for most other cavity users that form nest webs. We assessed cavity suitability for and use by a community of primary excavators and secondary users in managed and unmanaged landscapes in the boreal mix...

The boreal ecotype of forest-­‐dwelling woodland caribou was designated as threatened in 2002 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). In 2005 boreal caribou were recognized as vulnerable in Quebec, though a reassessment of this status is due. Whereas predation and hunting are deemed to be the proximate causes of p...

L’écotype boréal du caribou des bois vivant en milieu forestier a été inscrit à la liste des espèces menacées en 2002 par le Comité sur la situation des espèces en péril au Canada (COSEPAC). En 2005, le caribou forestier a été reconnu comme étant vulnérable au Québec, bien qu’une réévaluation de cette situation soit attendue. Si on estime que la pr...

We assessed habitat use by the northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) to test the hypothesis that the species is not a late-seral coniferous forest specialist in boreal mixedwood forests of northwestern Quebec. We monitored 149 pairs of nest boxes over 3 visits during February-April 2008. A total of 31 pairs of nest boxes were occupied durin...

Dead wood such as stumps and logs found on the forest floor is a key structural element that is used by a broad spectrum of organisms and contributes to soil nutrient cycling. The complexity of the forest floor in the boreal forest is largely dependent on coarse woody debris (CWD), but actual forestry practices may compromise the future recruitment...

As short-term effects of partial cuts generally decrease available cover for snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus Erxleben), most studies have shown negative effects of such treatments on this keystone species in boreal ecosystems. This study aims to determine the long-term impact of commercial thinning on snowshoe hare habitat, and we hypothesized that...

Le grèbe jougris est un nicheur commun dans l’ouest et le centre du Canada. Sa nidification a été confirmée, pour la première fois au Québec, en 1980. Depuis ce temps, les mentions de nidification ayant mené à la production de jeunes sont demeurées confinées à seulement 6 plans d’eau situés dans les limites de la municipalité de Rouyn-Noranda, en A...

Intensive agriculture that seeks to maximize yield through the substantial use of pesticides and fertilizers may be seen to be causing a decline in the abundance and diversity of bird species in our agricultural environment. In Québec, the transition from traditional farming to intensive agriculture has resulted in a large increase in corn and soyb...

Partial cuts are increasingly proposed to maintain habitats for species negatively affected by clearcutting, even if their benefits on nonpasserine birds and large mammals are still poorly documented. Our main objective was to evaluate effects of commercial thinning (CT) on spruce grouse (Falcipennis canadensis L.), a game bird of the boreal forest...

Depuis plus d’une trentaine d’années, les ornithologues amateurs consignent leurs observations sur des feuillets d’observations quotidiennes. En Abitibi, nous disposons d’une banque de données contenant déjà plus de 20 000 feuillets. Nous avons utilisé les informations contenues dans 423 feuillets réalisés spécifiquement au parc à résidus miniers E...

Natural forests will likely be unable to sustainably fulfill society needs for wood fibers and intensively managed plantations could be an alternative source of timber in the future. Abandoned farm fields are often targeted for conversion, as they are already disturbed sites: however, they also represent high-quality habitat for species such as sno...

Wetlands of remote forested landscapes of Quebec support numerous species of breeding waterbirds yet species-habitat associations remain poorly quantified. From 1990 to 2005, we conducted systematic helicopter surveys of breeding waterfowl and common loons (Gavia immer) across a 540,000-km2 forested region of Quebec. Data from this survey were used...

Extensive even-aged management of the boreal forest and its consequences on the loss of late-seral stages (>100 years) is raising concerns about the future of organisms associated with standing deadwood. The considerable reduction of deadwood not only at the stand but at the landscape level is considered to be one of the principal causes of biodive...