@carlyziter.bsky.social
Urban & landscape ecologist thinking about nature-based solutions for biodiversity, people, and climate in the cities we live in. Prof @ Concordia. Probably talking about trees on the radio. Potter. Knitter. Baker. Gardener. Year-round cyclist. 🇨🇦 (she/her)
Right?!
This is a phrase I’ll hold onto: “Nosotros no estamos solos—somos los primeros. Somos los primeros.”
I hope projects like Open Urban Forests www.cif-ifc.org/get-engaged/... (unfortunately started after Bella collated all this data herself!) will help facilitate this kind of work, and that we'll continue to see more attention to national-scale data products that better represent urban areas.
This one was tough to pull together, and we had to make a lot of assumptions and decisions that weren't as satisfying as I'd have liked. I believe in this work & our findings, but I think most of all it highlights persistent data limitations that make cross-city comparison work really hard in Canada
We wanted to understand the extent to which widely accessible metrics of vegetation, urban form, and sociodemographic variables predict temperature and air pollution (the answer... not always very well! Although inequity was one of the few consistent predictors of urban environmental conditions...)
Another paper out from Bella's PhD thesis, using open-source data to predict patterns of temperature and air pollution within and across seven Canadian cities: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Two things I will miss about our time in Germany:
The supportive and inspiring academic community at @idiv-research.bsky.social
Warm pretzels from the grocery store for 50 cents!
☹️
We’ve also featured Montréal’s Ruelles Vertes program as a case study in our forthcoming Natura report on Urban Nature Based Solutions in the US-Canada region. Stay tuned!
Most of all, thank you to all of the amazing residents and municipalities who work hard to bring these green alleys to life!
This work was a great collaboration & learning experience in bringing together methodologies from social & ecological sciences, & working with many local partners. Thanks to @sshrc-crsh.canada.ca @fondsrechercheqc.bsky.social @qcbs.ca @mtlvsp.bsky.social @villetroisrivieres.bsky.social + many more
While green alleys provide more (tree-based) biodiversity support than traditional alleys, they don't always provide more of the benefits neighbours want most. We also see that resident-led implementation and management allows for more flexibility but more variable outcomes than top-down approaches.
New work led by recent PhD grad Bella Richmond. In collaboration with Hien Pham and others, we bring together walking interviews and ecological fieldwork to assess how green alleys in two Quebec cities provide support for biodiversity, and benefits to residents: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Hey post-docs in Environmental Sciences that need to catch them all... Job posting
#academicsky
#postdoc
#phd
#ecology
McGill Biology is hosting a panel to showcase non-academic careers in Biology. Come listen to former PhDs and MScs now working in non-profits, industry, and government. biologygraduatestudent.association.mcgill.ca/events/career-panel
Come out on Tues, March 24 from 2-4:30pm
@biomcgill.bsky.social
It's easy to think of Boomer men as the guardians of "tradition." Yet surveys show GenZ men have more "traditional" ideas about gender roles. 59% of GenZ men, for ex, say men are expected to do too much to support gender equality, compared to 45% of Boomer men.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
This year's Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science (QCBS) Symposium took place this week. PaqLab master's students Johanna Arnet and Emma Bacon, both also supervised by
@carlyziter.bsky.social at Concordia University, presented the results of their master's research projects on Tuesday afternoon.
This week's cover @thelancet.com
Love this.
I was visiting Monika Egerer’s group. Just a quick visit while I’m on sabbatical in Leipzig
Wonderful day at the Technical University of Munich in Freising! Great to interact with students in the Urban Productive Ecosystems lab and the green infrastructure research and training group!
✨ March Public Lecture - Free & Open to All! ✨
Join the Nova Scotian Institute of Science on Monday, March 2nd for another exciting public lecture!
Taking place online via Zoom and in-person at Dalhousie University.
@dalhousie.bsky.social
Soccer nerds!
Sports Nerds!
Global History Nerds!
The interest form to take Global Soccer & World Politics 101 with @resistanceschool.bsky.social is here. Spaces will be limited.
We will also be offering a number of scholarships.
Let's gooooo.
www.resistancestudiesseries.com/worldcupwait...
Unanticipated perk of European sabbatical is the Olympics is perfectly timed for post-work relaxing.
Annnd many (many) hours of Olympic figure skating = time to learn a new knitting stitch! Thrilled with both the quality of the ladies free skate tonight, and this reversible brioche neckwarmer!
The bronze medal game this morning had FOUR different indigenous language broadcasts!!
Don't utilize "utilize". Use "use".
Yes!!! I harp on my students for this all the time (although I think it’s backfired since they seem to utilize it even more now…)
If there is one soap box I'd like to endorse with all my writing soul, IT'S THIS ONE.
Absolutely *wild* men’s free tonight. Don’t know what happened out there, but thrilled to see Gogolev skate so well. On the heels of a such a beautiful skate from Piper and Paul, this has been a great games for Canadian figure skaters so far!
“A recent Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation study concluded that every $1 invested in eviction prevention and housing stability saves $2 to $6 in emergency system costs. In other words, it’s far cheaper to ensure people remain housed.” @thephilanthropist.ca
thephilanthropist.ca/2026/02/on-t...