14th CFR Annual Conference
We are pleased to invite you to the 14th CFR Annual Conference, which will be held May 10th to May 12th 2021 online. The conference is open to all partners of the CFR as well as the entire scientific community.
Guess Speaker
The CEF is pleased to welcome Dr. Ellen Macdonald 
, professor of forest ecology in the Departement of Renewable Resources of the University of Alberta. Dr. Macdonald studies the impacts of anthropogenic and natural disturbances on the ecology and biodiversity of boreal forest ecosystems. Her research interests include successional dynamics, regeneration processes and restoration of northern forest ecosystems.
For over 20 years, she's been working on the EMEND Project (Ecosystem Management Emulating Natural Disturbance), a large-scale experiment looking at harvest effects on ecosystem integrity, where she seeks to quantify the effects of partial harvest on biodiversity. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with CEF researchers on multiple projects including the pan-Canadian network SmartForests. Short bio 
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Is retention harvesting the solution for sustaining forest biodiversity? Lessons from the EMEND experiment.
Retention harvesting has become a dominant approach to forest ecosystem management (FEM) under the paradigm of Emulation of Natural Disturbance (END). The premise is that END and retention harvesting will help conserve biodiversity and ecological functions of forest landscapes by reducing the difference between them and unharvested forests. The EMEND (Ecosystem-based Management Emulating Natural Disturbance) project was established in 1997 to examine the efficacy of a wide variety of retention harvesting treatments (five levels of dispersed retention, each also including aggregated retention, plus unharvested control; dispersed retention combined with prescribed burn) applied to a range of boreal mixedwood forest types (deciduous-dominated, two types of mixed forest, conifer-dominated). I will summarize results for responses of several biotic groups from pre-harvest to 15 years post-harvest. I will draw upon these results to make inferences about what can, and cannot, be achieved through retention harvesting. Finally, I will discuss approaches for further refining the planning and implementation of retention harvesting.
Detailed Program
Poster Session
The official poster sessions, with authors close to their posters in Gather Town, will take place on Thursday from 11h30 to 12h40 and Wednesday from 10h40 to 12h15, but most of the posters will be on display throughout the Conference. The best poster contest is reserved for CEF student members at the MSc and PhD levels and only these posters have a number that you will use to vote. Other posters are indicated by the code NM/NE meaning Non-Member/Non-Student.
Instructions for Posters and Presentations
Oral presentations
This year, the conference will take place virtually on Gather Town, a platform that adds a spatial dimension to group videoconferences. The presentations will take place in virtual rooms. Participants will move around the rooms using their avatar and then have access to a link that will take them to the Zoom platform. The platform used during oral presentations is therefore Zoom. You will need to share your screen for the audience to see your slides in presentation mode. Your presentation should last a maximum of 12 minutes. There will be a common question/discussion period at the end of each of the presentation blocks. Note that the presentations will be recorded and then broadcast on CEF-TV .
You can read the humorous document How to wreck your own presentation: Twelve tips to confuse an audience " written by Nelson Thiffault and Stephen Wyatt to improve your presentations.
Poster presentations
You must prepare a poster saved in PDF format as you would for a face-to-face conference. No need to print it! Simply send it by email or using WeTransfer (if it's too heavy) to natacha.fontaine@sbf.ulaval.ca before May 3rd. When producing your poster, be sure not to leave the poster background transparent to avoid problems importing it into Gather Town. It can be white, black, or any other color. If you are using an image for the background, be sure to put a non-transparent background color underneath.
You also have the option of making a short video to summarize your project. It should last a maximum of 3 minutes and present a single slide like the “ Three Minute Thesis” presentations. During the poster session, participants will be able to view the video before interacting with you. You can make a narrated PowerPoint or film yourself as you present your poster on a screen large enough for viewers to see. Make sure you have good images and sound quality. Then send the video file by WeTransfer to natacha.fontaine@sbf.ulaval.ca before May 3. The videos will be broadcast on CEF-TV .
The poster session will take place on Gather Town, a platform that adds a spatial dimension to group videoconferences. During the session, you will have to move your avatar next to your poster. The participants of the conference will be able to come near your poster to view the PDF, the video and discuss with you directly in real time.
Read the following article in Nature to improve the quality of your poster.
Write to Natacha Fontaine if you have questions about posters and presentations.
Competition
Only students who are members of CEF at master's or doctoral level are eligible. A jury will determine the best oral presentations, while the best posters will be selected by a public vote. To vote, conference participants will need to complete a ballot form that will be available in the Gather Town.
Best oral presentation
- A first prize of $ 1000 paid by the CEF to the best presentation
- A second prize of $ 500 paid by the CEF to the second best presentation
- A third prize of $ 250 paid by the CEF to the third best presentation
- The magazine Couvert Boréal will offer a one-year subscription, and the opportunity of writing an article, to the three winners of the best STUDENT oral presentation (voted by the jury).
Congratulations to ClementHardy, winner of the 2021 best student oral presentation for his presentation entitled : "Impacts à long termes de l’aménagement inéquien sur la composition et la fragmentation du paysage"! In second position, three ties!
- Laura Milliard : Utilisation des bassins de rétention d'eaux pluviales par les amphibiens
- Marie Renaudin : Influence du climat et des nutriments sur la quantité de cyanobactéries associées aux bryophytes et leur fixation d’azote en forêt boréale Québécoise.
- Daniel Schönig : Évaluation des objectifs de gestion forestière à grande échelle en utilisant l’apprentissage automatique et des modèles additifs généralisés – études de cas de l’Amazonie et du Panama
Best poster
- A first prize of $ 500 paid by the CEF to the best poster
- A second prize of $ 250 paid by the CEF to the second best poster
- A third prize of $ 100 paid by the CEF to the third best poster
- 1 st - Sanghyun Kim - AFFICHE 20 - Do Partial Harvests Promote Regeneration and Microbiome of Black Spruce Stands?
- 2nd - François Veillette – AFFICHE 37 - Suivi (1984-2015) de la croissance des peuplements forestiers issus de coupes totales à partir de photographies aériennes historiques pour la sapinière à bouleau blanc.
- 3rd - Orane Mordacq - AFFICHE 24 - Les arbres sont-ils influencés par leurs voisins pour la chute de leurs feuilles ?
Door prizes
Prizes will be drawn from among the participants who are present at the conference. To be eligible, you must fill a form that will be available in Gather Town. The draw will take place following the announcement of the winners for the best poster and best oral presentation on the last day of the conference.
- Éditions Michel Quintin will be offering books from their « fauna and flora » collection
- 1-year subscription to the magazine Nature Sauvage .
- The book « Tropical Agroforestry » offered by Damase Khasa, CEF-U.Laval.
Thanks to Our Partners!
