Steven W. Kembel

ancien Membre régulier
Écologie, biologie évolutive et bioinformatique
Université du Québec à Montréal
Département des sciences biologiques
C.P. 8888 Succ. Centre-Ville
Montréal (Québec) H3C 3P8
Canada

(514) 987-3000 Poste 5855

Page départementale  | Chaire AFD  | Site du labo Kembel - Kembel Lab  | Google Scholar 

FORMATION

• Research associate, Institute of Ecology & Evolution, University of Oregon, 2009-2012
• Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 2007-2008
• Ph.D., Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, 2007
• M.Sc., Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, 2001
• B.Sc.(Hons.), Botany, University of Manitoba, 1997

THÈMES DE RECHERCHE

Mon programme de recherche se concentre sur:

• la compréhension des processus responsables de l'assemblage et l'évolution des communautés végétales et microbiennes
• l'écologie fonctionnelle des feuilles et des racines des plantes
• l'écologie des associations hôtes-microbes

Titulaire de la Chaire de recherche du Canada - Biodiversité et Interactions des plantes et de la vie microbienne.
Thématique : Beaucoup d’espèces microbiennes vivent sur les feuilles des plantes et jouent un rôle important dans la croissance et la fonction des plantes, ainsi que sur l’activité des écosystèmes forestiers. En regard de l'importance de la biodiversité pour la santé humaine et le développement durable de l'économie québécoise et canadienne, la Chaire tente de mieux comprendre l'écologie, l'évolution et la biodiversité ainsi que ses impacts sur la santé et la croissance des arbres. Ses recherches permettent de prévoir les interactions entre la biodiversité végétale et les écosystèmes au Québec et de proposer des avenues pour améliorer les pratiques en gestion forestière.

Mes activités de recherche actuelles incluent l'utilisation de séquençage ADN de haut débit pour comprendre la diversité et l'assemblage des communautés microbiennes et l'écologie évolutive des plantes et des bactéries dans les forêts tempérées et tropicales. Bien que j'utilise beaucoup de méthodes quantitatives et la bioinformatique dans mes recherches, je suis également un biologiste de terrain; j’ai en effet effectué des recherches dans les écosystèmes forestiers et appliqué la théorie écologique à la gestion durable des forêts boréales.

PUBLICATIONS

Profil Google Scholar 

Books

Book chapters

Edited books, special journal editions and proceedings

Peer-reviewed articles

1. Rodriguez-Rodriguez, J.C., Fenton, N.J., Bergeron, Y., Kembel, S.W. (2023) Soil and tree phyllosphere microbial communities differ between coniferous and broadleaf deciduous boreal forests. Plant and Soil
2. Renaudin, M., Khlifa, R., Legault, S., Kembel, S.W., Kneeshaw, D.D., Moore, J.-D., Houle, D. (2023) Long-Term Simulated Nitrogen Deposition Has Moderate Impacts on Soil Microbial Communities across Three Bioclimatic Domains of the Eastern Canadian Forest. Forests, 14(6):1124
3. Rodriguez-Rodriguez, J.C., Bergeron, Y., Kembel, S.W., Fenton, N.J. (2022) Dominance of coniferous and broadleaved trees drives bacterial associations with boreal feather mosses. Environmental Microbiology, 24(8):3517-3528
4. Landry, M., James, P.M.A., Kneeshaw, D.D., Kembel, S.W. (2022) Spruce budworm bacterial communities vary among sites and host tree species in a boreal landscape. Journal of Biogeography, 49(2):299-309
5. Khlifa, R., Houle, D., Morin, H., Kembel, S.W. (2021) Inconsistent effects of nitrogen canopy enrichment and soil warming on black spruce epiphytic phyllosphere bacterial communities, taxa, and functions. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 51(9):1199-1207
6. Malaterre, C., Dussault, A.C., Mermans, E., Barker, G., Beisner, B.E., Bouchard, F., Desjardins, E., Handa, I.T., Kembel, S.W., Lajoie, G. et al. (2021) Erratum: Functional diversity: An epistemic roadmap (BioScience DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biz089). BioScience, 71(9):996
7. D’Amario, S.C., Rearick, D.C., Fasching, C., Kembel, S.W., Porter-Goff, E., Spooner, D.E., Williams, C.J., Wilson, H.F., Xenopoulos, M.A. (2019) The prevalence of nonlinearity and detection of ecological breakpoints across a land use gradient in streams. Scientific Reports, 9(1)
8. Toure, A.M., Landry, M., Souchkova, O., Kembel, S.W., Pilon, N. (2019) Gut microbiota-mediated Gene-Environment interaction in the TashT mouse model of Hirschsprung disease. Scientific Reports, 9(1):492
9. Belanger, N., Collin, A., Ricard-Piche, J., Kembel, S.W., Rivest, D. (2019) Microsite conditions influence leaf litter decomposition in sugar maple bioclimatic domain of Quebec. Biogeochemistry, 145(1):107-126
10. DeBellis, T., Kembel, S.W., Lessard, J.-P. (2019) Shared mycorrhizae but distinct communities of other root-associated microbes on co-occurring native and invasive maples. PeerJ, 2019(7)
11. Malaterre, C., Dussault, A.C., Rousseau-Mermans, S., Barker, G., Beisner, B.E., Bouchard, F., Desjardins, E., Handa, I.T., Kembel, S.W., Lajoie, G. et al. (2019) Functional Diversity: An Epistemic Roadmap. BioScience, 69(10):800-811
12. Boué, C., DeBellis, T., Venier, L.A., Work, T.T., Kembel, S.W. (2019) Limited initial impacts of biomass harvesting on composition of wood-inhabiting fungi within residual stumps. PeerJ, 2019(12)
13. Martínez, I., Maldonado-Gomez, M.X., Gomes-Neto, J.C., Kittana, H., Ding, H., Schmaltz, R., Joglekar, P., Cardona, R.J., Marsteller, N.L., Kembel, S.W. et al. (2018) Experimental evaluation of the importance of colonization history in early-life gut microbiota assembly. eLife, 7
14. Ruiz-González, C., Archambault, E., Laforest-Lapointe, I., Del Giorgio, P.A., Kembel, S.W., Messier, C., Nock, C.A., Beisner, B.E. (2018) Soils associated to different tree communities do not elicit predictable responses in lake bacterial community structure and function. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 94(8)
15. Collin, A., Messier, C., Kembel, S.W., Belanger, N. (2018) Can sugar maple establish into the boreal forest? Insights from seedlings under various canopies in southern Quebec. Ecosphere, 9(1)
16. Gaulke, C.A., Arnold, H.K., Humphreys, I.R., Kembel, S.W., O’dwyer, J.P., Sharpton, T.J. (2018) Ecophylogenetics clarifies the evolutionary association between mammals and their gut microbiota. mBio, 9(5)
17. Wallace, J., Laforest-Lapointe, I., Kembel, S.W. (2018) Variation in the leaf and root microbiome of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) at an elevational range limit. PeerJ, 2018(8)
18. Collin, A., Messier, C., Kembel, S.W., Belanger, N. (2017) Low light availability associated with American beech is the main factor for reduced sugar maple seedling survival and growth rates in a hardwood forest of Southern Quebec. Forests, 8(11)
19. Laforest-Lapointe, I., Messier, C., Kembel, S.W. (2017) Tree leaf bacterial community structure and diversity differ along a gradient of urban intensity. mSystems, 2(6)
20. Laforest-Lapointe, I., Paquette, A., Messier, C., Kembel, S.W. (2017) Leaf bacterial diversity mediates plant diversity and ecosystem function relationships. Nature, 546(7656):145-147
21. Ruiz-Gonzalez, C., Nino-Garcia, J.P., Kembel, S.W., Del Giorgio, P.A. (2017) Identifying the core seed bank of a complex boreal bacterial metacommunity. ISME Journal, 11(9):2012-2021
22. Freschet, G.T., Valverde-Barrantes, O.J., Tucker, C.M., Craine, J.M., McCormack, M.L., Violle, C., Fort, F., Blackwood, C.B., Urban-Mead, K.R., Iversen, C.M. et al. (2017) Climate, soil and plant functional types as drivers of global fine-root trait variation. Journal of Ecology, 105(5):1182-1196
23. Pennell, M.W., FitzJohn, R.G., Cornwell, W.K., Kembel, S.W. (2016) A simple approach for maximizing the overlap of phylogenetic and comparative data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 7(6):751-758
24. Pavoine, S., Marcon, E., Ricotta, C., Kembel, S.W. (2016) 'Equivalent numbers' for species, phylogenetic or functional diversity in a nested hierarchy of multiple scales. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 7(10):1152-1163
25. Laforest-Lapointe, I., Messier, C., Kembel, S.W. (2016) Host species identity, site and time drive temperate tree phyllosphere bacterial community structure. Microbiome, 4
26. Laforest-Lapointe, I., Messier, C., Kembel, S.W. (2016) Tree phyllosphere bacterial communities: Exploring the magnitude of intra- and inter-individual variation among host species. PeerJ, 2016(8)
27. Baldeck, C.A., Kembel, S.W., Harms, K.E., Yavitt, J.B., John, R., Turner, B.L., Madawala, S., Gunatilleke, N., Gunatilleke, S., Bunyavejchewin, S. et al. (2016) Phylogenetic turnover along local environmental gradients in tropical forest communities. Oecologia, 182(2):547-557
28. O'Dwyer, J.P., Kembel, S.W., Sharpton, T.J., Pacala, S.W. (2015) Backbones of evolutionary history test biodiversity theory for microbes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(27):8356-8361
29. Martin, L.J., Adams, R.I., Bateman, A., Bik, H.M., Hawks, J., Hird, S.M., Hughes, D., Kembel, S.W., Kinney, K., Kolokotronis, S.-O. et al. (2015) Evolution of the indoor biome. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 30(4):223-232
30. Peres-Neto, P.R., Kembel, S.W. (2015) Phylogenetic gradient analysis: environmental drivers of phylogenetic variation across ecological communities. Plant Ecology, 216(5):709-724
31. Siefert, A., Violle, C., Chalmandrier, L., Albert, C.H., Taudiere, A., Fajardo, A., Aarssen, L.W., Baraloto, C., Carlucci, M.B., Cianciaruso, M.V. et al. (2015) A global meta-analysis of the relative extent of intraspecific trait variation in plant communities. Ecology Letters, 18(12):1406-1419
32. O'Dwyer, J.P., Kembel, S.W., Sharpton, T.J. (2015) Erratum: Backbones of evolutionary history test biodiversity theory for microbes (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2015) 112 (8356-8361)). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(47):E6589
33. Morlon, H., O'Connor, T.K., Bryant, J.A., Charkoudian, L.K., Docherty, K.M., Jones, E., Kembel, S.W., Green, J.L., Bohannan, B.J.M. (2015) The biogeography of putative microbial antibiotic production. PLOS ONE, 10(6)
34. Kembel, S.W., Meadow, J.F., O'Connor, T.K., Mhuireach, G., Northcutt, D., Kline, J., Moriyama, M., Brown, G.Z., Bohannan, B.J.M., Green, J.L. (2014) Architectural Design Drives the Biogeography of Indoor Bacterial Communities. PLOS ONE, 9(1):e87093
35. Meadow, J.F., Altrichter, A.E., Kembel, S.W., Moriyama, M., O'Connor, T.K., Womack, A.M., Brown, G.Z., Green, J.L., Bohannan, B.J.M. (2014) Bacterial communities on classroom surfaces vary with human contact. Microbiome, 2(1):7
36. Kembel, S.W., O'Connor, T.K., Arnold, H.K., Hubbell, S.P., Wright, S.J., Green, J.L. (2014) Relationships between phyllosphere bacterial communities and plant functional traits in a neotropical forest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(38):13715-13720
37. Kembel, S.W., Mueller, R.C. (2014) Plant traits and taxonomy drive host associations in tropical Phyllosphere fungal communities1. Botany, 92(4):303-311
38. Joly, S., Davies, T.J., Archambault, A., Bruneau, A., Derry, A., Kembel, S.W., Peres-Neto, P., Vamosi, J., Wheeler, T.A. (2014) Ecology in the age of DNA barcoding: The resource, the promise and the challenges ahead. Molecular Ecology Resources, 14(2):221-232
39. Meadow, J.F., Altrichter, A.E., Kembel, S.W., Kline, J., Mhuireach, G., Moriyama, M., Northcutt, D., O'Connor, T.K., Womack, A.M., Brown, G.Z. et al. (2014) Indoor airborne bacterial communities are influenced by ventilation, occupancy, and outdoor air source. Indoor Air, 24(1):41-48
40. Vellend, M., Lajoie, G., Bourret, A., Murria, C., Kembel, S.W., Garant, D. (2014) Drawing ecological inferences from coincident patterns of population- and community-level biodiversity. Molecular Ecology, 23(12):2890-2901
41. Craine, J.M., Ocheltree, T.W., Nippert, J.B., Towne, E.G., Skibbe, A.M., Kembel, S.W., Fargione, J.E. (2013) Global diversity of drought tolerance and grassland climate-change resilience. Nature Climate Change, 3(1):63-67
42. Baldeck, C.A., Kembel, S.W., Harms, K.E., Yavitt, J.B., John, R., Turner, B.L., Chuyong, G.B., Kenfack, D., Thomas, D.W., Madawala, S. et al. (2013) A taxonomic comparison of local habitat niches of tropical trees. Oecologia, 173(4):1491-1498
43. Ladau, J., Sharpton, T.J., Finucane, M.M., Jospin, G., Kembel, S.W., O'Dwyer, J., Koeppel, A.F., Green, J.L., Pollard, K.S. (2013) Global marine bacterial diversity peaks at high latitudes in winter. ISME Journal, 7(9):1669-1677
44. Maurer, B.A., Kembel, S.W., Rominger, A.J., McGill, B.J. (2013) Estimating metacommunity extent using data on species abundances, environmental variation, and phylogenetic relationships across geographic space. Ecological Informatics, 13:114-122
45. O'Dwyer, J.P., Kembel, S.W., Green, J.L. (2012) Phylogenetic Diversity Theory Sheds Light on the Structure of Microbial Communities. PLoS Computational Biology, 8(12):e1002832
46. Kembel, S.W., Wu, M., Eisen, J.A., Green, J.L. (2012) Incorporating 16S Gene Copy Number Information Improves Estimates of Microbial Diversity and Abundance. PLoS Computational Biology, 8(10):--
47. Craine, J.M., Wolkovich, E.M., Gene Towne, E., Kembel, S.W. (2012) Flowering phenology as a functional trait in a tallgrass prairie. New Phytologist, 193(3):673-682
48. Kembel, S.W., Jones, E., Kline, J., Northcutt, D., Stenson, J., Womack, A.M., Bohannan, B.J.M., Brown, G.Z., Green, J.L. (2012) Architectural design influences the diversity and structure of the built environment microbiome. ISME Journal, 6(8):1469-1479
49. Burge, D.O., Jui, G., Kembel, S.W., Zhukovsky, K. (2012) Microsatellite markers from Ceanothus roderickii (Rhamnaceae) using next-generation sequencing technology. American Journal of Botany, 99(3):e127-e130
50. Burge, D.O., Erwin, D.M., Islam, M.B., Kellermann, J., Kembel, S.W., Wilken, D.H., Manos, P.S. (2011) Diversification of Ceanothus (Rhamnaceae) in the California Floristic province. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 172(9):1137-164
51. Sharpton, T.J., Riesenfeld, S.J., Kembel, S.W., Ladau, J., O'Dwyer, J.P., Green, J.L., Eisen, J.A., Pollard, K.S. (2011) PhyLOTU: A high-throughput procedure quantifies microbial community diversity and resolves novel taxa from metagenomic data. PLoS Computational Biology, 7(1):e1001061
52. Sargent, R.D., Kembel, S.W., Emery, N.C., Forrestel, E.J., Ackerly, D.D. (2011) Effect of local community phylogenetic structure on pollen limitation in an obligately insect-pollinated plant. American Journal of Botany, 98(2):283-289
53. Craine, J.M., Nippert, J.B., Towne, E.G., Tucker, S., Kembel, S.W., Skibbe, A., McLauchlan, K.K. (2011) Functional consequences of climate change-induced plant species loss in a tallgrass prairie. Oecologia, 165(4):1109-1117
54. Fine, P.V.A., Kembel, S.W. (2011) Phylogenetic community structure and phylogenetic turnover across space and edaphic gradients in western Amazonian tree communities. Ecography, 34(4):552-565
55. Kembel, S.W., Eisen, J.A., Pollard, K.S., Green, J.L. (2011) The phylogenetic diversity of metagenomes. PLOS ONE, 6(8):e23214
56. Kembel, S.W., Cahill Jr., J.F. (2011) Independent evolution of leaf and root traits within and among temperate grassland plant communities. PLOS ONE, 6(6):e19992
57. Little, S.A., Kembel, S.W., Wilf, P. (2010) Paleotemperature proxies from leaf fossils reinterpreted in light of evolutionary history. PLOS ONE, 5(12):e15161
58. Kembel, S.W., Cowan, P.D., Helmus, M.R., Cornwell, W.K., Morlon, H., Ackerly, D.D., Blomberg, S.P., Webb, C.O. (2010) Picante: R tools for integrating phylogenies and ecology. Bioinformatics, 26(11):1463-1464
59. Klepac-Ceraj, V., Lemon, K.P., Martin, T.R., Allgaier, M., Kembel, S.W., Knapp, A.A., Lory, S., Brodie, E.L., Lynch, S.V., Bohannan, B.J.M. et al. (2010) Relationship between cystic fibrosis respiratory tract bacterial communities and age, genotype, antibiotics and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Environmental Microbiology, 12(5):1293-1303
60. Cadotte, M.W., Jonathan Davies, T., Regetz, J., Kembel, S.W., Cleland, E., Oakley, T.H. (2010) Phylogenetic diversity metrics for ecological communities: Integrating species richness, abundance and evolutionary history. Ecology Letters, 13(1):96-105
61. Fine, P.V.A., Garca-Villacorta, R., Pitman, N.C.A., Mesones, I., Kembel, S.W. (2010) A floristic study of the white-sand forests of Peru. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 97(3):283-305
62. Kembel, S.W. (2009) Disentangling niche and neutral influences on community assembly: Assessing the performance of community phylogenetic structure tests. Ecology Letters, 12(9):949-960
63. Lamb, E.G., Kembel, S.W., Cahill Jr., J.F. (2009) Shoot, but not root, competition reduces community diversity in experimental mesocosms. Journal of Ecology, 97(1):155-163
64. Sachs, J.L., Kembel, S.W., Lau, A.H., Simms, E.L. (2009) In situ phylogenetic structure and diversity of wild Bradyrhizobium communities. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 75(14):4727-4735
65. Cavender-Bares, J., Kozak, K.H., Fine, P.V.A., Kembel, S.W. (2009) The merging of community ecology and phylogenetic biology. Ecology Letters, 12(7):693-715
66. Kembel, S.W., Waters, I., Shay, J.M. (2008) Short-term effects of cut-to-length versus full-tree harvesting on understorey plant communities and understorey-regeneration associations in Manitoba boreal forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 255(5-6):1848-1858
67. Cahill Jr., J.F., Kembel, S.W., Lamb, E.G., Keddy, P.A. (2008) Does phylogenetic relatedness influence the strength of competition among vascular plants? Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 10(1):41-50
68. Webb, C.O., Ackerly, D.D., Kembel, S.W. (2008) Phylocom: Software for the analysis of phylogenetic community structure and trait evolution. Bioinformatics, 24(18):2098-2100
69. Kembel, S.W., De Kroon, H., Cahill Jr., J.F., Mommer, L. (2008) Improving the scale and precision of hypotheses to explain root foraging ability. Annals of Botany, 101(9):1295-1301
70. Kembel, S.W., Hubbell, S.P. (2006) The phylogenetic structure of a neotropical forest tree community. Ecology, 87(7 Suppl):S86-S99
71. Cousens, R.D., Dale, M.R.T., Taylor, J., Law, R., Moerkerk, M., Kembel, S.W. (2006) Causes of pattern in plant communities where environmental change is rapid and species longevity is short. Journal of Vegetation Science, 17(5):599-614
72. Kembel, S.W., Dale, M.R.T. (2006) Within-stand spatial structure and relation of boreal canopy and understorey vegetation. Journal of Vegetation Science, 17(6):783-790
73. Kembel, S.W., Cahill Jr, J.F. (2005) Plant phenotypic plasticity belowground: A phylogenetic perspective on root foraging trade-offs. American Naturalist, 166(2):216-230
74. Cahill Jr., J.F., Kembel, S.W., Gustafson, D.J. (2005) Differential genetic influences on competitive effect and response in Arabidopsis thaliana. Journal of Ecology, 93(5):958-967
75. Waters, I., Kembel, S.W., Gingras, J.-F., Shay, J.M. (2004) Short-term effects of cut-to-length versus full-tree harvesting on conifer regeneration in jack pine, mixedwood, and black spruce forests in Manitoba. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 34(9):1938-1945

Articles published in proceedings

1. Mhuireach, G., Bohannan, B., Brown, G.Z., Green, J.L., Jones, E., Kembel, S.W., Kline, J., Northcutt, D., Stenson, J., Womack, A.M. (2012) The relationship between ventilation energy use and indoor microbial communities. In 10th International Conference on Healthy Buildings 2012. Pages 563-564

Scientific reports, manuals and others

Theses, dissertations and essays

1. Kembel, S.W. (2007) Leaf and root functional traits, phylogeny, and the structure of plant populations and communities. PhD thesis, University of Alberta
2. Kembel, S.W. (2001) Small-scale spatial patterns of boreal mixedwood forest vegetation. Master's thesis, University of Alberta

Supervised theses, dissertations and essays

1. Rodriguez-Rodriguez, J. (2022) Dominance by coniferous versus broadleaf deciduous trees in boreal forests as a driver of understory vegetation and associated microorganisms. PhD thesis, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue
2. Boué, C. (2018) L'impact des récoltes de la biomasse forestière sur la composition et la diversité des champignons dans les souches résiduelles. Master's thesis, Université du Québec à Montréal
3. Schwarz, M. (2018) Investigating the effects of the gut-associated microbial community on the growth of the eastern spruce budworm. Master's thesis, Université du Québec à Montréal
4. Laforest-Lapointe, I. (2017) Exploring the temperate tree leaf microbiome : from natural forests to controlled experiments and urban environments. PhD thesis, UQAM
5. Wallace, J. (2016) The microbiome of Acer saccharum : environmental drivers of microbial communities in different plant structures. Master's thesis, Université du Québec à Montréal
6. McKinnon, R. (2015) Complémentarité par interactions : un nouveau mécanisme en biodiversité et fonctionnement des écosystèmes. Master's thesis, Université du Québec à Rimouski

Non peer-reviewed articles

SOFTWARE

I participate in the development of several open source software projects.

• Phylocom  is software for the analysis of community phylogenetic structure and character evolution. Phylocom includes many useful tools for the manipulation and statistical analysis of hylogenetic trees, ecological communities and functional traits.
• Picante  is a package for the R  statistical programming language. The picante package aims to provide a comprehensive set of tools for analyzing the phylogenetic and trait diversity of ecological communities in R, along with a set of tools for other comparative analyses and manipulations of phenotypic and phylogenetic data.
• Nix  is software for taxonomic informatics. Nix allows you to easily find synonyms and taxonomic information for plant species, based on data in the ITIS  database.
• Phylobase  is an R package that seeks to provide a set of object-oriented classes and methods for representing and manipulating phylogenetic trees and data in R. Phylobase had its beginnings at the NESCent  Hackathon on Comparative Methods in R  that I helped organize in 2007.

<< | MembresReguliers | >>