People – Riva Lab

Dr. Federico Riva

Federico Riva is an Assistant Professor at Carleton University, in the Biology Department.

He is affiliated to the Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Lab.

Research in the Riva Lab is grounded in theories and applications developed in landscape ecology. His group works to support biodiversity conservation, especially in human-dominated landscapes and in landscapes exposed to severe climate change.

Federico is especially interested in developing approaches to better understand biodiversity change across spatial scales.

His work integrates ideas from conservation science, biogeography, macroecology, and complex system science with a strong foundation of landscape ecology.

Current Team Members

Sofia Karabatsos

PhD student

Sofia has a background in landscape and population ecology. She worked closely with universities, governments, and NGOs to identify and mitigate risks to vulnerable species, from Canada's woodland caribou to roseate terns. We are partnering with the Canadian Wildlife Federation on her project, building on their knowledge of restored monarch habitat, and with Environment And Climate Change Canada (Sofia is co-supervised by Dr. Amanda Martin). For her PhD, Sofia is exploring the use of remote sensing techniques to detect plant spectral signatures. Her goal is to determine if remote sensing can be used to reliably assess changes in plant diversity over time in monarch habitat (i.e. meadows), and whether plant diversity varies with different habitat patch sizes and configurations. She will also be working to address the question of whether monarchs effectively act as an umbrella species to other non-monarch species that live in meadows. Sofia is motivated to identify new efficient and feasible ways to locate concerns of biodiversity loss and to improve the effectiveness of restoration initiatives.