https://www.matthammond.ca/home daily 1.0 2025-05-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/e7a893b1-2665-4a43-959a-3bcb6b459d26/Hamilton-Steel-Mill.jpg Home - Pollution Human dominance over the planet adds pollutants faster than ecosystems can absorb and metabolize them. I have an ongoing interest in ecotoxicology and disentangling the threats posed by human-made contaminants. At Environment & Climate Change Canada, I gauge the impacts of industrial pollutants (e.g., PFAS, PCBs) on organisms and trace their reverberations through food webs and surface waters. In New Zealand, I used biochemical tracers and developed new measures to reveal how agricultural pollution distorts natural food webs. As we grapple with our chemical legacy, only a system-level view can adequately manage the complex manifestations of pollution in nature. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/a6468a89-05d0-4e93-aebd-a21fc9321cb1/pexels-photo-2092041.jpg Home - Biodiversity & ecosystems Humans are deeply invested in biodiversity in various ways - materially for survival, economically, aesthetically and morally. Using a portfolio metaphor for biodiversity opens new ways of seeing and managing its benefits and risks. Opportunities from diversifying collections of natural assets range from the immediate use of ecosystem services to preserving future options for nature’s contributions to people. Myself and collaborators recently developed tools for uncovering how biodiversity that is spread across landscapes generates a form of insurance against environmental impacts. In taking the portfolio view of nature, we have the opportunity to balance the different ways we value nature in our stewardship of Earth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/006fd5e1-8f53-426e-96d6-bcee17511bde/Fig+6.jpg Home - Statistical frameworks Good decisions in ecological, economic and social systems rest on separating signals from noise. I get unabashed joy from creating statistical frameworks and indices that cut to the heart of applied problems. One of the more recent of these is a new method for understanding how biodiversity builds up over time at a site, and the factors that affect the variety of life over long time scales. Other frameworks opened new ways of using spatial data to make inferences about the future state of ecosystems. A recreational number cruncher, I’ve been known to geek out on ecological and financial time series alike. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/9650aa8c-b3d7-42e3-875a-87031ca345e2/Screenshot+2022-01-13+160146.png Home - Science communication Scientific knowledge is often created faster than it percolates to the public and institutions. With global environmental change afoot, bridging this gap with simple and clear communication has never been more important. I take to heart that any problem, no matter how complex, can and should be explainable to a ten year old. I get satisfaction from conveying the world of science in a variety of settings: In technical talks, university lectures, learning modules and even to my young children at home. Science is a doorway to valuable perspectives, innovation and solutions for a changing planet - but one that is obscured by technical language and siloed knowledge. My goal in communicating science is to give people the access, the means and the motivation to walk through that door. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/f32fee9d-9372-4c34-af5a-ec7870a793e6/pexels-kampus-production-7658814.jpg Home - Urban agriculture As the world urbanizes, eyes turn to cities as places to grow vital food supplies. Vertical farming, aquaponics and greenhouse agriculture is booming. Still, urban agriculture faces viability and sustainability challenges. One path to overcoming these challenges is incorporating biodiversity and natural ecosystem processes into urban agricultural systems. I spent several years as a Senior Scientist/Biologist applying ecological principles to new green technologies. This includes a rich set of utilitarian design strategies - from biomimetic to biophilic approaches - that expand the ways that food systems can benefit people. Urban agriculture is an exciting proving ground for merging technological innovations, biodiversity and people to feed the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/c048fbef-5feb-46a5-a81e-df8ac0961ca9/Algae+bioreactor.jpg Home - Ecological design & synthesis Humans have entered a fascinating era where many ecosystems - from industrial bioreactors to life support systems for space travel - are designed and constructed from scratch. In a forthcoming paper, we term these synthetic ecosystems for their role as crucibles of ecological novelty. I spent two years developing one such ecosystem at McMaster University with industry partners, merging different food webs to turn food waste into crops. My ecological design work in urban agriculture also fits living and non-living pieces together for more functional and efficient ecosystems. It’s an exciting demonstration of an emerging twist: Whereas past ecology uncovered the role of biodiversity in ecosystems, its future may be in learning to recombine species for achieving planetary goals. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/40d94d82-0825-4c48-9290-2b9e279901be/Schinus_terebinthifolius_fruits.jpg Home - Invasive species Oceanic islands are the bellwethers of global biodiversity change. They are also among the most biologically-invaded places on Earth. I spent several formative years studying the spread of invasive plants and animals in the ecological microcosm of Bermuda. The experiences taught me the double-edged nature of non-native biodiversity - as a destructive force in many cases but providing valuable ecosystem goods and services in others. Mitigating the worst and encouraging the best of newly-arrived species is a pressing challenge in the age of rapidly-changing species distributions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/4b44c9f2-1b83-4441-854b-259f1a2c1ff3/Slide1.JPG Home - Protected areas The late biologist and icon EO Wilson advocated that half the Earth be set aside to protect the variety and abundance of life. Protected areas offer exciting opportunities for safeguarding our ecological future, ranging from ‘no take’ zones to areas integrating economy, social wellbeing and governance. I have worked with the Bermuda government on the most extensive evaluation of their Marine Protected Areas, and identifying key biodiversity hotspots. The path forward is a critical one as the world races to protect ecosystems that face intensifying threats and complex risk profiles. When combined with restoration, protected areas offer societies a rare opportunity for the future - to become nature-positive. https://www.matthammond.ca/media daily 0.75 2022-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/360fc3a3-0c6c-4332-8a1e-e8995ef1b530/Screenshot+2022-07-29+101240.jpg Media - Highlights from 2022 Rethink Sustainability Initiatives panel on food security https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/465369a0-ad52-412d-a5f4-7b45c2de51bc/Shed.png Media - Media coverage of innovative off-grid urban farm in shipping container https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/7cbf2404-cf7a-4881-bdff-86ed87a0a3a6/COIL.png Media - Description of grand-prize winning project for the 2022 Circular Opportunity Innovation Launchpad https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/56cd832e-fecb-4923-a1c2-a49cf1ea9c1d/BIOS+article.png Media - A 2021 Q & A on my early science career by the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/235494b4-939a-416b-8752-bbea8d6aa82c/Brampton+Shed.png Media - A 2021 news piece on renewable and sustainable urban farm I helped design & test https://www.matthammond.ca/about daily 0.75 2023-10-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/3ac06665-cf9a-4613-8c2e-757aaf14b403/Matt+3.jpg About - I am motivated by the natural world to understand and protect it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/429919fe-9b58-4db2-966b-4327c6fb64e5/banyan.jpeg About - I was lucky enough to travel widely while competing internationally in swimming. Soaking up varied cultures showed me the diversity of ideas, needs and relationships between people and the natural world. I marveled at the ethnobotanical knowledge remaining in pockets of Borneo and Amazonia. I saw - and tasted - firsthand how Polynesians managed their fisheries around the threat of ciguatera poisoning. Solutions are all around us if we look. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61da439221c0a76f5b378cce/5d20d290-2e2c-4375-9e53-a47ff4b6c67c/pexels-pok-rie-1726310.jpg About - I balance the left-brained activities of science with the study of traditional Chinese meditative and martial arts, like tai chi and baguazhang. I am an avid gardener who relishes having hands and feet in the dirt, still fondly remembering a year spent raising two dozen chickens. These practices remind me of the importance of seeing the world through a variety of lenses - intuitive and synthetic as well as cerebral and analytical. https://www.matthammond.ca/publications daily 0.75 2025-05-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Publications