Ecology

The oceans are home to some of the most complex ecosystems on the planet. Simply considering the diversity of morphologies present in marine ecosystems, from microscopic planktonic single-celled organisms to the largest animals to have ever lived, exemplifies this diversity. The BC coast is home to an especially vibrant ecosystem due to the unusual combination of geological features and oceanic currents allowing for extremely high primary production that forms the base of the diverse local ecosystem. The productivity of systems like this is of great importance to human activities, such as fishing. However, the health of populations of valued species such as salmon depends on a health and functional ecosystem. This is just one of the many reasons why we need to understand the highly complex processes that govern ecosystem functions and structures.

At UBC, ecological research of oceanic systems is prominently featured with a broad range of interdisciplinary research. Several working groups focus on the ecology of commercially important species like salmonids and the modelling and management of their stocks (Healey, Hinch, Taylor, Christensen, McAllister, Pauly, Pitcher). Ecosystem engineers and keystone species are investigated due to their importance for local ecosystems (Lewis, Lindstrom, Martone, Trites, Harley, Richardson, O’Connor). Planktonic organisms from viruses and bacteria to microscopic crustaceans form the base of local ecosystems and all aspects of their biology are explored at UBC (Hallam, Suttle, Wegener Parfrey, Maldonado, Hunt, Keeling, Pakhomov). Finally, the importance of ecosystem health for social systems and their interactions are researched by several groups (Chan, Cheung, Clark, Kamat, Satterfield, Sumaila, Zeigler).

 

Kai Chan

Professor
IRES; Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website and Publications
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Themes within Chan’s lab include ecosystem services and biodiversity; the ecological and evolutionary underpinnings of invasions and infestations; and applied environmental ethics. Current research looks at social-ecological systems and how to improve the understanding and implementation of these systems in governance. Through analysis and modelling, the limitations, impacts and risks to ecosystem services are explored.

 

William Cheung

Professor and Director; Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Ocean Sustainability and Global Change
Institute for Oceans and Fisheries
Website and Publications
Email

The Changing Ocean Research Unit studies the effects of global climate and ocean changes on marine ecosystems, biodiversity and fisheries social-ecological systems. Led by Dr. William Cheung, the Unit assesses the biophysical and socio-economic vulnerabilities and impacts of marine climate change, and identifies mitigation and adaptation options. Its vision is “Predicting the future ocean under climate change”. Mission is to improve understanding of the past, current and future responses of marine ecosystems and fisheries to global change; and explore and inform policy-relevant solutions at local and global scales to improve human well-being and the sustainable use of ocean biodiversity and ecosystem services. Its strategies are to integrate multidisciplinary datasets and information across scales and domains, and facilitate democratization of knowledge through innovative partnerships, capacity building and outreach initiatives; and to apply and develop scenarios and models to understand the dynamics of changing oceans and ecosystems.

 

Villy Christensen

Professor
Zoology; Institute for Oceans and Fisheries
Website and Publications
Email

Christensen specializes in ecosystem modelling—in particular, data-driven ecosystem model construction. Past work has described global ocean models, studied global fish biomass and biodiversity trends in relation to seafood demand, and outlined new habitat capacity models.

 

Colin Clark

Professor Emeritus
Mathematics
Website
Email

Clark’s research is in behavioral ecology and the economics of natural resources, with emphasis on commercial fisheries management. Dynamic optimization and game theory arise prominently in these areas.

 

Steven Hallam

Associate Professor
Microbiology
Departmental Website and Laboratory Website
Email

The Hallam lab harnesses the power of environmental genomics to explore the microbial microcosms, describing microbial community structure and function across a wide range of ecosystems. Projects share a core set of interdisciplinary tools sourced from ecology, molecular biology, genetics and computer science. Microbial community members are viewed as constituents within the ecosystem providing nutritional, energetic or detoxification services.

 

Christopher Harley

Professor
Zoology
Departmental Website and Laboratory Website
Email

Harley’s lab researches coastal marine ecology and the impacts of climate change which include themes such as ocean acidification, thermal stress and global warming, climate change and salinity stress, the ecology of invasive species, and long-term ecological stress. Harley’s interests lie in how climatic factors, such as temperature, CO2, and pH, and biological relationships, such as predation and facilitation, interact to create ecological patterns in time and space.

 

Michael Healey

Professor Emeritus
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website
Email

Healey’s lab researches the ecology of Pacific salmon and they use these species to explore hypotheses about strategies for reproduction, energy allocation, and habitat choice. The variety of life history patterns displayed by Pacific salmon, and the fact that each species exists as many reproductively isolated populations, provides a rich opportunity to explore how related organisms solve ecological problems.

 

 

Scott Hinch

Professor
Forest and Conservation Sciences
Departmental Website and Laboratory Website
Email

The Hinch lab studies salmonid ecology, behaviour and physiology, and provides management systems with information needed for the conservation and sustainable use of fish resources. Research topics include physiology of migrations; social science and information exchange with stakeholders; environmental impacts on migrations; land-use impacts and restoration; effects of capture and release; stress, disease and pathogens; physiology and behaviour of offspring; and hydropower, fish passage and olfaction.

 

 

Brian Hunt

Assistant Professor
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
Website and Publications
Email

Hunt researches the structure and function of pelagic marine ecosystems and their response to climate forcing and anthropogenic impacts. Research focuses on the plankton that forms the base of all pelagic food webs, and extends into the higher trophic levels through research into bottom-up and top-down forcing processes. Unifying concepts of lower trophic level dynamics can inform our understanding of the food web response to perturbation.

 

Vinay Kamat

Associate Professor
Anthropology
Website
Email

Kamat has an interdisciplinary background including medical anthropology; ethnography; global health; outsourcing of clinical drug trials in India; childhood malaria in Tanzania; marine conservation in East Africa; dispossession; extractive industry; and political ecology. His work in Southeastern Tanzania examines the social impact of a large-scale marine conservation project (Marine Park) in the coastal region of Mtwara, following displacement and the enforcement of restrictions on fishing and extracting marine resources.

 

 

Patrick Keeling

Professor
Botany
Departmental WebsiteLaboratory Website, and Publications
Email

The Keeling laboratory works is on the molecular evolution of protists (i.e. eukaryotes that are not animals, fungi, or plants), that comprise the clear majority of eukaryotic diversity. The main interests are to reconstruct ancient evolutionary relationships, to look at the diversity and ecology of heterotrophic eukaryotes, to examine how parasites evolve and infect their hosts, and how endosymbiosis affects both host and symbionts.

 

Al Lewis

Professor Emeritus
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website
Email

Dr. Lewis is interested in understanding the interactions between oceans and plankton, especially how initial dispersal and survival, water properties, food conditions and predator numbers influence zooplankton. Lewis is especially interested in the functional morphology of copepods. These characteristics, when combined with distribution patterns, provide information on the dynamics of copepod populations and their role in food webs.

 

Sandra Lindstrom

Adjunct Professor
Botany
Website
Email

The north-east Pacific coast exhibits an extraordinarily diverse marine benthic seaweed flora. Molecular tools have allowed the Lindstrom lab to address questions of species limits and relationships and the biogeography of speciation in this environment. Novel findings allowed for certain species identifications, hypothesis on the existence of refugia within the glacial boundary, and to identify geographic boundaries’ role in speciation.

 

Maria Maldonado

Associate Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website and Publications
Email

Research in the Maldonado lab is directed towards understanding trace metal acquisition, metabolism, and nutrition of marine bacteria and phytoplankton. Fundamental questions in microbial physiology, ecology, and evolution are addressed to better understand how trace metal distribution and speciation may control global primary productivity. Laboratory physiological and biochemical investigations are complemented with field research.

 

Patrick Martone

Associate Professor
Botany
Departmental Website, Laboratory Website, and Publications
Email

The intertidal zone of wave-swept rocky shores is one of the most physically stressful habitats on Earth. The Martone lab is interested in intertidal seaweeds, which must survive these conditions wherever they settle and grow. Specific foci of research are the selective pressures driving diversity, convergent evolution, evolution of lignified cell walls, biomaterials and cell wall mechanics, algal physiology and climate change, and costs and benefits of epiphytism.

 

Murdoch McAllister

Associate Professor
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
Website and Publications
Email

The McAllister lab is applying Bayesian methods to fisheries stock assessment and providing quantitative decision support to non-governmental organizations, corporate clients, intergovernmental organizations, and government agencies.  Complex population dynamics and fisheries dynamics are being modeled. Statistical evaluation of model uncertainty in models fitted to data.

 

Charles Menzies

Professor
Anthropology
Website and Publications
Email

Hagwil hayetsk (Charles Menzies), member of Gitxaała Nation, conducts research and teaching on the ethnography of Western Europe and Coastal British Columbia, natural resource-dependent communities and resource management policies, and the political economy of social struggle. His book, “People of the Saltwater: An Ethnography of Git lax m’oon” discusses an economy based on natural-resource extraction by examining fisheries and their central importance to the Gitxaalas’ cultural roots. He is also the Director of The Ethnographic Film Unit at UBC https://anthfilm.anth.ubc.ca/

 

Mary O’Connor

Associate Professor
Zoology
Departmental Website, Laboratory Website, and Publications
Email

The O’Connor lab studies how the abiotic environment influences marine ecological communities. In particular, they want to understand what drives variation in ecosystem structure and function to better understand the ecological impacts of climate change and habitat modification and to explore how conservation efforts can be most effective given natural environmental changes.

 

Evgeny Pakhomov

Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website and Publications
Email

The Pakhomov Lab has a broad range of interests covering topics from species ecology, at the level from zooplankton to fish, to ecosystem structure as well as physical-biological and biochemical coupling. Recently, Pakhomov has developed interests in stable isotope ecology, in particular in techniques that use compound specific measurements to reconstruct trophic pathways in pelagic ecosystems.

 

Daniel Pauly

Professor
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; Zoology
Website and Publications
Email

Dr. Pauly’s research interests include aquatic ecosystems, Ichthyology and Fisheries management. He is also devoted to studying, documenting and promoting policies to mitigate the impact of fisheries on the world’s marine ecosystems. Pauly is also co-founder of FishBase.org, the online encyclopedia of more than 30,000 fish species, and he has helped develop the widely-used Ecopath modeling software.

 

Tony Pitcher

Professor
Zoology
Website and Publications
Email

Pitcher’s research addresses the impacts of fishing on aquatic ecosystems, the development of quantitative, multi-criteria evaluation frameworks and rapid appraisal techniques for evidence-based assessment of fisheries, management instruments and management goals, and a predictive understanding of how fish shoaling behavior impacts fisheries.

 

John Richardson

Professor
Forest and Conservation Sciences
Website and Publications
Email

The Richardson lab is interested in the ecological processes that limit populations and contribute to the assembly of communities, and how land use impacts those processes. They use experimental manipulations of small streams and riparian areas, and have manipulated inputs, species composition, abiotic factors, physical structure, etc., to test how these processes contribute to biodiversity and ecosystem function.

 

 

Terre Satterfield

Professor
Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability
Website and Publications
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Terre’s work concerns sustainable development in the context of debates about cultural meanings, environmental values, perceived risk, environmental, and ecosystem health. Her contribution to the publication “Ocean Grabbing” which refers to acts of dispossession or appropriation of marine resources or spaces, presents a framework to evaluate conservation or development initiatives for ocean grabbing.

 

Rashid Sumaila

Professor
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
Departmental Website, Research Unit Website, and Publications
Email

Sumaila specializes in bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the economics of high and deep seas fisheries. Sumaila has worked in fisheries and natural resource projects in Norway, Canada and the North Atlantic region, Namibia and the Southern African region, Ghana and the West African region and Hong Kong and the South China Sea.

 

Curtis Suttle

Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Botany
Website and Publications
Email

The Suttle lab explores the diversity, function, and impact of viruses and microorganisms on mortality, community structure and nutrient and energy cycling in aquatic systems. Methods range from isolation and characterization of novel isolates to metagenomic analysis of whole systems.

 

Eric Taylor

Professor
Zoology
Website and Publications
Email

The Taylor lab researches patterns of genetic variation within and between natural populations, the processes that promote and organize such variation, and their relevance to the origins and conservation of biodiversity. In particular, they are interested in population structure and the processes that influence population structure, speciation and hybridization, and the implications of these processes for conservation.

 

Andrew Trites

Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Departmental Website, Research Unit Website, and Publications
Email

Trites’ research is primarily focused on pinnipeds (Steller sea lions, northern fur seals, and harbor seals) and involves captive studies, field studies and simulation models that range from single species to whole ecosystems. The research program is designed to further the conservation and understanding of marine mammals, and resolve conflicts between people and marine mammals.

 

Laura Wegener Parfrey

Assistant Professor
Botany
Website and Publications
Email

The Parfrey lab studies communities of microbial eukaryotes with the goal of understanding their diversity and distribution across environments. They use high-throughput sequencing to characterize microbial communities within the phylogenetic framework of the eukaryotic tree of life. Currently, research focuses on eukaryotes in the human microbiome and microbial eukaryotic communities across environmental gradients.

 

Barbara Zeigler

Professor
Art History, Visual Art & Theory
Website
Email

Zeigler’s artistic practice is structured around an extended inquiry into ever-shifting relations between ecosystems and human, cultural structures. She has a particular interest in the language used to represent British Columbia’s fish populations and marine ecosystems.