Anne Bjorkman (UBC Ph.D. student, co-advised with Greg Henry) - annebj@gmail.com

I am interested in the evolutionary consequences of climate change in natural systems. I am currently conducting field experiments to determine whether evolutionary adaptation has occurred in high arctic plant communities as a result of long-term warming experiments initiated in 1992. A second experiment will investigate the ability of plants from the low Arctic to migrate northward and establish in new environments as temperatures increase. The results of this research will increase our understanding of the likely effects of future climatic changes in Arctic ecosystems and throughout the world.

Heather Kharouba (UBC Ph.D. student) - kharouba(at)zoology.ubc.ca

My research is focused on understanding how insects are responding to climate change and how interactions with their host plants are influencing this response. Specifically, I’m interested in how the geographic distributions and phenology of insects are shifting, as well as whether they are tracking similar responses in their host plants. I’m currently exploring broad scale phenological changes in Canadian butterflies and their adult food plants to see whether they are changing at the same rate in response to recent climate change. On a much smaller scale, I’m also testing how increases in temperature affect the temporal interaction between the western tent caterpillar (Malacosoma californicum pluviale) and its host plant, red alder (Alnus rubra). I hope this work will help direct conservation efforts to effectively protect species into the future.
https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~kharouba

Jenny McCune (UBC Ph.D. student) - jmccune(at)interchange.ubc.ca

Given our relatively short human lifespan, it’s hard to imagine being able to view time from the perspective of an 800 year old tree, not to mention several generations of 800 year old trees. I’m interested in trying to gain this perspective in studying how plant communities change over tens, hundreds and thousands of years. In particular, I want to figure out how the actions of human societies in the process of managing and utilizing plants have caused changes in vegetation, and how these human impacts have interacted with climate change and other processes over time to determine how the vegetation looks today. I think a long-term perspective can give us insight into how sensitive plant communities are to change, how long it takes them to respond to change, and whether they can return to the way they were before the change happened. Knowing these things can inform the management decisions we make in order to conserve or restore plant communities.

Liz Kleynhans (UBC Ph.D. student, co-advised with Sally Otto) - kleynhan(at)interchange.ubc.ca

Typically when people investigate how species might adapt or evolve to cope with environmental change they only consider single species in isolation. However, in the real world species occur in communities with different numbers and diversities of competitors. My research investigates how community context (both biotic and abiotic) might influence the capacity of a species to adapt or evolve to new circumstances. I hope to tackle this question by using a variety of experimental and theoretical approaches.

Jamie Leathem (UBC M.Sc. student, co-advised with Jeannette Whitton) - kermit(at)interchange.ubc.ca

I am interested in using plant traits to learn about ecological strategies of northern plants. My research uses trait data to test whether invasive plants in Yukon Territory exhibit different ecological strategies than native plants. I am using both functional trait data I gathered from roadside plant populations, as well as data from published floras. Understanding the traits of invasive plants in Yukon could help us predict what species may become invasive in the future. Another important aspect of my research is using this same trait data to test current theories of community assembly. I am testing whether the distribution of traits in roadside plants supports neutral theory or niche-based theories. To date, most research in this area has focused on highly diverse tropical systems, and I am excited to apply it to a much less diverse sub arctic system.

Nathan Kraft (UBC Biodiversity Research Centre Postdoctoral Fellow) - nkraft(at)biodiversity(dot)ubc(dot)ca

I study the ecological and evolutionary forces that structure communities. My research integrates aspects of community ecology, ecophysiology, and community phylogenetics. Recent projects have focused on the forests of lowland Amazonia and plant communities in California. In addition to a focus on species coexistence, my research interests include species responses to climate change and the assembly of regional biotas..
http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~nkraft/

Hiroshi Tomimatsu
UBC Postdoctoral Fellow (Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science) 2007-2009
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Tohoku University
htomi(a)bios.tohoku.ac.jp
http://www.geocities.jp/hrs_tomi/index_e.html

Tanis Gieselman
UBC M.Sc. 2008-2010: "Changes in grassland community composition at human-mediated edges in the south Okanagan"
Current Position: Visiting Research Student, Royal Botanical Garden Kew's Millenium Seed Bank, UK
tgiesel(at)interchange.ubc.ca