Faculty and Professors in UVic Ecology
Follow the links in each PI's blurb to access lab-specific websites.
Faculty
Department of Biology
Gerry Allen’s research is broadly focused on the evolution, ecology and conservation biology of plants. Current and recent projects in her lab include the phylogeography of arctic-alpine plants, especially migration in response to postglacial climate change; the genetic structure, demography and reproductive ecology of rare plants; the influence of hybridization and polyploidy on speciation; and the phylogeny and phenotypic evolution of selected plant groups in western North America. She is curator of the University of Victoria Herbarium. Contact Gerry here. |
Brad Anholt is an evolutionary ecologist in the Department of Biology and the Director of the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. Current research in the Anholt Lab uses laboratory experiments and models to investigate the evolution of sex ratio variation in the copepod Tigriopus californicus. Contact Dr. Anholt here. |
Julia Baum is a marine ecologist and conservation biologist in the Department of Biology. Using statistical analyses of large data sets, field observations and experiments, researchers in the Baum Lab investigate how anthropogenic disturbances alter marine populations, community structure, and ecosystem stability, and the broader implications of these changes for our society. Current research focuses on remote Pacific coral reefs, north temperate marine ecosystems, and global meta-analyses. Contact Dr. Baum here, or Follow the Baum Lab on Facebook. |
John Dower is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences. He is a fisheries oceanographer by trade, but his broader interests include marine ecology (particularly plankton ecology), predator-prey interactions, and the physical processes that structure marine ecosystems. His work balances field time, laboratory time, and modelling. He is currently accepting graduate students. Contact Dr. Bower here. |
Rana El-Sabaawi is a food web ecologist in the Department of Biology. She is broadly interested in how anthropogenic activities influence aquatic food webs and ecosystem function in streams and coastal regions. Her group studies the effect of urban development on stream ecosystems (Vancouver Island), the importance of ecological and evolutionary processes in structuring stream ecosystems (Trinidad and Tobago), and the role of trophic dynamics in the survival of marine organisms, including Pacific salmon. Contact Dr. El-Sabaawi here. |
Pat Gregory's interests lie in the population and behavioural ecology of amphibians and reptiles, especially snakes. His current main areas of focus are: (1) reproductive ecology (e.g. consequences of viviparity, tradeoffs with other life-history traits); (2) anti-predator behaviour (e.g. death-feigning, crypsis, consequences of injury). These areas are in turn linked to studies of thermal relationships, feeding ecology, and habitat use and movements. He is also interested in applying the results of his work to conservation and management. Contact Pat here. |
Francis Juanes is a fisheries ecologist in the Department of Biology, where he holds the Liber Ero Chair in Fisheries Biology. His work focuses on predator-prey interactions in piscivorous fishes, ecological applications of passive acoustics, conservation genetics of salmonids and coastal shellfish, and ecology of juvenile salmon in both freshwater and coastal habitats. Research in the Juanes lab uses field surveys, lab experiments, modeling, and access to VENUS and NEPTUNE, the underwater cabled observatories run by UVic as part of Ocean Networks Canada. Contact Dr. Juanes here. |
Kim Juniper is a Professor in the Department of Biology and School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, and holder of the BC Leadership Chair in Ocean Ecosystems and Global Change. He is also chief scientist for the Ocean Networks Canada ocean observatory. Current research uses field studies and molecular tools to study microbial diversity and activity at hydrothermal vents and in oceanic waters. |
Terri Lacourse is a Paleoecologist and Palynologist in the Department of Biology. Research in Terri's lab focuses on the development and dynamics of plant communities since the last glaciation, with a focus on the history of temperate coniferous rainforest in coastal British Columbia. Terri is also interested in life history theory and the importance of species traits in directing forest composition of long ecological timescales. She currently teaches Study Design & Data Analysis and Paleoecology & Environmental Change. You can contact Terri here. |
Asit Mazumder is an Aquatic Ecologist in the Department of Biology. His research interests include nutrient-foodweb regulation of structure and function of freshwater and marine ecosystems, delineation of foodweb structure and energy sources (especially juvenile Pacific salmon), linkages among foodweb structure, energy transfer efficiency and transfer of contaminants, diversity and stability of planktonic communities, and processes regulating water quality and public health risks under anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Contact Dr. Mazumder here. |
Steve Perlman’s research focuses on the evolution and ecology of associations between hosts (usually insects) and their infectious agents, from parasites and pathogens to obligate mutualists, from nematodes and parasitoids to microbial endosymbionts that are transmitted from mothers to their offspring. He is also interested in disease ecology, symbiosis, and insects in general. Dr. Perlman can be contacted via the Perlman Lab, or here. |
Tom Reimchen’s research comprises two major themes. 1: the adaptive radiation of Haida Gwaii stickleback and 2: nutrient uploading from marine to terrestrial communities. Several peripheral interests occasionally detract: a) spatial geometry of predator and prey in relation to the evolution of animal coloration and b) ecological factors facilitating diversifying selection and polymorphisms in natural populations. Learn more about Dr. Reimchen’s research here or contact here. |
Réal Roy is a microbial ecologist in the Department of Biology and a member of the Centre for Forest Biology. He studies the ecology of
bacteria. His work focus on bacteria involved in the nitrogen and the methane cycles in soils and sediments. His work combines various microbiology techniques (gas chromatography, metabolic inhibitors, molecular DNA, etc.) to understand regulation of soil and sediment processes in natural and contaminated systems. He has also studied issues around vaccination refusal as part of a more general interest in the relationship between microorganisms and humans. He teaches courses in the area of bacterial biogeochemistry, epidemiology of human bacterial diseases and ecology of bacteria in fermented food. |
Verena Tunnicliffe is Director of VENUS and a cross-appointed in the Department of Biology and the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences. where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Deep Ocean research. Dr. Tunnicliffe's interests have a wide scope in marine communities and population dynamics. She uses extreme conditions to examine habitat limitations, species adaptations and community assembly. Most field work in the Tunnicliffe Lab is conducted in the deepsea using hard substratum environments. Contact Dr. Tunnicliffe here. |
Biology Adjunct Faculty & Visiting Scientists
Joe Antos is a terrestrial plant ecologist with a focus on forest plants in Western North America. Current research interests include: (1) age structure and dynamics of old-growth subalpine forests; (2) succession and clonal growth of forest understory plants following volcanic disturbance at Mount St. Helens; (3) disturbance ecology, including forest development following insect outbreaks; (4) effects of tree invasion on mountain meadows; (5) demography and prolonged dormancy of rare plants; and (6) reproductive ecology of dioecious plants. He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biology; contact him here. |
Cole Burton is an Adjunct Professor in the Biology Department at UVic and Research Ecologist with Alberta Innovates Technology Futures. He has broad research interests in conservation biology, vertebrate ecology, and environmental management, with particular expertise in the ecology and conservation of terrestrial mammals. Cole’s current projects focus on assessing mammal community responses to anthropogenic impacts, developing monitoring methodologies to support adaptive management, and evaluating conservation effectiveness. Contact Cole for undergraduate and graduate research opportunities.
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Sarah Dudas is a marine ecologist at the Centre for Shellfish Research at Vancouver Island University where she holds a Canada Research Chair. Broadly, her research focuses on how physical and biological forces and their interactions drive species patterns. Her interests also include invasion biology, larval ecology, biological oceanography and conservation. Current projects in her ‘Ecological Interactions Research Program’ investigate how human activities alter bottom-up/top-down regulation of coastal marine systems, taking advantage of ecosystem alterations from aquaculture activities as ‘experiments-of-opportunity’. Research is both lab and field based and utilizes VIU’s Deep Bay Marine Field Station. Contact Dr. Dudas [email protected]. |
Stephen Insley is a behavioural ecologist whose work has three general themes: (1) animal acoustic communication (e.g. vocal recognition); (2) applying behavioural research and techniques to conservation biology (e.g., noise, fisheries interactions); and (3) conservation through local stewardship (e.g. community-based ecological monitoring). His approach involves experimental field biology, mostly with pinnipeds and seabirds, and working with remote subsistence communities, mostly in the Bering Sea. Contact Steve here. |
Patrick O’Hara is with Environment Canada based at the Institute of Ocean Sciences (DFO). Current interests include spatially explicit modeling of risk of impact associated with human activities and pollution; and predictive modeling of seabird distributions, which primarily will be used to identify characteristics of key foraging habitats that are used by seabirds to fuel migration, feed chicks, or simply survive winter. Patrick co-supervises undergraduate and graduate students in Biology (Dr. Dower) and Geography (Dr. Canessa). Contact Patrick here.
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Marc Trudel is a fisheries ecologists based at Fisheries and Oceans Canada's (DFO) Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, BC. His research focuses on understanding the effects of ocean conditions and climate change on the marine distribution, migration, and production of Pacific salmon and involves a long-term sampling program at sea. Marc co-supervises graduate students in the Department of Biology and Earth and Ocean Sciences, in collaboration with the aquatic ecology labs (Mazumder, Dower, El-Sabaawi, and Juanes). He also works collaboratively with Dr. Cullen on an initiative to monitor radiation in sea water and sea food. Contact Marc here. |
Neville Winchester is an entomologist and conservation biologist based in the Departments of Biology and Geography. His primary research on temperate and tropical canopy arthropod diversity focuses on factors that influence the distribution, abundance, and organization of arthropod communities in ancient rainforests. Current projects involve documenting the community composition of the canopy microarthropod fauna in perched organic litter in the montane forests on Vancouver Island and the Church Forests in Northern Ethiopia. Learn more about Neville's research here, and contact him here. |
School of Environmental Studies
Trained in geography, resource management and environmental studies, Natalie Ban draws upon many disciplines from natural and social sciences in her work, including ecology. Her research interests span ethnoecology, conservation biology, marine spatial planning, conservation planning and implementation, and evaluation and mapping of cumulative impacts, all mainly in marine and coastal systems. Natalie’s current research focuses on identifying options for management and conservation of biodiversity whilst respecting people’s needs and uses of resources. Natalie leads the Marine Ethnoecology Research lab in the School of Environmental Studies. Contact her here |
Eric Higgs' focus is on ecological restoration and intervention ecology, ranging from detailed field-based projects to policy and philosophical studies. Since 1996 Eric has run the Mountain Legacy Project, in which collaborators and students study landscape change (historical and landscape ecology) in Canada's mountainous regions based on the world's largest systematic set of historical mountain photographs. Eric is also concerned with the ecological and social implications of emerging hybrid and novel ecosystems. Contact Eric here. |
Trevor Lantz is a terrestrial ecologist who works at a variety of scales to understand environmental change in northern ecosystems. Members of his lab combine detailed field investigations of vegetation and microenvironment with broad-scale change detection and spatial pattern analysis. By combining field investigations and regional mapping his research program seeks to link knowledge of key processes with data on landscape-level variation in critical drivers. Current research projects in the western Arctic focus on permafrost degradation, storm surges, shrub encroachment, catastrophic lake drainage, and anthropogenic disturbance. Dr. Lantz is accepting new graduate students. Contact him here. |
Valentin Schaefer’s research and practice focus on natural areas in cities using an approach combining ecology, natural history and landscape architecture. Val explores urban ecosystems, urban agriculture, the impact of nature in the city on physical and emotional well-being and the role of invasive species and ecological memory in creating novel ecosystems. Val’s lab website urbanecology.ca has full details of his projects well as full text of his students’ major projects in the Restoration of Natural Systems Program. Contact him here.
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Brian Starzomski is a broadly-trained community ecologist and conservation biologist. Dr. Starzomski uses a combination of experimental, observational, and synthetic approaches to understand controls on species diversity. In particular, the field work his lab does takes place on the Central Coast of British Columbia in Temperate Rainforest and bog communities, and in the highest elevations of the Coast Range mountains. There is no taxonomic bias to Dr. Starzomski's research, though recent work has focused on birds, insects and other microarthropods, and forest communities. Dr. Starzomski usually accepts one new graduate student per year. Contact him here. |
Distinguished Professor and Hakai Professor in Ethnoecology, Nancy Turner CM, OBC, PhD, FRSC, FLS is an ethnobotanist whose research integrates the fields of botany and ecology with anthropology, geography and linguistics, among others. She is interested in the traditional knowledge systems and traditional land and resource management systems of Indigenous Peoples, particularly in western Canada. Nancy has worked with First Nations elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America for over 40 years, collaborating with Indigenous communities to help document, retain and promote their traditional knowledge of plants and habitats. Contact Dr. Turner here. |
John Volpe leads the Seafood Ecology Research Group (SERG) in the School of Environmental Studies. Trained as a population and molecular ecologist, he and his students use data intensive approaches to uncover linkages between ecological and social sustainability with a focus on marine-based food production systems. "Sustainable aquaculture", aquaculture-capture fisheries interactions, invasive species and the application of complex systems theory to issues of sustainability are topics of current interest and research. Contact John here. |
School of Environmental Studies Adjunct Faculty & Visiting Scientists
Jason T. Fisher is a wildlife ecologist with the Alberta government and adjunct professor at the School of Environmental Studies. As a landscape and population ecologist, he researches how human-caused habitat loss affects species’ persistence, distribution, and community interactions. Jason’s lab focuses on large mammals in mountain, boreal, and coastal environments, but also includes bird and plant biodiversity. His research is often applied directly to management and policy that enhance species conservation. Contact Dr. Fisher here.
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Department of Geography
Trained as an ecologist and evolutionary biologist, Chris Darimont is a multi-disciplinary conservation scientist in the Department of Geography. Chris is increasingly interested in applying both natural and social science tools to confront conservation problems that are both conceptually interesting and applied. A focus of his lab, the Applied Conservation Science Lab, is working with the wildlife and people of the central coast of British Columbia. More globally, Chris and his team are also interested in studying the behaviour of a most unique predator, human beings. Contact Chris here. |
Trained as a biogeographer, Phil Dearden’s interests encompass both marine and terrestrial ecology with a strong focus on conservation and particularly on protected area designation and management. With active research interests in Thailand, Tanzania and Ghana as well as Canada Dearden and his graduate students focus on improving conservation outcomes with studies ranging from pure ecology through to community livelihoods and their environmental impacts. He is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas and leads the Marine Protected Areas Research Group at UVic.
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Dennis Jelinski's formal training is in the fields of animal ecology, plant ecology, and physical geography particularly biogeography. The Lab focuses on wildlife ecology, landscape ecology, and conservation biology. Current work in the lab emphasizes movement ecology and how movement is mediated by landscape structure. Recent work has examined movement patterns in female grizzly bears based on maternal status, mountain caribou and predation risk by cougars in the South Purcells, and moose on the Bonaparte Plateau in relation to anthropogenic landscape change. Other projects include the effects of post-fire environments on habitat use and reproductive success of woodpeckers, the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem and its implications for home range analyses, and biogeographic range change in white-tailed deer and mule deer. Dr. Jelinski is currently accepting graduate students; contact him here.
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Department of Anthropology
Lisa Gould’s research examines costs and benefits of group living in primates, and ecological adaptations of species to diverse habitats. Since 1987, she has worked in southern Madagascar with ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), an ecologically flexible, female-dominant primate which lives in mixed-sex groups and inhabits diverse forest habitats. Some recent research projects include: sex differences in feeding and nutritional ecology, anti-predator behavior, male sociality and dispersal, hormonal correlates of behavior (particularly comparing adult male testosterone and glucocorticoid levels during mating and non-mating periods) and demographic responses to a prolonged drought. For more information, see here.
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Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Laura Cowen is a statistical ecologist in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Her research focuses on studying capture-recapture methods and applications; in particular she is interested in how tag loss can be incorporated directly into models. Laura is also involved in the Population Research Group and is an affiliate with the Centre for Studies in Demography and Ecology. Through these affiliations she has worked on several studies involving Victoria’s injection drug user population. Contact Laura here. |
Junling Ma's research includes Mathematical modeling in epidemiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, using the tools of differential equations and dynamical systems, stochastic processes, and statistical methods. Current projects include modeling the mortality patterns of seasonal epidemics and pandemics of influenza, and using these patterns to infer the evolution of the influenza type A virus; the spread of HIV among injection drug users and sex workers, and the design of optimal control strategies; plague in 14-16 centuries in London; infectious diseases models that incorporate realistic individual interactions in a population; statistical inference of disease parameters.
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