Current members
Graduate Students
Sandra Emry (she/her) | PhD candidate
Sandra is broadly interested in how anthropogenic change is affecting coastal communities. Her research is focused on looking at how the ecophysiology of various habitat forming seaweed species such as Fucus distichus, will respond to multiple stressors, including identifying critical thresholds and implications for community structure.
Twitter: @sandraemry
Fiona Beaty (she/her) | PhD candidate
Fiona studies the impact of humans on British Columbia’s coastal ecosystems and communities. She brings together natural and social science research approaches to understand how social-ecological systems are adapting to climate change, pollution, and resource extraction. Her dissertation research includes: a meta-analysis on the interactive effects of ocean warming and acidification on marine ectotherms; a series of lab and field-based experiments to test the adaptive capacity of a marine snail (Nucella lamellosa) to climate change; and a community-based participatory research study to characterize and map the distribution of diverse values associated with Howe Sound/Átl’ka7tsem (Squamish Nation place name). She is strongly motivated by action-oriented research, bringing together diverse ways of knowing, advancing reconciliation through research, and very passionate about connecting her research to conservation and marine spatial planning within the Salish Sea and beyond! Fiona also loves puzzles – they are such a prime escape and meditation in this COVID life. Twitter: @fionabeaty. Personal website: www.fionabeaty.ca
Rebecca Hansen (she/her) | MSc student
Rebecca’s research interests are alarmingly scattered, but generally involve marine ecology in the age of anthropogenic climate change. Her Masters research focuses on intertidal kelp in BC, and how climate change and local environmental gradients are shaping these communities. Her previous projects include studying coral reef benthic communities and their responses to marine heatwaves, and reviewing intertidal survey methods for Indigenous-led marine use planning. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, baking, reading, swimming, diving and paddleboarding. Theoretically on Twitter @RebeccaLGHansen.
Natalie Rivlin (she/her) | PhD Candidate (co-supervised with Brian Leander)
Sophie Johnston | MSc student
Visiting Faculty Member
Camila Martins 
I am an Associate Professor at Federal University of Rio Grande – FURG (Brazil) and a current member of SETAC-Brazil and SETAC-Latin America boards. My main research field is aquatic toxicology. In this context, I have been studying effects of a variety of compounds, including metals, pesticides, biofoulings, and contaminants of emerging concern on different bioindicators such as microalgae, micro and macro invertebrates, and fish. Recently, my research has expanded into understanding the associated effects of climate changes and metal contamination on freshwater and marine calcifying organisms, by analyzing ion flux and biomarkers involved in the biomineralization. This project has been developing at the University of British Columbia (UBC, Vancouver/BC), supported by a National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) award.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Iria Giménez (she/her) | Postdoctoral fellow
(W)undergraduate Students
Naomi Lubkin | BSc Honours student
Past members
Amelia Hesketh (she/her) | PhD candidate
Amelia explored how intertidal invertebrate foundation species are affected by ocean & climate change. You can almost never find her on Twitter @invertebroad and can find outdated details about her research on her personal website. Really, you should just send her an email if you want to get in touch.
Graham Brownlee (he/him) | MSc student
Jess Kennedy (she/her) | MSc student (co-supervised with Katie Marshall)
Jess’s research centred around intertidal mussel freeze tolerance. Many temperate intertidal mussel species have the remarkable ability to survive being frozen alive and she was really interested in the physiological mechanisms that enable mussels to be freeze tolerant. She was also investigating what some potential consequences of experiencing freezing stress might be, such as potentially increased predation susceptibility and/or lowered feeding rates. Twitter: @jess_kennedy98
Jessica Li | BSc Honours student
Jessica’s research was on the interactive effects of salinity and temperature on the performance of the mottled seastar, Evasterias troschelii. Little is known about Evasterias and following a 2013 disease outbreak, they replaced the keystone sea star, Pisaster ochraceus, as our most abundant local star.
Carter Burtlake | Undergraduate researcher
Carter was a SURE summer student in his 5th year at UBC studying Biology. He is passionate about all things marine. Carter investigated how abiotic factors predict sessile organisms’ habitats in the intertidal zone. A large portion of his work was dedicated to investigating how substrate orientation influences temperature through altering angle of incidence.
Rayan Moodad | BSc Honours student
Caitlin Mayo | USRA Student
Ryan Ju | BSc Honours student
Alyssa Madden-Gehman | Postdoctoral fellow | Twitter @alyssamina
Lara Calvo (she/her) | Undergraduate researcher
Lara explored how the habitat-forming foundation species, Fucus distichus and Balanus glandula, impact diversity, abundance, and community structure of associated species. Through conducting field manipulation experiments and surveys, she investigated factors that determine the upper limits of rockweed and barnacles. Lara also gained undergraduate research experience under Fiona Beaty, where she helped her on a meta-analysis that investigates how ocean acidification and warming impact marine ectotherms. Lara loves anything outdoors, and some of her favourite things to do are backpacking, kayaking, and snowboarding!
Madeleine Abbott (she/her) | Undergraduate researcher, Honours student
Madeleine’s research explored the host-parasite relationship between hermit crabs and rhizocephalan parasites. She was interested in how rhizocephalans affect host behaviour and thermal tolerance, as well as what determines the distribution of these parasites in the field. She investigated these ideas through a mix of field surveys and laboratory experiments. Madeleine loves to hike and horseback ride! Twitter: @mad_abbott
Miranda Andersen (she/her) | Undergraduate researcher, Honours student
Miranda’s research focused on the ecological relationships of the orange-striped green anemone, Diadumene lineata, a widely distributed clonal species that has been introduced to the coastal habitats of British Columbia. She took a particular interest in D. lineata because it is relatively understudied for such a successful global invader. Through this work, she hopes to gain an understanding of how D. lineata interacts with indigenous species and influences local diversity, while spending lots of time in the field. The results from this project will describe the trophic relationships of the species and inform whether D. lineata should be properly classified as an invasive species in B.C. Outisde of work, Miranda is always in the water! Swimming, kayaking, and diving are her favourite activities!
Kiana Stark | Undergraduate researcher
Kellan Woo | Undergraduate researcher
Colin MacLeod (he/him) | Postdoctoral fellow
Colin’s research integrates parasite ecology and global change biology in the marine environment. Parasitic infection can alter every aspect of host physiology and behaviour, from reproduction to survival, and from predator evasion to resource competition. Any of these infection-mediated effects could be significantly modified by changes to the abiotic marine environment. During his postdoctoral fellowship at UBC, Colin investigated the combined effects of ocean acidification, ocean warming, and trematode infection on the physiology and behaviour of four species of littorinid snails found in Barkley Sound and the Strait of Georgia.
Jakob Thyrring | Postdoctoral fellow
Danja Currie-Olsen (she/her) | Undergraduate researcher, Honours student
Danja’s research focused on the freezing tolerance of predators in the intertidal zones along the West Coast of British Columbia, specifically Pisaster ochraceus, Evasterias trochellii and Nucella lamellosa.
Cassandra Konecny (she/her) | MSc student
Cassandra was interested in how communities will respond to climate change. More specifically she investigated how increased thermal variation will influence community structure and composition in tidepools. She combined field manipulations with mesocosm experiments to see how thermal variation will influence algal-herbivore interactions and ultimately the composition of these communities. Check out her website here!
Angela Stevenson (she/her) | Postdoc (@deepseaslug)
Glass sponges are cosmopolitan in the deep sea (>70 m), but uniquely form dense reefs as shallow as 30 m in British Columbia. Angela used mesocosm experiments to understand the sensitivity and resilience of reef building glass sponges to ocean warming and acidification. She also used field and mesocosm experiments to study the impacts of thermal stress on arm regeneration of crinoids (intra- and interspecific), with broader implications for paleoecology, species resilience to climate change, and cascading effects on the benthic community. She used extensive diving technologies to access specimens from shallow to mesophotic depths. See Angela’s blog to learn more about sponges, crinoids and the mesophotic.
Veronika Franzova (she/her) | Undergraduate researcher 2017-2019
Veronika was an undergraduate student avidly and hectically pursuing a degree in Marine Biology. She is currently working on a project looking at the effects of climate change on trematode parasites collected on Vancouver Island.
Em Lim (they/them) | Undergraduate researcher
Em was a URSA student studying the effects of ocean acidification on an invasive parasite. They were previously researching the direct and indirect effects of ocean acidification on caprellids, a marine amphipod. Find Em on twitter @sea_en_emily or check out their blog here.
Charlotte Matthews (she/her) | Undergraduate researcher (@charmatthews_)
Charlotte is interested in subtidal ecology and the impact of climate change on these sensitive habitats. Her undergraduate research experience, under Dr. Angela Stevenson, includes observing crinoid infestor diversity and distribution along the bathymetric gradient in the Philippines. As well as, testing the effect of thermal stress on assimilation rates of our local crinoid, Florometra serratissima.
Mikalyn Trinca Colonel | Undergraduate researcher 2019
Mikalyn is an enthusiastic undergraduate student who is fascinated in all thing’s subtidal ecology and environmental science. Her research experience under Dr. Angela Stevenson, has brought her to the depths of Philippine’s oceans working on feather star community ecology. She is currently interested in the impacts which marine plastics have on the glass sponge reefs of coastal British Columbia.
Emma Foxcroft | Undergraduate researcher
Emma is in her third year of honours animal biology, and has enjoyed volunteering with Dr. Stevenson and helping with her research on glass sponges and feather stars. She is interested in looking at the impact of climate change on marine communities, and hopes to focus on this in her honours thesis project next year.
Josianne Haag | Undergraduate researcher
Josianne is an undergraduate student interested in the human impacts of re-suspension of sediments and acidification on glass sponges in Howe Sound.
Maya Brassard | Undergraduate researcher
Maya is an undergraduate student interested in the how biodiversity or lack thereof affects people’s overall health in Indigenous communities within Canada. She is interested in learning more about how the environment can influence the social determinants of health and hopes to better connect the biological to the social.
Carli Jones | Undergraduate researcher
Gillian Trotter | Undergraduate researcher
Emma Green | Undergraduate researcher
Emma was a USRA summer student looking at how climate change warming may affect different populations of two species of intertidal snail, Littorina sitkana and Littorina scutulata, along the BC coast.
Olivia Schaefer | Undergraduate researcher
Heather Reid | Undergraduate researcher
Jenny Hwang | Undergraduate researcher
Norah Brown | PhD student
Norah worked on the effects of climate change on fouling communities, with an emphasis on the effects of invasive species. She manipulated carbon dioxide in the field using mesocosms and measured the resulting changes in community structure. Norah expanded her work to naturally acidified sites in the Mediterranean Sea.
See Norah’s web page for more details.
Carla Di Filippo | Undergraduate researcher
Kat Anderson | PhD student
Kat was interested in the effects of anthropogenic stressors, particularly ocean acidification, on plant-herbivore interactions. Her experimental work included laboratory investigations of algal growth and invertebrate feeding rates and field manipulations of carbon dioxide concentrations in artificial tide pools.
See Kat’s web page for more details.
Gabby Doebeli | Undergraduate researcher
Sarah Endenburg | Undergraduate researcher
Sachi Ouchi | Undergraduate researcher
Sharon Kay | Undergraduate researcher
Sharon studied how the intertidal sea star community of the Burrard Inlet changed following sea star wasting disease. She specifically looked at how differential disease susceptibility may result in disproportional declines of certain sea star species, and even indirectly benefit some sea star populations.
Sarah Ho | Undergraduate researcher
Sarah was interested in studying human impacts on marine ecosystems and how we can reduce these threats. Her honours thesis focused on the effect of human trampling on rocky intertidal communities in Taiwan.
Kelsey Flynn | Undergraduate researcher
Katie Marshall | Postdoctoral fellow
Jake Dytnerski | Undergraduate researcher
Jennifer Jorve | PhD student
Jenn was interested in the effects of climate change on marine algae, particularly kelp. She studied the ability of seaweeds to adapt to climate stress. She was co-supervised by Patrick Martone.
Rebecca Kordas | PhD student
Becca studied the ecological impacts of climate warming by experimentally increasing temperature in the field. She was interested in the effects of global warming on interspecific interactions such as competition, facilitation, and herbivory, and on ecological processes such as succession. She was co-supervised by Ladd Johnson.
Manon Picard | MSc student
Manon investigated the impacts of ocean acidification on the early life stages of oysters, which are important for aquaculture in British Columbia. Much of her research was based in situ at the Island Scallops aquaculture facility on Vancouver Island. Personal website here.
Laura Tremblay-Boyer | PhD student
Laura was our resident fisheries biologist. She studied the ongoing range contraction of large pelagic predators in the Pacific Ocean, and conducted research in New Caledonia. She was co-supervised by Steve Martell.
Megan Vaughan | MSc student
Megan worked on the effects of ocean acidification on predator-prey interactions. Her species of interest included the sunflower star and the red sea urchin, and she investigated the impacts of OA on their behaviour and feeding rates. Personal webpage here.
Theraesa Coyle | Undergraduate researcher
Theraesa was a USRA / honors student who studied the effects of regional variation in salinity on plant-herbivore interactions. She combined field manipulations in West Vancouver, Lions Bay, and the Gulf Islands with laboratory studies on the physiological tolerances of limpets, snails, and seaweeds.
Jessie Clasen | PhD student
Jessie’s research interests included the diversity and functioning of microbial communities, and how these communities were related to other components of nearshore ecosystems (e.g., kelp beds). Her work complimented ongoing work on the re-establishment of sea otters in British Columbia (BCCES).
Jocelyn Nelson | MSc student
Jocelyn studied invasive tunicates in the framework of multiple stressors. She deployed settlement plates throughout British Columbia and as far south as California to better understand how factors like temperature and salinity facilitate or limit the spread and impact of these invasive species.
Heather Kharouba | PhD student
Heather worked on the impacts of climate change on butterflies, moths, and their host plants, with a particular interest in how warming affects the phenology of these species and their interactions. She was co-supervised by Mark Vellend.
Rebecca Gooding | PhD student
Becca’s research focused on the impacts of climate change on a predator-prey interaction: the sea star Pisaster and the mussel Mytilus. She showed that the sea stars actually grow faster in future climate conditions, and that these effects were likely to impact prey populations via changes in predation rates.
Rebecca Martone | Postdoctoral researcher
Rebecca co-coordinated an interdisciplinary project (BCCES) examining ecosystem service production in nearshore coastal ecosystems in response to sea otter reintroduction. Her work focused on the productivity, diversity, and stability of subtidal communities in response to trophic cascades in kelp forest ecosystems. Rebecca now works for Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Ryan Crim | MSc student
Ryan investigated the effects of temperature and ocean acidification on marine invertebrates, particularly endangered abalone. His work ranged from climate change impacts on fertilization to larval development to adult growth and performance, and is showing that important non-additive effects emerge when temperature and carbon dioxide are manipulated simultaneously.
Kyle Demes | PhD student
Kyle worked on seaweeds – particularly kelps – at the intersection of biomechanics, ecology, and evolution. His work included studies of evolutionary context of variation in morphology and material properties across taxa, and on kelp phenotypic plasticity, growth, and survival in the field.
Sarah Nienhuis | MSc student
Sarah studied the effects of ocean acidification on calcifying marine invertebrates. Her research has examined the effects of OA on sea urchin growth, consumption, and population dynamics, and the effects of OA on calcification in dogwhelks.
Gerald Singh | PhD student
Gerald studied the productivity and diversity of intertidal communities, particularly mussel beds, in the context of sea otter reintroduction to areas they were formerly extirpated. He sought to provide policy relevant results that can help resolve disputes between resource extraction and species conservation. Gerald is now working on his PhD at UBC with Kai Chan.
Penny White | MSc student
Penny studied edible seaweeds in the genus Porphyra. She characterized the seaweed’s genetic population structure in British Columbia, and investigated the use of Porphyra by First Nations peoples. She was co-supervised by Sandra Lindstrom.