We study how ecosystems work, how they change, and what that means for humans.
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We 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.
Our research includes:
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Updates
- 1 April 2014 Nicole Knight defended her honours thesis, entitled The variable impacts of predation on seagrass mesograzer communities in Trevor Channel, British Columbia
- 7 March 2014 Natalie and Mary are heading to Washington DC for the ZEN 2 meeting! www.zenscience.org - 9 January 2014 Congratulations to Matt Siegle for passing his comprehensive exams! ABD... - 12 December 2013 CONGRATULATIONS ROSS WHIPPO, MSc! Ross just successfully defended an outstanding thesis entitled, "Seagrass epifaunal communities of Barkley Sound: Epifaunal diversity varies across small spatial and temporal scales." - 24 November 2013 Congratulations to Joey! She has received an NSERC award to support a research exchange to visit Dr. Sam Myers' group at Harvard to study human nutrition and marine food webs. -21 November 2013 Former O'Connor lab directed studies student Coreen Forbes' article "Fear of the dark? Community-level effects of non-lethal predators change with light regime" was named 'editor's choice' for the December issue of Oikos! - 1 November 2013 Matt successfully defended his dissertation proposal, entitled 'Effects of sub-lethal temperature stress at the biochemical, individual, and population level in the splash pool copepod, Tigriopus californicus'. -25 October 2013 Ross gave a talk on seagrass ecology at the American Academy of Underwater Sciences/European Scientific Diving Panel Joint International Symposium in Curacao. -16 October 2013 The lab met with Dan Simberloff and discussed the past and future of ecology as a science! -22 September 2013 Visiting researcher Maria Beger joins the O'Connor lab for several weeks to collaborate on ongoing dispersal/connectivity research. -10 September 2013 Matt's paper about yelloweye rockfish populations is out in PLoS ONE. Older updates |
Picture of the Week
Congratulations Nicole!! New Lab Papers
Geographical limits to species-range shifts are suggested by climate velocity. Burrows, Schoeman...O'Connor et al. Nature. 2014.
Increased temperature variation poses a greater risk to species than climate warming. D. A. Vasseur, J. P. DeLong, B. Gilbert, H. S. Greig, C. D. G. Harley, K. S. McCann, V. Savage, T. D. Tunney, and M. I. O'Connor. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. 2014. Linking Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Current Uncertainties and the Necessary Next Steps. P. Balvanera, I. Siddique, L. Dee, A. Paquette, F. Isbell, A. Gonzalez, J. Byrnes, M. O'Connor, B. Hungate and J. Griffin. BioScience. Subtle population genetic structure in Yelloweye Rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) is consistent with a major oceanographic division in British Columbia, Canada. Siegle, M. R., E. B. Taylor, K. M. Miller, R. E. Withler, K. L. Yamanaka. 2013. PLoS ONE. Predators alter community organization of coral reef cryptofauna and reduce abundance of coral mutualists. Stier A.C. and Leray M. 2013. Coral Reefs. doi: 10.1007/s00338-013-1077-2. Notes from the field: Lessons learned from using ecosystem service approaches to inform real-world decisions. Ruckelshaus ... Bernhardt, et al. 2013. Ecological Economics. Ecosystem services and beyond: Using multiple metaphors to understand human-environment relationships. Raymond, Singh, Benessaiah, Bernhardt, et al. 2013. BioScience. Global imprint of climate change on marine life. Poloczanska ... O'Connor, et al. 2013. Nature Climate Change. Snail behavioral preference for flowering stems does not impact Spartina alterniflora reproduction. Zerebecki, R & Hughes, A.R. 2013. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 487. Climate change and species interactions: beyond local communities. B. Gilbert and M. I. O'Connor. 2013. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. |
