We study how ecosystems work, how they change, and what that means for humans.

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: 
  • Exploring seagrass ecosystems in British Columbia
  • Experimentally warming aquatic ecosystems
  • Understanding how temperature affects species interactions and ecosystem processes
  • Understanding relationships between marine ecological structure and human seafood-derived nutrition

Interested in grad school? 
Check out our blog post on getting in and getting on as a grad student.

New Lab Papers

Climate change affects low trophic level marine consumers: warming decreases copepod size and abundance. Garzke, J., Ismar, S. M. H., & Sommer, U. (2014). Oecologia. doi:10.1007/s00442-014-3130-4

Strengthening confidence in climate impacts science. O'Connor et al, 2014. Global Ecology and Biogeography.

The effect of region, body size, and sample size on the weight-length relationships of small-bodied fishes found in eelgrass meadows. MR Siegle, CLK Robinson and J Yakimishyn. Northwest Science. 2014.

Diet and body temperature in mammals and birds. Clarke and O'Connor. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 2014.

A bioenergetic framework for the temperature dependence of trophic interactions, Gilbert et al, Ecology Letters. 2014.

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. 

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