September 2019
BLERF members had hugely successful conference experiences in August, at the CSEE/ESC meeting in Fredericton, and the ESA meeting in Louisville Kentucky. The highlight was recently graduated MSc student Faye Manning (second from right in picture) winning the best student presentation award at the CSEE meeting! She presented her MSc research that experimentally demonstrated the potential for diatoms to successfully disperse via adherence to waterfowl feathers. Huge congrats Faye, and to everyone for your excellent presentations! The picture to left includes current PhD students Kayleigh Nielson (left), Corrina Thomsen (right), former BLERF MSc students and now AAFC collaborators Dave Ensing (second from left) and Chandra Moffat (third from left). I'm the old bearded guy.
Congrats to Faye Manning for successfully defending her MSc thesis in August!
And a warm welcome to new MSc student Dawn Machin to the BLERF lab!
July 2019
BLERF members are gearing up for conferences in August. Bruno is heading to the ESA in Louisville, Kentucky, and Jason, Kayleigh, Faye, and Corrina are all heading to the CSEE meeting in Fredericton. The last time we had 3 students attend a CSEE together was way back in 2011 in Banff. Turns out Chandra and Dave are heading to Fredericton too, so BLERF reunion pics to follow!
June 2019
The provincial government has awarded $137,400 to BLERF, specifically to support Kayleigh Nielson's PhD research on biocontrol of spotted knapweed within the context of climate change. Fun fact: this research includes collaborations with BLERF alumni David Ensing (now Biologist at AAFC Summerland) and Chandra Moffat (Research Scientist at AAFC Summerland). Kayleigh is co-supervised by long-time BLERF collaborator Rose De Clerck-Floate (AAFC Lethbridge).
Mac jumped through the proposal defence hoop for his MSc - congrats Mac!
May 2019
Huge (late) congrats to Brian on successfully defending his MSc thesis in March!
Welcome to our undergraduate research assistants, Eamon and Claire!
Enormous congrats to Corrina for securing both a Killam Doctoral Scholarship (UBC), and NSERC-CGSD! Amazing.
January 2019
A new year, and hopefully a fun and productive one for the lab.
Warm welcome to PhD student Kayleigh Nielson, co-advised by Dr. Rose De Clerck-Floate (AAFC).
Congrats to Carmen for successfully defending her MSc! Next up: Brian!
October 2018
Carmen's defence is set for November 20th!
Roxanne's MSc research has been accepted at Northwest Science - awesome work Roxanne!
Faye's diatom dispersal experiments are chugging along... can't wait for the findings!
With Work Study funding secured, Emma Corbett and Nicholas Tochor will again be joining our lab for the academic year! Welcome back!
March 2018
Bruno's first dissertation chapter, "A modified trait-based framework for assessing the resilience of ecosystem services provided by coral reef communities", has been accepted at Ecosphere, linked here. Well done Bruno!
Another Pither & Pickles collaboration comes to fruition! Our paper "Belowground biotic interactions moderated the post-glacial range dynamics of trees", with co-authors Alejo Ordonez, Suzanne Simard, and Jack Williams, has been accepted at New Phytologist. link here. And all associated code and data at our OSF site.
February 2018
The lab is definitely not the same in Jon's absence.
Brian and Carmen are winding down... soon to defend!
Faye has her diatom culture going, ready for the fun experiments!
October 2017
Honorary BLERF post-doc Dr. Jon Bennett has landed a job at U. Sask! Much rejoicing.
July 2017
Collaborator Dr. Brian Pickles visits and gets a full dose of interior BC wildfire smoke!
The extreme fire risk is thwarting field work plans...
May 2017
A highly successful lab trip to the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Ecology & Evolution in Victoria, BC. Bruno, Carmen, and Brian provided oral presentations, and all were fantastic! Fun was had by all.
Our lab welcomes 2 new members this summer:
Faye Manning will officially be starting her MSc in September, and starting in June will be a lab research assistant.
Emma Corbett was awarded a NSERC USRA, and will be applying her considerable botany knowledge to a number of our projects. Welcome to you both!
Another long-awaited "Pither & Pickles" paper... finally accepted at FEMS Microbiology Ecology. Check it out here.
April 2017
Two papers accepted at the beginning of April! Both are collaborations between Jason & students from other labs. See the publications page...
March 2017
After a rather long and tortured history, collaborative work with UBC-O diabetes and health researcher Dr. Sanjoy Ghosh has finally been accepted... see it here.
January 2017
Attended the 2017 meeting of the International Biogeography Society in Tucson - fantastic event! Great to catch up with my old Enquist lab mates from the U of Arizona, and to meet new members. Looking forward to the 2019 meeting in Málaga, Spain!
October 2016
Welcome to new MSc student Alex (Christopher) Johnston, who brings some Canadian maritime culture to the lab! BC forests are gonna be a shock to this Prince Edward Islander...
MSc student Brian Muselle presented a poster at the Entomological Society of America meeting in Florida. And apparently did not wear either a Marvel shirt or a Habs jersey!
June 2016
New publications from Jason & collaborators:
Mehrbod Estaki, Jason Pither, Peter Baumeister, Jonathan P Little, Sandeep K Gill, Sanjoy Ghosh, Zahra Ahmadi-Vand, Katelyn R Marsden, and Deanna L Gibson. Cardiorespiratory fitness as a predictor of intestinal microbial diversity and distinct metagenomic functions. accepted pending revisions. Microbiome.
Hart, M.M., Zaitsoff, D., van der Heyde, M., and J. Pither. Testing life history and trait-based predictions of AMF community assembly. accepted. Pedobiologia - Journal of Soil Ecology.
Awards!
Congratulations to M.Sc. student Carmen Chelick for being awarded multiple awards since March 2016:
- UBC Okanagan Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship
- Society of Woman Geographers Evelyn L. Pruitt National Minority Fellowship
- The Canadian Council on Ecological Areas Stan Rowe Home Place Award
- And last but certainly not least: NSERC CGSM!
Congratulations also to:
- M.Sc. student Brittany Altwasser for being awarded a UBC University Graduate Fellowship!
- M.Sc. student Brian Muselle for being awarded a UBC graduate travel grant - which he'll use to attend the Entomological Society of America meeting in Florida this coming September
- Ph.D. candidate Bruno Carturan for being awarded a UBC graduate travel grant - which he'll use to attend the upcoming Coral Reef Symposium in Honolulu
January 2016
Lots of valuable discussion surrounding our Science paper concerning productivity-diversity relationships (PDR) among herbaceous plant communities:
Technical comment by Laanisto & Hutchings. Check out more at the "publications" page.
Our response.
September 2015
Another paper in press from Liana Collette's M.Sc. research: niche model predictions of Russian olive in North America. See Publications for more details.
Congrats to Brittany Altwasser for representing the BLERF well at her first ever conference: the International Conference on Mycorrhiza, in Flagstaff.
Welcome to new M.Sc. recruit Carmen Chelick, fresh out of a NSERC USRA summer research project with us. Thrilled that you decided to stay Carmen!
Welcome to new Honours student Taylor Weixl, fresh out of an Undergraduate Research Award position with us. Taylor will be investigating freshwater diatom dispersal in the field.
July 2015:
Congrats to Roxanne Snook (who I co-advised with Dr. Ian Walker) on the successful defence of her M.Sc. thesis! Word is that forests will never look as enchanting to her unless they are RandomForests.
Congrats to Bruno (PhD student, who I co-advise with Dr. Lael Parrott) on the successful completion of his comprehensive exams!
A productive summer for publishing from members of the BLERF lab:
Articles appearing in a rather diverse array of journals: Ecological Complexity, Invasive Plant Science & Management, American Journal of Botany, Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry (wha?), Canadian Entomologist (accepted July 15), and an article published in Science! See the publications page for info and links...
A belated welcome to new M.Sc. student Brian Muselle, who will be working with Dr. Howard Thistlewood and me, modelling the impending invasion of the apple maggot in the Okanagan region of B.C.. Only catch: he's a Habs fan.
March 2015:
Congratulations to Carmen Chelick and Taylor Weixl, who have each been awarded undergraduate research scholarships for the summer!
February 2015:
Welcome to post-doctoral research associate Janice Brahney! In a short-term appointment (February-April), Janice will be helping us set up a diatom dispersal field study before she starts an NSERC postdoc position in Earth Sciences in May 2015.
Liana's first publication from her M.Sc. thesis is in press at Invasive Plant Sciences and Management. Congrats Liana!
January 2015:
NEW WEBSITE! Still under construction, but will be much easier to maintain... Check back often for updates!
Just returned from the meeting of the International Biogeography Society meeting in Bayreuth, Germany. What a fantastic conference! So many great talks, and interactions with extremely clever ecologists and biogeographers. I presented some old diatom research of mine that I'm finally resurrecting...
Welcome to Brittany Altwasser, who has started her M.Sc. with the lab! Brittany will be learning all about historical biogeography and biodiversity patterns...
Congrats to former M.Sc. Dave Ensing for the publication of (so far) one of his thesis chapters in the March 2015 issue of Ecological Complexity (see publications). Two down, one more to go Dave!
Fall 2014:
old news...
BLERF members had hugely successful conference experiences in August, at the CSEE/ESC meeting in Fredericton, and the ESA meeting in Louisville Kentucky. The highlight was recently graduated MSc student Faye Manning (second from right in picture) winning the best student presentation award at the CSEE meeting! She presented her MSc research that experimentally demonstrated the potential for diatoms to successfully disperse via adherence to waterfowl feathers. Huge congrats Faye, and to everyone for your excellent presentations! The picture to left includes current PhD students Kayleigh Nielson (left), Corrina Thomsen (right), former BLERF MSc students and now AAFC collaborators Dave Ensing (second from left) and Chandra Moffat (third from left). I'm the old bearded guy.
Congrats to Faye Manning for successfully defending her MSc thesis in August!
And a warm welcome to new MSc student Dawn Machin to the BLERF lab!
July 2019
BLERF members are gearing up for conferences in August. Bruno is heading to the ESA in Louisville, Kentucky, and Jason, Kayleigh, Faye, and Corrina are all heading to the CSEE meeting in Fredericton. The last time we had 3 students attend a CSEE together was way back in 2011 in Banff. Turns out Chandra and Dave are heading to Fredericton too, so BLERF reunion pics to follow!
June 2019
The provincial government has awarded $137,400 to BLERF, specifically to support Kayleigh Nielson's PhD research on biocontrol of spotted knapweed within the context of climate change. Fun fact: this research includes collaborations with BLERF alumni David Ensing (now Biologist at AAFC Summerland) and Chandra Moffat (Research Scientist at AAFC Summerland). Kayleigh is co-supervised by long-time BLERF collaborator Rose De Clerck-Floate (AAFC Lethbridge).
- Official announcement from the Government of BC.
- Media Coverage: Kelowna Daily Courier
Mac jumped through the proposal defence hoop for his MSc - congrats Mac!
May 2019
Huge (late) congrats to Brian on successfully defending his MSc thesis in March!
Welcome to our undergraduate research assistants, Eamon and Claire!
Enormous congrats to Corrina for securing both a Killam Doctoral Scholarship (UBC), and NSERC-CGSD! Amazing.
January 2019
A new year, and hopefully a fun and productive one for the lab.
Warm welcome to PhD student Kayleigh Nielson, co-advised by Dr. Rose De Clerck-Floate (AAFC).
Congrats to Carmen for successfully defending her MSc! Next up: Brian!
October 2018
Carmen's defence is set for November 20th!
Roxanne's MSc research has been accepted at Northwest Science - awesome work Roxanne!
Faye's diatom dispersal experiments are chugging along... can't wait for the findings!
With Work Study funding secured, Emma Corbett and Nicholas Tochor will again be joining our lab for the academic year! Welcome back!
March 2018
Bruno's first dissertation chapter, "A modified trait-based framework for assessing the resilience of ecosystem services provided by coral reef communities", has been accepted at Ecosphere, linked here. Well done Bruno!
Another Pither & Pickles collaboration comes to fruition! Our paper "Belowground biotic interactions moderated the post-glacial range dynamics of trees", with co-authors Alejo Ordonez, Suzanne Simard, and Jack Williams, has been accepted at New Phytologist. link here. And all associated code and data at our OSF site.
February 2018
The lab is definitely not the same in Jon's absence.
Brian and Carmen are winding down... soon to defend!
Faye has her diatom culture going, ready for the fun experiments!
October 2017
Honorary BLERF post-doc Dr. Jon Bennett has landed a job at U. Sask! Much rejoicing.
July 2017
Collaborator Dr. Brian Pickles visits and gets a full dose of interior BC wildfire smoke!
The extreme fire risk is thwarting field work plans...
May 2017
A highly successful lab trip to the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Ecology & Evolution in Victoria, BC. Bruno, Carmen, and Brian provided oral presentations, and all were fantastic! Fun was had by all.
Our lab welcomes 2 new members this summer:
Faye Manning will officially be starting her MSc in September, and starting in June will be a lab research assistant.
Emma Corbett was awarded a NSERC USRA, and will be applying her considerable botany knowledge to a number of our projects. Welcome to you both!
Another long-awaited "Pither & Pickles" paper... finally accepted at FEMS Microbiology Ecology. Check it out here.
April 2017
Two papers accepted at the beginning of April! Both are collaborations between Jason & students from other labs. See the publications page...
March 2017
After a rather long and tortured history, collaborative work with UBC-O diabetes and health researcher Dr. Sanjoy Ghosh has finally been accepted... see it here.
January 2017
Attended the 2017 meeting of the International Biogeography Society in Tucson - fantastic event! Great to catch up with my old Enquist lab mates from the U of Arizona, and to meet new members. Looking forward to the 2019 meeting in Málaga, Spain!
October 2016
Welcome to new MSc student Alex (Christopher) Johnston, who brings some Canadian maritime culture to the lab! BC forests are gonna be a shock to this Prince Edward Islander...
MSc student Brian Muselle presented a poster at the Entomological Society of America meeting in Florida. And apparently did not wear either a Marvel shirt or a Habs jersey!
June 2016
New publications from Jason & collaborators:
Mehrbod Estaki, Jason Pither, Peter Baumeister, Jonathan P Little, Sandeep K Gill, Sanjoy Ghosh, Zahra Ahmadi-Vand, Katelyn R Marsden, and Deanna L Gibson. Cardiorespiratory fitness as a predictor of intestinal microbial diversity and distinct metagenomic functions. accepted pending revisions. Microbiome.
Hart, M.M., Zaitsoff, D., van der Heyde, M., and J. Pither. Testing life history and trait-based predictions of AMF community assembly. accepted. Pedobiologia - Journal of Soil Ecology.
Awards!
Congratulations to M.Sc. student Carmen Chelick for being awarded multiple awards since March 2016:
- UBC Okanagan Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship
- Society of Woman Geographers Evelyn L. Pruitt National Minority Fellowship
- The Canadian Council on Ecological Areas Stan Rowe Home Place Award
- And last but certainly not least: NSERC CGSM!
Congratulations also to:
- M.Sc. student Brittany Altwasser for being awarded a UBC University Graduate Fellowship!
- M.Sc. student Brian Muselle for being awarded a UBC graduate travel grant - which he'll use to attend the Entomological Society of America meeting in Florida this coming September
- Ph.D. candidate Bruno Carturan for being awarded a UBC graduate travel grant - which he'll use to attend the upcoming Coral Reef Symposium in Honolulu
January 2016
Lots of valuable discussion surrounding our Science paper concerning productivity-diversity relationships (PDR) among herbaceous plant communities:
Technical comment by Laanisto & Hutchings. Check out more at the "publications" page.
Our response.
September 2015
Another paper in press from Liana Collette's M.Sc. research: niche model predictions of Russian olive in North America. See Publications for more details.
Congrats to Brittany Altwasser for representing the BLERF well at her first ever conference: the International Conference on Mycorrhiza, in Flagstaff.
Welcome to new M.Sc. recruit Carmen Chelick, fresh out of a NSERC USRA summer research project with us. Thrilled that you decided to stay Carmen!
Welcome to new Honours student Taylor Weixl, fresh out of an Undergraduate Research Award position with us. Taylor will be investigating freshwater diatom dispersal in the field.
July 2015:
Congrats to Roxanne Snook (who I co-advised with Dr. Ian Walker) on the successful defence of her M.Sc. thesis! Word is that forests will never look as enchanting to her unless they are RandomForests.
Congrats to Bruno (PhD student, who I co-advise with Dr. Lael Parrott) on the successful completion of his comprehensive exams!
A productive summer for publishing from members of the BLERF lab:
Articles appearing in a rather diverse array of journals: Ecological Complexity, Invasive Plant Science & Management, American Journal of Botany, Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry (wha?), Canadian Entomologist (accepted July 15), and an article published in Science! See the publications page for info and links...
A belated welcome to new M.Sc. student Brian Muselle, who will be working with Dr. Howard Thistlewood and me, modelling the impending invasion of the apple maggot in the Okanagan region of B.C.. Only catch: he's a Habs fan.
March 2015:
Congratulations to Carmen Chelick and Taylor Weixl, who have each been awarded undergraduate research scholarships for the summer!
February 2015:
Welcome to post-doctoral research associate Janice Brahney! In a short-term appointment (February-April), Janice will be helping us set up a diatom dispersal field study before she starts an NSERC postdoc position in Earth Sciences in May 2015.
Liana's first publication from her M.Sc. thesis is in press at Invasive Plant Sciences and Management. Congrats Liana!
January 2015:
NEW WEBSITE! Still under construction, but will be much easier to maintain... Check back often for updates!
Just returned from the meeting of the International Biogeography Society meeting in Bayreuth, Germany. What a fantastic conference! So many great talks, and interactions with extremely clever ecologists and biogeographers. I presented some old diatom research of mine that I'm finally resurrecting...
Welcome to Brittany Altwasser, who has started her M.Sc. with the lab! Brittany will be learning all about historical biogeography and biodiversity patterns...
Congrats to former M.Sc. Dave Ensing for the publication of (so far) one of his thesis chapters in the March 2015 issue of Ecological Complexity (see publications). Two down, one more to go Dave!
Fall 2014:
old news...
