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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​January 2022
  • The lab is excited to welcome Hannah Pilat as a new MSc student! Stay tuned for info about her exciting research plans!
  • The International Biogeography Society meeting that was planned for this month has been delayed until June... a much nicer time to visit Vancouver!  Corrina, Liam, and Jason will all be in attendance!

April 2021
  • The fantastic study led by former MSc student Faye Manning is now online at Freshwater Biology!
  • The lab managed a few socially distanced walks in the Kelowna area over the winter/spring... SOO looking forward to more regular, in-person interactions! But alas, Covid variants have different ideas... 

December 2020
  • Congratulations to Dr. Bruno Carturan for successfully defending and completing his dissertation!!
  • Congratulations to Mackenzie Repovs for successfully defending his M.Sc.!!
  • A manuscript describing our efforts instructing UBCO Biology undergraduate students on the fundamentals of Open Science has been accepted at Data Intelligence.  More info to come soon...    

October 2020
  • Welcome to Dr. Amanda Liczner - the recipient of the inaugural BRAES Post-doctoral Fellowship! Dr. Liczner will be collaborating with connectivity conservation scientists from across North America to identify key methodological impediments to identifying key locations for connectivity conservation
  • ​Meanwhile, still #WorkingFromHome... 

August 2020
  • Huge congrats to Bruno for having a second thesis chapter accepted for publication in eLife

May 2020
  • BRAES Post-doctoral Fellowship opportunity!!​ Application deadline May 29th, 2020. See details here. 

April 2020
  • Huge congratulations to PhD student Kayleigh Nielson, who has been awarded an NSERC CGS-D! This is well deserved Kayleigh!
  • ​Meanwhile, #WorkingFromHome... 

February 2020
  • Bruno has submitted another chapter from his dissertation for review.  Entitled "A spatially explicit and mechanistic model for exploring coral reef dynamics", this is an incredible tool that aims to help guide reef restoration efforts.  The manuscript will soon be posted on a preprint server.
  • ​As part of the ongoing "Fostering Open Science @ UBC" efforts, Jason is meeting with both the UBC Faculty Association, and UBC's AVP Research, to provide updates on our progress and to discuss next steps.

January 2020
  • A key milestone in our "Fostering Open Science @ UBC" efforts, UBC is now a member of the Open Science Framework Institutions platform. Check it out here!
    • ​Check out our blog entry at the Center for Open Science 
    • Check out the media coverage here.
  • Another paper from the HerbDivNet global collaboration is now in press at Global Ecology and Biogeography!  Check it out here.

​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 right 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...

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