Research Groups

Biogeography Teaching and Research Lab

The focus of the Biogeography Lab is to document, study and teach about ecosystems in temperate and montane forests and savanna, and in alpine tundra. The lab has working relationships with UBC’s Emerging Media Lab, SEEDS Sustainability Program, Vantage College and local nature organizations (Pacific Spirit Park Society).

Climate and Coastal Ecosystem Lab

The Climate and Coastal Ecosystem Lab studies why the climate matters to society as well as ecosystems like coral reefs. The work provides insight into the causes and effects of climate change, public attitudes, policy options at home and abroad, and what can be done to adapt.

Climate and Cryosphere Lab

The Climate and Cryosphere Lab focuses on providing fundamental insights about the nature and implications of past and contemporary cryospheric change on landscapes, ecosystems and people. The lab’s members work in British Columbia, Alaska, Patagonia, Antarctica, Greenland, and the Himalayas.

Lab For Advanced Spatial Analysis

The lab focuses on advanced spatial analysis in the physical, health and social sciences, and in the intersection of these areas. This includes a focus on GIScience, both theoretical and applied, in subject areas where space and place are considered important explanatory elements, including biogeography, medical geography, conservation biology, and the social aspects of GIS.

Schwartz Geospatial Ecology Lab

Climate and land-use change are altering the frequency and intensity of disturbance and climate extremes. The Schwartz Geospatial Ecology Lab uses remote sensing and GIS, combined with field research methods, to address questions about the causes and consequences of disturbance and extreme events in forest landscapes.

UBC Micrometeorology Lab

The Micrometeorology Lab at UBC explores the physical, biological and chemical processes that control trace gas, water and energy fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere. The research group investigates how land‑atmosphere exchanges of greenhouse gas fluxes respond to a changing climate and disturbances, and how we can modify land management practices for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Williams Lab: Plant Ecology & Biogeography

The Williams Lab seeks to understand how evolution and ecology interact to change local abundances and distributions of species. Much of the group’s research is focused on plants in temperate savannas and grasslands, and the herbivores that eat them.

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