Ecological consequences of climate fluctuations and change in mountain ecosystems

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Research in my lab examines the processes giving rise to the patterns of biodiversity observable in nature. These patterns reflect the impacts of changing climate over millennia. Recently, rapid anthropogenic climate changes have accelerated on-going changes in biodiversity attributable to other human stressors. A global extinction crisis, in which many scientists believe global climate change to be the second-largest contributor (after land use change), is decreasing the number of species at a global scale. Results at local scales, however, are less predictable and very context-specific. My students and I conduct experimental and observational studies to better understand the workings of local-scale processes. In particular, we currently seek to understand how changing climate, in the form of temperature increases, growing season precipitation decreases, and altered snow amounts leads to changes in patterns of biodiversity in mountain regions of British Columbia.