|
Matthew Mitchellhe/him
I am an Assistant Professor cross-appointed between the Department of Forest Resources Management in the Faculty of Forestry and Applied Biology in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. Broadly, my research focuses on how to manage human-dominated landscapes, specifically agricultural and urban landscapes, for both people and nature. This includes understanding how the arrangement of different land uses and habitats across these areas affects ecosystem services and biodiversity, quantifying and mapping the benefits these landscapes provide to people, and identifying key management actions that can lead to win-win situations for multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity.
I also lead the long-term biodiversity monitoring program at the UBC Farm and am working to develop new tools and approaches to effectively monitor agricultural biodiversity. Finally, I also am a co-instructor for LFS 250, a large second-year course that focuses on understanding food systems and how to make them more sustainable. Download my CV here: matthew_mitchell_cv_20221203.pdf |
Lab Members
Meet our graduate students and undergraduate research assistants!
Aaron Aguirrehe/they
MSc Student
I am a MSc student in the M2L2 and CHANS Labs interested in understanding how urban and agricultural land-use impacts bat abundance and diversity across Metro Vancouver. I have several years of experience working hands-on with wildlife throughout the United States including research projects aimed at the study and conservation of the world’s only flying mammals. For my research, I will be investigating where bats are abundant across the Metro Vancouver region as well as how they are using landscape features across urban and agricultural gradients. It is my hope that this research will be able to inform bat conservation with regards to land development in addition to providing crucial insights on the movement, behavior, and habitat selection of bats as the inevitable spread of white-nose syndrome continues.
|
Dan Forresthe/him
MSc-PhD Student
Urbanization is now a leading cause of biodiversity loss, and access to the limited nature and its benefits in cities is inequitably distributed among people. I am a MSc-PhD fast-track student in the M2L2 and CHANS Labs interested in understanding the hidden ways that human activities in cities may undermine nature and its benefits, so that we can change these relationships to make cities more biodiverse and equitable. In my dissertation, I’ll explore the ways that abundant food waste and turf grass lawns may undermine the diversity of birds in Vancouver, using field observations, statistical and conceptual models, and field experiments. I hope that this research will help identify interventions (e.g., private yard meadows, changes to waste bin designs) that disproportionately amplify urban biodiversity. I’ll be working closely with the City of Vancouver to help shape and apply my research and its findings.
|
Gabriela Duarteshe/her
Postdoctoral Researcher
Gabriela is a biologist with a PhD in ecology and works as an Ecosystem Services Specialist at Nature Conservancy Canada and as a Researcher at the International Institute for Sustainability. She is a problem-oriented sustainability scientist trained in conservation, landscape planning and environmental management at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. She also completed part of her education at the University of British Columbia. She aims to understand how people can transform social-ecological systems to make them more sustainable, resilient, and equitable. To this end, she conducts modelling and empirical research to improve the management and governance of social-ecological systems. She is particularly interested in the contributions that nature makes to people, including the economic and ecological mechanisms associated with these benefits, nature-based solutions, ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change and landscape resilience.
|
Brandon Wiegandall pronouns accepted
MSc Student
Brandon is a Forestry MSc student at the University of British Columbia, co-advised by Matthew Mitchell and Melissa McHale. Inspired by a pair of urban barn swallows who shared his home many years ago, Brandon aims to understand how best to integrate wildlife into our rapidly changing cities, while offering them optimal safeguard. He has a background in animal behavior, federal wildlife conservation policy, urban stewardship outreach, and hands-on urban ecological field work, as well as experience in wildlife rehabilitation and urban forestry. At UBC, these collective experiences and goals will be leveraged through a Master's thesis project focused on urban bat populations in Vancouver. Brandon strives to uncover how rising urban heat island effects influence food web and other behavioral dynamics for bats in the region, revealing how hyper-localized climates impact foraging strategies, prey abundance, and diet quality. Through this research he hopes to devise future-focused conservation strategies that will not only keep cities bat-friendly, but will also help carve out spaces for other urban species to thrive within.
|
Roberta Gonzalezpronouns
MSc Student
To come!
|
Isabel Rodriguez Rojaspronouns
Bat Activity on UBC Campus
Work Learn International Undergraduate Research Assistant
Hi! I'm Isabel! I just finished my undergrad degree in the Faculty of Forestry studying Natural Resource Conservation. I've always been passionate about ecosystem ecology and wildlife conservation, and I am interested in finding strategies to safely integrate wildlife species into our societies. I am stoked to be working in the lab this summer researching urban bats. Outside work, you can find me foraging mushrooms, rock climbing, and enjoying the mountains!
|
|
LAB ALUMNI
Graduate Students Laura Super (MITACS Intern) - 2019-2020 Undergraduate Students Grace Gooding - 2023-2024 Tabitha Vinu - 2023-2024 Bridget Woods - 2023 Gregory Corper - 2023 Sandra Gurguis - 2023 Julia Taylor - 2021-2023 Neil Saxvik - 2021-2022 Brooke Carlisle - 2021-2022 Jenny Goren - 2021-2022 Timothy Wong - 2022 Maki Watanabe - 2022 Zohreh Rezaie Manesh - 2020–2021 Robin Glover - 2021 Thomas Howey - 2020–2021 Emma Yates - 2020–2021 Leilani Pulsifer - 2020 (co-supervised with Kristen Walker) Christie Crews - 2020 (co-supervised with Kristen Walker) Tamara Dolotova - 2020 (co-supervised with Kristen Walker) Graham Matheson - 2020 Angela Liu - 2019 Katelyn Hengel - 2018–2019 |
