Who’s in the lab
Elizabeth M Wolkovich
PROFESSOR OF FOREST AND CONSERVATION SCIENCES
I am interested in how communities assemble and dis-assemble with global change. I draw on theory from temporal community ecology with perspectives from population and ecosystem ecology, evolutionary biology, and climatology. Though I tend to address fundamental questions with hypotheses informed by theory and models, my research generally has strong applied angles. In particular much of my work to date has examined causes and consequences of plant invasion and the effect of climate change on the temporal assembly of plant communities.
Xiaomao Wang
PhD STUDENT
I am broadly interested in how climate change will shape our future forest ecosystems and how trees react to various environmental changes. For my master’s study, I investigated how environmental changes affect the same species growing at different latitudes. Later, I studied how plants with different defense strategies respond to soil nutrients. For my PhD research, I will be focusing on growth-reproductive trade-offs, with a concentration on mast seeding events. I would love to explore more on how trees are going to change their investment strategies under changing climate.
Christophe Rouleau-Desrochers
MSc student (former NSERC USRA)
I was an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Biology at the Université du Québec à Montréal, located in Montreal and am now a MSc student in the lab. During my academic journey, I dedicated two years to studying the vital domain of the Pileated Woodpecker in Quebec’s Boreal Forest. However, as I delved deeper into my research, I discovered a stronger passion for studying tree ecology rather than focusing solely on the birds. This realization prompted a redirection of my research interests. I am eagerly determined to expand my understanding of climate change’s various impacts on plant communities.
Victor Van der Meersch
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
My research program is anchored in understanding and forecasting ecosystem responses to global change, with a particular focus on forests. While my current work primarily focuses on temperate forest ecosystems, I have had opportunities to study tropical forests as well. I work across diverse spatial and temporal scales—from individual forests to entire continents and from decades to millennia. This allows me to examine a wide range of drivers of species distribution and community composition, including biological invasions, fire, impacts of agriculture on deforestation, and major climate change events. I consistently use cutting-edge methods, including Bayesian statistics, and always incorporate a strong mechanistic understanding of the processes at play in my modeling work.
Deirdre Loughnan
PhD as of April 2024! (Current collaborator)
I am interested in how communities are shaped by variation in abiotic and biotic environments and using functional traits to identify the drivers of species coexistence and performance. In completing my Master’s degree at UBC, I used functional traits to study the biogeography of plant-insect herbivore interactions on Garry oak across its latitudinal range. Working in the interior forests of BC, my doctoral research will focus on the relationship between and relative importance of functional traits and plant phenology as drivers of plant performance under our changing climate.
Ken Michiko Samson
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHER
I am an undergraduate student planning to study chemical and biological engineering and hoping to contribute to sustainable practices. I am generally interested in learning how things physically work and how they can be applied to industry and research. To do so, I would like to improve my computational skills in data analysis and learn how to convert raw data into meaningful insights by assisting with projects in the lab.
Devina Deng
Undergraduate Researcher (started 2025)
I am an undergraduate Statistics student at the University of British Columbia, with a growing interest in ecology as a potential concentration. I am interested in the impacts of global warming on both natural ecosystems and human societies. Motivated to explore these complex issues, I aim to apply statistical methods and data analysis tools to support meaningful research. Through my work at the Temporal Ecology Lab, I hope to contribute to the lab the study of climate change’s effects on plant life, while expanding my knowledge in both ecology and statistics.
Ai-Lun Fu
Undergraduate Researcher (started 2026)
I am an undergraduate Electrical Engineering student with a
passion for learning about the interdependencies between species in an
ecosystem, and how to model these dynamic relationships in forecasting
responses to climate change. In particular, I am enthusiastic about
programming and hardware for biological applications, and hope to gain
experience with statistical analysis. Through my time at the Temporal
Ecology Lab, I want to build a deeper understanding of how human
advancement affects the natural world and apply this knowledge in my
future work.
Brahmleon Deol
Undergraduate Researcher (summer 2026)
I recently finished my undergraduate studies in Environmental Science and plan to start a master’s program focused on physical oceanography and climatology. I am mainly interested in how climate change affects both abiotic and biotic interactions within ecosystems. Working at Temporal Ecology has allowed me to pursue my passions for fieldwork and to expand my knowledge of dendrology.