- Biodiversity structure and dynamics
- Novel ecosystems
- Ecological monitoring
- Determinants of local diversity in light of climate change
Expertise Profile
The province of BC is the last "best place on earth" for many plant and animal species. In fact, fully half of all species in Canada call BC home.
Yet climate change and human interference threaten to reduce those numbers drastically.
Dr. Brian Starzomski studies biodiversity in the landscape, its resilience and how best to minimize the threats that plant and animal species face.
He is the winner of the prestigious Ian McTaggart-Cowan Professorship of Biodiversity, Conservation and Ecological Restoration in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria.
Dr. Starzomski and his lab team work mainly in the field, conducting experiments and observational studies to look at changes in community pattern and structure.
The majority of his work focuses on alpine plant communities in the Coast Mountains of southwestern British Columbia and the blanket bog ecosystems of the Central Coast.
Much of the latter research is funded by the Hakai Beach Institute on the Central Coast, where Dr. Starzomski also teaches some of his undergraduate UVic classes.
In the School of Environmental Studies, he collaborates with Dr. Eric Higgs on the Mountain Legacy Project. They replicate photos taken over 80 years ago to compare and study change in mountain environments.
Dr. Starzomski is part of Ecology@UVic, an effort to unite ecologists across campus, providing a forum that fosters discussion, problem-solving, and collaboration, culminating in outstanding ecological research.
Related Links
Dr. Starzomski's Faces of UVic Research video: http://youtu.be/juGant1tEyc
The Starzomski Lab: http://web.uvic.ca/~starzom/
The Mountain Legacy Project: http://mountainlegacy.ca/
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