Research and Publications
We are very interested in biodiversity. Where species occur and why they're there are actually pretty poorly understood, though ecologists have gotten much better at understanding how changing landscapes (through habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation) changes biodiversity for the worse. Biodiversity is being lost globally, though sometimes invasive species and "weedy" species increase the total biodiversity in more local areas that you may know well. Southeastern Vancouver island is a good example of that: we've carved up the beautiful Garry Oak ecosystems so that almost none remains and what is left is heavily degraded (the number of invasive species from other parts of the world is enormous). The special species that are found nowhere else in Canada (and sometimes the world) are heading for extinction, and unless we figure out how to commit to taking better care of this special ecosystem, it will be completely lost in the coming decades.
We seek to understand where biodiversity is (a good example is our partnership with BC Parks to survey biodiversity through BC protected areas: https://www.inaturalist.ca/projects/bc-parks, another is the Biodiversity of the Central Coast website and app), how people impact patterns of biodiversity both through deep time (thousands of years, especially work done on the Central Coast) and through contemporary human impacts (e.g., climate change, resource extraction). We use a combination of experiments, observational studies, and statistical analyses of big datasets to answer biodiversity questions.
One group of students in a class I taught pointed out that I said "Species are great" a lot. It's true: species really are great and we should do all we can to understand where they occur and in what numbers, and figure out how to make sure humans don't drive any more species to extinction.
We use inaturalist.ca a lot, and encourage everyone to use this tool to contribute biodiversity data. A main project we facilitate is the BC Parks iNaturalist Project, a collaborative project to collect biodiversity observations around British Columbia. If you're interested in getting better iNaturalist observations, here's a guide that might help! This website also provides much more information, including tips and tricks: bcinat.com
We are very interested in biodiversity. Where species occur and why they're there are actually pretty poorly understood, though ecologists have gotten much better at understanding how changing landscapes (through habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation) changes biodiversity for the worse. Biodiversity is being lost globally, though sometimes invasive species and "weedy" species increase the total biodiversity in more local areas that you may know well. Southeastern Vancouver island is a good example of that: we've carved up the beautiful Garry Oak ecosystems so that almost none remains and what is left is heavily degraded (the number of invasive species from other parts of the world is enormous). The special species that are found nowhere else in Canada (and sometimes the world) are heading for extinction, and unless we figure out how to commit to taking better care of this special ecosystem, it will be completely lost in the coming decades.
We seek to understand where biodiversity is (a good example is our partnership with BC Parks to survey biodiversity through BC protected areas: https://www.inaturalist.ca/projects/bc-parks, another is the Biodiversity of the Central Coast website and app), how people impact patterns of biodiversity both through deep time (thousands of years, especially work done on the Central Coast) and through contemporary human impacts (e.g., climate change, resource extraction). We use a combination of experiments, observational studies, and statistical analyses of big datasets to answer biodiversity questions.
One group of students in a class I taught pointed out that I said "Species are great" a lot. It's true: species really are great and we should do all we can to understand where they occur and in what numbers, and figure out how to make sure humans don't drive any more species to extinction.
We use inaturalist.ca a lot, and encourage everyone to use this tool to contribute biodiversity data. A main project we facilitate is the BC Parks iNaturalist Project, a collaborative project to collect biodiversity observations around British Columbia. If you're interested in getting better iNaturalist observations, here's a guide that might help! This website also provides much more information, including tips and tricks: bcinat.com
Selected publications (Google Scholar Profile)
Boucher, N.P., A. Ladle, M. Anderson, C. Procter, S. Marshall, G. Kuzyk, B.M. Starzomski, J.T. Fisher. 2022. Cumulative effects of widespread landscape change alter predator-prey dynamics. Scientific Reports. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-15001-3 Obrist, D.S., P.J. Hanly, N.E.M. Brown, C.M. Ernst, S.B.Wickham, O.T. Fitzpatrick, J.C. Kennedy, W. Nijland, L.Y. Reshitnyk, C.T. Darimont, B.M. Starzomski, J.D. Reynolds. 2022. Biogeographic features mediate marine subsidies to island food webs. Ecosphere. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.4171 Srivastava, D., MacDonald, A., Pillar, V., Kratina, P., Debastiani, V., Guzman, L.M., Trzcinski, M., Dézerald, O., Barberis, I., de Omena, P., Romero, G., Ospina Bautista, F., Marino, N., Leroy, C., Farjalla, V., Richardson, B., Gonçalves, A. Corbara, B., Petermann, J., Richardson, M., Melnychuk, M., Jocque, M., Ngai, Ja., Talaga, S., Piccoli, G., Montero, G., Starzomski, B.M., Kirby, K., Céréghino, R. 2022. Geographical variation in the trait-based assembly patterns of multitrophic invertebrate communities. Functional Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14096 Simon, A.D.F., E. Adamczyk, A. Basman, J. Chu, H. Gartner, K. Fletcher, C. Gibbs, D. Gibbs, S. Gilmore, R. Harbo, L. Harris, E. Humphrey, A. Lamb, P. Lambert, N. McDaniel, J. Scott, and B. M. Starzomski. 2022. Toward an atlas of Salish Sea biodiversity: the flora and fauna of Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada. Part I. Marine zoology. Biodiversity Data Journal. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.10.e76050 Davidson, K.H., B.M. Starzomski, R. El-Sabaawi, M. Hocking, J.D. Reynolds, S. Wickham, C.T. Darimont. 2021. Spatial patterns in marine subsidy to coastal food webs influence niche variation in an omnivore, the Keen’s mouse (Peromyscus keeni). Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8225 Simon, A.D.F., H. Marx, and B.M. Starzomski. 2021. Phylogenetic restriction of plant invasion in drought-stressed environments: implications for insect-pollinated plant communities in water-limited ecosystems. Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7776 Hoffman, K.M., Starzomski, B.M., Lertzman, K.P., Giesbrecht, I.J.W., and Trant, A.J.. 2021. Old‐growth forest structure in a low‐productivity hypermaritime rainforest in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Ecosphere 12( 5):e03513. 10.1002/ecs2.3513 Trant, A.J., E.S. Higgs, B.M. Starzomski. 2020. A century of high elevation ecosystem change in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Scientific Reports. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66277-2 Obrist, D.S., P.J. Hanly, J.C. Kennedy, O.T. Fitzpatrick, S. Wickham, W. Nijland, L. Reshitnyk, C.T. Darimont, B.M. Starzomski and J.D. Reynolds. 2020. Marine subsidies drive patterns in avian island biogeography. Proceedings of the Royal Society B https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0108 Wickham S.B., Shackelford N., Darimont C.T., Nijland W., Reshitnyk L.Y., Reynolds J.D., Starzomski B.M. 2020. Sea wrack delivery and accumulation on islands: factors that mediate marine nutrient permeability. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 635:37-54. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13197 Srivastava, D., J. Ware, J. Ngai, B.M. Starzomski, and S. Amundrud. 2020. Habitat size thresholds for predators: why damselflies prefer large bromeliads. Biotropica. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12734 Hoffman, K., S.B. Wickham , W.S. McInnes and B.M. Starzomski. 2019. Fire Exclusion Destroys Habitat for At-risk Species in a British Columbia Protected Area. Fire. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire2030048 Shackelford, N., S. Murray, J. Bennett, P. Lilley, B.M. Starzomski, R. Standish. 2019. Ten years of pulling: Ecosystem recovery after long-term weed management in Garry oak savanna. Conservation Science and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.92 Westwood, A.R., Otto, S.P., Mooers, A., Darimont, C., Hodges, K.E., Johnson, C., Starzomski, B.M., Burton, C., Chan, K., Festa-Bianchet, M., Fluker, S., Gulati, S., Jacob, A.L., Kraus, D., Martin, T., Palen, W.J., Reynolds, J.D., Whitton, J. Protecting Biodiversity in British Columbia: Recommendations for Developing Endangered Species Legislation. Facets. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2018-0042 Fisher, JA, Shackelford, N, Hocking, MD, Trant, AJ, Starzomski, BM. Indigenous peoples’ habitation history drives present‐day forest biodiversity in British Columbia's coastal temperate rainforest. People Nat. 2019; 1: 103– 114. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.16 Wickham, S., Darimont, C.T., Reynolds, J., and B.M. Starzomski. 2019. Species-specific wet-dry mass calibrations for dominant Northeastern Pacific Ocean macroalgae and macrophytes. Aquatic Botany. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2018.09.006 Hoffman, K.M., A.J. Trant, W. Nijland, and B.M. Starzomski. 2018. Ecological legacies of fire detected using plot-level measurements and LiDAR in an old growth coastal temperate rainforest. Forest Ecology and Management. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112718300495 Shackelford, N., R. Standish, Z. Lindo, and B.M. Starzomski. 2018. Community resistance, resilience, and recovery shift uniquely with landscape connectivity in multi-trophic microarthropod communities. Ecology. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.2196 Shackelford, N., R.J. Standish, W. Ripple, and B.M Starzomski. 2017. Threats to biodiversity from cumulative human impacts in one of North America's last wildlife frontiers. Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13036 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13036/abstract [open access] Hoffman, K.M., Lertzman, K.P. and B.M. Starzomski. 2017. Ecological legacies of anthropogenic burning in a British Columbia coastal temperate rain forest. Journal of Biogeography DOI:10.1111/jbi.13096 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.13096/abstract. Open access link Carlson, K., B. Coulthard, and B.M. Starzomski. 2017. Autumn snowfall controls the annual radial growth of centenarian whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) in the southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research http://www.aaarjournal.org/doi/abs/10.1657/AAAR0016-033?code=iaar-site Hudson, L. N., T. Newbold, et al (including B.M Starzomski). 2017. The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project. Ecology and Evolution 7:145–188. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.2579/full Shackelford, N., B.M. Starzomski, N. Banning, L. Battaglia, A. Becker, P.J. Bellingham, B. Bestelmeyer, J.A. Catford, J.M. Dwyer, M. Dynesius, J. Gilmour, L.M. Hallett, R.J. Hobbs, J. Price, T. Sasaki, E.V.J. Tanner, R.J. Standish. 2017. Disturbance characteristics predict community recovery. Ecography http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.02383/full Nijland,W., L. Reshitnyk, B.M. Starzomski, J.D. Reynolds, C.T. Darimont, T.A. Nelson. 2016. Deriving rich coastal morphology and shore zone classification from lidar terrain models. Journal of Coastal Research http://www.jcronline.org/doi/abs/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-16-00109.1 Hoffman, K. M., D. G. Gavin, and B. M. Starzomski. 2016. Seven hundred years of human-driven and climate-influenced fire activity in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest. Royal Society Open Science 3:160608. http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/10/160608 Trant, A. J., W. Nijland, K.M. Hoffman, D. McLaren, D. L. Matthews, T. A. Nelson, and B. M. Starzomski. 2016. Intertidal resource-use over millennia enhances forest productivity. Nature Communications 7(12491), DOI:10.1038/ncomms12491. [open access] www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12491 [Winner of the Ecological Society of America's 2017 WS Cooper award] Hoffman, K. M., D. G. Gavin, K. P. Lertzman, D. J. Smith and B. M. Starzomski. 2016. 13,000 years of fire history derived from soil charcoal radiocarbon dates in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest. Ecosphere. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1415 [open access] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.1415/abstract Trant, A., Lewis, K., Cranston, B., Wheeler, J., Hermanutz, L., Jacobs, J.D. and B.M. Starzomski. 2015. Complex Changes in Plant Communities across a Subarctic Alpine Treeline in Labrador, Canada. Arctic. pdf Lewis., K. and B.M. Starzomski 2015. Bird communities and vegetation associations across a treeline ecotone in the Mealy Mountains, Labrador, an understudied part of the Boreal forest. Canadian Journal of Zoology. pdf Jean, F., A. Branzan Albu, D. Capson, E. Higgs, J. T. Fisher, and B. M. Starzomski. 2015. Visualizing Category-Specific Changes in Oblique Photographs of Mountain Landscapes. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Visualization in Environmental Sciences (EnvirVis), May 25-29, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, 2015. pdf Fraser, L.H., W.L. Harrower, H.W. Garris, S. Davidson, P.D.N. Hebert, R. Howie, A. Moody, D. Polster, O.J. Schmitz, A.R.E. Sinclair, B.M. Starzomski, T.P. Sullivan, R. Turkington, D. Wilson. 2015. A call for applying trophic structure to restoration. Restoration Ecology. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.12225/abstract Trant, A.J., B.M. Starzomski, and E. Higgs 2015. A publically available database for studying ecological change in mountain ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13: 187–187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/15.WB.007 Jean, F., A. Branzan Albu, D. Capson, E. Higgs, J. T. Fisher, and B. M. Starzomski. 2015. The Mountain Habitats Segmentation and Change Detection Dataset, In Proceedings of the IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), Waikoloa Beach, HI, USA, January 6-9, 2015. pdf Dataset here: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12590 Documentation here: http://github.com/fjean/mhscd-dataset-doc Straka J.R. and B.M. Starzomski. 2014. Fruitful factors: What limits seed production of flowering plants in the alpine. Oecologia. pdf Hobbs, R. et al. (including B.M. Starzomski). 2014. Managing the whole landscape: historical, hybrid, and novel ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12: 557–564. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/130300 Straka, J.R., and B. M. Starzomski. 2014. Humming along or buzzing off? The elusive consequences of plant-pollinator mismatches. Journal of Pollination Ecology 13. link to paper and a summary of the paper in Pollination Magazine here B.M. Starzomski. 2014. Indicators of Ecosystem Change. Encyclopedia of Quality of Life Research. Springer. B.M. Starzomski. 2013. Novel ecosystems and climate change. In: Hobbs, R.J., E.S. Higgs and C. Hall (eds). Novel Ecosystems: when and how do we intervene in the new ecological world order? Blackwell. Hulvey, K.B., L.M. Hallett, R.J. Standish, B.M. Starzomski, K.N. Suding S.D. Murphy, P. Kennedy, C.R. Nelson, M.R. Gardener. 2013. Incorporating Novel Ecosystems into Management Frameworks. In: Hobbs, R.J., E.S. Higgs and C. Hall (eds). Novel Ecosystems: when and how do we intervene in the new ecological world order? Blackwell. L.M. Hallett, R.J. Standish, K.B. Hulvey, M.R. Gardener, K.N. Suding, B.M. Starzomski, S.D. Murphy, J.A. Harris, C.R. Nelson. 2013. Towards a conceptual framework for the management of novel ecosystems. In: Hobbs, R.J., E.S. Higgs and C. Hall (eds). Novel Ecosystems: when and how do we intervene in the new ecological world order? Blackwell. B.M. Starzomski 2012. Clarity, confusion, and idea refining in ecology. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution. Straka, J. R., and B. M. Starzomski. 2012. Reply to Bortolus: what’s in a name? Trends in Ecology & Evolution. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2012.08.003. B.M. Starzomski. 2012. Climate change and the conservation of BC’s leading-edge species at risk. Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions Briefing Note 2012-40. Harper, K.A., K.P. Lewis, D.L. De Fields, R.K. Danby, A. Trant, B.M. Starzomski, R. Savidge, L. Hermanutz. 2011. Changes in the spatial pattern of trees across the forest-tundra ecotone at treeline sites across Canada. Canadian Journal of Forest Research pdf Silver, R.S., N. K. Dawe, B.M. Starzomski, K. L. Parker, D. W. Nagorsen. 2011. A tribute to Ian McTaggart-Cowan, 1910-2010, O.C., O.B.C., PhD, LL.D, F.R.S.C. Canadian Field-Naturalist B: 367-383. Starzomski, B.M., D. Suen, and D.S. Srivastava 2010. Predation and facilitation determine chironomid emergence in a bromeliad-insect food web. Ecological Entomology 35: 53-60. -Featured on Dr. Carin Bondar's 'Paper of the week' Gibson, S.Y., R.C. van der Marel, and B.M. Starzomski 2009. Climate change and conservation of leading-edge peripheral populations. Conservation Biology. 23: 1369-1373. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01375.x Starzomski, B.M., and C.D. Brown. 2009. Ecology, evolution and genetics join together on Canada's east coast. Biology Letters. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0489. Thompson, R.M., Starzomski, B., Hemberg, M. and Shurin, J. 2009. The ubiquity of omnivory. Verhandlungen Internationale Vereinigung für theoretische und angewandte Limnologie 30(5): 761–764. pdf Starzomski, B.M., R.L. Parker and D.S. Srivastava. 2008. On the relationship between regional and local species richness: a test of saturation theory. Ecology 89: 1921-1930. pdf Ngai, J.T., K. Kirby, B. Gilbert, B.M. Starzomski**, A.J.D. Pelletier, and R. Connor. 2008. The effects of land-use change on larval insect communities in Costa Rican bromeliads. Ecoscience. 15(2): 160-168. ** order of first four authors assigned randomly pdf Vellend, M., Lilley, P. and B.M. Starzomski. 2008. Using subsets of taxa in biodiversity sampling. Journal of Applied Ecology. 45: 161-169. pdf Starzomski, B.M. and D.S. Srivastava. 2007. Landscape geometry determines community response to disturbance. Oikos 116: 690-699. pdf Thompson, R., M. Hemberg, B.M. Starzomski, and J. Shurin. 2007. Trophic levels and trophic tangles: the prevalence of omnivory in real food webs. Ecology 88: 612-617. pdf Thompson, R.M. and B.M. Starzomski. 2007. What does biodiversity do? A review for policy-makers and managers. Biodiversity and Conservation 16: 1359-1378 pdf Starzomski, B.M., B.J. Cardinale, J.A. Dunne, M.J. Hillery, C.A. Holt, M.A. Krawchuk, M. Lage, S. McMahon, and M. C. Melnychuk. 2004. Contemporary visions of progress in ecology, and thoughts for the future. Ecology and Society 9(1):14 [online] http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss1/art14/index.html Starzomski, B.M. and Bondrup-Nielsen, S. 2002. Analysis of movement dynamics and consequences for metapopulation structure of the forked fungus beetle, Bolitotherus cornutus (Tenebrionidae). Ecoscience 9(1):20-27. pdf Starzomski, B. and Bondrup-Nielsen, S. 2002. Self-organization in ecosystem structure and function: implications for environmental management. In: Eds. Bondrup-Nielsen, S., Munro, N.W.P., Nelson, G., Willison, N.W.P., Herman, T.B. and P. Eagles. Managing Protected Areas in a Changing World. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Science and the Management of Protected Areas. Published by Science and the Management of Protected Areas Association. pp. 505-514. Rael, R. and B. Starzomski. 2004. Integrating food web structure and dynamics: effects of targeted extinction. Proceedings of the Complex Systems Summer School, Santa Fe Institute, June 2004. |
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