Meet the Team
Our researchers are based at the University of Victoria, the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, and Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada.
The team has a diverse range of expertise, allowing us to approach complex questions in a multidisciplinary way.
Photo: Tom Bird
Dr. Amanda Bates
Professor
Impact Chair in
Ocean Ecosystem Change and Conservation
amandabates "at" uvic.ca
Research Interests:
Environmental variability, physiological tolerance, and biodiversity in an era of global change
The global redistribution of species is leading to large-scale community change. Gaining a process-based understanding for what factors create species and community resilience under environmental variability is an important research objective for our time.
My research aims to address this theme by linking physiological thresholds of organisms to the environment they experience to quantify changes in species distributions, the outcome of species interactions, and community patterns. My approach is to link spatial and temporal trends in abiotic variables at biologically relevant scales using standardized experimental protocols, complementary laboratory and field approaches, meta-analytic approaches, and modern statistical tools.
Current PostDocs
Sarah Ohayon
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Research Interests:
Marine conservation, Marine protected areas, Community ecology, Citizen science, Fisheries
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Project Focus:
​Investigating Ecological Memory Loss and the Abandonment of Historical Spawning Sites in Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasi), British Columbia
Current Graduate Students
Cerren Richards
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Seabird ecology, macroecology, conservation, ecological energetics
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Thesis Focus:
​Environmental constraints on seabird biodiversity hotspots in Atlantic Canada and Inuit Nunangat
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Nova Hanson
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Gastropod morphology, evolutionary developmental biology, ecology, conservation
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Thesis Focus:
Symbiosis and energetics of a hydrothermal vent snail across extreme environmental gradients.
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Ellie Weir
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Sea turtle conservation, multiple stressors
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Thesis Focus:
Assessing climate change impacts on the hatching success of leatherback sea turtles in Costa Rica
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Lindsay Clark
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Deep sea ecology, seamount communities, oxygen minimum zones, taxonomy and systematics
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Thesis Focus:
Spatial and temporal analyses of long-term monitoring sites on seamounts within the Offshore Pacific Bioregion, Canada
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Mitra Nikoo
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Marine invertebrates, coral reef ecology, behavioural ecology, conservation, climate change adaptation
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Thesis Focus:
Modelling the impact of COVID-19 mobility restrictions on coastal water quality in the Indo-Pacific and the interaction between water quality and crown-of-thorns sea star (Acanthaster planci) outbreaks
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Zoe Penno
MSc Student
Research Interests:
Coastal ecology, marine-terrestrial ecological interactions, community ecology, conservation.
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Thesis Focus:
Terrestrial mammal predation in intertidal communities.
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Madeleine Abbott
MSc Student
Research Interests:
Marine ecology, host-parasite relationships, disease, climate change, conservation, eco-physiology, rocky intertidal zone.
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Thesis Focus:
Sylon disease ecology in BC prawns and shrimp.
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Mary Clinton
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Biodiversity, benthic ecology, community change, marine invertebrates
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Thesis Focus:
Ecosystem functioning in nearshore benthic environments: The roles of food quality and quantity.
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Dom Maucieri
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Marine Community Ecology, Multiple Stressors, Foundational Species, Quantitative Biology
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Thesis Focus:
Interactive effects of large-scale disturbances as drivers of diversity and change in marine invertebrate communities.
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Marissa Wright-La Greca
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Microbial ecology, climate change stressors, adaptation, marine invertebrates
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Thesis Focus:
Using probiotics to improve resiliency to climate stressors and predicting population responses to multi-stressor events in a model marine organism, the Pacific oyster
Moronke Harris
MSc Student
Research Interests:
Deep-sea exploration, microbiology, blue economy, extreme environments, seabed mining, seafloor modelling/mapping.
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Thesis Focus:
Evaluating microbial community structure and genetic resource potential along a gradient from active hydrothermal vents to extinct, eroding mineral deposits. This will inform current discussions about biodiversity and ecosystem function loss that may result from deep-sea mining of sulphides at hydrothermal sites
Cara Herrington
PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
Vultures, conservation, ecology, migration, climate change
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Thesis Focus:
Understanding Turkey Vulture ecology at the northern extent of their range. Identifying weather/climate variables required for oceanic crossing made by Turkey Vultures migrating to Vancouver Island.
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Jake Dingwall
MSc Student
Research Interests:
Fisheries ecology, multiple stressors, rocky intertidal foodwebs and ecology
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Thesis Focus:
Investigating the fine scale climactic characteristics and drivers of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) spawning habitat selection.
Alec Jones
MSc Student
Research Interests:
Marine ecology, restoration ecology, quantitative biology, marine grazer dynamics
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Thesis Focus:
Improving kelp forest restoration success by identifying and quantifying the impacts of common small grazer species on juvenile kelp.
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Undergraduate Students
Anakin Bennett (he/him)
Directed Studies
Research Interests:
Community ecology, Co-management systems, Indigenous science
Project Focus:
Anakin is contributing to the TraitORS open source database in the Ocean Conservation Lab, focusing on species of cultural significance to Coastal First Nations of BC.
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Jaden Schiffhauer
Directed Studies
Research Interests:
Macroecology, Ornithology, Climate Change, Scientific Communication
Project Focus:
Using biological trait databases, I'm analyzing the capacity for life strategies of wetland Aves to predict extinction vulnerability.
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Research support
Megan Davies
Project Manager
Role:
Megan has an M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Victoria, where she worked on Monitoring Deep-Sea MPAs: Functional and Trait-Based Approaches for Adaptive Management in Changing Oceans. Currently, she is the project manager for the traitORS project.
Viola Watts
Research Technician
Role:
Viola recently graduated from the University of Victoria with a BSc. in Biology and has research experience in benthic ecology, invertebrate physiology, and climate change, resulting in the completion of two Directed Studies under the Bates Lab and contributing to several manuscripts. She is eager to explore other areas in marine research and excited to be supporting the Bates Lab with its research endeavors.
Janet Ferguson-Roberts
Research Technician
Role:
Janet has an M.Sc. in Marine Biology from Memorial University and a B.Sc. in Animal Biology (Honours) from the University of Alberta. She completed four independent projects during her undergraduate studies at Bamfield Marine Centre and researched the impact of color and buoyancy on echinoderm survival for her master's. Janet has worked on research expeditions in the Labrador Sea and held contracts with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Currently, she contributes to the traitORS open-source database in the Ocean Conservation Lab, focusing on conservation of the Canadian Offshore Pacific Bioregion.