Christopher Harley

Professor

I'm interested in why plants and animals live where they live, and how their distributions will shift as a result of global climate change. Specifically, I study how abiotic forces, such as temperature and ocean acidification, and biological relationships, such as predation, competition, and facilitation, structure coastal marine communities.

Research Synopsis I study climate change impacts on rocky coasts. I’m interested in how climatic factors, such as temperature, salinity, carbon dioxide concentration, and pH, along with biological relationships, such as predation and facilitation, interact to create ecological patterns in time and space.

 

Ongoing Research Projects

Understanding how ecosystems are changing in response to environmental forcing is one of the central scientific challenges of our time. In my research group, we work on several areas that we see as especially high priority: 1) changing environmental variability, 2) multiple stressors / drivers, 3) life-cycle effects and ontogenetic bottlenecks, 4) genetic diversity and local adaptation, and 5) interspecific interactions including keystone predation, biogenic habitat provisioning, and host-parasite dynamics.

To learn more about who we are and what we do, visit the lab website at http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/harleylab/

 

Information for prospective students

In general, I hope to accept one or possibly two graduate students every fall. If you are interested in working in my lab, here are a few useful pieces of information. First, UBC is great, Vancouver is great, and marine ecology in British Columbia is especially great. Next, the Canadian academic system strongly favours students that have their own fellowship support (NSERC fellowships for Canadians, or similar support from other sources). To discuss the possibilities of joining my lab, please send me an email. Emails that contain research interests, a CV, and unofficial transcripts are particularly helpful.