Climate

Anthropogenic emissions have profoundly changed the composition of the earth’s atmosphere causing climate change. To fully understand the effects of and possible mitigation strategies to climate change, we must consider the ocean as a major driver of earth’s climate. As a major sink of radiation, heat and climate active gases like carbon dioxide, the oceans act as a mitigating factor for global warming. Nearly half of the carbon dioxide that is being produced by the burning of fossil fuels is absorbed by oceans, in turn, causing ocean acidification. Further, the oceans drive meteorological processes by transporting heat across the globe, affecting the weather. The oceans are home to extensive ecosystems that both, influence and are at the mercy of the climate. For instance, photosynthetic organisms in the ocean contribute almost half of the current supply of oxygen to the atmosphere, removing carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change, from the system in the process. Over geological timescales, the oxygenation of the atmosphere can be traced back to photosynthesis in the oceans. Despite being such important mediators of the climate, it is unclear how ecosystems will respond to pronounced climate change and how this might influence ecosystem services to mankind. Because the planet’s climate is determined by the interconnectedness of the ocean, atmosphere, and land, changes in any one component will influence the others. Realizing this interconnection is important for understanding how our global climate system works and how it is affected by our actions.

At UBC, climate research begins with understanding the basics of how climate works. Research on meteorology (Allen, Autin) and climate modeling (Hsieh, Bamforth) set the stage for futher research. Specific drivers of the climate and their historic influence on the climate as a baseline for anthropogenic climate change are researched (Schoof, Waterman, Calvert, Francois, Tortell, Crowe). The implications of climate change on ecological and social systems are another major focus of research at UBC ( Donner, Francois, O’Connor, Harley, Chang, Cheung Zeller, Hunt, Tortell).

 

Susan Allen

Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Departmental Site and Personal Site
Email

The Allen lab’s background is in fluid mechanics including scaling, analytics, laboratory and numerical modeling with applications in coastal oceanography, mesoscale meteorology and biogeochemical-physical interactions in the ocean. Contributions include advances in the understanding of flow over and around topography, biological-physical interactions and, the study of atmosphere buoyancy driven flows in the mountains.

 

Phil Austin

Associate Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website and Publications
Email

The Austin lab works on a range of topics that fit under the heading “Cloud Physics”. Much of their research is aimed at better understanding the processes that determine the radiative properties of layer clouds. Austin is especially interested in the ways in which stratus and cirrus clouds form, persist, and dissipate; these clouds exert a controlling influence on the global climate.

 

Neil Balmforth

Professor
Mathematics
Website and Publications
Email

The Balmforth lab’s research interests are in applied mathematics. Most problems are interesting, and many of them can be couched in a mathematical language that provides insight into them. More specifically, past projects have focused on astrophysics, chaos and dynamical systems, and fluid mechanics with particular application to geophysical fluids.

 

Stephen Calvert

Professor Emeritus
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Departmental Website and Personal Website
Email

The long-term goal of the Calvert lab’s research is to understand the factors responsible for the wide compositional variability of marine sediments, the controls on organic matter burial and nutrient utilization in the ocean. This information is used to interpret past oceanographic and climatic changes from sediment core records.

 

 

Stephanie Chang

Professor
IRES; SCARP
Departmental Site, Personal Site, and Publications
Email

Chang’s work addresses questions related to community vulnerability and adaptability to natural disasters including roles of infrastructure systems (e.g., water, electric power, transportation) and environmental systems in disaster risk and resilience.

 

William Cheung

Professor and Director; Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Ocean Sustainability and Global Change
Institute for Oceans and Fisheries
Website and Publications
Email

The Changing Ocean Research Unit studies the effects of global climate and ocean changes on marine ecosystems, biodiversity and fisheries social-ecological systems. Led by Dr. William Cheung, the Unit assesses the biophysical and socio-economic vulnerabilities and impacts of marine climate change, and identifies mitigation and adaptation options. Its vision is “Predicting the future ocean under climate change”. Mission is to improve understanding of the past, current and future responses of marine ecosystems and fisheries to global change; and explore and inform policy-relevant solutions at local and global scales to improve human well-being and the sustainable use of ocean biodiversity and ecosystem services. Its strategies are to integrate multidisciplinary datasets and information across scales and domains, and facilitate democratization of knowledge through innovative partnerships, capacity building and outreach initiatives; and to apply and develop scenarios and models to understand the dynamics of changing oceans and ecosystems.

 

Sean Crowe

Assistant Professor
Microbiology and Immunology; Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website and Publications
Email

The overarching goal of Crowe’s research is to improve our capacity to predict and respond to global change by creating new knowledge of the earth system. To achieve this, quantitative information on microbial processes derived from insights into biological information carriers (e.g. DNA, RNA, protein) are integrated into past, present and future models of global biogeochemical cycles.

 

Simon Donner

Associate Professor
Geography
Website and Publications
Email

Donner’s research provides insight into the causes and effects of human-induced climate change, the efficacy of policy and mitigation options, and the consequences for human welfare. Current areas of research include climate change and coral reefs; ocean warming and El Nino; climate change adaptation in the developing world; Canadian and international climate policy; public engagement on climate change.

 

Roger Francois

Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website
Email

Froncois’ current research interests center on the application of geochemistry to problems of paleoceanography with particular emphasis on late Quaternary paleoceanography, radiochemical approaches, carbon and nitrogen isotope geochemistry, and trace element proxies. One of the main objectives is to understand the potential impacts of climate change and human induced disturbances on ecosystem dynamics, CO2 uptake capacity, and fish biomass.

 

Christopher Harley

Professor
Zoology
Departmental Website and Laboratory Website
Email

Harley’s lab researches coastal marine ecology and the impacts of climate change which include themes such as ocean acidification, thermal stress and global warming, climate change and salinity stress, the ecology of invasive species, and long-term ecological stress. Harley’s interests lie in how climatic factors, such as temperature, CO2, and pH, and biological relationships, such as predation and facilitation, interact to create ecological patterns in time and space.

 

William Hsieh

Professor Emeritus
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website and Publications
Email

Hsieh works on machine learning methods and their applications to the environmental sciences, seasonal climate and extreme weather prediction and atmosphere-ocean climate dynamics. Areas of application include the El Niño-La Niña and the Arctic Oscillation, the quasi-biennial oscillation and the Madden-Julian oscillation. ML methods have been used to model vegetation indices, air quality forecasts and estimation of snow depth.

 

Brian Hunt

Assistant Professor
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
Website and Publications
Email

Hunt researches the structure and function of pelagic marine ecosystems and their response to climate forcing and anthropogenic impacts. Research focuses on the plankton that forms the base of all pelagic food webs, and extends into the higher trophic levels through research into bottom-up and top-down forcing processes. Unifying concepts of lower trophic level dynamics can inform our understanding of the food web response to perturbation.

 

Charles Menzies

Professor
Anthropology
Website and Publications
Email

Hagwil hayetsk (Charles Menzies), member of Gitxaała Nation, conducts research and teaching on the ethnography of Western Europe and Coastal British Columbia, natural resource-dependent communities and resource management policies, and the political economy of social struggle. His book, “People of the Saltwater: An Ethnography of Git lax m’oon” discusses an economy based on natural-resource extraction by examining fisheries and their central importance to the Gitxaalas’ cultural roots. He is also the Director of The Ethnographic Film Unit at UBC https://anthfilm.anth.ubc.ca/

 

Mary O’Connor

Associate Professor
Zoology
Departmental Website, Laboratory Website, and Publications
Email

The O’Conner lab studies how the abiotic environment influences marine ecological communities. In particular, they want to understand what drives variation in ecosystem structure and function to better understand the ecological impacts of climate change and habitat modification and to explore how conservation efforts can be most effective given natural environmental changes.

 

Christian Schoof

Associate Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website
Email

Schoof’s work focuses on the flow and dynamic behaviour of large ice sheets and mountain glaciers, motivated in large part by their role in the global climate system. He has a particular interest in abrupt switches or ‘bifurcations’ in the behaviour of ice sheets, which can herald irreversible changes in land ice cover.

 

Philippe Tortell

Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; Botany
Website
Email

The Tortell Lab has broad interests in marine biogeochemical cycles. Current work focuses on the biological, chemical and physical factors regulating oceanic primary productivity and the concentration of climate-active gases. His group has developed new measurement techniques based on sea-going mass spectrometry, optical measurements and tracer-based rate incubation experiments.

 

Stephanie Waterman

Assistant Professor
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Website and Publications
Email

The Waterman lab is interested in process studies related to ocean dynamics. In particular, scale interactions and interrelationships between various components of the oceanic circulation at different time and length scales, governed by different physics are considered. Further, they investigate the implications of these interactions for large-scale circulation and the ocean’s role in the climate system.

 

Dirk Zeller

Senior Scientist
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
Departmental WebsiteLaboratory Website, and Publications
Email

Zeller leads research on global catch reconstructions and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and engages in research on coral reef fisheries, ocean governance, and fisheries policy. He collaborates closely with the Fisheries Economics Research Unit, with the Changing Ocean Research Unit, and with the UBC Faculty of Law.