Welcome
Research in the Baum Lab is motivated by a fundamental desire to understand how human activities are changing marine ecosystems, and what the consequences of these changes are for nature and for people. Our current research centres around the following questions: 
  • How are marine ecosystems structured and how do they function in the absence of human disturbance?  How do diversity, structure, function and resilience vary across natural environmental gradients?  
  • How are climate change, overexploitation, and pollution changing marine ecosystems? How do multiple stressors, such as these, interact and alter marine ecosystems? 

​We investigate these questions primarily on tropical coral reefs, on organisms ranging from apex predators to microscopic dinoflagellates. We do so using a suite of approaches including statistical models of large observational data sets - which allow us to empirically test predictions from related theory and small-scale experiments at the ecosystem and global scale - as well as field observations and experiments, molecular analyses and bioinformatics, stable isotope analyses, interviews, historical ecology, and meta-analyses. Our research spans across broad temporal and spatial scales, incorporates principles from population, community and ecosystem ecology, conservation science, and fisheries science and is highly collaborative. Our current foci are tropical coral reefs and temperate eelgrass beds.

We are committed to open science and data sharing, and to outreach aimed at enhancing public understanding of our research, ocean conservation, and science in general. Our overarching goal is to make scientific discoveries that advance understanding of oceanic ecosystems, and inform and inspire effective solutions for their conservation. 
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News - Fall 2020
JOIN US! I am currently recruiting 1-2 PhD students and 1-2 Postdoctoral researchers to my team to work on climate change impacts in marine communities, focusing either on temperature marine communities in British Columbia or tropical coral reef communities in the Pacific. Learn more here. 

Welcome to our new graduate students, Daisy and Matt, and undergraduate Honours and directed study students, Lydia, Rebecca, Hannah, and Emie! We're excited to have you (virtually) onboard, and looking forward to a productive semester!, September

Brittnie and Rebecca's diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative is covered in the Martlet., August

WWF covers former PhD student, Geoff Osgood's, ​research on shark conservation in South Africa., July

Former MSc student, Jennifer Magel, and Julia published a news article about their recent paper on the effects of heat stress on reef fish in  The Conversation., May  

​Watch Reef Rescue to learn more about Julia and the team's research on Kiritimati! ​Learn more about the film here.
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University of Victoria, Department of Biology, PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria BC, V8W 2Y2, Canada