Needles and cones of the 3rd native coastal forest conifer species. By Menchi at English Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.orgImage of a young individual of the 3rd conifer species mentioned above (N Hewitt, Pacific Spirit Forest, 2020)
Species B and C (native hardwoods)
These two species are early successional, disturbance adapted deciduous hardwoods that occur in BC ecosystems. They may dominate sites that were recently cleared, until later-successional species like the 3 conifers mentioned can establish.
Trunk of the hardwood species with smooth grey bark (foliage below, Mystery hardwood species #1)Trunk of a mature individual of the hardwood species with ridged bark (foliage below, Mystery hardwood species #2)Left: Leaves and catkins of the important early successional tree species whose smooth bark is shown above. Occurs in recently disturbed sites. *Catkins are male reproductive parts containing pollen; Female flowers for this species develop into woody brown cones. Right: leaves of the second disturbance-adapted hardwood in BC, whose bark is also shown above. It is responsible for the cottony flotsam that has been wafting about during spring (May) in and around Vancouver. Photos: Wikipedia
I am an instructor in Geography at UBC. My teaching specialty is in Physical Geography, including biogeography, soils, weather and climate. My research explores vegetation dynamics and how these are affected by human activities, particularly in relation to ecosystem fragmentation, altered disturbance regimes and invasion, and interactions with climate change. I study population dynamics in forests and savanna of eastern North America and the Karakoram-Himalaya. Currently I am examining potential range shifts among high alpine plant populations of the Central Karakoram.
