Research Publications: April 2024
Discover the cutting-edge research shaping the future of forestry! The post Research Publications: April 2024 appeared first on UBC Faculty of Forestry.
Learn MoreCanadian Immigration Updates
Applicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
Forests go far beyond British Columbia; they cover 1/3 of the Earth’s land surface. Forestry graduate students learn from a dynamic and diverse group of researchers who educate and communicate how forests and forest products contribute to the well-being of all living things. The health and sustainability of forests and the people who depend on them underlies everything we do.
The Faculty of Forestry is one of the top institutions globally in forest-related education and research. The unique breadth of expertise we possess allows us to integrate new knowledge across many disciplines. Offering both master’s and doctoral programs, our graduate students learn from a dynamic and diverse group of researchers from around the world.
Research Facilities
The Forest Sciences Centre is a showcase for construction using Canadian forest products, and was architecturally designed to mimic the landscape of British Columbia: towering trees, mountains, and blue-green waters. The 17,505-square-metre Forest Sciences complex has 11 classrooms, 2 lecture theatres, teaching laboratories, office space, computer labs, study areas, and a cafeteria, and houses the Faculty’s three departments.
Built alongside the Forest Sciences Centre is the 3,730-square-metre Centre for Advanced Wood Processing. It is Canada’s national centre of excellence for education and research related to wood products processing and advanced wood products manufacturing, and works to advance knowledge that fosters job creation, stabilizes forest-dependent communities, encourages increased value recovery, and ensures the sustainable management of Canada’s forests. This building includes two 25-seat classrooms, a machine lab, a simulator lab and a computer lab.
Within the Faculty of Forestry, there are also several research groups. Visit the website of each project to find out more.
Off-campus facilities include two Research Forests: the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest in Maple Ridge and the Alex Fraser Research Forest near Williams Lake. These are working forests located throughout the province where students and faculty can study in an outdoor setting. Fish and wildlife, silviculture, forest harvesting, forest ecology, forest management, and resources management figure prominently in these field studies.
Research Highlights
UBC Forestry is turning out a new generation of foresters, and faculty are committed to meeting future challenges in forestry through in-depth, cutting edge research. In fact, UBC Forestry receives the highest level of forestry research funding of any forestry faculty in Canada.
In the 2017/2018 fiscal year, members of the Faculty Forestry were awarded a total of over $12 million in research funding.
Our wide breadth of research includes topics such as tree rings, integrated remote sensing, bioenergy, forest conservation genetics, landscape visualizations, African forest conservation and development, alpine studies, climate change, and advanced wood processing.
Schools / Departments
Graduate Degree Programs
Recent Publications
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Forestry.
Recent Thesis Submissions
Doctoral Citations
A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Dr. Srivastava studied geospatial modelling for predicting invasive species potential range expansion and invasion potential. His findings on niche characteristics offer a useful cost-effective tool for managing and monitoring invasive species future spread, as well as to design short and long-term management strategies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Adeyeye examined conflicts and likely solutions to improve access to forest and water resources for Indigenous and local communities. By analyzing how diverse actors seek to influence decision-making at regional, national and international scales, he recommends, among others, participatory decision-making with indigenous and local leadership. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Magalhães studied the importance of tree species interactions in projecting the effects of climate change on forests. She designed software to predict tree growth similar to the way that Google predicts e-mail sentences. Her research highlights the relevance of competition to accurately simulate tree growth responses to climate change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Malladi developed mathematical models to optimize short-term biomass logistics and analyzed the impacts of carbon pricing policies on optimal cost and emissions of the models. The developed models were validated and applied to two case studies. The results will help logistics companies make more informed decisions for their short-term planning. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Kielstra examined the effects of environmental variability and land cover on stream ecosystems. He found that improved prediction of ecological threats depends on the indicator, and that incorporating multiple scales can increase predictive ability. This work will help ecologists to better predict and understand important threats to ecosystems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. de Zwaan demonstrated that parental care among alpine songbirds can buffer nestlings against extreme weather and predation risk, improving early-life growth conditions and benefitting survival and life-time fitness. A capacity to respond to variable constraints has critical implications for the future of birds under rapid environmental change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | With the rise of the Internet, we are now getting more information from non-paper sources. Dr. Palmer examined pulp and paper companies' strategies for adjusting to the resulting decline in demand for different types of paper. Her work highlighted the broader challenges cyclical commodity industries face when defining their turnaround strategies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Hotte studied the creation of trust between Indigenous representatives and regional or national governments collaborating on natural resource governance. She highlights the role of individual, interpersonal, and institutional influences on trust, and shows the negative impact that lived experiences of discrimination have on trusting behaviour. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Yu introduced a new method to quantify the effect of logging on floods in the snowy regions of British Columbia. His research is the first to use nonstationary frequency analysis to reveal a highly sensitive flood regime to logging. His findings run counter to the prevalent, century-old wisdom in the field of forest hydrology. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Hossain investigated the use of Self-Tapping-Screws, a popular connector in Cross-Laminated Timber structures. These joints were tested under both monotonic loading and cyclic loading, which simulates the impact of an earthquake. Her research provides guidance to structural engineers and builders for designing timber shear connections. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |