Lab in September 2025- Left to right: Olivia, Jordan-Anne, Heather, Lily, Laura, Jens, Nicole, Jenna. Missing: Astra.
Team
Team Leader
Dr. Heather Kharouba
University Research Chair in Global Change Ecology
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Academic Experience
NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow
Center for Population Biology Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Davis
Education
PhD, University of British Columbia
MSc, University of Ottawa
BSc, University of Ottawa
University Research Chair in Global Change Ecology
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Academic Experience
NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow
Center for Population Biology Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Davis
Education
PhD, University of British Columbia
MSc, University of Ottawa
BSc, University of Ottawa
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Jens Ulrich
Postdoctoral researcher ujens[at]uottawa[dot]ca Jens is interested in understanding how to design and manage habitats and landscapes that support long-term insect biodiversity conservation. His current postdoctoral research will use computational/theoretical approaches to determine how species interaction network structure and species trait diversity affect ecosystem resilience to climate change. |
Grad students
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Laura Aleta Bell
PhD student lbell044[at]uottawa[dot]ca Laura is interested in understanding how environmental stress affects species interactions. Her research aims to inform conservation practices to create resilient ecological communities. She will be conducting field research to study how drought impacts insect and plant recovery in meadow restoration and the role of introduced species in community resilience. |
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Jenna Boomhower
MSc candidate Jenna is interested in the role of introduced plants in the diet of monarch butterflies. Her field research involves monarch feeding trials to determine the nectar quality of different wildflowers. The purpose of her research is to inform best practices in restoration efforts that will contribute to the conservation of monarch butterflies. |
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Lily Charles
MSc candidate Co-supervised by Dr. Greg Mitchell at Environment and Climate Change Canada lchar061[at]uottawa[dot]ca Lily is interested in conservation research that has a broad impact. Her research is taking place within former agricultural properties in Norfolk County that have been restored to grassland habitats by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. She is looking to understand the use of different nectar resources by monarchs (Danaus plexippus) and other butterflies, and other restoration decisions on pollinator recovery. |
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Olivia Demetrakopoulos
MSc candidate Olivia is interested in the ecological impacts of climate change, particularly in the context of phenology and plant-pollinator interactions. My research focuses on how climatic extremes affect seasonal nectar availability for pollinators, and the physiological consequences of these changes on monarch butterflies. |
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Nicole Kester
MSc candidate Co-supervised by Dr. Tyler Smith at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada nkest080[at]uottawa[dot]ca Nicole is interested in invasive species and understanding the patterns of their spread. She is expanding her Honours project and is quantifying niche shifts for over 250 species of invasive plants in North America, which will help inform predictions about the future distributions of these species in their introduced ranges. |
Honours students
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Astra Vainio-Mattila
Honours student (2025-2026) Astra is interested in the relationships between organisms and their environment, and is studying the changes in butterfly behaviour in a warming experiment. Using cameras to record monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), they hope to find out if there is a difference in thermoregulatory and feeding behaviours in butterflies due to warmer conditions. |
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Jordan-Anne Rich
Honours student (2025-2026) Jordan-Anne is researching how warming impacts floral pigmentation. Pollinators often locate food sources through the UV-markings found on flowers, these markings however, may change as a result of global warming. Using UV-photography, Jordan-Anne is comparing two flower treatments, one warming and one control, to help better understand this issue. |
Lab alumni
We are grateful to all past lab members who have supported our research. Not listed here are the amazing volunteers who have also helped us.
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Valérie Chartrand
Artist-in-Residence (2023-2025) Exhibition that resulted from residency with the lab. |
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Manon Veselosvky
MSc student (2022-2025) Co-supervised by Dr. Greg Mitchell at Environment and Climate Change Canada Thesis: |
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Anna Sierra Heffernan-Wilker
Honours student (2024-2025) Thesis: |
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Matthew Osborne
Honours student (2024-2025) Thesis: |
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Spencer Karau
MSc student (2022-2024) Co-supervised by Dr. Tyler Smith at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Thesis: Using key functional traits to explain variation in rates of spread among invasive plants in North America. |
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Katherine Peel
MSc student (2022-2024) Thesis: Habitat restoration in a changing world: Determining the indirect effects of waring on monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) as mediated by changes in nectar quality. |
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Dr. Sarah Dolson
PhD student (2019-2024) Thesis: The influence of spatiotemporal climate variation on insect species richness and traits |
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Jenna Boomhower
Honours student (2022-2023) Jenna's project evaluated the nutritional role of non-native plants in the nectar diet of monarch butterflies. |
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Nicole Kester
Honours student (2022-2023) Co-supervised by Dr. Tyler Smith at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Nicole developed current and future species distribution models for dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum) to evaluate its potential range across North America, and how this range could change in response to different climate scenarios. |
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Dr. Zoe Panchen
Mitacs Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2023) with the Canadian Museum of Nature and UBC zpanche2[at]uottawa.ca Zoe's project used herbarium specimens to investigate the evolutionary and life history trait patterns in Arctic plant phenological responses to climate change. |
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Dr. Nico Muñoz
Postdoctoral Fellow (2022-2023) Co-supervised with Dr. Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis (Environment and Climate Change Canada) and Dr. Christina Davy (Carleton University). Nico investigated the importance of microrefugia and the potential for microclimatic buffers against climate change to be integrated within networks of protected areas. |
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Sarah Bell
Co-supervised by Nico Munoz Honours student (2022-2023) Thesis: Identifying potential sites of forest microrefugia for Ontario's terrestrial species at risk. |
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Marianne Busque
Co-supervised by Zoe Panchen Honours student (2022-2023) Thesis: Temporal and spatial variations in the flowering times of Arctic Ranunculaceae species. |
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Zoe Pekos
Honours student (2022-2023) Thesis: The role of non-native plants in the nectar diet of a native butterfly community. |
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Maisy Roach-Krajewski
MSc student (2020-2023) Co-supervised by Tyler Smith at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Thesis: Using invasion history to quantify equilibrium in over 250 invasive plant species in North America. |
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Dr. Stephanie Rivest
PhD student (2016-2022) Thesis: Non-native species and urbanization in the context of butterfly communities. |
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Hannah Keefe
MSc student (2020-2022) Thesis: The role of growing degree-days in explaining Lepidoptera species distributions at broad scales. |
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Katherine Peel
Honours student 2021-2022 Thesis: Body size responses to climate change of two butterfly species in Southern England. |
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Devin Empey
Honours student 2021-2022 Thesis: The impact of experimental warming on the growth and development of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). |
2016-2021
Dr. Felipe Dargent. NSERC Banting Fellow (2018-2020) Felipe worked on the prevalence of a protist parasite (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha) on monarch butterflies. Felipe's personal webpage
Sharla Foster. MSc candidate (2018-2021) Co-supervised by Tyler Smith (Agriculture Canada). Thesis: Quantifying the expansion of an invasive plant species, Dog-strangling Vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum), in environmental and geographic space over the past 130 years.
Sydney Gilmour. MSc student (2018-2021). Thesis: The effect of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) quality on monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) oviposition preference and larval performance.
Samantha Beesley. MSc in Environmental Sustainability (2019-2021).Thesis: Is climate change a threat to Canadian Species at Risk? A case study on the threat of climate change to Atlantic Canadian Species at Risk.
Darby Hooper. Honours student 2020-2021.Thesis: The effect of urbanization on butterfly communities around Ottawa, ON & Montreal, QC.
Benoit Lalande Honours student 2020-2021.Thesis: The impact of disturbance-tolerant plants on the diversity of arthropod communities across an urbanization gradient.
Philippe Tremblay MSc student (2017-2019). Thesis: The role of cold tolerance in the geographic distribution of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes).
Samantha Lalonde Honours student (2018-2019). Thesis: Quantifying roadside decline and the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on common milkweed in the Ottawa region.
Alexa Ouellette Honours student (2017-2018).Thesis: A study of the key factors influencing the growth and geographic distribution of Zanthoxylum americanum.
Sharla Foster. MSc candidate (2018-2021) Co-supervised by Tyler Smith (Agriculture Canada). Thesis: Quantifying the expansion of an invasive plant species, Dog-strangling Vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum), in environmental and geographic space over the past 130 years.
Sydney Gilmour. MSc student (2018-2021). Thesis: The effect of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) quality on monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) oviposition preference and larval performance.
Samantha Beesley. MSc in Environmental Sustainability (2019-2021).Thesis: Is climate change a threat to Canadian Species at Risk? A case study on the threat of climate change to Atlantic Canadian Species at Risk.
Darby Hooper. Honours student 2020-2021.Thesis: The effect of urbanization on butterfly communities around Ottawa, ON & Montreal, QC.
Benoit Lalande Honours student 2020-2021.Thesis: The impact of disturbance-tolerant plants on the diversity of arthropod communities across an urbanization gradient.
Philippe Tremblay MSc student (2017-2019). Thesis: The role of cold tolerance in the geographic distribution of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes).
Samantha Lalonde Honours student (2018-2019). Thesis: Quantifying roadside decline and the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on common milkweed in the Ottawa region.
Alexa Ouellette Honours student (2017-2018).Thesis: A study of the key factors influencing the growth and geographic distribution of Zanthoxylum americanum.
Lab in May 2025- Lily, Nicole, HK, Matthew, Jenna. Missing: Anna.
Lab in September 2022. Missing from picture: Nico, Marianne, Sarah B. and HK
Lab in September 2021.
Sharla's post MSc defence get-together. June 2021.
Lab in December 2020. COVID times!
Lab in December 2019. Missing from picture: Sam B, Emma, Megan.
