About

Hi! I'm Lydia, a marine ecologist working primarily on the rocky shores of Vancouver Island, Canada. My research falls within the themes of food web ecology, community dynamics, and climate change impacts; I've always been fascinated by the intricate relationships connecting organisms to each other and their environment, and have spent my career investigating how these interactions are shifting due to human impacts.

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I recently completed an MSc. in Biology with the Ocean Conservation Lab at the University of Victoria. My thesis investigated how periodic aerial heat stress relates to mortality, feeding, metabolism, and body surface temperature in juvenile ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus), a keystone intertidal predator. The loss of top predators can trigger cascading negative effects on lower trophic levels, disrupt resource availability, and impair ecosystem functioning. As climate change drives an increasing number of species extinctions, understanding how keystone species respond to and endure extreme temperature fluctuations is critical. Despite their important role, there remains a lack of information on how predatory sea star populations will react to future climatic stressors. My study contributed to this knowledge gap by investigating the resilience of juvenile ochre sea stars to heat stress and by exploring how future climatic conditions may impact their role as keystone predators.​

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