Dr. Thomas Reimchen

My research has two major themes, the first focussing on the importance of genetic variability in natural populations and the second theme focussing on the influence of marine-derived nutrients to forest productivity and biodiversity.

The first theme has identified Galapagos-equivalent adaptive radiation of threespine stickleback among some 100 remote lakes from Haida Gwaii including unexpected evidence for very rapid genome-wide differentiation following colonization of new habitats.

The second theme, which emerged during stickleback surveys, led to the discovery that bears transfer large quantities of salmon from streams to the forest. My students and I continue to identify signatures of these marine nutrients in the majority of animals and plants living near salmon streams as well as in growth rings of the ancient trees that still survive near some of the salmon rivers.

Reimchen Lab

• Biology 215: Principles of Ecology- the fundamental concepts and processes in ecology and its relevance to a changing world
• Biology 329: Vertebrates of British Columbia- the evolution,  diversity and distribution of the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals of British Columbia
• Biology 335: Ichthyology- the taxonomic diversity and ecology of world fishes including marine and freshwater fishes of British Columbia
• Biology 345: Animal Behavior- the comparative study of animal behaviour from reflexes to consciousness

Reimchen, TE, CA Bergstrom & P Nosil. 2013. Natural selection and the adaptive radiation of Haida Gwaii stickleback. Evolutionary Ecology Research 15: 241–269.

Reimchen, TE & CH Fox. 2013. Fine-scale spatiotemporal influences of salmon on growth and nitrogen signatures of Sitka spruce tree rings. BMC Ecology 13:38.

Darimont CT, CH Fox, HM Bryan, & TE Reimchen. 2015. The unique ecology of human predators. Science 349: 858-860. 

Reimchen, TE, D Steeves, & CA Bergstrom. 2016. Sex matters for defense and trophic traits of threespine stickleback. Evolutionary Ecology Research 17: 459-485. 

Reimchen, TE & DR Klinka. 2017. Niche differentiation between coat colour morphs in the Kermode bear (Ursidae) of coastal British Columbia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 122: 274-285.

Marques, DA, JS Taylor, FC Jones, F Di Palma, DM Kingsley & TE Reimchen. 2017. Convergent evolution of SWS2 opsin facilitates adaptive radiation of threespine stickleback into different light environments. PLOS Biology 15(4): e2001627

Fox, CH,   PC Paquet, TE Reimchen. 2018. Pacific herring spawn events influence nearshore subtidal and intertidal species. Marine Ecology Progress Series 595: 157–169. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12539

Reimchen, TE. 2018. Diverse ecological pathways of salmon nutrients through an intact marine-terrestrial interface. Canadian Field-Naturalist 131: 350–368.

Marques, D, FC Jones, F Di Palma, DM Kingsley & TE Reimchen. 2018. Experimental evidence for rapid genomic adaptation to a new niche in an adaptive radiation. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2018. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0581-8