Mossaraptor Ecology
Welcome to my professional website
This is where you will find information on the background, research interests, collaborations, funding, publications, and teaching of Dr. Sean R. Haughian, the Curator of Botany at the Nova Scotia Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
I am an interdisciplinary ecologist with experience ranging from botany, biogeography, mosses & lichens, disturbance, climate change impacts, wildlife management and taxonomy to science writing and multivariate analysis. This work has taken me from the mountains of British Columbia to Atlantic Canada, with considerable experience in-between. I am an effective leader with experience managing private business and non-profit organizations, and an educator with experience teaching adults and children. My current research focuses on forest structural enhancement for biodiversity conservation, developing ex-situ cultivation methods for cryptogam research and conservation, and understanding the distribution and population status of endangered species.
Why "Mossaraptor"?
Mossaraptor was a nickname given to me by a fellow environmental professional during my PhD research. The name stuck because it made for a fun and memorable Twitter handle, and because it is probably the most accurate nickname I've been offered to-date: raptor comes from the Latin "rapere", which means to seize or take by force, which is exactly what I spent weeks and weeks doing during my PhD field work - seizing mosses from the rotting logs they grew upon so I could identify them later in the laboratory. To add further credence, the motto in my PhD advisor's lab was literally "carpe muscum", or 'seize the moss'. Of course, I study much more than just mosses these days, but Hepaticaraptor, Lichenaraptor, and Cryptogamaraptor just don't have quite the same ring to them.
My Education & Credentials
Post-Doc 2018-2019, Saint Mary's University.
Post-Doc 2017-2018, New Brunswick Museum.
Ph.D. Biology granted in April 2017 from the Faculty of Science, Applied Science and Engineering, at the University of New Brunswick’s Saint John campus.
M.Sc. Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (biology stream) granted in April 2011 from the University of Northern British Columbia’s College of Science and Management.
B.Sc. Environmental Biology (wildlife biology and management stream) granted in May 2005 from the University of Alberta's Faculty of Science.