Our Team
Current Lab Members
Dr Anne McIntosh
Anne is the Associate Dean of Teaching at Augustana (2022-2025), and an Associate Professor of Biology at the Augustana Campus of University of Alberta. I began working at Augustana in July 2014 and love working on a campus where we are passionate about undergraduate teaching and learning. I am also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Renewable Resources.
My teaching interests include anything to do with plants, statistics, conservation biology, and all levels of ecology. My research interests are focused on how plant (and sometimes microbial communities) recover after disturbance. I am interested in exploring a range of novelties of those disturbances - including both natural (e.g., Mountain Pine Beetle), and anthropogenic (oil and gas development).
FUN FACT: I used to spend time 80-m above the ground in Douglas-fir trees -now I like terra firma better!
Hailey Cole
Hailey is a Master's student in Anne's lab studying forest biology and management at the University of Alberta in the Dept of Renewable Resources. Her research project is assessing the recovery of vegetation species and functional composition in forest ecosystems on reclaimed well pads. This research is part of a larger project with Natural Resources Canada.
Hailey graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BSc in Environmental Science and French. During her undergrad, she completed an independent research project studying forest disturbance interactions in Colorado.
FUN FACT: The snowman in the photo is named Pierre (he was built by a group of language assistants in France!).
Raiany dias de Andrade Silva
Raiany is a post-doctoral researcher in the ecological recovery lab. She works with WBEA in the vegetation component of the Forest Health Monitoring Program to assess the effects of atmospheric deposition from the Athabasca Oil Sands on surrounding jack pine forest stands.
Raiany graduated from the University of Alberta with a MSc and a PhD in Forest Biology and Management. Her MSc research was focused on the restoration of trails at a provincial recreation area in Alberta using balsam poplar cutting treatments, and her PhD research was focused on genetic variability and sex responses of aspen stands in a tree improvement region in Alberta.
FUN FACT: Raiany is originally from Brazil and she first came to Canada as a research assistant working for Anne almost 10 years ago.
Reeve Kobbero
Reeve is going into his fourth year as a biology major at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus. Reeve is working as Anne's research assistant during the summer of 2024, continuing the work that Leah and AJ did through the creation of Rstudio tutorials, and helping with fieldwork on Anne's Mountain Pine Beetle study.
FUN FACT: Reeve applied to the U of A for mathematics, but somehow ended up going into biology.
David Valderrama Carmona
David is a fifth-year forestry engineering student at the National University of Colombia. David is a Mitacs Globalink intern for the 2024 summer and he will be working on Anne's Mountain Pine Beetle project, developing software tutorials for R, processing soil samples, and more.
FUN FACT: On his first day in Canada, David activated the fire alarm while cooking pasta.
Yifei Li
Yifei is a forth-year ecology student at Zhejiang University in China. In the summer of 2024, she is a Mitacs intern working on Anne's Mountain Pine Beetle Project.
FUN FACT: Although Yifei has lived in a flood-prone region for the past three years, she does not know how to swim.
Former Members
Berenda Helmus
Berenda is a fourth-year biology major and music minor student at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus. Berenda is completing a directed study with Anne processing soil samples and looking at effects of well pads on soil pH throughout the winter semester of 2024.
FUN FACT: Even thought she was born in Canada, her first language is Dutch!
This picture was taken while doing research on water quality and beavers at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park while doing research in the Fall 2023 3-week
Kyle Bergquist
Kyle is a fourth-year biology student at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus. Kyle is completing a directed study with Anne processing soil samples and looking at effects of well pads on soil pH throughout the winter semester of 2024.