Courtney G. Collins

Adjunct Professor

Academic History

  • MS in Conservation Ecology & Sustainable Development – University of Georgia (2013);
  • PhD in Plant Biology – University of California, Riverside (2019);
  • Postdoctoral Research – Biodiversity Research Center, UBC;
  • Postdoctoral Research – INSTARR, University of Colorado Boulder

My Links:

Contact Information

​courtney.collins@botany.ubc.ca

Research Interest

My research takes a data-driven approach to understand the complex and interacting effects of global change on terrestrial biodiversity including species range dynamics, biotic interactions, phenology and plant-soil feedbacks. I combine different  methods including field and greenhouse experiments, ecological field and drone surveys, environmental senor arrays etc.  I synthesize ecological and environmental data across these multiple sources, as well as from publicly available global climate and trait databases, long-term experimental monitoring networks, environmental DNA sequencing data and other digital repositories. ​I have a passion for ecological modeling and employ numerous different approaches to quantify the mechanistic drivers and impacts of global change on terrestrial ecosystems. I actively utilize and teach best practices in reproducible research and open data science including creating and leading a live coding workshop on “Incorporating Github into your workflow.”
You can find my Github page here.

FFEC Research 
My research at the FFEC is focused on understanding and predicting the myriad drivers of tree species distribution across British Columbia, both historically, and in response to global change. I am currently developing historic species feasibility models to improve the future feasibility projections in the Climate Change Informed Species Selection (CCISS) tool (Mackenzie & Mahony 2021). In addition, I am co-leading a project on Mapping postglacial forest succession using drone imagery collected in alpine areas of the South Coast Mountains in BC along with collaborators at Simon Fraser University (SFU). 

Postdoctoral research
My Postdoctoral research aimed to further understand how climate change is influencing alpine and arctic tundra plant communities through changes in plant phenology, functional traits, and community composition. I utilized long term datasets from the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) and Niwot Ridge LTER, and collaborated with fantastic tundra scientists at CU Boulder, UBC and around the world. As a postdoc at UBC, I also began co-leading a large project carrying out tundra plant research at Garibaldi Provincial Park (Garibaldi ITEX). For more info on this project and to get involved check out our website HERE.

PhD research
My dissertation research focused on climate driven shifts in alpine plant community composition, in particular woody plant range expansion, and how these shifts alter soil microbial communities, nutrient cycling and  below-ground ecosystem function. I worked primarily in the White Mountains of California, studying the below-ground impacts of a native range expanding shrub species (Artemisia rothrockii, timberline sagebrush) and it’s feedbacks to other native plant species (See photos below!). Towards the end of my dissertation, I expanded the focus of this research to the global scale by examining the impacts of alpine woody plant range expansion on soil microbial communities (AWESoM) at 13 sites across 10 countries and 4 continents. 

Publications

For the most up to date information, please check my google scholar page 

  1.  Lertzman-Lepofsky, G., Dolezal, A., Waters, M., … Chardon, N., Collins, C.G.* (2025).Temporal changes in taxon abundances are positively correlated but poorly predicted at the global scale. Ecography  e07195. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.07195
    *senior author with mentorship role for student authors
  2. Henn, J. J., Anderson, K., Brigham, L., Bueno de Mesquita, C., Collins, C.G. et al. (2024) Long term alpine plant responses to global changes depend on their functional traits. Ecology Letters 27: e14518. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14518
  3. Suding, K. N., Collins, C.G., Hallett, L., et al. (2024) Biodiversity in changing environments: an external-driver internal-topology framework to guide intervention. 105(8): e4322. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4322
  4. Collins, C.G. Angert, A, Henry, G., Elmendorf, S., Elphinstone, C, Clark, K. (2024) Flowering time responses to warming drive reproductive fitness in a changing Arctic. Annals of Botany. 10.1093/aob/mcae007
  5. Collins, C.G., Spasojevic, M.J., Pombubpa, N., & Diez, J.M. (2023). Legacy effects post removal of a range-expanding shrub influence soil fungal communities and create negative plant-soil feedbacks for conspecific seedlings. Plant and Soil. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11104-023-05896-w
  6. Chardon, N. I., P. Stone, C. Hilbert, T. Maclachlan, B. Ragsdale, A. Zhao, K. Goodwin, C. G. Collins, N. Hewitt, and C. Elphinstone. (2023). Species-specific responses to human trampling indicate alpine plant size is more sensitive than reproduction to disturbance. Plants 12:3040. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12173040
  7. Collins, C.G., Elmendorf, S.C., Smith, J.G., Shoemaker, L., Szojka, M., Swift, M., Suding, K. N. (2022). Global change re-structures alpine plant communities through interacting abiotic and biotic effects. Ecology Letters 
  8. Collins, C.G. et al. (2021). Experimental warming differentially affects vegetative and reproductive phenology of tundra plants. Nature Communications. 12, 3442. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23841-2
  9. Prevey, J. … Collins, C.G. et al. (2021). The tundra phenology database: More than two decades of tundra phenology responses to climate change. Arctic Science. https://doi.org/10.1139/AS-2020-0041
  10. Collins, C. G., Spasojevic, M. J., Alados, C. L., Aronson, E. L., Benavides, J. C., Cannone, N., … Diez, J. M. (2020). Belowground Impacts of Alpine Woody Encroachment are determined by Plant Traits, Local Climate and Soil Conditions. Global Change Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15340
  11. Kattge, J., Bönisch, G., Díaz, S., Lavorel, S., Prentice, I. C., Leadley, P., … Collins, C.G, ….Wirth, C. (2020). TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access. Global Change Biology, 26(1), 119–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14904
  12. Collins, C.G., Bohner, T. F., & Diez, J. M. (2019). Plant-Soil Feedbacks and Facilitation Influence the Demography of Herbaceous Alpine Species in Response to Woody Plant Range Expansion. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00417
  13. Yang, F., Niu, K., Collins, C.G., Yan, X., Ji, Y., Ling, N., … Hu, S. (2019). Grazing practices affect the soil microbial community composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow. Land Degradation and Development, 30(1), 49–59. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3189
  14. Collins, C.G., Stajich, J. E., Weber, S. E., Pombubpa, N., & Diez, J. M. (2018). Shrub range expansion alters diversity and distribution of soil fungal communities across an alpine elevation gradient. Molecular Ecology, 27(10), 2461–2476. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14694
  15. Collins, C.G., Carey, C. J., Aronson, E. L., Kopp, C. W., & Diez, J. M. (2016). Direct and indirect effects of native range expansion on soil microbial community structure and function. Journal of Ecology, 104(5), 1271–1283. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12616
  16. Collins, C.G., Wright, S. J., & Wurzburger, N. (2016). Root and leaf traits reflect distinct resource acquisition strategies in tropical lianas and trees. Oecologia, 180(4), 1037–1047. 10.1007/s00442-015-3410-7