Chelsea J. Little
Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Science & School of Resource and Environmental Management
Chelsea is a community, landscape, and ecosystem ecologist. Her research considers how communities of organisms assemble, the interactions between organisms of similar and different trophic groups, and how their traits contribute to ecosystem function. Ecosystems are intrinsically connected by exchanges of organisms (dispersal and other movement) and materials (for example, resource subsidies), so a second avenue of her research considers how these exchanges affect the functioning of recipient ecosystems. She uses a combination of laboratory experiments, field experiments, observational data, and data synthesis/meta-analysis in my research. She likes playing in the mountains and the snow, reading books (often crime novels), and eating cookies .
See Chelsea’s: CV – Dispersal route – Outreach
Masters in Resource Management (MRM) Student
Kate is a graduate student at SFU in the Resource and Environmental Management program. She is a landscape and movement ecologist, who is particularly interested in studying how wildlife use space and how this relationship changes as climate change alters the landscape. In the Little Ecology Group, Kate will be examining how wildlife use riparian zone corridors across a developmental gradient in British Columbia. She hopes that this research will inform wildlife corridor planning. Throughout this process, she also hopes to connect the public to her work and to the natural world she studies. In her free time, Kate enjoys cross country skiing, hiking, and playing the piano.
Masters Student in Biological Sciences
Sheena is a graduate student at SFU in the Department of Biological Sciences. She is returning to academia after working for several years in protected areas, where she contributed to wildlife conservation, species at risk recovery, and ecosystem management. In collaboration with the Little Ecology Group and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, she will assess how ecosystem metabolism and prey availability vary through space and time in the North Thompson Watershed. Through her research, she hopes to better understand where and when freshwater habitat is most productive for juvenile coho salmon. When not studying, Sheena’s most likely running, hiking, birding, or enjoying a cup of tea.
Undergraduate Researcher
Pierre Etienne is currently in his second year in the Global Environmental Systems program. He is particularly interested in topics related to environmental sustainability and is planning to pursue graduate studies after completing his degree. He also has a prior degree in actuarial sciences and has been working as an actuary providing consulting services for pensions and benefit plans for nearly 15 years. As part of the Little Ecology Group, Pierre Etienne will be conducting statistical analysis of ecological simulation data and assist in ecological field research related to wildlife movement. Pierre Etienne loves the outdoors and enjoys getting out rock climbing, ice climbing and mountaineering in his free time.
Charlotte Noort
Honours Thesis Student
Charlotte is a fourth-year undergraduate student at SFU pursuing a major in Environmental Science with a concentration in Earth Systems. She is working in the Little Ecology Group on an honours thesis that explores the methods of interpreting streamflow dynamics from data obtained from game cameras. In her free time, Charlotte enjoys travelling, cooking, and hanging out with her family, friends and puppy.
Grace Sabo
Honours Thesis Student
Grace Sabo is a fourth-year undergraduate student at SFU completing her degree in Environmental Science with a concentration in Applied Biology. As part of the Little Ecology Group, Grace will be conducting research for her Undergraduate Honours Thesis. She is particularly interested in interspecies relationships, predator-prey dynamics, population dispersal related to climate change, wildlife conservation, and really anything else involving ecology. Outside of school, you can find Grace either shredding the slopes with the SFU Ski and Snowboard Club, hiking, looking at plants and invertebrates, eating huckleberries or socializing with friends.
Carter Tsui
Co-op Student
Carter is a third-year undergraduate student at SFU pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science with a concentration in applied biology. He is working on a co-op with masters student Sheena Parsons, processing invertebrate samples from the North Thompson Watershed to investigate how juvenile coho productivity may vary in the watershed. In his free time, he enjoys sports, cooking, gardening, and fishing (although he needs to work on his catching), and is interested in B.C.’s fisheries, especially Pacific salmon, coastal cutthroat trout and bull trout.
Elena Le
Work-Study Student
Elena is a second-year undergraduate student at SFU majoring in Environmental Science. She is interested in the interactions between wildlife and human activities, especially in aquatic ecosystems. As part of the Little Ecology Group, she will be identifying wildlife activities in game camera photos taken from riparian areas to support corridor planning research. In her free time, she likes to read, kayak, try new recipes, and spend time with friends and family.
Lab Alumni
Amanda Wik – Honors Thesis Student
Amanda is interested in conservation management and ecology and completed her thesis studying whether managing for Pacific Salmon in urban streams have benefits to the base of the food web, using decomposition as an indicator. What’s next: Amanda will start a masters program in Environmental Science at Yale University in Fall 2022.
Zoey Schutz – Honors Thesis Student
Zoey is particularly interested in environmental policy and law, and plans to pursue environmental law after completing her undergraduate degree. As part of the Little Ecology Group, Zoey studied beetle biodiversity around intermittent streams. What’s next: Zoey will start a law degree at the University of Victoria in Fall 2022, where she plans to focus on environmental law.
Kate May – Honours Thesis Student
Kate majored in Environmental Science in the Applied Biology concentration, and minored in Physical Geography. She is particularly interested in organism distribution and dispersal, invasive species, habitat connectivity, and meta-ecosystems. She also has a soft spot for invertebrates. Her thesis addressed the distribution of Asian Clams in lower mainland B.C. What’s next: Kate is finishing her final semester of coursework to graduate from SFU at the end of spring 2023.
Kimberly Neumann – Work-Study Student
Kimberly is a former secondary school English teacher who has returned to SFU to pursue an undergraduate degree in Earth Science. She is interested in researching new ways in which humans can co-exist with the natural world and is passionate about sharing this message with others through nature-based education.
Sage Dillabough – Undergraduate Researcher
Sage is a second-year undergraduate student at SFU studying Environmental Science with a concentration in Applied Biology and a minor in Sustainable Development. Sage completed a co-op work term in Fall 2021 identifying macroinvertebrate samples, and a USRA in Summer 2022 looking at how wildlife, especially bears, respond to human recreational activity.
Mikayla Young – Research Assistant
Mikayla is a graduate student at SFU and BCIT in the Masters of Ecological Restoration program. She is particularly interested in wildlife, specifically mammals. In the Little Ecology Group, Mikayla will be helping examine how wildlife use riparian zone corridors across a developmental gradient in British Columbia by analyzing trail camera data. What’s next: Mikayla is now working on her own research on marine mammals on Saturna Island, and finishing her masters.
Sabir Sagor – Work-Study Student
Hi was a work-study student during the 4th year of his Environmental Science degree, with a concentration in Water Science. He’s interested in animals too, particularly mammals. Sabir is cricket player as well, and play in the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League in the 2nd division. After graduation, he hopes to find some work which relates to helping save our water bodies, and the ecosystem in general, and how humans tie into all this.
Masseni Diakite – Work-Study Student
Massey is an undergraduate student in her third year majoring in environmental science with a concentration in biology. After graduation, she wants to pursue a job in research, hopefully being able to tie human health to environmental health which will help to stress the importance of taking care of the environment.
The Little Ecology Group 