Ken Lertzman

Education

• BSc, Zoology, University of Manitoba
• MSc, Zoology, University of British Columbia
• PhD, Zoology, University of British Columbia

Biography

Dr. Ken Lertzman is interested in a broad range of topics related to ecosystem dynamics, conservation, and management. His research has focused on how natural disturbance regimes and management interact to produce pattern and dynamics in forest stands and landscapes. Dr. Lertzman has an ongoing interest in how changing climate drives ecosystems and the landscapes and resources available to people who live in them.
Increasingly Ken’s work focuses on trying to understand the complex dynamics and resilience of coupled social-ecological systems. This is being applied in his collaborative, multi-disciplinary work associated with the Hakai Institute on the Central Coast of British Columbia, where Ken works in partnership with First Nations and others to conduct and apply research about ecosystem-based management and sustainability on the British Columbia Coast. Ken helps lead the Hakai Institute’s Kwakshua Watershed’s research program which focuses on the drivers of forest variability and understanding biogeochemical and hydrological connections between hypermaritime watersheds and the nearshore marine environment (https://www.hakai.org/research/kwakshua-watersheds-program).
Dr. Lertzman and his students work closely with researchers from other disciplines, as well as representatives of government agencies, First Nations, industries, and other non-governmental groups in applying their research to problems in ecosystem conservation, restoration, and management.

Representative recent publications:

• Giesbrecht, I. J. W., Tank, S. E., Frazer, G. W., Hood, E., Gonzalez Arriola, S. G., Butman, D. E., D’Amore, D. Hutchinson, A. Bidlack, and K. Lertzman. 2022. Watershed classification predicts streamflow regime and organic carbon dynamics in the Northeast Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 36, e2021GB007047.
  
• Giesbrecht, I., S. Tank, G. Frazer, E. Hood, S. Gonzalez-Arriola, D. Butman, D. D’Amore, D. Hutchinson, A. Bidlack, and K. Lertzman.  2022. Data from: Watershed classification predicts streamflow regime and organic carbon dynamics in the Northeast Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest, Dryad, Dataset, 
• Vynne C, Dovichin E, Fresco N, Dawson N, Joshi A, Law BE, Lertzman K, Rupp S, Schmiegelow F and Trammell EJ.  2021.  The Importance of Alaska for Climate Stabilization, Resilience, and Biodiversity Conservation.  Front. For. Glob. Change 4:701277.  doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2021.701277
• Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, Dana Lepofsky, Ken Lertzman, Chelsey Geralda Armstrong, Eduardo S. Brondizio, Michael C. Gavin, Phil O’B. Lyver, George P. Nicholas, Pua’ala Pascua, Nicholas J. Reo, Victoria Reyes-García, Nancy J. Turner, Johanna Yletyinen, E. N. Anderson, William Balée, Joji Cariño, Dominique M. David-Chavez, Christopher P. Dunn, Stephen C. Garnett, Spencer Greening (La’goot), Shain Jackson (Niniwum Selapem), Harriet Kuhnlein, Zsolt Molnár, Guillaume Odonne, Gunn-Britt Retter, William J. Ripple, László Sáfián, Abolfazl Sharifian Bahraman, Miquel Torrents-Ticó, and Mehana Blaich Vaughan. 2021.  Scientists’ Warning to Humanity on Threats to Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems. Journal of Ethnobiology 41(2): 144-171. DOI: 10.2993/0278-0771-41.2.144
• Benner J, Nielsen J, Lertzman K. 2021. Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Understand the Diversity and Abundance of Culturally Important Trees. Journal of Ethnobiology. 41(2):209-28.
• Giesbrecht IJ, Floyd WC, Tank SE, Lertzman KP, Hunt BP, Korver MC, Oliver AA, Brunsting R, Sanborn P, Gonzalez Arriola SG, Frazer GW. St.Pierre KA, Hateley S,  McPhail J, Owen C, Butler S, Fedje B, Myers M, Quayle L, Haughton E, Desmarais I, White R, Levy-Booth DJ, Kellogg CE, Jackson JM, Mohn WW, Hallam SJ,  Del Bel Belluz J. 2021. The Kwakshua Watersheds Observatory, central coast of British Columbia, Canada. Hydrological Processes. 35(6):e14198.
• St. Pierre, K. A., Hunt, B. P. V., Tank, S. E., Giesbrecht, I., Korver, M. C., Floyd, W. C., Oliver, A. A., and Lertzman, K.P.  2021. Rain-fed streams dilute inorganic nutrients but subsidise organic matter-associated nutrients in coastal waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean, Biogeosciences, 18, 3029–3052, 2021.
• Hoffman, K. M., B. M. Starzomski, K. P. Lertzman, I. J. W. Giesbrecht, and A. J. Trant. 2021. Old-growth forest structure in a low-productivity hypermaritime rainforest in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Ecosphere 12(5):e03513.
  
• Bidlack, AL,  SM Bisbing, BJ Buma, H Diefenderfer, JB Fellman, I Giesbrecht, K Lertzman, S Perakis, D. Butman, D D’Amore, W Floyd, S Fleming, EW Hood, B Hunt, P Kiffney, G McNicol, B Menounos, S Tank.  2021.  Climate-Mediated Changes to Linked Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems across the North Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest Margin., BioScience. 71(6):581-595
• St. Pierre, K.A., Oliver, A.A., Tank, S.E., Hunt, B.P.V., Giesbrecht, I., Kellogg, C.T.E., Jackson, J.M., Lertzman, K.P., Floyd, W.C. and Korver, M.C. 2020. Terrestrial exports of dissolved and particulate organic carbon affect nearshore ecosystems of the Pacific coastal temperate rainforest. Limnology and Oceanography 65(11):2657-2675.
• Haider, W., D. Knowler, R. Trenholm, J. Moore, P. Bradshaw, K. Lertzman.  2019. Climate Change, Increasing Forest Fire Incidence and the Value of Visibility: Evidence from British Columbia, Canada.  Can. J. For. Res. 49: 1242–1255.
  
• Talucci, A. C., K.P. Lertzman, and M.A. Krawchuk.  2019.  Drivers of lodgepole pine recruitment across a gradient of bark beetle outbreak and wildfire in British Columbia, Forest Ecology and Management 451:117500.
  
• Benner, J., A. Knudby, J. Nielsen, M. Krawchuk, and K. Lertzman.  2019.  Combining data from field surveys and archaeological records to predict the distribution of culturally important trees.  Diversity and Distributions 25:1375-1387.
• Lepofsky, D. and K. Lertzman. 2019. Reflections on the History of Collaborations in British Columbia between Academics and First Nations Communities, 1970s – Present.  BC Studies 200 (Winter 2018/19).
• Mori, A.S., K. Lertzman, L. Gustafson. 2016. Biodiversity and ecosystem services in forest ecosystems: a research agenda for applied forest ecology. Journal of Applied Ecology.
• Hoffman K.M., D. G. Gavin, K. P. Lertzman, D. J. Smith and B. M. Starzomski. 2016. 13,000 years of fire history derived from soil charcoal in a British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest. Ecosphere.
• Savo V., D.S. Lepofsky, J.P. Benner, K.E. Kohfeld, H.J. Bailey, and K.P. Lertzman. 2016. Observations of climate change among subsistence-oriented communities around the world. Nature Climate Change 6:462–473.
• Spry, C.M., K.E. Kohfeld, D.M. Allen, D. Dunkley and K. Lertzman. 2014. Characterizing Pineapple Express Storms in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Canadian Water Resources Journal 39:302-323.
• Benner, J., K. Lertzman, E.W. Pinkerton. 2014. Social contracts and community forestry: How can we design forest policies and tenure arrangements to generate local benefits? Canadian Journal of Forest Research 44(8):903-913.
• Palen, W.P, T.D. Sisk, M.E. Ryan, J.L. Arvai, M. Jaccard, A.K. Salomon, T. Homer-Dixon, and K.P. Lertzman. 2014. Consider the global impacts of oil pipelines: debates over oil-sands infrastructure obscure a broken policy process that overlooks broad climate, energy and environment issues. Nature (June 26) 510:465-467.
• McKechnie, I, D. Lepofsky, M.L. Moss, V.L. Butler, T.J. Orchard, G. Coupland, F. Fosterg, M. Caldwell, and K. Lertzman. 2014. Archaeological Data Provide Alternative Hypotheses on Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) Distribution, Abundance, and Variability. PNAS 111(9):E807-E816.
• Heyerdahl, E.K., K. Lertzman, and C. M. Wong. 2012. Mixed-severity fire regimes in dry forests of southern interior British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 42: 88–98.
• Mori, A.S. and K.P. Lertzman. 2011. Historic variability in fire-generated landscape heterogeneity of subalpine forests in the Canadian Rockies. Journal of Vegetation Science 22:45–58.