Gary Bradfield

Professor Emeritus

Academic History

  • B.Sc. (Hons.) (1970), Univ. Western Ontario; 
  • M.Sc. (1972), Univ. Western Ontario; 
  • Ph.D. (1977) Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

My Links

Contact Information

  • garyb@mail.ubc.ca

Research Interests

My research falls generally in the area of plant community ecology involving the descriptive and correlative analysis of vegetation – environmental relationships. I am also interested in the development of vegetation pattern and organization through time, and in determining the factors that influence community change and the spatial/temporal scales on which they operate. My students and I are currently conducting research in three areas: (1) Coastal marshes and bogs, including plant community structure and restoration of damaged ecosystems. (2) Effects of habitat fragmentation on plant functional groups, including diversity changes in bryophytes, lichens, and vascular plants after logging in coastal forests. (3) Natural disturbances and ecosystem linkages in montane forests, including the relationships between tree size/age distributions, environmental conditions, and disturbance history at the tree, stand, and landscape scales.


Selected Publications

Baldwin, L.K., C.L. Petersen, G.E. Bradfield, W.M. Jones, S.T. Black, and J. Karakatsoulis. 2012. Bryophyte response to forest canopy treatments within the riparian zone of high-elevation small streams. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 42: 141-156.

Sadler, K.D., and G.E. Bradfield. 2010. Ecological facets of plant species rarity in rock outcrop ecosystems of the Gulf Islands, British Columbia. Botany, 88:429-434.

Baldwin, L.K., and G.E. Bradfield. 2010. Resilience of bryophyte communities in regenerating matrix forests after logging in temperate rainforests of coastal British Columbia. Botany, 88:297-314.

Campbell, J., G.E. Bradfield, C.E. Prescott, and A.L. Fredeen. 2010. The influence of overstorey Populus on epiphytic lichens in sub-boreal spruce forests of British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 40:143-154.

Rowland, S.M., C.E. Prescott, S.J. Grayston, S.A. Quideau, and G.E.
Bradfield. 2009. Recreating a functioning forest soil in reclaimed oil sands in northern Alberta: An approach for measuring success in ecological restoration. In Press. Journal of Environmental Quality.

Stark, K.E., A. Arsenault, and G.E. Bradfield. 2008. Variation in soil seed bank species composition of a dry coniferous forest: spatial scale and sampling considerations. Plant Ecology 197:173-181.

Baldwin, L., and G.E. Bradfield. 2007. Bryophyte responses to fragmentation in temperate coastal rainforests: a functional group approach. Biological Conservation 136:408-422.

Bradfield, G.E. and K.D. Sadler (2006). Transient assemblage dynamics of terrestrial bryophytes in a subalpine forest. The Bryologist 109(1): 18-25.

Stark, K.E., A. Arsenault, and G.E. Bradfield. 2006. Soil seed banks and plant community assembly following disturbance by fire and logging in Interior Douglas-fir forests of south-central British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Botany 84: 1548-1560.

MacDougall, A.S., Boucher, J., Turkington, R., and G.E. Bradfield (2006). Patterns of plant invasion along an environmental stress gradient. Journal of Vegetation Science 17: 47-56.

Baldwin, L.K., and G.E. Bradfield. (2005). Bryophyte community differences between edge and interior environments in temperate rainforests fragments of coastal British Columbia. Canadian J. Forest Research 35: 580-592.

Lewis, G.J., and G.E. Bradfield. (2003). A floristic and ecological analysis at the Tulameen ultramafic (serpentine) complex, Southern British Columbia, Canada. Davidsonia 14(4): 121-128, 131-134, 137-144.

Clark, D., J. Antos, and G.E. Bradfield. (2003). Succession in sub-boreal forests of west-central British Columbia. Journal of Vegetation Science, 14:721-732.

Rajakaruna, N., G.E. Bradfield, B.A. Bohm, and J. Whitton. (2003). Adaptive differentiation in response to water stress by edaphic races of Lasthenia californica (Asteraceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences. 164(3): 371-376.

Drewa, P. and G.E. Bradfield. (2000). Large scale related effects on the determination of plant communities and relationships with environmental variables. Community Ecology. 1:157-164.

Dawe, N.K., G.E. Bradfield, W.S. Boyd, D. Tretheway, and A.N. Zolbrod. (2000). Marsh creation in a northern Pacific estuary: Is thirteen years of monitoring vegetation dynamics enough? Conservation Ecology. http:/www.consecol.org/vol4/iss2/art12

Binney, E., and G.E. Bradfield. (2000). An initial comparison of growth rates in the rare grass, Achnatherum hendersonii, and its common associate, Poa secunda. Ecological Research. 15: 181-185.

Sadler, K.D., and G.E. Bradfield. (2000). Microscale distribution patterns of terrestrial bryophytes in a subalpine forest: the use of logistic regression as an interpretive tool. Community Ecology. 1:57-64.

Hagerman, SM, MD Jones, GE Bradfield, M Gillespie, SM Sakakibara & DM Durall. 1999. Effects of clear-cut logging on the diversity and persistence of ectomycorrhizas in a subalpine forest. Can. J. For. Res. 29: 124-134.

Zhang, W & GE Bradfield. Quantifying aerial photo polygon complexity on a subalpine landscape of Wells Gray Park, British Columbia. In: Proc. Conf. on Biology and Management of Species and Habitats at Risk. University College of the Cariboo, Kamloops, B.C., Feb. 15-19, 1999. pp. 209-213.

Bradfield, GE, W. Zhang & A. Arsenault. Plant communities and natural disturbances in the ESSF of southern Wells Gray Park. In: Proc. Conf. on Ecosystem Dynamics and Silvicultural Systems in Interior Wet-belt ESSF-ICH Forests. University of Northern British Columbia, June 10-12, 1997. pp. 13-14 (Abstract).

Liang, Q, IS Otvos, & GE Bradfield. 1997. Forest roadside sampling of larvae and adults of the western hemlock looper Lambdina fiscellaria Iugubrosa. Forest Ecology and Management. 93: 45-53.

Brulisauer, A, GE Bradfield, & J Maze. 1996. Quantifying organizational change after fire in lodgepole pine forest understory. Can. J. Bot. 74: 1773-1782.

Arsenault, A, & GE Bradfield. 1995. Structural-compositional variation in three age classes of temperate rainforest in south-coastal British Columbia. Can. J. Bot. 73: 54-64.