Sandra Lindstrom

Adjunct Professor

Academic History

  • B.A. Reed College (1971); 
  • M.Sc. UBC (1973); 
  • Ph.D. UBC (1985); 
  • Post-graduate studies, Osaka Univ. Foreign Studies, Hokkaido Univ., Univ. Michigan; 
  • Post-doctoral Fellow, Huntsman Marine Science Centre;
  • Curator, Phycological Collection, Beaty Biodiversity Museum, UBC;
  • Associate Professor (Affiliate), University of Alaska, Fairbanks;
  • Visiting Lecturer, Vancouver Island University.

Contact Information

  • sandra.lindstrom@botany.ubc.ca

Research Interests

One of the world’s most complex coasts extends from Puget Sound, Washington, through British Columbia and around the coast of Alaska. Repeated glaciation has acted like a species pump, creating a more diverse marine benthic seaweed flora than one would expect in a region so recently covered by ice. Although this area has been studied by phycologists at U.B.C. since the 1950s, only recently have we had the molecular tools to address unequivocally questions of species limits and relationships and the biogeography of speciation in this environment. These tools have allowed us to recognize species that had previously been confused with other species, to hypothesize the existence of refugia that allowed species to persist within the glacial boundary through the Pleistocene, and to identify geographic boundaries that may have played a role in speciation.

These studies highlight the need for further systematic investigation of North Pacific species. More intensive collections are revealing not just additional cryptic diversity, but also concordant patterns of genotype diversity distributions and a strong signal for a Pacific origin of many Atlantic species. Culture studies have identified novel patterns of development and vegetative proliferation. These studies serve to further our knowledge of seaweed phylogeny, systematics and biogeography.


Hind, K. M., Gabrielson, P. G., Lindstrom, S. C., & Martone, P. T.  2014.  Misleading morphologies and the importance of sequencing type specimens for resolving coralline taxonomy (Corallinales, Rhodophyta): Pachyarthron cretaceum is Corallina officinalis. J. Phycol. 50: 760-764.

Gabrielson, P. W., S. C. Lindstrom and C. J. O’Kelly.  2012.  Keys to the Seaweeds and Seagrasses of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.  Phycological Contribution No. 8, iv + 192 pp.

Martone, P. T., Lindstrom, S. C., Miller, K. A., & Gabrielson, P. G.  2012.  Chiharaea and Yamadaia (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) represent reduced and recently derived articulated coralline morphologies.  J. Phycol. 48: 859-868.

Lindstrom, S. C., Hughey, J. R., & Martone, P. T.  2011.  New, resurrected and redefined species of Mastocarpus (Phyllophoraceae, Rhodophyta) from the northeast Pacific.  Phycologia 50: 661-683.

 [1]Sutherland, J. E., Lindstrom, S. C., Nelson, W. A., Brodie, J., Lynch, M., Hwang, M. S., Choi, H.-G., Miyata, M., Kikuchi, N., Oliveira, M. C., Farr, T., Neefus, C., Mols-Mortensen, A., Milstein, D., & Müller, K.  2011.  A new look at an ancient order: generic revision of the Bangiales (Rhodophyta).  J. Phycol. 47: 1131-1151.

Boo, G. H., Lindstrom, S. C., Klochkova, N. G., Yotsukura, N., Yang, E. C., Kim, H. G., Waaland, J. R., Cho, G. Y., Miller, K. A., & Boo, S. M.  2011.  Taxonomy and biogeography of Agarum and Thalassiophyllum (Laminariales, Phaeophyceae) based on nuclear, mitochondrial and plastid gene sequences.  Taxon 60:831-840.

 [2]Lindeberg, M. R. and S. C. Lindstrom 2010.  Field Guide to Seaweeds of Alaska.  Alaska Sea Grant College Program, Fairbanks, iv + 188 pp.

Kawai, H., Hanyuda, T., Lindeberg, M., & Lindstrom, S. C.  2008.  Morphology and molecular phylogeny of Aureophycus aleuticus gen. et sp. nov. (Laminariales, Phaeophyceae) from the Aleutian Islands.  J. Phycol. 44: 1013-1021.

[1]This publication won the Provasoli Award for the best paper published in the Journal of Phycology in 2011.

[2]This publication won awards from the National Association of Government Communicators (US) in the Soft/Hardcover book category (content and design) and from the American Library Association, Notable Government Documents program.