Dr Brian Pickles
Responsibilities
- Co-supervision of Postgraduate Students at the University of British Columbia
Areas of Interest
Assisted migration; Plant-fungal symbioses; Spatial ecology
- Exploring the responses of mycorrhizal symbioses to global change impacts
- Spatial and temporal dynamics in host-symbiont communities and populations
- Forecasting changes in species and ecosystem distributions
- Examining host-symbiont interactions and nutrient dynamics in forest ecosystems
- Integrating soil ecology and ecological theory into forest management practices
Member of the Ecology Research Group
Impact, Enterprise and Outreach
- Importance of edaphic factors, especially mutualistic soil biota, to the regeneration success of planted conifers
- Development of seed transfer functions based on soils in addition to climate
- Research on 'Skill-based Optimised Aiming in Darts' featured in UK newspapers, TV interviews and popular science show for the Discovery Channel
Esteem Factors
- Awarded a Royal Society Research Grant to study "The diversity and identity of plant-fungal interactions in British woodlands: ectomycorrhizal symbioses of native British trees"
(2017-2018; £15k) - Co-I on EPSRC grant: "InfruTreeCity: Understanding Infrared radiative performance of urban trees for better future cities" (2017-2020)
- Co-I on NSERC SPG: "Designing successful forest renewal strategies for our changing climate"
(2016-2019; CAD $950K) - Affiliate Professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia
- Reviewer for 20 different ISI journals
International Collaborators
- Dr Dirk Brinkman, Brinkman & Associates Reforestation Ltd., Canada
- Prof Keith Egger, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
- Dr Dominique Gravel, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada
- Dr Miranda Hart, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Prof John Klironomos, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Prof Les Lavkulic, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Dr Hugues Massicotte, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
- Prof Rolf Mathewes, Simon Fraser University, Canada
- Dr Gregory O'Neill, BC Ministry of Forests, Land and Natural Resource Operations, Canada
- Dr Alejandro Ordonez, University of Aarhus, Denmark
- Dr Jason Pither, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Prof Suzanne Simard, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Dr Matthew Whiteside, VU University, Netherlands
- Prof Jack Williams, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Research groups / Centres
Publications
2019
- Defrenne, C. E., Philpott, T. J., Guichon, S. H., Roach, W. J., Pickles, B. J. and Simard, S. W. (2019) Shifts in ectomycorrhizal fungal communities and exploration types relate to the environment and fine-root traits across interior Douglas-fir forests of western Canada. Frontiers in Plant Science, 10. 643. ISSN 1664-462X doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.00643
- Deng, J., Pickles, B. J., Kavakopoulos, A., Blanusa, T., Halios, C. H., Smith, S. T. and Shao, L. (2019) Concept and methodology of characterising infrared radiative performance of urban trees using tree crown spectroscopy. Building and Environment. ISSN 0360-1323 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.04.056 (In Press)
2018
- Pither, J., Pickles, B., Simard, S. W., Ordonez, A. and Williams, J. W. (2018) Below-ground biotic interactions moderated the postglacial range dynamics of trees. New Phytologist, 220 (4). pp. 1148-1160. ISSN 1469-8137 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15203
2017
- Pither, J. and Pickles, B. J. (2017) The paleosymbiosis hypothesis: host plants can be colonized by root symbionts that have been inactive for centuries to millenia. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 93 (6). fix061. ISSN 1574-6941 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fix061
- Pickles, B. J., Wilhelm, R., Asay, A. K., Hahn, A. S., Simard, S. W. and Mohn, W. W. (2017) Transfer of 13C between paired Douglas-fir seedlings reveals plant kinship effects and uptake of exudates by ectomycorrhizas. New Phytologist, 214 (1). pp. 400-411. ISSN 1469-8137 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.14325
- Gorzelak, M. A., Pickles, B. J. and Hart, M. M. (2017) Exploring the symbiont diversity of ancient western redcedars: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of long-lived hosts. Molecular Ecology, 26 (6). pp. 1586-1597. ISSN 0962-1083 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14023
- Pickles, B. J. and Simard, S. W. (2017) Mycorrhizal networks and forest resilience to drought. In: Johnson, N. C., Gehring, C. and Jansa, J. (eds.) Mycorrhizal Mediation of Soil - Fertility, Structure, and Carbon Storage. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 319-339. ISBN 9780128043127 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804312-7.00018-8
2016
- Pickles, B. J. and Anderson, I. C. (2016) Spatial ecology of ectomycorrhizal fungal communities. In: Martin, F. (ed.) Molecular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis. Wiley, pp. 363-386. ISBN 9781118951415 doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118951446.ch20
2015
- Pickles, B. J., Gorzelak, M. A., Green, D. S., Egger, K. N. and Massicotte, H. B. (2015) Host and habitat filtering in seedling root-associated fungal communities: taxonomic and functional diversity are altered in ‘novel’ soils. Mycorrhiza, 25 (7). pp. 517-531. ISSN 0940-6360 doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-015-0630-y
- Pickles, B. J., Twieg, B. D., O'Neill, G. A., Mohn, W. W. and Simard, S. W. (2015) Local adaptation in migrated interior Douglas-fir seedlings is mediated by ectomycorrhizas and other soil factors. New Phytologist, 207 (3). pp. 858-871. ISSN 0028-646X doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13360
- Hart, M. M., Aleklett, K., Chagnon, P.-L., Egan, C., Ghignone, S., Helgason, T., Lekberg, Y., Öpik, M., Pickles, B. J. and Waller, L. (2015) Navigating the labyrinth: a guide to sequence-based, community ecology of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. New Phytologist, 207 (1). pp. 235-247. ISSN 1469-8137 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13340
- Gorzelak, M. A., Asay, A. K., Pickles, B. J. and Simard, S. W. (2015) Inter-plant communication through mycorrhizal networks mediates complex adaptive behaviour in plant communities. AoB Plants, 7. plv050. ISSN 2041-2851 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plv050
2014
- Pickles, B. J. and Pither, J. (2014) Still scratching the surface: how much of the ‘black box’ of soil ectomycorrhizal communities remains in the dark? New Phytologist, 201 (4). pp. 1101-1105. ISSN 0028-646X doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.12616
Pre 2003
Bicknell AB (2002) Identification of a receptor for N-POMC peptides Endo Res 28 309-314.
Bicknell AB and Lowry PJ (2002) Adrenal growth is controlled by expression of specific proopiomelanocortin serine protease in the outer adrenal cortex. Endo Res 28 589-595.
Omer S, Lomthaisong K and Bicknell AB (2002) Identification of two alternate splice variants of a novel serine protease expressed in steroidogenic tissues Endo Res 28 339-348.
Neville SE, Baigent SM, Bicknell AB, Lowry PJ and Gladwell RT (2002) Hox gene expression in adult tissues with particular reference to the adrenal gland. Endo Res 28 669-673.
Bicknell AB (2002) Identification of the protease that cleaves pro-gamma-MSH: the dawning of a new era in adrenal physiology. J Endocrinology 172 405-410.
Bicknell AB, Lomthaisong K, Woods RJ, Hutchinson EG, Bennett HPJ, Gladwell RT, and Lowry PJ (2001) Characterization of a serine protease that cleaves pro-g-melanotropin at the adrenal to stimulate growth. Cell 105 903-912
Bicknell AB, Lomthaisong K, Gladwell RT, and Lowry PJ (2000) Agouti related protein expression in the adrenal cortex. implications for novel autocrine mechanisms modulating the actions of pro-opiomelanocortin peptides. J Neuroend 12 977-982.
Bicknell AB and Lowry PJ (2000) Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC). In: Fink, G ed. Encyclopedia of Stress San Diego:Academic Press pp 257-265.
Bicknell AB, Savva D and Lowry PJ (1996) POMC and adrenal function. Endo Res 22 385-393.
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