Alyssa Allchurch
PhD Candidate in Resource and Environmental Management,
Simon Fraser University
MSc Resource & Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University
BA, Western University
Contact
Spectral Lab Research:
For her PhD, she is a part of the kelp-encrusting bryozoan (KEB) team, a project co-lead by Dr. Anne Salomon at Simon Fraser University and Dr. Maycira Costa at UVic. The project focuses on understanding the spatial and temporal drivers of kelp encrusting bryozoans up and down the BC coast. She investigates the ecological drivers of KEB in kelp forests, with a focus on the benthic kelp communities.
Background:
Alyssa is a coastal ecologist with a passion for nearshore ecosystems. She was raised on the prairies in Treaty 7 territory, where her family first settled four generations ago (from Ukraine & Britain). Her work on kelp-human relationships focuses on co-produced, community-based research that upholds diverse knowledge forms and Indigenous governance. She earned her Masters in Resource Management in 2023, where she worked alongside the Kwakiutl Nation to better understand how commercial kelp harvest was affecting kelp forests in Kwakiutl territory and how those kelp forests were reacting and recovering after harvest. Formerly she worked for a non-profit that focused on increasing the capacity and skillsets of marine managers globally to initiate conservation and management action in their communities. Broadly, her PhD explores how ecological interactions, traditional and experimental management practices, and climate-adaptive policy can collectively enhance the resilience of kelp forests to climate change. She is at her happiest when diving through a kelp forest, running down a beach or teaching someone a cool ocean fact.
Expertise and Experience:
ecological modelling, social ecological systems, kelp forest resilience, climate solutions, mariculture
Publications:
Starko, S., A. Allchurch, Neufeld, C. 2025. Asynchronous shifts in the demographics of two wave-swept kelp species (Laminariales) after nearly four decades. Journal of Phycology 61, 250-254.
Mehrotra, R., A. Allchurch, C. Monchanin, C. M. Scott. 2022. Recruitment of hard coral communities on giant clam shells (Cardiidae: Tridacna) differ from surrounding reef habitats at a tourist destination in the Gulf of Thailand. Journal of Molluscan Studies 88 (4), eyac031.
Allchurch, A., R. Mehrotra, H. Carmody, C. Monchanin, C. M. Scott. 2022. Competition and epibiosis by the sponge Pseudoceratina purpurea (Carter, 1880) on scleractinian corals at a tourism hotspot in the Gulf of Thailand. Regional Studies in Marine Science 49, 102131.
Mehrotra, R., A. Allchurch, C. Monchanin, C. M. Scott. 2021. Assessment of spatiotemporal variability of giant clams (Cardiidae: Tridacna) from 11 years of monitoring at Koh Tao, Thailand. Journal of Molluscan Studies 87 (4), eyab042.
Monchanin, C., R. Mehrotra, E. Haskin, C. M. Scott, P. U. Plaza, A. Allchurch, S. Arnold, K. Magson, B. Hoeksema. 2021. Contrasting coral community structures between natural and artificial substrates at Koh Tao, Gulf of Thailand. Marine Environmental Research 172, 105505.*
*December 2021 Editors Choice Article
Kaullysing, D., R. Mehrotra, S. Arnold, S. Ramah, A. Allchurch, E. Haskin, N. Taleb-Hossenkhan, R. Bhagooli. 2020. Multiple substrates chosen in mass in situ egg deposition by Drupella in Mauritius, a first record for the western Indian Ocean. Journal of Molluscan Studies 86 (4), 427-430.
