People

Current Lab Members

Justine Karst

Professor

Justine is a mycorrhizal ecologist who does much of her research in the boreal forest. Her interests include mycorrhizal ecology, disturbance, and how forest ecosystems function.

She is the past president of the International Mycorrhiza Society.

Ferf Brownoff

PhD Candidate

Ferf received a BA in Japanese and East Asian Studies from the University of Alberta in 2013. After living in Hokkaido for a few years and developing a passion for nature, he decided to return to the U of A and completed a BSc in Environmental and Conservation Sciences (Conservation Biology) in 2023. Despite his deep love of insects (particularly the greatest insect ever–the cicada), Ferf started his MSc with the Karst lab in the fall of 2023 but quickly decided to roll his research into a PhD. Ferf is currently investigating how trees acquire water and the role of ectomycorrhizal fungi in that process.

Liam Easton

PhD Candidate

Liam completed his BSc in Biology at Thompson Rivers University before pursuing an MSc in Computational Neuroscience at McGill University. Interested in both forest ecology and biological networks, he joined the Forest Biology program at the University of Alberta for his PhD. His research investigates how fungi coordinate behavior across their mycelial networks, combining techniques from electrophysiology and behavioral ecology.

Jacob Beauregard

PhD student

Jacob is passionate (maybe obsessed) about mycorrhizal fungi and all things forest ecology, particularly the drivers of above and below ground community assembly. Jacob received his BSc in conservation in forestry at the University of British Columbia with a major in science and management. He then went on to complete his MSc in biology at the Université de Sherbrooke (Québec) where he worked with the microbial ecology lab of Dr. Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe in trying to understand the impacts of dominant forest mycorrhizal types on below ground fungal communities (with a focus on the sugar maple and eastern hemlock). Jacob hopes to combine his passions for forest ecology, fungi and disturbances during his PhD in the Karst lab. While Jacob loves mycorrhizae, he is a fan of all types of fungi and the roles they play in ecosystems - careful, he’ll talk your ear off if you ask him about fungi!

Lei Jiang

Visiting Scholar

Lei Jiang joined Justine’s laboratory as a visiting scholar in January 2026. She is from China and previously studied subtropical forests, focusing on how root traits and plant diversity influence decomposition processes. Her current research explores nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems, with a focus on plant–soil interactions, mycorrhizal fungi, and decomposition. She is particularly interested in how processes during a root’s life affect its decomposition after death, and how mycorrhizal associations shape these legacy effects, to better understand carbon and nutrient dynamics in forests.

Tyler Gauchier

Lab technician

Tyler is a recent graduate in Environmental and Conservation Sciences at the University of Alberta, where he majored in Land Reclamation. Hailing from the Métis community of Marlboro, Alberta, Tyler currently resides in Edmonton, where he enjoys long-distance runs, going to concerts, and playing video games whenever he is not watching hockey (Go Habs Go!). As he begins this next chapter, Tyler's lifelong goal is to bring his experience back home to Marlboro, bridging his Indigenous community with the natural resource industry while braiding modern environmental science with Traditional Indigenous Knowledge. He is thrilled to take these first steps as part of the Karst Lab.