People

Current Lab Members

Justine Karst

Associate 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 an Associate Editor for the Journal of Ecology and 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!

Alexandra Hallin Carlsson

MSc student

Alexandra is visiting from Sweden to pursue a Dual Master’s Degree through the TRANSFOR-M program.

She received a BSc in Biology from Stockholm University, where she focused on ecology and plant identification. It was her curiosity about and love for forests that drew her to ecology during her undergraduate studies and the Forest Ecology and Sustainable Management Master’s program at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå. After completing her first year there, she has now made her way to the UofA and the Karst lab to continue exploring the boreal forest.

Kyle Taylor

Research Assistant & Field Technician

Kyle completed his BSc with Distinction in Environmental and Conservation Sciences (Conservation Biology) at the University of Alberta in 2025. His interests centre on quantitative methods in conservation, applying mathematics, statistics, GIS, and computing to renewable resource research. He focuses on improving sampling and remote detection techniques for conservation planning, civic design, and land-use decision-making. Alongside these technical interests, he brings extensive backcountry field experience, a strong interest in bird and squirrel behaviour, and plays Cape Breton–style fiddle. He values northern Canada and hopes to return there one day.

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.